as I can when really I’m bursting with curiosity. Why was Jack asking? Had something happened to him too?
‘I mean …’ Jack looks incredibly uncomfortable. ‘Has it done anything … something you can’t quite explain?’
I look hard at Jack. This wasn’t one of his jokes, was it? But he looks deadly serious.
‘Actually …’ I begin, but Sebastian suddenly reappears with Bronte in tow.
‘Guess what, boss,’ he says happily, his arm linked with Bronte’s. ‘We only go to the same art college in London!’
‘I’m a year below Sebastian,’ Bronte tells us. ‘I never thought there would be another St Felixian studying there at the same time as me. What a small world.’
‘Much as I hate to break up this school reunion,’ Jack says to Bronte, ‘I am paying you and we’ve got a lot of clearing up to do before we can go home tonight.’
‘Soz, boss!’ Bronte answers, saluting him. ‘I’ll get to it! See you around, Sebastian.’
‘Of course, darling. Let’s do coffee sometime?’
‘Sure thing,’ Bronte says. ‘Okay, Jack, I’m going, I’m going.’
Bronte begins clearing up some glasses and discarded paper plates.
‘Do you want some help?’ I ask Jack. ‘Clearing up?’
‘Thank you, but we’ll be fine. Maybe we can continue our conversation some other time though?’
I nod. ‘Yes, of course. I’ll pop back into the shop sometime, shall I?’
‘I’ll look forward to it,’ Jack says smiling.
‘Much as I hate to break up this gorgeous little tête-à-tête also,’ Sebastian says, grinning at the two of us, ‘do you want me to walk you home, Kate?’
I smile at his chivalry. ‘That would be lovely, Sebastian, thank you.’
‘Not a problem – it will be something new for me – walking a woman home. I feel the testosterone flooding through my body already!’ He flexes his biceps.
I shake my head. ‘Thank you for a lovely evening, Jack.’
‘My pleasure. I hope it’s the first of many that we share.’
I see Sebastian open his mouth to comment so I hurriedly put my arm through his where Bronte’s has just been, and I guide him forcefully in the direction of the door.
As we’re about to exit I turn back and quietly answer, ‘I hope so too.’
Nine
‘I’m just going to take Barney for a walk!’ I call to Anita, as I grab Barney’s lead and whistle for him to come to me. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘Off to buy some art supplies, are you?’ Anita asks, popping up from the back of the shop.
‘No … well, I might pass the art shop, I suppose, but why would I be going in there?’
‘To see Jack, perhaps?’ Anita asks with a twinkle in her eye.
‘Has Sebastian been talking to you by any chance?’ I answer. ‘That boy can spread rumours quicker than I can spread Marmite!’
‘I haven’t seen Sebastian this morning,’ Anita says in her usual demure way. ‘He’s not due in until this afternoon.’
‘Then why would you say that?’
‘We may have spoken on WhatsApp,’ Anita says to my surprise. I didn’t even think Anita knew what WhatsApp was, let alone how to use it.
‘Gossiped on WhatsApp, more like!’
‘Sebastian is simply keeping me updated. We often talk about the shop – what he’s left for me to do and vice versa.’
‘And the shop owner too by the sounds of it!’
Anita smiles demurely. ‘We only want what’s best for you, my dear. Besides, it might be pleasant for you to court a nice young man.’
I sigh. ‘Firstly, I have no intention of courting anyone, Anita. And secondly, I’d hardly call Jack a nice young man. A difficult and often rude middle-aged man, perhaps?’
Anita just smiles again. ‘If you say so, dear. If you say so.’
I deliberately walk Barney in the opposite direction to Jack’s shop as I exit through my own shop door, even though I did have every intention of going to see him this morning.
It wasn’t Jack’s company I particularly sought. However, I did want to talk to him some more about what he had asked me last night before we were interrupted.
Because it had happened again.
When I’d been unlocking the shop this morning I’d glanced briefly into the window, as I always did, to check everything was all right and that nothing had fallen or slipped from our display overnight.
Nothing had been disturbed, but there was an addition to the window – another embroidered picture sitting under the foot of the sewing machine, like someone had just finished stitching it. This time it depicted a huge turquoise wave splashing over some grey-blue rocks. Again, it was exquisite work, but who