Welcome to Ferry Lane Market - Nicola May Page 0,12

the most gorgeous water lilies beginning to open.’

‘Kara, just get to the point,’ Star said kindly but firmly.

‘I’m getting to it,’ Kara sighed. ‘I watched them for a second and could tell from their flirty body language that they are definitely at it.’

‘Oh my God! What did you do?’

‘Jago was sitting with his back to me, so I walked calmly over to their table. I say calmly, but my heart felt like it was actually going to explode out of my chest and I nearly did projectile vomit over the pair of them.’

Losing concentration in anticipation of the expected revelation, Star veered over to the wrong side of the road and was tooted at loudly by an oncoming white van man, who waved his fist at her.

‘Mate! Be careful.’ Kara took a large swig from her water bottle.

‘Sorry, go on.’ Star fixed her eyes back on the road as her friend then began to talk at a hundred words a minute.

‘So, I tapped him lightly on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sorry to disturb you two, but I saw this fall out of your pocket in the café.” On hearing my voice, he just spun around; his eyes were so wide, like a startled rabbit. But even then, he didn’t say my name out loud. He just stood up from the bench, took the envelope on which I had plainly written Jago, then waited for me to erupt.’

‘Shit, Kar, what did you say?’

‘I said nothing, just lifted my head, pushed out my boobs – he always did love my big boobs – and walked away without uttering another word.’

‘You’re amazing. Did he not say anything, anything at all?’

Kara attempted a laugh, but it came out as a sort of squeak. ‘He pathetically called “Thank you” after me.’

‘What! Jesus. So, he didn’t even come after you?’

‘No. Of course he didn’t. Jago Ellis would want to keep all options open.’ Kara’s voice had a slight shake to it now. ‘When I got back up to the café I glanced round and there he was, still sitting in the same place, and to make it even worse, it looked like they were both laughing.’

‘Oh, Kar, I’m so sorry. You do realise you just gave him a complete Get Out of Jail Free card, though?’

‘Not really. Just seeing the look of terror on his face was enough.’ Kara put her head in her hands and then lifted it to scream into the warm air as they sped along and back to the ferry: ‘Eight years of my life! Eight years I’ve wasted, Star.’

‘You can’t look at it like that. Time to move forward now. Focus on you, that’s what matters.’

But with her gut still doing somersaults, Kara couldn’t take in the sense of her friend’s words. She carried on, ‘The only thing that gave me a slight bit of satisfaction was what you said about letting him lie in someone else’s bed. Because I would put a bet on it that when he tells Lady snooty bloody Penhaligon that he wants her for more than just a fling, he won’t be lying in her bed for too much longer.’ She then took a deep breath and giving it ten decibels, shouted, ‘Deluded fucking wanker!’ Then promptly burst into tears.

A shocked Star, unused to hearing her normally placid friend swear so vehemently, veered to the left this time, only just managing to avoid a cyclist.

Chapter 9

Ferry Lane Market was situated at the top of the hill at the far end of Ferry Lane. The market consisted of twelve brick-built Victorian terraced houses, six per row facing each other on either side of the lane. Each house consisted of a ground-floor shop unit with a flat above. The shops were open daily, but on a Friday and Saturday the shopkeepers brought their wares out for sale into the open air, setting them out on their individual stalls. And that was when Ferry Lane Market and the historic town of Hartmouth really came to life.

Some of the stallholders lived above their shops; others rented their flats out as residential or holiday lets. A car park, convenient for unloading goods, sat at the back end of Ferry Lane. The rest of the street, which led down to the ferry crossing and the Ferry View Apartments, was made up of more terraced houses, cottages really, with different-coloured front doors opening directly on to cobbles. It really was very quaint. The sense of a place untouched by time, plus