Page 100 of All Wrapped Up
‘Of course you do,’ said Lizzie, pulling me in for another hug, which Jemma immediately joined in with.
I took my time crossing the square. I wanted a few seconds in which to collect myself and my legs were shaking so badly I didn’t think they’d carry me if I tried to walk at pace. The cat was completely out of the bag now, but at least I’d been the one to release it.
‘Clemmie!’ I turned around and discovered it was Jason of all people who had called my name.
‘Not now, Jason,’ I said, and hurried through the pub door.
As it was early, the bar was quiet but I couldn’t see Ash. Ipulled my phone out of my bag to find he’d sent me a message, apologising that he’d had to leave because of an emergency. He hoped I was all right and would check in with me later.
‘Damn,’ I muttered, feeling shaky all over again.
‘Hey,’ said someone behind me as they caught the top of my arm and I leant into them. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Jason,’ I said, as I levered myself away from him. ‘I’m fine. I just need to go home.’
‘You don’t look in a fit state to go anywhere,’ he frowned. ‘Go and sit down and I’ll get you a drink.’ I opened my mouth to object, but he shook his head. ‘Please.’
He neither looked nor sounded like his usual belligerent self so, hoping I wasn’t going to regret it and feeling too unsteady to resist, I went to sit at a table.
‘Here,’ he said, a minute later as he put a glass in front of me and sat in the chair opposite. ‘Drink that. It’s only Coke, fully loaded mind, because you look like you need some sugar. I saw your Land Rover parked up earlier, so I knew you wouldn’t want a brandy in it.’
The drink was cool and refreshing and I did start to feel better once I’d guzzled most of it down.
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘What do I owe you?’
‘Just five minutes of your time,’ he requested.
‘You aren’t going to have a go at me, are you?’ I said, pushing my chair away from the table again. ‘Because I’m in no mood for that. Or are you going to confess to being the person who stole the window dressing public ballot box?’
‘No, I’m not going to have a go at you,’ he hastily said. ‘And no, it absolutely wasn’t me who took that box.’
‘It wasn’t?’ I gasped.
‘No,’ he said again. ‘It was not. I’ve no idea who was responsible for that, but it wasn’t me. I can understand why you assumed it might be though.’
I was completely taken aback that it wasn’t him and wondered who else it might have been. There was no one on my radar. As far as I knew, everyone else was a fan of the festival…
‘Anyway,’ Jason said, when I didn’t apologise for mistakenly thinking he was the culprit, ‘it’s something else I want to talk to you about now.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I rather bluntly said, ‘but it will have to wait, because I really need to get home. Pixie is waiting, and—’
‘I just want to say that I’m very sorry for your loss,’ he then blurted out, while staring at the table. ‘I’m sorry that you were widowed at such a young age and in such a tragic way.’
‘You what?’ I gasped. ‘How did you know about that?’
How had my being the person behind AutumnEverything been bypassed and word about Callum already got out? I looked around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear what Jason had said, just in case it hadn’t spread all that far.
‘My nephew is a journalist on the paper,’ he told me, and my mouth fell open. ‘He’s writing the story about the festival and how you’re the organiser as well as something famous on the internet. I don’t understand it. It’s all beyond me. But he found out all this other stuff, when he looked you up. Stories about how your husband was… drowned, while trying to—’
I put up a hand to stop him retelling me my past. ‘I know what happened,’ I said quietly.
‘Of course,’ he said, his gaze darting up to meet mine, ‘sorry.’
A brief silence fell between us.
‘If it’s any comfort, he’s only going to write about theinternet thing,’ he eventually said. ‘He’s not going to mention you being a widow.’
‘Given that it isn’t relevant to the story, I had been hoping that would be the case,’ I told him as realisation dawned. ‘Though of course, as he’ll be mentioning the internet thing, other people will be able to look me up like he has, won’t they?’
