‘Yeah, I’m in the village on Thursday.’
‘Okay, then.’
‘D’you want to sit down? Have a drink?’ Meg asked her brother, her eyes sliding from him to Amy and then back again.
‘No. Thanks. Better not,’ he said tightly.
Amy felt a brief throb of dismay, then reminded herself how insistent she’d been during their row in the wood that they would ‘never get on’; that she wanted nothing whatsoever to do with him unless contact were work-related and completely unavoidable.
‘You’re sure?’ Meg said. ‘Not even a celebratory half?’
‘No.’ Sam shook his head. ‘I’ll leave you to it– I wouldn’t want to interrupt your afternoon.’
As he walked away, Meg and Nisha stared after him, then looked towards Amy.
‘OK, the sun’s still out but it feels to me like the temperature in the immediate vicinity of this table just dropped about ten degrees,’ Nisha said. ‘What’s happened? I know you two aren’t the best of friends, but that waschilly.’
‘We had a pretty major disagreement,’ Amy mumbled.
‘About what?’ Nisha demanded.
‘Work stuff.’
‘Right,’ Nisha said, rolling her eyes. ‘The tension zipping back and forth through the air just then wastotallyabout which stand should go where on festival day, or where to direct cars for overflow parking.’
Amy ignored this and turned her attention to Meg. ‘I’m sorry, by the way. I know it must be weird for you that Sam and I are like this.’
Meg shrugged. ‘Not so much weird as frustrating,’ she said. ‘’Twas ever thus.’
There were layers of meaning here that Amy chose not to sift through. Then she remembered that Meg had said something about celebrating, when she’d urged Sam to join them. What wasthatall about?
Unable to prevent herself, she said: ‘What did you mean earlier, by the way? When you mentioned a celebratory drink?’
‘He’s been working with Jed to build a business plan for the pub and find investors,’ Meg explained, ‘and they’ve finally done it. The deal’s set to be signed and sealed tomorrow morning, so Jed will remain as landlord here. Nothing will have to change for him even though the estate will no longer own the place. It’s a huge relief.’
Amy felt the cogs and wheels of her brain stutter and seize. This news was the equivalent of a stick through spokes.
‘What … When?’ she asked, feeling her eyes begin to bulge and her throat tighten up. ‘How?’
‘You’d have to ask Sam,’ Meg said. ‘As I understand it, though, the plans have been in motion since the day Dad said he intended to sell.’
Amy swallowed hard and tried to work out how she felt.
She’d written off Sam’s regular presence at the Oak as indicative of nothing more than a fondness for craft beer, despite friends’ and neighbours’ insistence that he was trying to help Jed. She’d been wrong– and worse, she’d thrown that wrongness at him in anger during their row in the wood.
Why the fuck hadn’t he told her? Defended himself?
An irritating inner voice asked Amy why he should have had to. If he’d been so fundamentally mistaken in her, would she have felt it was her job to correct him? No. She’d have been offended. Disappointed.Hurt.
Amy shut her eyes and shook her head, like she was hoping the pieces of this kaleidoscope would arrange themselves differently if she gave them the chance. When she looked around her again, nothing had changed. She still felt awful– sad, stupid and to her horror, ashamed.
She needed to say something. The silence that had fallen demanded to be filled before it began sucking in speculation. Nisha was eyeing her suspiciously, clearly on the verge of saying something that would doubtless be unguarded and incisive.
‘I need another drink,’ Amy announced. She indicated Meg and Nisha’s glasses. ‘Same again? Final round, and some snacks to soak it up?’
Her friends indicated their approval and she dashed inside before anything further could be said.
Behind the bar, Jed was beaming, his round face lit with pleasure and relief. ‘Did you hear, Amy?’ he asked as he pulled Meg’s pint. ‘It’s all sorted with the pub sale. I’m investing, along with some partners– so there’ll be no need for Wetherspoons to swoop in and screw the place up after all.’
