now. Bob, sensible chap, sticks to beer.’
‘You think they were satisfied with my offer?’
‘More than satisfied,’ he assured her, and jingled his car keys. ‘It was a really nice thought to buy that teddy bear for the baby, boss.’
‘I had fun choosing it, Harry. Enjoy your game.’
Her house phone was ringing when Sarah let herself into the flat.
‘Hi,’ said Alex.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said in relief.
‘Yes, me. Disappointed?’
‘Quite the reverse.’ She’d been afraid it was Dan Mason. ‘But normally you ring me on my mobile.’
‘I tried. No luck.’
‘I left my phone behind when I went to Westhope. Wish me luck, Alex. I just climbed on the second rung of the property ladder.’
‘Congratulations! We’ll celebrate tomorrow night.’ He sighed. ‘I would have come back tonight and called in on you, but I’m dining—reluctantly—in the bosom of my family. My father was so insistent I gave in for once.’
‘Think of the filial glow you’ll bask in!’
‘I’d rather think of tomorrow evening with my new best friend.’
‘I thought Stephen Hicks was your best friend.’
‘He is. But you have a big advantage over him.’
‘What’s that?’
‘You’re a girl.’
‘Tut-tut, you can’t say that these days, Mr Merrick. I’m a woman,’ Sarah chastised.
‘That too. Though it’s hard to believe when you’re wearing those overalls.’
‘How you do harp on about them. Anyway, I bought some new ones yesterday. I went shopping in Hereford.’
‘Not just for work clothes, surely. What else did you buy?’
‘A teddy bear with a blue bow tie.’
‘Original—dinner guests normally bring wine!’
‘It’s for the Grovers’ brand-new grandson,’ she said, laughing.
‘Pity. I quite fancy the teddy—hell, I just noticed the time. Got to go, Sarah. Be punctual tomorrow.’
‘I will be, if your directions are accurate.’
‘Of course they are. You can’t miss it. Turn left past the church, follow the signs for Glebe Farm, and my place is the first turning on the right.’
‘I’ll ring if I get lost.’
‘Why not just let me come and fetch you?’
‘I’d rather come under my own steam.’
‘So you’ve got a getaway car if you need to escape?’
‘Of course not,’ she lied. ‘See you tomorrow.’
CHAPTER NINE
BY THE time she was ready the following evening Sarah was running late. Far too much time had been wasted in trying to tame her hair, also dithering about whether to wear the new stretch sequin mini-dress on its own. In the end she lost her nerve, wore it over slim white jeans and locked up the flat. She tossed a long cardigan and a rain jacket in the back of her car, propped Alex’s directions on the dashboard and set off.
The journey was more complicated than it looked on his diagram, but eventually she came to the church he’d marked and turned down a lane with a sign for Glebe Farm. She took the first turning on the right, as instructed, her eyes like saucers when she spotted Alex leaning against a gate in front of a large and very beautiful barn conversion. The sleeves of his blue chambray shirt were rolled up, his faded old jeans fitted him very exactly, and his eyes danced as he waved her through. He shut the gate and sprinted after her as she drove on to park in the forecourt between two mushroom-shaped stones in front of the building.
Alex opened her door and gave her a quick kiss as he helped her out. ‘You’re late, but welcome anyway.’
‘You never thought to mention you lived in a barn conversion?’ she demanded hotly.
‘Of course I did, but I decided to spring it on you as a surprise instead.’
‘Is this the only one on the farm?’
‘The only conversion, anyway. Matt Hargreaves uses the other barns for their original purpose, and sold me this one years ago. His farm is half a mile down the road, so I buy milk and eggs from him, but otherwise I don’t get in his way much.’
Sarah leaned against the car, taking in every detail of his home’s beautifully maintained exterior. Glass panels had replaced the wood in the original barn doors, and a flight of worn stone steps led up alongside the entrance porch to a window set in the former entrance to the old hayloft.
‘It’s just wonderful, Alex,’ she said with a sigh, and smiled at him. ‘Come on, then. Give me the guided tour.’
He opened the porch door into a small entrance hall with a small shower room to one side of it, and mouth-watering dinner smells coming from a kitchen on the other. ‘The rest is through here.’ He ushered her into a vast,