expecting a miracle – for them to suddenly forget everything and be the closest brothers in the world – just hoping for a little civility, for everyone’s sake.’
‘So you want me to go over and ask Daniel to come here after hours? Won’t that look a bit odd?’
‘Tilly tells me he’s been calling you and he won’t give up trying.’
‘He gets full marks for persistence,’ she agreed. Something had stopped her fingers from flying over the keys to block his number and she wondered whether it was because that would be final, it would cut him off. ‘How do you suggest I persuade him to come over?’
Melissa had it all worked out. Lucy was to call Daniel and say she needed help, that she’d fallen and twisted her ankle, she couldn’t get up. She’d then tell him she was in the loft room at Tumbleweed House as Melissa had given her a key while she and Harvey were out for the evening, asking her to put the towel rail she’d made on request and that Melissa intended to give Harvey for Christmas up there out of sight in the wall cupboard.
‘And why would I be calling Daniel and not someone else?’ Lucy asked.
Melissa grinned. ‘Say you meant to call someone else but called him by mistake. Easy enough if he’s the most recent contact, given how much he’s trying to get hold of you.’
‘Plausible, I suppose. But I’d feel terrible lying. Lying is something I just don’t do.’
Melissa nudged her. ‘You did it the other day.’
‘When?’
‘When we were in the queue at the bakery and Patricia came in for some croissants and asked us all what we thought to her new hairdo. All I can say is that I’m glad I had a mouth full of mince pie and couldn’t answer.’
Lucy began to laugh. ‘It’s hideous. Why she thought blue hair was a good idea I’ll never know. Thank goodness is wasn’t permanent and she’s back to normal now.’ She shuddered at the memory. ‘But lying then was different. It was a white lie, told to spare her feelings.’
‘And this lie will be to help Carol, to hopefully bring her sons to a point where at least they can be in the same vicinity without wanting to kill each other.’
Lucy guessed, when she put it that way, it wasn’t a bad thing to do. ‘Fine, I’ll do it.’
‘You’re going to have to act like you’re in agony,’ Melissa said conspiratorially. ‘You need to make him come running.’ She took out her phone and pinged off a text. ‘Just reminding Harvey to pick up some milk because I dropped the entire carton over the floor earlier.’
‘Clumsy.’
Melissa grinned. ‘I didn’t drop anything, but I need him to stop at the supermarket to give us a bit longer after closing time at the waffle shack.’
‘You’ve got this all planned.’
‘Barney came up with some of it for me.’
Lucy laughed. ‘Doesn’t surprise me at all after his cunning plan to reunite you and Harvey back in the summer.’
They went up into the loft space. The plan was to get Daniel here, then Melissa would hide before intercepting Harvey’s arrival home and sending him up to the loft to turn off the television she’d left running while she saw to the dinner.
‘Right, make the call,’ said Melissa when they’d discussed the plan and the timing was right. Melissa would keep Winnie behind a closed door when Daniel arrived too in case she tried to scare a newcomer away. Lucy doubted she would, though. Winnie was a big softie and would likely roll over when she saw a stranger rather than bark or anything else.
Knowing the waffle shack would now be shut, Lucy made the call to Daniel. She pretended to cry out in pain and garbled out a story of where she was, that she was stuck at Tumbleweed House with Harvey and Melissa out all evening and couldn’t get down the stairs. He didn’t ask why she’d called him, he was probably caught up on the fact she’d actually got in touch, and already she felt terrible for manipulating him and at the lift of hope in his voice when he’d answered.
Lucy’s wait for Daniel to arrive was laced with guilt. She’d come to care for him far more than she’d admit to anyone.
Less than five minutes later she heard Daniel come in the front door, which had been left unlocked. Lucy, as instructed, was upstairs in the converted loft room. It was a beautiful