Page 50 of The Day After Christmas
‘Certainly not,’ said Valerie, a full-on smile on her face now.
‘Ahem. Anyway, let’s get going, shall we?’
‘Thanks for everything, Valerie,’ said Felicity, pumping her hand. She gave Jessica one last hug, feeling extraordinarily choked up at the thought of leaving her behind.
‘If you are ever back on the island,’ said Valerie, gently, ‘you’re always welcome to visit. But don’t leave it too long.’
‘We won’t,’ James and Felicity sing-songed in unison as they made their way back out through the donkey throng.
‘I want to live here,’ said Felicity, under her breath. ‘Donkeys are my new favourite thing.’
‘I won’t tell the cats you said that,’ said James, as they jumped back in the hire car.
The rest of the weekend passed quickly in a haze of hiking and eating and talking about donkeys and enough nightly activity to make even Valerie blush. And all too soon it was time to go home, Felicity still daydreaming about donkeys on the plane,James daydreaming about living on a tiny island in the middle of the English Channel and eating seafood and drinking wine for the rest of his life.
As the plane touched down on the mainland just before lunchtime, Felicity’s phone buzzed in her pocket.
Andrea (straight to the point as always):
Hope you had fun and haven’t done your back in with all your holiday exertions. Please can you drop in to the rescue centre on your way home. Nothing to worry about.
Felicity’s stomach dropped. Andrea never said there was nothing to worry about, which meant this time, there definitely was.
CHAPTER 26
‘We’ll just be a minute, hopefully,’ said Felicity, as they jumped out of the car outside Animal Saviours. ‘Then we can go grab some lunch.’ Her heart was still pounding. Holiday glow officially gone.What the hell had happened?
James had been extraordinarily calm on the journey from the airport which had only made her more anxious.
‘I’m sure it’s nothing,’ he kept saying in a weirdly measured voice.
‘Don’t you do your spy shit on me,’ she muttered back as she pushed the heavy doors open, the smells and sounds of the animals hitting her right between the ears and nose.
‘For the millionth time, I’m not a spy.’
‘But my point is,’ said Felicity with a smile, ‘that’s exactly what you’d say if you were.’
‘Fair enough but you know me well enough now, it’s not like I disappear off round the world all the time or anything.’
She shrugged. ‘Maybe you’re a sleeper agent.’
‘Do you even know what one of those is?’
They were chatting easily back and forth as they made their way down the corridor, which is why they didn’t notice Andreaand Harry until they practically bumped into them. Felicity let out a gasp. They were locked in a passionate embrace right in the middle of the rescue centre.
Her boss and her father.
They sprang apart guiltily as James cleared his throat. Harry immediately covered his face with his hands.
‘Erm, what the hell was that?’ said Felicity, looking from one to the other.
Andrea tossed her salt-and-pepper plait over her shoulder in what seemed to be a gesture of defiance, blue eyes flashing, face flushed. ‘What was what?’
Felicity pointed between them.
‘That.’
The blood was pounding in her ears.
