The Chocolate Collection. Trisha Ashley

about David’s reappearance in my life, even when I told him that I wasn’t about to fall for him all over again, and that I saw no reason why we couldn’t have a drink together for old times’ sake.

      ‘I think having anything to do with a man who could let you down like that is a big mistake,’ he warned me, and would have said more, except that Poppy came in just then. She gave us a little half-wave, got a glass of mineral water and settled into a table near the door.

      ‘I do wish she would let me advise her about makeup and clothes a bit,’ I muttered. ‘I’m no fashion plate, but I do make an effort when I go out.’

      ‘At least she’s not wearing jodhpurs with the down-filled gilet that makes her look three feet wide,’ he said.

      ‘No, though actually they suit her better than that blouse, because she’s not a spot, ruffle and pussycat bow sort of girl.’

      The pub door opened and I nudged him. ‘Look, that must be the date!’

      A tallish, thin man with thick grey hair had come in, and paused on the threshold, looking around the room. Then he walked across to Poppy, holding out his hand.

      ‘He looks fairly normal,’ Felix said critically.

      ‘Actually, he looks rather nice,’ I agreed. ‘He’s older than I expected, though – early fifties, I should think – but that grey hair with the tan and the bright blue eyes are a pretty good combination.’

      So far as we could tell, he and Poppy seemed to get on well too, and we started to feel pretty redundant as watchdogs. But when they got up to leave together, Felix was still all for following them, to make sure Poppy was all right, and I was still trying to dissuade him when Poppy walked back in again, alone.

      She was pink and smiling dreamily. ‘Gosh, he’s sooo nice – and he seemed to like me! He couldn’t stay long tonight, so when he left I pretended to go too, then doubled back. We’re having lunch tomorrow.’

      ‘Where?’ I asked.

      ‘At his house – he loves cooking.’

      ‘Dodgy.’ Felix shook his head.

      ‘No it isn’t. He’s really not that kind of man at all and I’ll be fine. He wants to show me his garden.’

      ‘But you aren’t interested in gardening,’ I said.

      ‘I’ll pretend. I don’t think he’s terribly interested in horses either, but he said he’d like to see my Honeybun.’

      ‘I bet he did,’ muttered Felix darkly and I gave him a sharp dig in the ribs. He was acting like a dog with two bones, neither of which he particularly wanted himself, but liked to have put by in case of sudden famine.

      ‘OK, you can go, but keep your phone on and I’ll call after about an hour to see if you’re OK,’ he said. ‘We can have a codeword for emergency rescues.’

      ‘Like “help”?’ I suggested.

      ‘This is serious, Chloe,’ he said severely.

      We adjourned to the Falling Star’s dark, cosy snug, which was more our ambience than the slightly trendier surroundings of the front bar of the Green Man. Established in our usual window seat, Poppy waxed lyrical about her date. Apparently he was a former university lecturer who had taken early retirement, a widower, and he lived not far away, in Crank.

      ‘That figures,’ said Felix, who was determined to be disagreeable, and then he told her about David’s sudden appearance and described what he said was my spineless agreement to meet him again, despite everything he had done to me in the past.

      ‘He jilted me, that’s all, and it was pretty mutual in the end, when we couldn’t agree over Jake.’

      However, Felix didn’t find an ally in Poppy, because she was on my side. She didn’t see why David and I couldn’t meet casually after all this time if I really wasn’t still attracted to him, and neither could I. In fact, I was quite looking forward to it.

      Back home, I passed through the museum, where Grumps was unpacking one of the last boxes and took no notice of me at all, and on into the house.

      As I expected, Zillah was in the kitchen, which had already taken on an even more exotically gaudy aspect than our last one. I think the bright red Aga must have gone to her head.

      Today she was wearing a red cardigan back to front under a purple one the right way round, with a corsage of orange felt roses pinned to the bosom. She’d added to the effect by wrapping a shawl covered in shrieking pink flowers over the whole ensemble and what looked suspiciously like a checked tea towel wound turban-wise around her head.

      It was a gloomy day but the lights were off, since she hated artificial light unless it was essential, not counting the big, flat-screen TV that was constantly on in the corner by an easy chair. When she smiled her teeth flashed white and gold in the light cast by the flickering screen.

      ‘There you are,’ she said, as though she’d been expecting me – indeed, she had two flowered china cups in front of her and was already pouring tea.

      ‘Zillah, I’ve just met the person from my past that your Tarot reading warned me about, but it was only David, after all.’

      ‘David?’

      ‘My ex-fiancé, remember? You bought a feather fascinator in six colours for the wedding ceremony.’

      ‘Ah, yes, him.’

      ‘He was just getting into his car outside the Green Man, so we had a chat. I’m meeting him in the Falling Star early Friday evening.’

      She looked up from swirling her teacup round and round, her bright eyes sharp. ‘Is that wise?’

      ‘Why not? A lot of water’s passed under the bridge since we were engaged to be married, so there’s no reason why we can’t meet as friends, is there?’

      ‘Hmm,’ said Zillah, removing my now empty cup and scrutinising the tea leaves at the bottom. ‘If you remember, I said that more than one person from your past might reappear and affect the course of your life,’ she reminded me.

      ‘Might – so maybe not. And anyway, people from my past can only affect me if I let them, can’t they?’

      ‘You’ve already agreed to let one of them do that, Chloe.’

      ‘No, I haven’t. Although it was nice to see David, I’ve no intention of falling for him all over again – or anyone else that might pop up from my past. You have a look at my tea leaves: they’ll show you.’

      ‘Sometimes you can’t see all aspects of the future until it’s unfolded.’

      ‘Then I’ll keep mine tightly creased. But maybe you could read the cards for Poppy? She’s getting so desperate for love that she’s abandoned the internet dating sites and started ringing up men advertising in the newspaper. Felix and I are both worried about it. That’s what we were doing at the Green Man earlier, keeping watch to see if her latest date looked OK…though I have to admit he looked very nice.’

      ‘I would have thought your angels would have told her what her future held,’ Zillah said, a trifle tartly.

      ‘They have. I did a reading for her birthday, but it was all a bit general.’

      ‘Oh, bring her to me, then,’ she sighed, putting my teacup down. ‘And whatever you say, your life is about to change greatly. The cards and the leaves don’t lie.’

      ‘No, but that could simply be interpreted as meaning all the changes involved in moving here and Jake going off to university in the autumn and that kind of thing, couldn’t it?’ Then a horrid thought struck me: ‘Oh God – perhaps the cards mean Mum’s about to turn up again and totally disrupt everything!’

      Although I would have been quite pleased to have had word that she was definitely