Posh Frocks & Peacocks - Tracie Podger Page 0,28

yet I wasn’t sure that was necessarily shyness. She just didn’t seem to want to mix, which was a shame.

While we stood and contemplated names for the peafowl, the peahen decided to come and investigate. She seemed the tamer of the two, and the less naughty, I thought, hopefully. She reached out and pecked some seed from my hand. That was until her mate decided he was rather jealous and strutted over. He barged her out of the way and snatched the largest mouthful of seed he could. It seemed we had discovered, outside of their pen, their sleeping quarters. A patch of ground had been scratched and it looked like a little nest had been made. I wondered if we might see eggs.

“Erm, what’s that?” Joe asked pointing to the nest. I peered, not wishing to get too close for fear of angering the peacock. He was already territorial.

“I can’t see what you’re pointing at,” I said.

“I can see something shiny,” Del said. He strode forward and came to a full stop when the peacock screamed at him. “It’s a watch.”

“A watch?” I asked.

“Yes, looks like a silver watch in the nest.”

“Do peacocks steal shiny things? I know magpies do,” I said. “I’ll distract him, you grab the watch.”

I started to lay a trail of food and thankfully, the greedy little sod was soon following me. That allowed Del to rush forward and grab the watch. He popped it in his pocket until we were safely back at the terrace.

“Whose is it?” I asked. It certainly wasn’t Ronan’s.

“No idea. No one has mentioned losing a watch, have they?” Joe asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

I picked it up and studied it. It was a nice piece, clean, which led me to believe it hadn’t been found in the grounds.

“Someone must have taken it off last night and he pinched it,” Pam said.

“Great, just what we need, a thieving peacock to add to the reprobates,” I said, and then laughed. I’d keep the watch in the kitchen and I was sure someone might call or message asking if we’d found one.

It was later that evening, when the marquee had been taken down and the area cleaned up that I remembered the watch. Maggie, Charlie, Ronan and I, Joe and Danny were sitting in the kitchen.

I fished around in my pocket for the watch and placed it on the table. “We found this today in a nest the peacock had made.”

Ronan picked it up. “It’s not mine,” he said. I told him I didn’t think it was. “Seems too clean to have been found outside so I wonder if it was one of our guests.”

“That’s what I thought. Has anyone mentioned a lost watch?” I asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he said.

We left it on the table and decided to send an email to our guest list and ask if anyone was missing a watch. Pam and Del, Jake and Delia had left that afternoon but I knew a few guests were still at the hotel.

“What are your plans tomorrow?” I asked Joe. I knew they would be leaving the following day.

“We’re going to leave in the morning and then head to Danny’s parents’ for a couple of days,” he replied.

I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Danny’s parents despite inviting them to the wedding. It seemed they were a rather unassuming couple, although lovely according to Joe, and felt awkward meeting me for the first time at my wedding. I understood, and said we’d make plans for later in the year when the summer holiday activity had eased off a little.

The following morning, we waved off Joe and Danny and made promises to ‘pop down’ to Kent for a long weekend. I decided to show Ronan where I’d found the watch. I was still a little perplexed as to how it came to be with the peafowl.

“There’s something else there,” he said as we approached the scratched earth that we’d seen the penhen sitting in.

That time there was a bangle. A silver bangle that looked well worn. Both the peacock and penhen were off on their wanders so we managed to pick it up without any problems. It was quite small, probably a teen or child’s bracelet.

“Where on earth are they getting these from?” I asked. As I looked up at Ronan and saw him looking to the distance, something dawned on me. “You don’t think…?”

“I do think. We’ve got ourselves our own Bonnie and Clyde.”

I started to laugh, not that