Page 135 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘Isn’t it a bit … dark? And cold? It’s trying to sleet.’ Then he came up closer and eyed me suspiciously in the light from the lamp over the door. ‘What are you up to?’
‘Nothing, I just wanted some fresh air,’ I said. ‘And I’ve got something to post, so I thought I’d do it now.’
‘Give me a minute to drop my bag off in the shop and I’ll come with you.’
‘Oh, don’t bother, I won’t be long and—’
But he wasn’t listening and having pushed his bag through the door of Small and Perfect and locked up again, led the way out of Doorknocker’s Row.
‘So … you’re going to post a letter, but it doesn’t seem to have a stamp on it,’ he observed, as we walked down the street. ‘By which I deduce that you’re going to stick it through a letter box – just call me Sherlock. And let me take another inspired guess: it’s for Dr Collins?’
‘All right, it is,’ I admitted. ‘But I’ve only asked her to say yes or no to whether she’s my mother, nothing else.’
‘You realize if it isn’t true and you persist in trying to contact her, she could very well report you to the police for stalking, or something?’
‘This will be my only attempt because the evidence all points to her, doesn’t it? What Em Rhymer said clinches it.’
‘Yes, so why not let it lie there?’ he asked, then tried to persuade me out of posting my note, though that had the unfortunate effect of making me turn stubborn.
Mind you, the moment I’d popped it through the letter box of the surgery, I wished I could snatch it back again, but it was too late.
We set off back by a roundabout route that brought us to the top of the village and the quiet churchyard. I was so preoccupied with mythoughts that at some point, without my noticing, Nile had put his arm around me.
‘Infuriating woman,’ he said, stopping suddenly and looking down at me. ‘You know there’s a good chance she won’t respond to that letter at all?’
‘It’s still worth a go, but even if she won’t talk to me, at least I now know I’m a Giddings.’
‘Yes, and it’s just as well I’m only one by name, because I’ve never felt less brotherly in my life,’ he said with some force.
‘Yes, so you said before,’ I told him and he made an exasperated noise before pulling me close and kissing me senseless.
My response was instinctive and his grip tightened crushingly.
Time stood still and probably several planets collided and stars moved out of their orbits.
Finally, he was the one to break contact and stared down at me sombrely. ‘Edie told me to give you time … and Lola warned me that unless I was serious about you, I should leave you alone.’
‘That was good advice,’ I murmured, still half-dazed. My arms seemed to be around his neck, even though I had no recollection of putting them there, and my knees had totally dissolved. It was just as well he was still holding me.
‘Which bit?’ he asked.
‘The “leaving me alone unless you’re serious” part.’
‘But I am – I think I love you!’
‘Thinkisn’t good enough,’ I snapped, coming back to life and belatedly trying to push him away.
‘All right: if you really want me to wear my heart on my sleeve, I admit I fell in love with you the first time I set eyes on you, standing on a chair in the café and wearing that hideous mobcap. It just took me time to realize it, because I’d never felt that way before.’
I stared up at what I could see of him. He sounded serious.
‘I think we could really make a go of it, Alice,’ he added softly. ‘Let’s give it a try?’
He didn’t define what he wanted us to try … but it sounded like I’dbe on a kind of trial, to be returned in my original packaging if unsuitable for his purpose.
‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘You have a name for backing off at the moment your girlfriends expect a bit of commitment, remember? And anyway, do I really want a man I can’t leave alone for five minutes, without coming back to find him draped in strange women?’
And twisting suddenly out of his grip, I set off for home at such a pace that we were almost back before he caught up with me.
