When Alice Met Danny

‘Well, I do enjoy messing about in boats, when I get the chance, but this afternoon I’ve been working.’ Alice gave her a quizzical look, so Megan explained. ‘One of my parishioners died a couple of weeks back. He asked for his ashes to be scattered at sea, so we’ve been out doing that this afternoon.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘It’s pretty chilly out there on the water.’

‘Would a cup of tea and a cake warm you up?’ Alice pointed across the road to the Sea View Café. ‘My treat.’

‘I like the sound of that. Thank you, Alice, I would love to.’

They crossed the road and managed to get a table by the window. The view along the beach to the red cliffs beyond was delightful.

‘So, how are things?’ Megan sat back and enjoyed the warmth in there.

‘Good. Very good, in fact.’ Alice went on to tell her what the surveyor had said. ‘All in all, it doesn’t look like there’s anything too wrong with the house structurally. But he says it is definitely dry rot. He’ll get a firm in to give an estimate for treating it. It sounds like we’ll have to do quite a bit of replastering, but he says it’s not terminal.’

‘Where’s the house?’

‘Lyndhurst Avenue. Do you know it?’

Megan looked up and nodded. ‘I know it quite well, actually.’

‘It’s a really nice quiet road. I really think I might move in there once it’s finished.’

‘Well, we’ll miss you in Woodcombe if you do. Of course, you could always sell it and buy somewhere in the village.’

Alice had been thinking about that for a few days now. Everybody in Woodcombe was so nice and friendly, but then, so were the neighbours she had met in Lyndhurst Avenue. ‘I know one thing for definite. London has had it, as far as I’m concerned. Wherever I end up, I reckon Devon is the place.’

‘Nobody waiting for you in the big city?’

Alice shook her head. ‘That part of my life is all over now.’

‘What, nobody at all? I thought a lovely girl like you would be fighting them off.’

‘Not that young, Megan. I’m thirty-eight, you know.’

‘You look younger. But, have you really been buried in your job to the exclusion of all else? When’s the last time you went out on a date?’

Alice was momentarily nonplussed. The waitress arrived with their tea and a triple-decker cake tray. They chose a cake each and by the time she had left, Alice had had time to think about her answer. ‘I suppose it depends what you mean by “date”. I was taken out for dinner last Saturday by a friend from work.’ She hesitated. ‘But he’s not that sort of friend.’ Seeing something in the vicar’s eyes, she hastened to clarify. ‘No, I don’t mean he’s gay or anything. He’s going to rent my London flat while I am down here.’ She looked across the crockery to the vicar, whose expression was unconvinced.

‘Still, it sort of qualified as a date, didn’t it?’

Alice smiled. ‘That’s what Mrs Tinker said, but even if it was, he’s got a girlfriend. In fact she spent this weekend with him.’

‘You seem to know a lot about him.’ She was teasing now. ‘Anyway, apart from this sort-of-date, when was the last time you went out on a proper one?’

This took some calculating. ‘Do you know, Megan? I can’t really remember. Probably a couple of years ago…’ Her voice tailed off. Megan was quick to leap in and help out.

‘Still beats me. I tell you this, Alice, if you think you’ve got problems, try swapping places with me. The old dog collar is a real passion killer. One whiff of what I do for a living and members of the opposite sex are reaching for their car keys. Still,’ she took a bite of the cream éclair on her plate, ‘there’s more to life than men.’

Chapter 15 (#ulink_3ffffd19-0c77-58e8-836a-ce789fe4785b)

Alice returned to London in time for her car buying appointment with Danny. He arrived at her flat at ten o’clock on Thursday morning, bringing with him a briefcase full of car magazines, and a laptop. She waved him in and went off to fill the kettle. ‘Tea or coffee?’

‘Tea, please, Alice.’ He came through to the kitchen and watched as she made the tea. He enjoyed watching her and was close enough to smell her perfume. She looked as good as ever, and he was pleased to see some of the worry lines around her eyes had softened.

‘You know, Alice, you’re looking a lot more relaxed since the last time I saw you. Is that all down to fresh Devon air and manual work on your new house?’

‘Sort of.’ She put a tea bag in the pot and added the hot water. ‘I got the surveyor’s report last night. He reckons it isn’t going to cost as much as I feared to get it back into shape. Considering I paid so little for it in the first place, I might do all right after all.’

‘And you’ll move in there yourself when it’s done?’

‘That’s a tricky one.’ She went on to tell him how kind and welcoming she had found people down in Devon. She mentioned Danny the baby and Danny the dog, but still didn’t mention Daniel Tremayne.

‘So your next step will be to get a big black dog, I suppose?’ She noted that he made no mention of babies.

‘Your namesake is a very handsome dog, and he’s got a longer pedigree than I’ll ever have. As I’ll be living next door to him for the next six months, I’ll be able to borrow him when I get lonely.’

‘I can’t imagine you being lonely for long.’ She made no comment but poured the tea and carried the mugs through to the sitting room on a tray, along with a packet of biscuits.

He nodded towards them. ‘Not so worried about slobbing out on the couch after all?’

She gave him a smile and pushed them across. ‘I seem to be running around a lot these days. I may even have lost weight since leaving G&B.’ She glanced across at him. ‘You’re looking fit and well. Something or somebody doing you good?’

He ignored the reference to “somebody” and groaned. ‘I’m in training. I’ve been in the gym almost every day for the last God knows how long. When you phoned last Saturday, it was my first lie-in for weeks.’

She cut in before he could supply any more details about what he and the girl might or might not have been doing. ‘What’s all the training for?’

‘I was going to tell you. I’m going to be coming down to your neck of the woods in a few weeks’ time. There’s a big windsurfing event in Devon in June, in Beauchamp itself as it happens. There’s going to be a race for old-timers like me, and I’ve let myself get talked into competing.’

‘I saw the poster.’ As she said it, she had an image of a windsurfer, stripped to the waist, his perfect abs shiny with sweat, as the huge breakers pounded the beach behind him. She shook the picture out of her head and concentrated on Danny’s face. She was pleased to see that, unlike the baby and the dog, his eyes did not follow the movement of her hand as she nibbled at the biscuit. ‘Well, let me know when you are going to be there. I’ll come along and cheer. Come to think of it, I should have a spare room by then. It’s a bit small, but it would do you for a day or two.’