‘Sorry. Non-negotiable. I’m a responsible dog-owner, and more than that, Bruce is my friend. Plus if things turn ugly you’ll be glad we brought Bruce with us,’ said Jay.
32
Dixie spent the afternoon finishing off the curtains, which took quite some time. She would need some proper line to hang them on when she made it back to civilization but for now the string would do. She threaded it through and tightened it up. Dixie admired her curtains– she’d made a good job of them, even if she did say so herself. If she ignored the droopiness, they were still pretty, and definitely made Elsie look more refined and modern and a lot less 1970s-reject.
She popped her finished video on the gram and set about cleaning her find from the other day. It was going to be her prize for finishing the curtains. She looked at her sad salad and plain spaghetti. It needed a little something else. It was getting cloudy so she took her torch and a knife and went in search of chicken of the woods and wild garlic.
Dixie discovered both were a lot easier to find when you could remember where they were, as she stumbled over twigs and got scratched by brambles in Prickly Patch. After a few false starts she finally found the righttree in an area she was calling Woody Corner, and cut away a small mushroom from its bark. For some reason she felt guilty. It wasn’t stealing but it was still taking something for nothing. ‘Thank you, tree,’ she said in hushed tones, although there was nobody about. There never was anyone around. At first she’d liked that, but now it just made her miss her friends. It was one thing to be at one with nature, but it turned out that nature really wasn’t that bothered about her.
On the way back she had a little talk to herself. She was coping way better than she’d ever thought possible. And she was about to make herself a proper scrummy meal and sit in the campervan and close the new curtains she’d made all on her own and have a look at how many followers she had. Her Instagram numbers were continuing to rise.
Holding the torch and the mushroom carefully, she moved around a large tree where she knew the ground was uneven. She didn’t want to trip over and break something, that would be a complete disaster. In the distance she noticed someone. Realizing she wasn’t alone, she froze. She wasn’t sure why. This was a public right of way. Perhaps it was Ned. Her stomach flipped at the thought, or it could just have been hunger.
But if it wasn’t Ned it could be anyone. A dog-walker? An axe-wielding murderer? She peered into the darkness and could see that they were looking inside Elsie. Any reservations she may have had evaporated and she marched on through the trees. Nobody was going to break into Elsie! She held her torch aloft. Renee wasright. It would make a good weapon if she needed to defend herself.
Dixie pulled her phone out and had a momentary dilemma whether to put it on to record or to phone the police. Then she began recording, obviously because it was all content, and if it was a burglar rather than a nosy parker it would make good evidence. She almost jogged towards the front of Elsie, where she knew the ground was mossy and there were fewer dry sticks to alert the intruder to her presence.
But then she stubbed her toe on a tree root and yelped.
‘Stop! That is my campervan and you are… Oh, Ned, it’s you. Goodness, you could have said something. You gave me a fright!’
‘Sorry,’ he said, looking sheepish.
She couldn’t hide that she was thrilled to see him and very relieved. ‘I’m so pleased you’re not a mad axe-murderer. Come in and I’ll show you what I’ve foraged.’ She opened up the van and waited for him to come around. Once they were both inside she popped on her battery lights and put down her spoils. ‘I’ve got mushroom. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any wild garlic but it doesn’t matter because look what I did find.’ She picked up her prize from the other day, now thoroughly washed, and held it in front of Ned. But Ned wasn’t paying attention. He was looking past her to the front of the van. She turned her head to see what he was looking at. There was another note under the wiper. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I’ll read it later.’ She waved her hand in front of his face to returnhis attention to what she wanted to share with him. ‘See?’
Ned pulled his head back and focused on what she was holding. ‘Truffle? Goodness, that’s posh. Did you venture as far as Waitrose?’
‘Wait! There’s a Waitrose?’ Dixie was momentarily stunned.
‘Yeah, it’s about five miles or so away.’
Dixie tried to erase the thoughts of avocados and the fresh pastries she was missing almost as much as her friends. ‘I may have to check that out. But tonight I have a totally foraged meal. Apart from the pasta and wilting salad.’ She said the last part quickly. ‘But the mushroom is cut down by my own fair hand.’ She wasn’t sure why she’d gone all Jane Austen but she quite liked the added drama. ‘And I discovered this truffle and dug it up.’ She held it on her palm proudly. ‘Actually, Arnold found it and dug it up. She had a nibble. See the teeth marks. Or it may have been a relative of Arnold’s. It’s very hard to tell squirrels apart. Do you think they have the same problem with us?’
Ned picked up the truffle and studied it closely. He didn’t appear to be listening. ‘Where did you find it?’
‘In the middle of Tidy Trees.’
He glanced up from the truffle to give her a perplexed look.
‘Sorry. I sort of named the different areas around here. Anyway, there’s a bit where you come out of the densest part of the woodland and the trees are neater, almost like they’re in rows. I call that Tidy Trees, and Arnold, or a member of Arnold’s family, was—’
‘The smaller trees before the hill that dips down to the farm?’ he asked. His eyebrows were pulled tight together. It wasn’t his best look.
‘If the sheep are where the farm is then yes, near the hilltop. I found it there. How exciting that there’s truffles growing right here.’
‘On my land,’ he said.
There was a moment. Ned froze and Dixie was a fraction behind him in realizing what he had said. They both turned to look at the note still under the wiper blade.
Dixie was mad. Although that was one of many emotions vying for attention. She was also feeling misled and hurt. Ned had ruined everything.
‘Get out now!’ Dixie forcefully shooed him outside and closed the van door.
‘Dixie, let me explain,’ said Ned, from outside the van.
She realized it wasn’t like a house or apartment where you could slam the door and walk away. There was nowhere to escape to. Elsie was small and her frame was far thinner than bricks and mortar so it was impossible not to listen to Ned.
‘I don’t want to hear any more lies!’
