rescuing her from Grandma’s hedge.
‘What’s all that then?’ Arnold asks, nodding to the melee.
‘No idea.’ I check my phone as we make our way over towards the crowd. There’s a message from Bee that makes my heart leap:
Leena, let’s DO IT. B&L Consulting. I’ve been talking it all through with your grandma and I’m EXCITED. If you need more time you know I’m here for you but what I’m saying is, let’s not stall on it. Let me do the legwork if you don’t have the headspace. But let’s not lose sight of the dream, my friend! We’re going to be bosses! xx
And one from Ethan that makes it sink.
Sorry, angel – things have gone crazy here. Going to need to spend a few more hours at the desk. Don’t suppose there’s any chance you could come down here instead? Xx
I swallow and tap out a reply as we make our way across the grass.
Ethan, you know I can’t leave Hamleigh today, it’s May Day. Hope you get everything done OK. Let’s try and talk on the phone at least? x
‘Ethan not coming?’ Arnold says quietly.
I glance at him.
‘You have a very bad poker face,’ he explains.
I tuck my phone in the hoodie pocket. ‘Not his fault. Work, you know.’
Arnold gives me a long, heavy look. ‘Leena,’ he says. ‘I know he was good to you when you needed him. But you don’t stay with somebody out of gratitude. That’s not how to do it.’
‘I’m not with Ethan out of gratitude !’ I exclaim.
‘All right. Well, good.’ Arnold gives me another squeeze of the shoulder. ‘I just think you deserve a man who treats you right, that’s all.’
‘I liked you better when you were a hermit,’ I tell him, eyes narrowed.
He grins, then his smile drops. We’ve both heard the same thing.
‘Don’t you fucking dare!’
It’s Cliff. I push through the crowd, now, into the field, where Betsy and Cliff are facing one another like two cowboys waiting to draw. In fact, Betsy’s already drawn – but it’s not a gun in her hand, it’s a television remote.
‘I’m sick of it! You hear me! I’m sick of it!’ She brings both hands to the remote as if she’s about to snap it in two, and Cliff roars with rage.
Cliff looks pretty much exactly how I expected him to look. Red-faced, stocky, with sports socks and shorts on and a filthy sweatshirt stretched across his beer belly, he is in perfect contrast to neat little Betsy with her neckerchief and her pink cropped jacket. Only, of the two of them, I think Betsy genuinely looks the toughest right now.
‘Cliff Harris,’ she says, voice quiet and deadly. ‘I. Deserve. Better.’
And, with what I can only conclude is the superhuman strength of a woman who has put up with a lot of shit for a very long time, she snaps the TV remote in two.
Cliff comes towards her then, but Arnold and I are moving, and we’re quicker than he is, and we’ve got him by the arms before he can reach Betsy.
‘I want you out of that house by the end of the week, do you hear me?’ Betsy calls across the field.
Cliff roars obscenities, awful things, so bad it makes me gasp. Arnold hauls him backwards, and gestures Basil over to help.
‘We’ve got this,’ Arnold says to me. I give him a nod. I’m needed elsewhere.
Betsy crumples into my arms as soon as I reach her. ‘Come on,’ I say, leading her away. I shoot a glare at the crowd around the entrance to the field and the bystanders scatter embarrassedly, letting us through. ‘You were brilliant,’ I tell Betsy.
She tries to turn around. ‘Oh, I … I …’
I grip her arm. ‘Now all we need to do is find you somewhere to stay. OK?’ I chew the inside of my cheek. Clearwater Cottage is too close. She needs to get away for a week, until we’ve managed to clear Cliff out.
Penelope and Nicola are waiting by the car. Their eyes widen as Betsy and I stumble over, arm in arm. I help Betsy into the passenger seat, and by the time she’s all strapped in, an idea has formed.
‘Nicola,’ I say quietly, once I’ve closed the car door. ‘Betsy’s given her husband a week to find somewhere else to live.’
Nicola’s face softens. She glances at Betsy, mute in the front seat. She still has two pieces of remote control in her hands; she’s clutching them tightly.
‘Aye, she has, has she?’
‘Do you