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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2015
Copyright © Tilly Bagshawe 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Tilly Bagshawe asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007523023
Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780007481415
Version: 2015-05-19
Gabe Baxter leaned over and whispered in his wifeâs ear.
âThis is awful.â
âShhhh,â Laura Baxter giggled.
âI canât shhh. I canât stand it,â said Gabe, running a hand through his thick blond hair. âDo you think if I offered to pay for the whole roof, sheâd stop singing?â
âBe quiet,â Laura hissed at him. âYou canât even pay for your beer, never mind the school roof. So youâre just going to have to let it go!â
Gabe groaned. The Baxters were in the snug bar at The Fox on Fittlescombe Green, along with the rest of the village on this wet January evening, watching the talent show. Danny Jenner, The Foxâs landlord and village gossip, had organized the event to raise funds for a new school roof. The current performer, Claire Leaman, a dumpy twelve-year-old girl with boss eyes and a wildly misplaced confidence in her own abilities, had spent the last three minutes belting out the Frozen theme tune as if she were on stage at the Oscars, tossing her hair about and warbling like an opera singer on helium. After âMike Malloyâs Marvellous Magicâ (a single, lame handkerchief trick) and Juggling Jack Willoughby, the half-blind church warden from Brockhurst, Gabe had dared to hope that theyâd seen the worst of the nightâs performers. Apparently he was wrong.
âHERE I stand! And HERE Iâll staaaaa-aaaay!âClaire screeched.
âShe can bloody well stay on her own,â Gabe whispered back to Laura. âIâm going out for a smoke.â
âGabe. You canât.â
âWhy not?â
âBecause sheâs Gavin Leamanâs daughter, for one thing.â
âAll the more reason to get out of here,â Gabe said with feeling.
Gavin Leaman was one of a group of ramblers â âThe Swell Valley Right-to-Roamersâ they called themselves â who had had the audacity to tramp through Gabeâs orchard last weekend, and who had even wandered into his garden. Gabe had been enjoying Match of the Day in his living room when, as he put it, âsome sanctimonious cagouled muppet with an Ordnance Survey mapâ waved at him cheerfully, as if Gabe and Lauraâs land was some sort of public park. Gabe had marched outside to have words with the intruders, and had ended up getting into an unfortunate row with Fittlescombeâs new vicar, Bill Clempson. It turned out the vicar was leading the charge on behalf of the ramblers, armed with a sensible padded nylon bum bag and a whistle.
âYou put them up to this, didnât you, Vicar?â Gabe said accusingly.
Bill Clempson pursed his lips. âI didnât put anyone up to anything. These people have a perfect right to ramble here.â
âFirst of all, theyâre not âramblingâ,â Gabe said with feeling. âTheyâre not fucking Wombles. Theyâre trespassing.â
âThereâs no need to resort to bad language,â chided the vicar.
âIf youâd taken the time to read the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000,â one of the walkers piped up, an overweight woman in much-too-tight breeches, whom Gabe recognized from his sonâs nursery, âyou would know that the British countryside belongs to all of us.â