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‘I guess it’ll come up when it comes up,’ Daisy said. She was about to change the subject away from her and Theo to the far more interesting topic of Bex’s love life when Johnny let out a loud bark. There, ahead of them, the village had just come into view and right on the edge of it, was the pub.

‘Thank goodness for that,’ she said, excited to sit down for the first time all day. ‘I’m starving.’

5

As was normally the case when the girls went out for dinner, they got a bottle of wine to share between the three of them. Although when they finished it, they seemed less than keen to get another.

‘We’ve got to walk all the way across the fields back to Wildflower Lock and these wedges have pretty high heels,’ Bex said, as if this was a new piece of news to them.

‘Actually, yes, we should probably start heading back now, shouldn’t we?’ Claire looked at her watch. ‘It should be dark by the time we get back.’

Daisy was struggling to understand her friends’ obsession with darkness, but she wanted to go back too. Fingers crossed Theo would be home soon.

‘I take it from the fact you’ve both been drinking that you’re crashing at mine tonight?’ Daisy said.

‘I think that’s the plan,’ Bex replied, looking over at Claire, who nodded.

‘Yeah, we’ll stay at yours, whatever happens.’

There was something about the way the girls were wording themselves that Daisy just couldn’t make sense of. Even morepuzzling was how they had been shooting glances across the table at one another all through the meal. Then again, it was only a month or so until her birthday, Daisy reasoned, so maybe they were planning something for that.

‘Come on then,’ Bex said, standing up and picking up Johnny’s lead from where it had been wrapped around the leg of the table. ‘We should get going.’

If Daisy had thought her friends’ attitudes during the meal had been peculiar, it was nothing compared to their behaviour on the walk back. To start with, the conversation had been based on Johnny and dogs. If Daisy was planning on getting another dog, or breeding from Johnny. What type of dog Amelia wanted and why Claire just couldn’t see it working. All the different dogs that men Bex had dated had owned. That type of thing, but the closer they got to Wildflower Lock, the stranger it became. Every time Claire went to speak, Bex would cut over her and say the opposite.

When Claire said, ‘I think we should speed up. We’ve been gone for quite a while,’ Bex immediately countered her.

‘I don’t think we need to speed up at all. I think it’s a good idea to walk slowly. Besides, I’m wearing heels. It’s easier to go slow.’

‘But maybe if you go a bit faster, you never know what might be waiting for you.’

‘Maybe nothing, if I go too fast.’

‘What are you two on about?’ Daisy said, utterly confused.

Immediately, the conversation flicked back to dog breeds, where it stayed for a little while longer.

‘How far are we from Wildflower Lock now?’ Bex asked just a few minutes later. ‘Ten minutes? Does that sound right?’

Daisy crinkled up her nose. ‘No, I’d say it’s another half an hour. You wanted to walk slowly, remember.’

‘You’re right, perhaps we should speed up.’

With the speed now a far brisker walk, the girls’ conversation continued, this time around a topic that Daisy had next to no experience in.

‘I think this time of year would be perfect to get married, don’t you? You’re guaranteed sun this time of year.’

‘Not always.’ Bex was there with her counter again. ‘A colleague of mine got married mid-August and their marquee totally flooded. But I guess it depends on where you would do it.’

‘What about you, Daisy?’ Claire said.

Daisy was currently looking at Johnny running ahead. He was generally a very good dog, and she had never seen him so much as bark aggressively at another, but the last thing she wanted was for a rabbit to appear in the field and for him to dart after it.

‘Daisy?’

Daisy turned back to the girls and found them looking at her with peculiarly locked stares.

‘Sorry, what did you say?’ Daisy asked, with Johnny now walking back to her.