Page 1 of Happy Days Ahead in the Cornish Village

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Picking up her watch from the bedside table, Megan checked the time before turning back to the mirror and dabbing another layer of concealer under her eyes. She had forty minutes to get to Wagging Tails Dogs’ Home if she was going to arrive on time. Forty minutes to finish her make-up, brush her hair and get the bus to West Par before running up the road to where the dogs’ home was located.

And at this rate, she would be running. Literally. She’d missed the bus she’d planned to take thanks to the battery on her mobile dying because the charger Lyle had let her take was the dodgy one from the kitchen drawer. She wriggled the cable in the charging port and sighed. Nope, it still wasn’t working, and she didn’t have time to go and buy a charger now. She’d just have to hope she didn’t miss the call she was expecting from her solicitor.

Still, she’d get her car back from the garage tomorrow. It was just bad timing that she’d booked the MOT for the same day as the volunteer induction morning.

Turning back to the mirror, she pulled the hairbrush through her hair, tugging at the knots. What had happened to her? A couple of months ago, she’d never have had knots, she’d never be trying and failing to cover the bags under her eyes. Her hair would have been trimmed and styled, her eye bags covered with the tiniest dab of expensive concealer.

Megan looked beyond the reflection of the poorly hidden telltale signs of tiredness towards the room behind her, staring back at her from the mirror; the double bed, two bedside tables holding two identical lamps and nothing else. How had she got here? From living in a large detached five-bedroomed house to this? Living out of a bed and breakfast in Trestow, Cornwall?

Squeezing her eyes tight, she pushed all thoughts of her old life out of her mind. When she opened them again, she plastered a fake smile on her face. She could do this. She could. She had to. She had to make amends. However small and insignificant they might be, she had to try.

With the smile still in place, she grabbed her handbag and room key before heading out, letting the heavy fire door click shut behind her.

Megan took a step forward before pausing again. Of all the ideas she’d had, this was the worst. What had she been thinking? That she, Megan Trussel, could try to make up for all the upset and upheaval her ex, Lyle, had put the staff, volunteers and dogs at Wagging Tails through? What could she do apart from muck out a few kennels or walk a dog or two?

Plus, she was completely inexperienced. She didn’t own a dog. She never had. The only time she’d really had anything to do with one was when their neighbour had asked her to pop in and let their dog out after being called to a family emergency. After that, they’d asked her to walk the soppy spaniel a handful of times when they’d been out all day but that was it, she hadn’t even had one as a child. What use would she be? What if the dogs picked up on her inexperience? Or what if she just wasn’t a dog person?

She kicked at a stone on the floor, watching it skid across the lane towards the hedgerow on the other side. They probably wouldn’t trust her to walk any dogs, anyway. And she wouldn’t blame them. She wouldn’t trust someone whose spouse had attempted to force them out and bulldoze down the dogs’ home.

‘Megan?’ a voice called from behind her.

Turning, Megan smiled as Sally, the dog trainer and girlfriend of Lyle’s ex-business partner, walked towards her, a small Jack Russel at her feet.

‘Hi.’

‘It is you!’ Sally told the dog to sit and grinned at Megan. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were living up north still?’

‘No, me and Lyle split a few months ago. Just after all this business, actually.’ Megan waved her hand, indicating the dogs’ home at the end of the lane.

‘Ah, yes, Andy mentioned that. What are you doing down here, though? It’s a long way from your home.’

Megan nodded. Home. Now that was a word she hadn’t used for a while. And what did ‘home’ even mean? She’d certainly never felt very much at home in the big, bland house she’d shared with Lyle. In fact, she hadn’t felt particularly at home with him for a few years now, full stop.

She shrugged. ‘I don’t really know, to be honest. I stupidly thought I might volunteer here for a while. Try to make up for everything.’

‘Oh.’ Sally looked at her, the surprise in her eyes unmistakable.

‘You don’t think it’s a good idea, do you?’ Megan looked down at the small Jack Russell sitting by Sally’s feet.

‘No, I didn’t mean it’s not a good idea. I’m just surprised, that’s all. You don’t have to make up for Lyle’s actions.’

‘I know.’ Megan nodded. And she did know. As soon as she and Sally’s partner, Andy, had discovered Lyle’s intention for the dogs’ home, they’d worked together to expose him and bring a halt to his plans. But still, she should have realised what he’d been up to before. If she had, she could have saved a lot of stress and heartache. She did need to make up for that, for her own naivety.

Sally looked from Megan towards the gate leading into Wagging Tails and back again. ‘Come on, you’d better get in before Flora starts giving her talk. And I need to get this little one up to the top paddock to help practise some socialising with Susan and one of the other pups we have.’

Should she go through with this? She’d come this far. She’d been staying in the bed and breakfast in Trestow for five weeks now, waiting for the perfect opportunity to show herself at Wagging Tails, waiting to gain enough confidence to return to the place that had cost her her relationship.

No, that wasn’t true. Her marriage had been over way before then. She and Lyle had been living separate lives for the past few years. What he’d done, or attempted to do, to Wagging Tails had merely been the last straw, had been the catalyst for her to act, to no longer make excuses for him, to no longer imagine a time when things would be better between them.

Yes, discovering what he’d had planned for Wagging Tails had given her the kick to walk away, but it certainly hadn’t been the reason she and Lyle were over. No, that was down to him.

‘Ready?’ Sally held out her arm, ready to link arms.

Megan nodded. ‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

‘Great.’ Sally glanced down at the dog by her heels. ‘Come on, Rex, let’s go and meet the new volunteers.’

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