Page 28 of The Christmas Fayre on Holly Field

‘You just want to make sure I stick to my vow,’ she said, but she was smiling and he heaved a sigh of relief.

She was right in that he did want to accompany her to see what she bought, and he might also be able to take a surreptitious photo or two. He had already taken a few snaps of the boot sale itself and he would post them later, along with the narrative of how Harriet’s party-dress quest went.

But he also wanted to walk around the boot sale with her because he enjoyed her company. Meeting new people was one of the things he particularly liked about being on the road, and Harriet fascinated him.

He was about to question why that was, when Harriet spied a rail of clothes. She was soon trawling through it, having handed the dog’s lead to her son, who was beginning to look rather bored.

‘Have you seen one of these before?’ Owen asked him, spotting a wooden spinning top and launcher on the same stall. He picked it up.

‘What is it?’

‘It’s a spinning top. You put it in the launcher like this, wind up the string, then pull and let go.’

Bobby was fascinated as he watched the top spinning upright on its pointed axis. ‘Mam, look, it’s a spinning top. Can I have it?’

‘No, but you can have this,’ his mum said, showing him a chunky black coat. ‘Try it on. It says age 11–12, but it looks to be on the small side.’

Bobby tutted, and gave Etta’s lead to Owen, who grasped it firmly with one hand while easing his phone out of his pocket with the other.

Bobby slipped the coat on and Harriet tugged at the sleeves, then made the boy turn around as she inspected it.

‘It’s a bit big, but not by much,’ she said. ‘At the rate you’re growing, it’ll be a perfect fit by Christmas. You can take it off now,’ she told her son.

Owen was trying to work out how he could take a snap of the coat without Harriet noticing, when an idea came to him.

‘Mind if I take a photo of it?’ he asked, holding his phone up. ‘I thought it might be a good idea to record what you buy and how much you pay for it, then you can compare it to what you would have bought if you hadn’t made a pre-loved purchase. You’ll be able to tell at a glance what you’ve saved – then perhaps it might make the challenge worthwhile.’

‘Good idea,’ she said, and his heart leapt, then immediately sank again when she said, ‘Actually, there’s no need, I can take a photo when we get home.’

Darn it! That scuppered his chance of obtaining an image to go with his narrative.

Or did it…?

Harriet had draped the coat on a trestle table as she gave it a final once-over, and as she checked it, Owen quickly pressed the camera icon. Before he could say ‘cheese’, he had taken a couple of shots, but because he was holding his mobile at chest height and was pretending to check his emails as he didn’t want it to look like he was taking a photo, he had no idea whether he’d managed to capture an image of the coat or whether he had taken a photo of the sky.

Oh, well, he’d soon find out, and if they were dreadful, he would have to come up with something else.

Unfortunately, he had no idea what that something else might be.

‘This isn’t too bad at all,’ Harriet said to herself as she paid for the coat Bobby had just tried on. It was a steal at four pounds, being a well-known make and one she knew other kids in Bobby’s year group wore. Not only that, the stall Harriet had bought it from had several more items of interest and, before she knew it, Harriet had kitted her son out with two pairs of jogging bottoms, three T-shirts and a hoodie. Everything was a tad on the large side, but that didn’t matter. Better too big than too small, and Bobby would soon grow into them.

As well as the price being great (she had bought the whole lot for under twenty quid), everything was clean and in good condition.

Feeling rather pleased with herself, she bundled her purchases into one of the tote bags she’d brought with her and grinned at Owen.

The poor bloke must have been bored witless watching her trawl through piles of neatly folded clothing, because he had spent most of the time on his phone.

Idly, she wondered what had held his interest for so long, but whatever it was, he’d been engrossed and she felt guilty for dragging him around the field. On the other hand, he had been quite enthusiastic when she’d bought something.

‘How am I doing so far?’ she asked, as they strolled past the next stall with barely a glance. It was full of knick-knacks and ornaments, and she wasn’t on the lookout for that kind of thing.

‘Brilliantly!’ he cried.

‘Are you going to say, “I told you so”?’

‘I can if you want.’

Harriet laughed. ‘There’s no need. You were right – I do believe that buying pre-owned might be the way forward. However, I must warn you, I still haven’t seen anything for Sara.’

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