‘We’d no idea you’d all be so worried!’ the bride called out, standing at her gate, addressing the crowd.
It was Jowan who called back over the heads now. ‘Why wouldn’t we be? We’re all one family ’ere in Clove Lore!’
Bovis said a few apologetic, shamefaced words, and his wife wiped a tear from her eye. People snapped pictures on their phones and Izaak asked if Bovis planned on carrying his wife over the threshold.
Minty hung back, not saying anything, but Harri noted she wasn’t quite so unsmiling about the eyes as she might be, in spite of all the anxiety their disappearance had caused.
Mrs Bovis-Crocombe caused a little more furore by asking that everyone respect their newlywed privacy, and all the couples she’d brought together over the years shouted back indignant things without a hint of malice in them.
She banished the last of the grumbles by pulling a key from her lilac handbag and announcing, ‘Before this afternoon’s Valentine’s Day movie, my husband and I would be honoured if you would all join us for… free ice cream!’
The noise that went up made Harri stagger a little, and he slowly pressed his way back through the villagers, surprised to note Annie following behind him.
When they got to the turning for the bookshop, William was there waiting for them.
‘Are you coming in?’ Harri said, gesturing down the passageway.
‘I won’t, thank you. I’ve come to take my leave,’ he said, cleaning his tiny gold specs on a freshly pressed handkerchief, just another sign of how well looked after he’d been down at the Siren.
‘Ah!’ said Annie. ‘I see. What about the movie night? Are you coming to that? Whole village will be there, by all accounts.’
‘No, I’ll turn in early. Long journey on Saturday morning,’ he said stoically. ‘So…’ He put out a hand. ‘Good luck, Annwyl.’
Harri watched as they shook hands. Annie’s eyes were wet with tears. Now William was offering a hand to him. ‘I’m grateful to you for your hospitality,’ he said, his voice wavering. ‘And your friendship.’
It was Harri’s turn to well up. ‘You’ve got a place to go?’ Harri asked.
William only bowed his head, drawing his hands behind his back. Harri spotted that his pockets were stuffed, just as they had been when he arrived, with all manner of paraphernalia, tiny treasures saved from the castle. The edge of the photograph he’d taken from one of the boxes was just visible in his breast pocket with his handkerchief. A picture of him and Sir Nicholas kept close to his heart.
Annie had stepped forward, hugging William. Even though he was surprised, he chuckled and patted her shoulder. ‘There, there,’ he said.
After they left William with Bella, Harri knew Annie was crying all the way along the passage to the bookshop, but the lump in his throat stopped him saying anything. It wouldn’t help anyway. They were both solemn and silent, and Annie was already mentally on her way home, if her preparations were anything to go by. Not to mention the Valentine’s card she’d been holding this morning, not that he’d said anything about it. Who had sent it? Were they a part of her steadfast focus on getting home? There couldn’t be someone at home intent on dating her? Someone she’d not spoken of?
Annie said she didn’t feel much like bookselling and went for a lie-down upstairs.
Similarly deflated, Harri didn’t feel like making coffee. In fact, he didn’t feel like doing anything. So he shut the shop and made himself wipe down the syrup bottles and arrange them neatly on the shelves for the next Borrower-barista, his heart sinking low like the winter sun on the horizon.
So it was all over? Paisley had moved on, William had a place to stay, the castle was being sold, Mrs Crocombe and her new husband were safely home, Kit and Anjali were set to adopt every dog in the South West for the rest of their shared lives together, and he had backed himself firmly into his corner of the friend zone with Annie. That was it. Everyone else had taken great big leaps forward except for him.
Two weeks had passed in a blink. Two weeks of not knowing how to act around Annie, and in the morning she’d be hugging him goodbye like she’d hugged William, and that would be that.
What would become of them now? Was Jowan right? Had the wanting her ruined things anyway, just like he’d warned against? Had trying to preserve their friendship only thrown up his selfish, grasping, lustful feelings and repelled Annie so much that she didn’t even want to spend her last afternoon in the shop with him?
An awful desperation hit him and it wouldn’t let him go. He needed a do-over. Like when he failed his summer exams because he’d gone off to see that band with Annie. He’d been given a second chance then, a whole summer of making things right, and it had worked. That’s what he needed now.
He looked at the time on his phone. Two hours until the outdoor cinema showing. Without even knowing what he was going to do, he ran, all the way up the slope and into the Big House garden, not stopping until he found Jasper Gold amongst the deckchairs.
‘I’m going to need your help,’ Harri told him, breathlessly.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Movie Night
‘It’s too long since I saw this movie,’ Annie was saying as she made her way with an unusually quiet Harri past the Big House and into the parterre gardens where they’d been only two days before, only now the place was transformed.
Fairy lights led the way towards paired deckchairs, each headed with a low parasol also twined in twinkling lights. Every chair had a blanket folded neatly on the seat. The gardens were abuzz with activity. Hot-dog smells wafted in the cool afternoon air.
‘Only the English would think it was a good idea, sitting outside on Valentine’s Day after dark,’ Annie continued, but she drew her lips closed when Jasper Gold presented himself.
