Page 14 of The Secret Holiday Kiss

She finished her sandwich, gathered her things and walked back to the car park. Just as she was about to go down the escalator, her phone buzzed. It was Harry.

Are you home for dinner? Do I need to make a huge lasagne or a GARGANTUAN one?

Daisy typed back:

GARGANTUAN. I’m just leaving Norwich.

The thought of getting back to the manor, to her brother and his wife and a home-cooked meal – instead of the cheese and crackers or pre-made soup she would have done for herself – made her smile. But she couldn’t get lured back in. The manor wasn’t her home any more. She was on her own now, she was truly independent, and she was already making the most of it.

Chapter Five

‘I honestly don’t think I need to come.’ Daisy looked up from the kitchen table where she’d spent most of the day constructing her plans for Lars’s café. He wanted to call it City Drift, a name she wasn’t convinced by, but that wasn’t hers to question in her role as interior designer.

‘You should come.’ Sophie wrapped a thick scarf around her neck. ‘You’ve been staring at your screen all day.’

‘I don’t need to get involved in Mistingham’s Christmas plans.’

‘You’re coming,’ Harry said. ‘Otherwise I’ll make you walk the dogs. At least half an hour.’

Daisy peered out of the window. ‘It’s been dark for ages. You should have walked them earlier.’

‘I did walk them earlier. They’re retrievers. They need a couple of walks a day at least. I can take them when I get back, but if you’re staying here, it makes sense for you to do it.’

‘Do you want me to be murdered?’

‘By what? An errant squirrel?’ Harry gestured to the darkness. ‘This is Mistingham we’re talking about. Our land.’

‘What about the Black Shuck?’

‘The Black Shuck, as in the fictional black dog that has glowing red eyes and delights in going around scaring people to death?’

‘Mythical, not fictional.’

Harry’s brows pinched together. ‘That’s the same thing. And anyway, it would do you good.’

‘Going out in the dark with your dogs?’

‘Coming to the meeting. Seeing what it’s like here, now.’

‘So it’s a sales pitch?’

Harry laughed. ‘I’m not expecting you to uproot your entire life and move back to Mistingham. That’s the last thing I expect. But you’re here now, so where’s the harm?’

Daisy sighed, showing how intensely put-upon she was. ‘OK. But if I do this, I don’t have to walk the dogs when we get back.’

Harry grinned. ‘Nope. You will be excused dog duty.’

‘Let me get my coat,’ she grumbled, but actually, her vision was starting to blur and her neck ached, and it wouldn’t be so bad to see the well-oiled machine that the Mistingham village council had supposedly become. And Avery might be there.

The unexpected thought had her tightening her low ponytail too hard, as if she could reprimand her brain for wandering down that route. She cared about Avery Hudson about as much as she cared about Harry’s dogs missing one evening constitutional – probably less. He was nothing to do with her, after all. ‘Ready,’ she said, and followed Sophie and Harry out into the night.

‘Now now, people,’ Ermin said from the low stage at the front of the hall, where he could be seen over the crowd, ‘we cannot blame Harry for not being able to hold the Oak Fest on the green this year. We all enjoyed the ice rink, did we not?’

‘And the tree is hundreds of years old,’ Fiona added from beside him. ‘If you were hundreds of years old, you’d need a bit of support, too.’ There were rainbow fairy lights strung up behind them on the stage, a small Christmas tree in the corner draped in red tinsel and hung with tiny presents wrapped in foil paper.

‘We loved the ice rink,’ said a young woman standing at the side of the hall, with purple streaks in her dark hair. ‘You can’t change your tune just because there’s been an environmental mishap.’

‘We could all be falling into the sea. A lot of seaside villages are!’ This was a man with grey hair who must have been at least late seventies. ‘Mistingham’s one of the lucky ones.’