The Chocolate Collection. Trisha Ashley

more clearly, then, because I thought they just meant David. And Poppy doesn’t understand why I’m so upset that Raffy’s come here, since it was all such a long time ago. She says that since he’s become a vicar he must have changed a lot since I knew him, but it’s hard to believe.’

      ‘Whatever he’s become now doesn’t excuse what he did in the past. And anyway, Chloe, the past tends to come around and bite you on the bum when you’re not looking.’

      ‘Yes, it certainly just bit mine.’

      ‘And it will bite his, in time – his punishment will find him out.’

      I looked up quickly at that. ‘You’re not going to tell Grumps, are you?’

      She didn’t reply, just grinned at me, golden teeth glinting, and then hoisted herself up leaving a final discarded snakeskin of ash on the table. ‘There’s a nice pie for your dinner. I’m off out later, so I thought I’d cook early – I’ve joined the local tea dance club.’

      She held out one small foot in a jewelled high-heeled silver sandal for me to admire. ‘New, breaking them in.’

      ‘Lovely,’ I said, my mind still focused on other things. ‘Zillah, you really won’t tell Grumps anything about what happened between me and Raffy Sinclair, will you? I mean, he doesn’t know we ever went out with each other, let alone—’

      ‘You can’t hope to keep secrets from your grandfather,’ she said ambiguously, which either meant that she thought he was so all-seeing that he would automatically pick up information from the airwaves, or that she told him everything.

      I hoped my little Sticklepond Sibyl was wrong.

      ‘So now I don’t know if she’ll tell Grumps that Raffy’s the man who treated me so badly, and if so, whether he’ll feel the need to try and take some kind of revenge. Though if he did, Raffy would totally deserve it,’ I said to Poppy and Felix later in the snug at the Falling Star.

      Felix had entirely forgotten that I’d been out with anyone while at university (he too had had other things on his mind at the time, being in the throes of his divorce just then), and was unflatteringly astounded to discover that Raffy and I had been an item.

      ‘But it’s all so long ago and anyway, you couldn’t really blame the man for going off when Mortal Ruin got its big opportunity, could you?’ he said, even more inclined than Poppy to think I should have got over it by now. ‘Be reasonable, Chloe!’

      ‘Perhaps not, but I could blame him for dumping me without a second thought!’

      ‘But you spent only one term at university, so it was hardly a long relationship, was it?’

      ‘And you were both terribly young, so it probably wouldn’t have lasted anyway,’ Poppy suggested gently.

      ‘I wouldn’t worry about your grandfather doing anything to him, either,’ Felix said with his sudden attractively lopsided grin, ‘because if he tried to put some kind of curse on all your old suitors, he’d have no time to do anything else.’

      Poppy giggled. ‘That’s an exaggeration, Felix! Chloe’s only been out with a handful of men and no one at all for ages and ages.’

      ‘I wouldn’t mind if he put a curse on David Billinge,’ Felix said. ‘I’m sure he’s trying to get back with you, Chloe. And you seem to have managed to forgive him, even though he jilted you on the eve of your wedding, haven’t you?’

      ‘That was because he did me a favour. I realised almost immediately that marrying him would have been a big mistake. Now he just wants to be friends, which is fine by me. He’s picking me up on Wednesday afternoon and we’re going to look around a few country cottages. It’ll be fun – I love looking at other people’s homes.’

      Felix looked unconvinced, and I’m pretty sure Poppy wasn’t listening at all, because she suddenly said, ‘You needn’t see much of the vicar, Chloe, so it may not be such a problem as you think. I mean, it’s not like you go to church, is it? Your paths will hardly cross.’

      ‘They crossed this morning, practically on my doorstep.’

      ‘I expect he was taking his dog for a walk round the block, because the rear drive to the vicarage is just up Angel Lane, isn’t it?’

      ‘Yes, so it is. Well, I’ll just have to try and keep out of his way. And I expect that even if Grumps does find out and tries to do something horrible to Raffy, it won’t work. Besides, he has other things to worry about at the moment.’ I told them about the parcel Grumps had received from Digby Mann-Drake. ‘He said it was a warning and it must have been something really nasty, because he burned it.’

      ‘Actually, I forgot to tell you that Mr Mann-Drake came into my shop the other day and he seemed very inoffensive and pleasant,’ Felix said. ‘I didn’t even realise who he was until we were chatting and he said he’d bought Badger’s Bolt as a weekend cottage, but found the ambience so restful that he intended spending a lot of time there. That doesn’t sound very dangerous, does it?’

      ‘But Jake looked him up on the internet and he’s really not a very nice person – and Grumps said he could easily deceive people,’ I warned him.

      ‘Yes, I think he sounds horrid and Miss Winter should be glad that your grandfather bought the Old Smithy and not him, or we would have him right in the middle of the village,’ Poppy agreed. ‘But I’ve just had a thought: Miss Winter is bound to make the new vicar go and visit your grandfather, isn’t she?’

      ‘Serves him right,’ I said callously, then changed the subject and told them about my conversation with Chas.

      ‘He took it a lot better than I expected. He’s such a nice man that I really want him to be my father!’

      ‘There’s still a good chance he is,’ Poppy said optimistically. ‘And at least you’ll soon know one way or the other, won’t you?’

      ‘If it’s not him, what will you do then?’ Felix asked. ‘Go after that actor, whatever he was called?’

      ‘Carr Blackstock – and he didn’t sound particularly friendly. I’ll think about that, if it comes to it. One step at a time.’

      ‘Gosh, everything seems to be happening to you at once,’ Poppy said.

      ‘Yes, it needs only Mum to turn up on the doorstep to make my happiness complete,’ I replied slightly sourly, because it was starting to feel as if my six-year sea of relative tranquillity had been maliciously stirred with a big stick and a whole lot of murky stuff was rising from the bottom.

       Chapter Eighteen: Charm

      I saw the notorious Mr Mann-Drake for myself the very next day and, like Felix, I found it hard to square his appearance with his reputation…though, admittedly, his appearance was very odd.

      He was going into Marked Pages as I was coming out, after my usual cup of coffee on the way back from the post office with the Chocolate Wishes orders. When he made a strange sort of half-bow and doffed his wide-brimmed felt hat, wishing me good morning, I guessed who he was even though he looked nothing like the photograph of him I’d seen.

      It must have been taken while he was standing on a box, for instead of being tall and cadaverous, he was more like a skull on a short stick, wrapped in a Victorian-style evening cloak. His hair was dyed even blacker than Jake’s and plastered flatly to his head and though his skin appeared slightly mummified, his eyes were as dark, bright and alert as a lizard’s.

      In fact, he looked like an old-fashioned music-hall magician, except that there was something slightly reptilian about him that gave me the creeps, even though his voice fell like drops of liquid honey into the air. Grumps was right about that.

      Poppy