where I tucked her up, with a hot-water bottle, while I ran through my to-do list.
I’d knocked at the studio, and tried the door, but the place was still locked. There was no sign of life and Finn hadn’t responded to any of the texts I’d sent him after my chat with Chloe either.
‘Is he not about?’ came a voice as I was eating my lunch and checking invoices.
I looked up to find Zak standing in the doorway and watched in amazement as Nell climbed out of her basket and trotted around the desk, her tail wagging, to greet him.
‘Well, I never.’
‘Well I never, what?’ Zak smiled, stroking Nell’s head.
‘She’s been ill and basket-bound since the weekend,’ I told him. ‘That’s the first bit of enthusiasm she’s shown for anyone in days.’
‘What can I say?’ Zak sighed, looking very pleased with himself. ‘I’m irresistible to the female sex.’
‘Don’t start that again,’ I snapped.
If he’d reverted to being bad old Zak then he might well have been the person Chloe had heard Finn arguing with.
‘I’m only kidding,’ he frowned. ‘What’s up?’
‘I take it it’s Finn that you’re looking for?’
‘Yes, I just tried the studio, but it’s all shut up. Do you know where he is?’
‘No,’ I said, the uncomfortable feeling I’d been brewing settling more firmly in my stomach. ‘No, I don’t. No one’s seen him since Sunday.’
‘Oh right.’
‘You didn’t see him then, did you? Only he was heard having an argument with someone.’
‘Not me.’
‘And not your dad?’
He was the only other person who I thought it possibly could have been when I’d lay awake wondering.
‘No,’ said Zak, shaking his head. ‘We’ve all been okay recently. It’s a bit weird, isn’t it?’ he added, once he’d taken a few seconds to let the situation sink in.
‘Just a bit,’ I agreed, chewing my bottom lip.
‘Have you messaged him?’
‘Of course, I have,’ I tutted. ‘A dozen times, but he hasn’t replied.’
‘That’s even weirder then, because surely he would have told you where he was off to if he was going away,’ Zak said pointedly.
‘Why me?’
He rubbed a hand around the back of his neck and I guessed that Chloe had made a bet with him about mine and Finn’s coming-out party too.
‘What with you two being so close and everything,’ he grinned.
‘I see,’ I sighed.
Our relationship was clearly common knowledge.
‘I’m really chuffed for the pair of you,’ Zak continued as my phone vibrated loudly in my pocket. ‘I honestly didn’t think you were ever going to get yourselves sorted, but I’m pleased you got there in the end.’
‘Thanks, Zak,’ I said, knowing there was no point denying it.
‘I’ll bet that’s him now,’ he said, nodding towards where the noise from my phone had sprung. ‘Can you ask him to give me a call?’
‘Why don’t you call him yourself?’ I asked. ‘I thought you were worried about him.’
‘Nah,’ he shrugged. ‘Finn can look after himself. We’re no doubt making a fuss over nothing.’
I wasn’t so sure.
‘Do you want to wait and find out?’
‘No, but you can send him a kiss from me.’ He grinned.
‘Idiot,’ I muttered as he left, pulling the door shut behind him.
He was right about the message being from Finn, but there was no mention of Christmas, or where he’d gone. Just the unsettling words,
I had the pleasure of speaking to your former boss Sunday night and he told me you’re going to be heading back to Broad-Meadows to be with him in time for Christmas …
All of a sudden, and in spite of the chilly temperature, I felt far too hot to be wearing a coat. I shrugged it off as my head spun with all manner of nauseating thoughts.
It didn’t take many seconds for me to work out that Jackson had somehow established, most likely via one of Mum’s many sources, that Finn was the man I was in love with, and then, because I hadn’t fallen in with his plans, after I’d dismissed him and Mum on Sunday, he’d spitefully gone all out to sabotage my new-found happiness.
This had to be the reason behind Finn’s sudden and unexplained disappearance. He had believed what Jackson had said and then left Prosperous Place wanting to put as much distance between us as he possibly could.
‘Mum,’ I gasped, my breath tight in my chest, when she eventually answered her phone. ‘I have to talk to you.’
‘I’m in the middle of something right now, Freya,’ she responded tersely.
‘I don’t care,’ I told her. ‘And don’t hang up, because I’ll just keep calling.’
I