Page 54 of The Christmas Fayre on Holly Field

Dai said, ‘Question two: who developed a vaccination for smallpox in 1796?’

Owen was fairly certain he knew the answer, but he held back and took a mouthful of Guinness while he waited for one of the others to say something.

‘That’s Edward Jenner, isn’t it?’ Pen said, and there were nods all round, and Mrs Moxley wrote that answer down, too.

The answer to question three – the county in which the seriesDownton Abbeywas set – passed him by.

‘It’s Yorkshire,’ Mrs Moxley said witheringly. ‘Everyone knows that.’

‘I don’t watch TV much,’ Owen said. He did watch the occasional film, though.

‘Psst,’ Pen said, giving Mrs Moxley a nudge. ‘I don’t think he’s got a telly.’

‘You’ve been in his van?’ Dee’s eyes widened.

‘No, but Harriet has.’

‘Ooh, I say!’ Mrs Moxley sent him a meaningful look.

‘I don’t need a TV,’ Owen said, keen to divert the conversation. ‘If I want to watch something, I watch it on my laptop.’

‘Can I have silence!’ Dai cried, giving their table a glare. ‘Next question. What type of animal is an oryx?’

‘Antelope,’ Owen said quietly.

‘I’ve never heard of it.’ Pen frowned.

‘I have. It was on some nature programme or other, but I can’t for the life of me remember what the damned thing looked like.’ Dee was running a finger around the rim of her glass as she thought.

‘Antelope,’ he repeated.

‘Do you know, or are you guessing?’ Mrs Moxley demanded.

Blimey, Owen thought,this old lady is a right dragon. ‘I know.’ To his relief, she wrote his answer down, and Owen found he was enjoying himself immensely. He didn’t think he was a particularly competitive person, but he really wanted his team to win.

By half-time, he had given the answer to another couple of questions and felt he’d conducted himself reasonably well so far. A twenty-minute break was long enough to get another round in, and by the time Dai called for silence once more, Owen’s teammates had filled him in on some of the other people taking part. It seemed that quiz night was one of the highlights of the week for many, and the results were sometimes hotly contested.

Owen took a sip of his drink, then cracked his knuckles as the questions came thick and fast once more.

It was on question eighteen that Owen realised he was now an acknowledged member of Team Macbeth, when Dai asked, ‘How is a permissive footpath represented on a map? Green dashes, a red dotted line or a yellow line?’ and none of his teammates had a clue.

Owen said, ‘Red dotted line,’ and mentally fist-pumped the air when Mrs Moxley accepted his answer without quibbling.

Unfortunately, Team Macbeth didn’t win, but they came a perfectly respectable second, let down by none of them knowing the name of Jacob and Leah’s eldest son in the Bible. When Dai informed them that the answer was Reuben, Owen was none the wiser.

‘I enjoyed that,’ Owen said, once all the excitement had died down.

‘You can come again next week, if you want,’ Mrs Moxley said, her tone offhand.

Pen whispered in his ear, ‘That’s high praise indeed. She must like you. She’s not the only one,’ Pen carried on. ‘If I’m not mistaken, Harriet’s also got a soft spot for you.’ She had her head tilted to the side and was peering at him intently, waiting for his reaction.

Owen thought for a moment, knowing that whatever he said would probably be reported back to Harriet, then said, ‘I like her too. Very much.’

There, he’d done it, he had laid his cards on the table. All he hoped was that he wouldn’t regret it.

Chapter 12

‘I met a certain handsome chappie in The Jolly Fox last night,’ Pen said as Harriet filled a little jug with milk and placed it on a tray.

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