The Little Clock House on the Green. Eve Devon

idea into her head with all those postcards?’

      ‘Mum, please.’ Juliet fished out the teabag from her Cath Kidston ‘Garden Birds’ mug and stuck the teaspoon into the hedgehog mug with slightly too much vigour. As the teabag split, she swore softly under her breath, poured the whole lot down the kitchen sink and stuck the kettle back on to boil. ‘I appreciate your concern, but I have to do this in my own way, and in my own time.’

      ‘You wait much longer and you’re going to lose that offer from the bank.’

      ‘So then I’ll go and get another one,’ she said, moving to open the fridge for the milk and staring inside at the contents, kind of hoping her eyes would light upon a jar labelled ‘patience’.

      She loved her mum, she really did. They had a wonderful relationship, especially considering they worked together every day. But some days… The days where her mum was usually right… They were sometimes the hardest.

      Juliet was super-aware that time was running out on the loan offer she had from the bank and she wasn’t exactly confident she’d be able to get another if this one expired, but now that Kate was actually home? Well, it felt only fair to give her at least a couple of seconds to adjust to being back.

      Setting down a fresh mug of tea in front of her mum, she joined her at the small kitchen table. ‘Kate and I are going to talk tonight. I promise.’

      ‘Good stuff. And I’m sorry. I know you’re not the sort to intentionally keep secrets, so I know you’ll get around to telling her.’

      Juliet’s mouthful of tea hit her windpipe at completely the wrong angle and splurted back out of her mouth. As she tried to drag in air, Cheryl jumped up to grab a couple of pieces of kitchen roll for her.

      Head down, unable to look her mother in the eye, she took the proffered kitchen roll and set about mopping up. When her mum remained silent as she sat back down again, Juliet wondered if maybe she did know her daughter’s dirtiest secret, but out of motherly love, chose to keep quiet.

      ‘I’m trying to think about everyone,’ her mum said as Juliet took another careful sip of tea, grateful when it went down the right way. ‘I don’t like keeping this from Sheila. It should come from Kate, anyway, even with everything they need to work through and, well – I don’t want you getting caught in the middle and getting hurt.’

      ‘I know.’ Juliet laid a hand over her mum’s and squeezed it gently before returning it to her mug. ‘But I really think Kate wouldn’t have come back to stay if she hadn’t thought carefully about what that would mean. I know she’s impulsive but she’s never ridden roughshod over people’s feelings.’

      ‘True,’ Cheryl agreed and then added almost to herself, ‘if anything, everyone has tended to ride roughshod over hers. Or ignore them entirely.’ There was a small sigh and then Juliet felt her mum studying her carefully. ‘You really think Old Man Isaac is going to go for all of this?’

      ‘Of course,’ Juliet answered, determined to keep the faith. ‘It’s a brilliant idea and who else is going to buy the place?’

      At the sound of the front door slamming, Juliet looked automatically at the kitchen door, where Kate appeared. From her breathing and the glow about her, she looked as if she’d run all the way back from The Clock House.

      ‘Okay,’ Kate asked them, ‘so who on earth is the guy who arrived in the village, like, three seconds ago?’

      Juliet looked at her mum, who looked at Kate and said with a mystified expression, ‘You’re going to have to be more specific.’

      ‘Mr Tall Dark and Handsome,’ Kate said, staring at both of them. When neither Juliet nor her mum said anything, she added, ‘Mr I’m All Done Working-Out So Now I’m Just Chilling Until Marvel Films Call.’

      ‘Do you know who she’s talking about?’ Juliet asked, turning to her mum and getting more interested by the second at the look in Kate’s eyes.

      ‘Nope. Don’t know of any superhero lookalikes around here,’ chimed in Cheryl.

      ‘That’s it?’ Kate pouted, her face getting redder. ‘What’s happened to this place? A complete stranger waltzes in and none of you thinks to start up the phone-tree? Nobody finds out where he’s staying, assembles the SWAT team, goes in and applies the thumb-screws and switches on the spotlight so that they can watch him sweat as he slowly divulges every credential to his name?’ She stared in askance at both of them and then, in true Kate fashion, a look of determination came into her eyes. ‘Well, somebody has to take responsibility here. Auntie Cheryl, I want you to phone Trudie and find out what she knows. If it’s nothing, I want you to get straight on the phone to Crispin Harlow.’

      ‘And should I use your exact description…?’ Cheryl asked, with a raised eyebrow.

      ‘Oh,’ Kate faltered. ‘No. Um, he said his name was Daniel,’ she tacked on helpfully, and Juliet was surprised to see the pink still hanging about on her cousin’s cheeks deepen a shade further.

      ‘So where did you bump into this Mr TDH? Was it at,’ Juliet mouthed her last words, ‘The Clock House?’ even though her mum’s back was turned as she grabbed her bag to look for her phone.

      Cheryl opened the kitchen back door and stepped outside, presumably for peace and quiet when she delivered the gossip to Trudie that her niece hadn’t even been back a week and had already quite possibly lost the plot.

      Kate nodded. ‘He was standing in the open doorway, presumably waiting for someone to walk into him. I mean who does that?’

      Juliet had to hide her smile when Kate belatedly looked around, realised she was standing right in the doorway and moved to take her mum’s place at the kitchen table.

      ‘I didn’t stand a chance,’ Kate continued. ‘There I was, wandering back in through the garden doors at a completely leisurely pace when I, well, I ran right into him. You’d think he’d have had the good sense to remain upright, because it isn’t as if he isn’t well-built – but no – instead he tries to do the hero thing and reach out to help me and instead we both fall to the ground.’

      ‘Wow. You called him Mr Tall Dark and Handsome,’ Juliet said, grinning delightedly. ‘You said he was well-built. You’re all… breathy and flushed.’

      Kate grimaced. ‘Yes, well, it’s unusually hot for the middle of May.’

      ‘You think he’s gorgeous,’ Juliet sing-songed. ‘You want to date him… you want to hug him… you want to kiss him… you want to marry him.’

      ‘Oh my God, thank you, Gracie Hart, can you bring Juliet back now,’ Kate pleaded with a roll of her huge brown eyes.

      ‘Sorry, not sorry,’ Juliet shot back, laughing and trying to remember if she had ever seen Kate so flustered about a man. She’d occasionally talked about Marco in her emails, but only lightly. In fact, so lightly that by the time Juliet had realised she’d stopped mentioning him altogether, so much time had passed that Juliet hadn’t wanted to open up any wounds by asking what had happened. ‘So what was this guy doing at The Clock House, and how did it go when you got there?’ Juliet’s hand snuck under the table to tightly cross her fingers.

      ‘He–’

      ‘Right,’ Cheryl said, coming back into the kitchen, and cutting Kate off, ‘Trudie couldn’t actually remember this Daniel’s last name.’

      Kate threw her hands dramatically up into the air. ‘Fabulous. How am I supposed to Google him now?’

      ‘Why do we need to Google him?’ Juliet asked.

      ‘So, if I could finish…?’ Cheryl said, nodding her head when Kate and Juliet turned to look at her. ‘She can’t remember his last name, but if you had actually gone to visit your mum like you said you were going to, you could have found out everything you needed to know for yourself because this Daniel chap is staying with her as a guest while waiting for his