HOLLY MARTIN lives in a little white cottage by the sea. She studied media at university which led to a very glitzy career as a hotel receptionist followed by an even more glamorous two years working in a bank. The moment that one of her colleagues received the much coveted carriage clock for fifteen years’ service was the moment when she knew she had to escape. She quit her job and returned to university to train to be a teacher. Three years later, she emerged wide eyed and terrified that she now had responsibility for the development of thirty young minds. She taught for four years and then escaped the classroom to teach history workshops, dressing up as a Viking one day and an Egyptian High Priestess the next. But the long journeys around the UK and many hours sat on the M25 gave her a lot of time to plan out her stories and she now writes full time, doing what she loves.

Holly has been writing for 9 years. She was shortlisted for the New Talent Award at the Festival of Romance. Her short story won the Sunlounger competition and was published in the Sunlounger anthology. She won the Carina Valentine’s competition at the Festival of Romance 2013 with her novel The Guestbook. She was shortlisted for Best Romantic Read, Best eBook and Innovation in Romantic Fiction at the Festival of Romance 2014. She is the bestselling author of 20 books.

Also by Holly Martin

The Guestbook at Willow Cottage

One Hundred Proposals

One Hundred Christmas Proposals

Tied Up With Love

A Home on Bramble Hill

Holly Martin

Copyright

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2014

Copyright © Holly Martin 2014

Holly Martin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for 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 author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

E-book Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9781474008396

Version date: 2018-08-08

Contents

Author Bio

Also By Holly Martin

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Read On

Extract

Dear Reader

Endpages

About the Publisher

Prologue

Joy crouched down behind the bush, her heart hammering against her chest. Someone had called the police and now, after two years, she was finally going to get caught.

Her car was hidden in the dark trees behind her and she glanced towards it, trying to decide whether to make a run for it. It was quite far, maybe a hundred metres or more. She peered through the leaves at her would-be captor. He was a lot older than she was and held a bit of weight on his stomach. She was certain she could outrun him. But running would draw his attention, as would the noise of the engine.

She couldn’t get caught, her life would be over.

The policeman walked slowly towards where she was and she tried to make herself as small as possible. He was only a few metres away now. If she was going to run, now was the time to do it.

Suddenly another policeman came round the edge of the house with a dog; a great, snarling Alsatian.

‘Come on Phil, there’s nothing there,’ the dog handler called. ‘There’s no sign of a break in, no damage, it was probably just kids messing about. They’ll be long gone by now. Or shall I release Tiger; he’s dying for a run around?’

Tiger? Joy swallowed as she felt cold sweat prickle her neck.

‘Keep that savage beast on the lead, you know we don’t see eye to eye,’ Phil called back, rubbing his bum as he obviously remembered his last run in with the evil hound.

Tiger and his owner disappeared back round the house and with a last look in her direction Phil turned away too.

Just then her stomach gurgled loudly and Phil whipped back to face her, grabbing his baton like it was a loaded gun.

‘Colin!’ called Phil.

Her heart in her mouth, she leapt up and ran.

‘Oi! Police!’ yelled Phil. ‘Stay where you are.’

Joy leapt over a log and tore through the trees. Behind her she heard Tiger bark and she pushed herself faster. The branches caught her clothes and hair, like fingers dragging her back.

Black metal gleamed in the moonlight and she ran for it. She threw her rucksack into the passenger seat as torchlight danced through the trees towards her.

She quickly started the car, threw it into reverse and seconds later she hit the road. Thanking her brother for teaching her the darker side of how to drive, she slammed her foot on the brake and spun the wheel, executing a perfect J-turn manoeuvre, before tearing off up the road.

The road stayed empty behind her.

She took the first turn off and her wheels screeched as she took several other corners in quick succession. She turned the engine off as she parked outside a quiet, unassuming row of cottages and threw herself across the passenger seat.

A minute later she heard the sound of the police car tearing along the main road. The siren faded into the distance and she knew she was safe.

With a shaky hand, she pushed her hair from her face and waited for her heart to stop pounding. That was close, too close.

Chapter One

‘Please let me lick it,’ Joy said.

‘Uh uh, no way, not in my car,’ Alex said. ‘I’m driving as fast as I can. Bloody stupid country lanes, could you have picked anywhere more remote than this to live?’

She smiled as they passed the village sign: “Bramble Hill; Voted Britain’s Friendliest Village for the Last Nine Years.”

‘I love that it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s so cute and quiet. Fifty-six people live in this village Al, can you imagine. Pretty soon I’ll know them all by name. There’ll be Mrs Twinkly Eyes who will invite me in for a slice of homemade lemon drizzle cake whilst she regales me with stories from her youth. Mr Silver Hair who will come round to offer advice on my garden, and lovely mummies who will invite me round for coffee and we’ll chat in the garden whilst the angelic little cherubs play quietly nearby. And there’s a local pub, a proper local. Do you know how long I’ve wanted a proper local? Somewhere the landlord knows your name, knows your usual tipple and has it waiting for you on the bar as soon as you walk in. There’ll be cake sales and village fairs and people will give me eggs and fresh vegetables in return for my delicious apple pies. I can’t wait.’

She surreptitiously licked a tiny droplet of chocolate ice cream off her hand and looked up at Alex who was smiling at her.

‘What?’

‘What’s it like in your head Joy, is everything slightly rose-tinted? Your glass is permanently overflowing isn’t it? When it rains you smile because it’s good for the garden. Joy by name, Joy by nature.’

She smiled at the turn of phrase he had used for years as he pulled up outside the house.

He leaned over her looking out on the tiny whitewashed cottage. ‘Are you sure about this place? It’s quite close to Blueberry Farm.’

She frowned slightly. ‘I know. That wasn’t my intention. When I agreed to move here, I had no idea it was so close. Maybe it’s fate though; maybe it’s time I came home.’

His face darkened at this. It was the same disagreement they’d had for the last few years. He put his fingers to his heart. ‘Home is in here, you know that, it’s not a much-revered bunch of bricks. And you shouldn’t allow fate, tradition or sentiment to dictate where you live. You just need to open your heart to new possibilities.’ He brushed a stray hair from her face. ‘This is a fresh start for you; I hope you get everything you want from this.’

‘I’ve had a lot of fresh starts and none of them worked. But I have a good feeling about this place.’ She ignored the protest that Alex was quickly forming and pressed on. ‘It’s not just its proximity to Blueberry Farm. There’s something about here that feels like coming home.’ She negotiated the door handle with her little finger and carefully clambered out, holding the two ice creams precariously in her hands. ‘You’ll see. Moving here will be the best thing that has ever happened to me.’

She ignored the look from Alex. Admittedly, she’d said that for the previous eight places she had lived in over the last few years, but this time she hoped it would be different. She turned back towards the house and walked straight into someone.

‘Oh sorry.’ Joy leapt back and to her horror realised that the man now had two large round chocolate stains on his gleaming, white shirt – almost as if two fake breasts had been painted on. An expensive shirt too, she recognised the little logo on the breast pocket.

‘Oh god, I’m so sorry, I…’

He glared down at her and then down at his shirt in shock. She balanced the ice creams in one hand and fished a tissue from her pocket. But as she started to wipe away the ice cream, all she succeeded in doing was mushing the chocolate stain into a larger area across his shirt. He stood watching her as she desperately tried to get some off but made the stain bigger every time she touched him. Now tissue bits were sticking themselves to the shirt too. She abandoned the tissue, which was now hanging off him, and used her hand instead. As she felt his heart thud against her fingers, he suddenly caught her hand and moved it off him.

Joy’s mouth went dry. The man was huge, the largest man she had ever seen in her life. He was almost like a bear in terms of size and build, the hand that had pushed her own hand away was like a giant paw. His hair was a shaggy, dirty blond mess that fell across his eyes. Slate grey eyes, like thunder clouds.

In stark contrast to the angry bear before her, a shaggy grey mongrel stood at his side, wagging his tail, his tongue falling out of his mouth in what looked like an amused grin.

Emboldened by the dog’s smile, she tried one of her own. ‘I really am very sorry. I’ll pay to have your shirt cleaned of course and…’

Suddenly Alex was by her side, obviously sensing there was trouble brewing.

‘Hey, there’s no harm done here – we’ll pay to have your shirt cleaned or for a new shirt, and as it was obviously an accident it would be a shame to start off on the wrong foot. This is Joy, your new neighbour, and I’m Alex, her brother.’

Joy watched as the big man tore his glare away from her and his eyes slid to Alex.

‘Brother?’ he asked, deliberately ignoring Alex’s outstretched hand.

Alex nodded.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ he muttered as he stormed away.

‘Well you certainly know how to make a good first impression,’ Alex said.

‘I’m sure I can win him round.’

‘I’m sure you can. You’re my favourite person in the world and if he can’t see how fantastic you are, then he’s blind.’

Joy passed Alex his rather squished ice cream and followed him into the house. She glanced back at the large man disappearing down the road and tried to ignore the butterflies that were fluttering with unease around her stomach.

*

The sun was setting over Bramble Hill as Joy drove down towards the tiny village with the last load of her stuff. She had picked it up from Alex’s house, nearly an hour’s drive from her new home, and waved away offers for him to spend the first night with her.

Next to the village sign she’d just passed was another that she hadn’t noticed before. It was weather beaten, decorated in tiny delicate flowers and said; “Bramble Hill, Home of Finn Mackenzie.” She wondered who that might be; the village founder perhaps, or some old scout leader who had taken boys camping and taught them how to make fires since before she was born. She was sure she would find out over the next few days.

The village looked beautiful basked in the rosy glow of the sun as she drove down the hill towards the cluster of whitewashed cottages. It was peaceful and quiet. There was a tiny duck pond, glinting pink and gold as the little white ducks bobbed on the water, an old beamed pub, called charmingly The Peacock’s Pride, a tiny shop, and that was it. Life here would be as idyllic and quiet as the village itself.

She drew up outside her house and sighed. Home, sweet home.

Opening her boot, she hefted her large chainsaw over her shoulder, picked up a smaller one and grabbed a bag of some of her other power tools.

‘Hey, would you like some help?’ came a voice from behind her.

She turned to see a man hurrying towards her. It was the smile she saw first – an honest, genuine smile that spread to his denim blue eyes. He was quite broad in the shoulder, and wearing very tight jeans. His dark hair was floppy over his eyes, in a sexy, unruly, unkempt kind of way.

Although she had carried the large chainsaw many times over the years and she was used to the weight, she wasn’t about to turn down an offer of help from someone, it might appear rude. Besides, he was the first person who had actually spoken to her since she had arrived.

‘Sure, that would be great.’ She carefully passed the chainsaw into his waiting hands.

‘This isn’t the twelve tonnes of makeup and hair products I was expecting,’ he said, following her into the house.

She smiled at the dig. ‘I’ve already unpacked that.’

‘Now if my detective skills haven’t let me down, you must be Jo Carter.’

‘I’m afraid they have. Joy Cartier, my landlord is Joe Carter.’

He was clearly thrown by this.

‘I know, weird isn’t it? Similar sounding names, but no relation.’

‘This could be a problem,’ he mumbled, clearly more to himself than to her. She looked at him waiting for clarification but his lovely smile quickly returned and he changed the subject. ‘I’m Casey Fallowfield, my brother Zach lives next door. This place looks great.’

They walked through the house and towards the shed. ‘Thanks, though I can’t take any of the credit. Joe did all the decorating. I’m just renting from him. Just put that on the shelf up there.’

The shed was very small and Casey leaned up over her to put the chainsaw on the shelf, revealing a flash of brown, toned belly. She swallowed. He was standing so close and his fresh citrus smell made something clench in her stomach.

He flashed her a grin as he let go of the chainsaw and she blushed. He knew she had just been staring at his stomach.

‘So the chainsaws, what are they for?’

‘Cutting wood,’ she said.

‘This is a very expensive chainsaw though, and are those your initials engraved onto the side?’

She brushed past him as she headed out the shed.

‘You’re not… The Dark Shadow are you?’ He grinned, clearly not believing she was.

She laughed. ‘Isn’t he supposed to be some eight foot tall alien, or a time traveller, or a demon from the underworld?’ Some of the conspiracy theories surrounding The Dark Shadow were ridiculous.

‘I heard it was animals, trying to send us a message. Or fairies, definitely fairies.’

‘I heard…’ she looked around to make sure no one was listening, ‘that it was a Scotsman.’

Casey gasped theatrically. ‘Nooooo.’

‘A nine foot Scotsman with a twelve foot long red beard, eyes of coal, arms of steel, teeth made from razor blades.’

‘Those Scotsmen are savage.’

‘Well I’m sure the Scottish are perfectly wonderful people, it’s just this one that’s savage. Some say he’s actually a vampire and he’s hundreds of years old. Can I offer you a beer?’

‘Sure, then you can tell me about the chainsaws.’

She smiled at him over her shoulder. ‘You’re nosy aren’t you?’

‘People interest me – you interest me, Joy. Where have you come from? Why did you come here? Was it to run away from something or towards something? What do you do for a job? Though it must be something good to afford the rent in this place… and what’s with the hulking great autographed chainsaw in your shed?’

‘Wow those are a lot of questions.’ She passed him a beer and came back to stand on the decking, watching the sun sink behind the hills. ‘Maybe one day I’ll tell you the answers.’

‘Ah a woman of mystery. I suddenly like you a whole heap more.’

She chinked her beer against his. ‘To friendship then, and to sucking out all the gory details of each other’s personal lives.’

‘I like it, that’s what true friendship is all about; being beholden to each other over our deepest darkest secrets.’

She smiled. ‘So what are yours?’

‘I’ll need more than just a sip of beer inside me to tell you that.’

She turned back to the view.

Just then the large man, who she had literally bumped into earlier, walked out into his garden. Her heart leapt. He wasn’t wearing a top and his whole body seemed to shout muscles. He was so tall, nearly two feet taller than her tiny five feet. He was filthy and sweaty and Joy had never been so turned on in her entire life.

She watched him pick up a large tree, as easily as if he was picking up a daffodil, and place it carefully into a large hole. He patted the soil gently around it, as if the tree was made from china. More soil was added until the tree was secure. He stood up and drank long and deep from a bottle of water. As he moved, the sunlight caught a piercing in his nipple. Joy tried to swallow but realised her throat was now parched. She took a long swig of beer and suddenly remembered Casey standing next to her.

She quickly turned to him, blushing furiously at the thought that he would have caught her gawping so avidly. To her surprise his attention was well and truly caught by the beautiful man next door as well. His eyes, as she imagined hers were right now, were dark with lust and desire.

Joy took another sip of beer, whilst she pondered this, watching the man next door pick up his tools and take them to his shed. As he turned back, he caught them watching, scowled first at her and then broke into a huge grin when he saw Casey and waved at him before going back into his own house.

Casey took a long sip of beer, which he had clearly forgotten about whilst he had enjoyed the show, and then looked at Joy in what he clearly hoped was a nonchalant way.

She arched an eyebrow at him and he sighed.

‘That… was Finn Mackenzie, my best friend and the man I’ve been secretly in love with for the last fifteen years.’

Joy smiled at him in sympathy. Unrequited love was the worst.

He chinked his beer against the side of hers, dryly. ‘Come inside and we can start on at least one of my dark and gruesome secrets.’

She followed him in, and sensing this unburdening was going to need a bit more than cheap beer, she grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge and a huge slab of chocolate. She went through to the lounge where Casey was already sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands.

‘You saw it didn’t you, the way I looked at him,’ he said.

‘What, the same look of desire that I had on my face? Yes, I saw it.’

Casey looked up with a sheepish smile. ‘He is beautiful isn’t he?’

Joy shook her head with admiration and sat down next to him. ‘He’s magnificent. If we’re sharing secrets, I might as well share mine with you. When I saw that pierced nipple, I wanted nothing more than to run over and lick it.’

Casey laughed, loudly. ‘Oh, I know. I went with him when he got that done. It gave me a good excuse to touch it, you know, purely out of curiosity.’

She grinned. ‘Of course.’

Darcy, her great, beloved Newfoundland, hauled herself up from the cool tiled fireplace to finally greet the new visitor. Casey stroked her absently, but his smile faltered as he thought. ‘Do you think he saw how I was looking at him?’

‘I doubt it. Men are blind to these things. Besides, he waved at you. All I got was a scowl.’

‘Yeah I clocked that. It’s your hair, he has a thing about redheads, can’t stand them.’

Joy felt her mouth pop open. ‘That’s a bit… hairist.’

Casey smiled again. ‘To be fair, he’s anti all women at the moment.’

‘Oh… so he’s gay as well?’

Casey laughed even louder at this. ‘Oh god, I wish. That would be all my Christmases, birthdays, dreams and wishes come true in one fell swoop. No Finn is straight. He just hates women after his ex-wife cheated on him. He hasn’t been with anyone since. Though not from lack of offers from the entire female population of Bramble Hill and the other local villages. They were queuing up once Pippa left, but he hasn’t shown a flicker of interest. He has been sullen to the point of rude and still they fancy their chances.’

‘Maybe his marriage broke up because he was gay.’

‘You’re just saying that to cheer me up. No he’s definitely straight. But it’s not just women he has a problem with. He’s rude to everyone; well he has been for the last eighteen months. So don’t take it personally. He says very little, keeps himself to himself, never gets involved with village life. Never gets involved with anyone. You’ll be no different. Well except that you have red hair. He’ll hate you for that.’

Joy frowned.

‘Pippa was a redhead so now he has tarred all redheads with the same brush,’ Casey explained as he finished his beer and opened the wine.

‘And how do the villagers take to his rudeness?’

‘They love him.’ Casey obviously saw the look of confusion on her face. ‘You know who he is right?’

She shook her head.

‘Finn Mackenzie, the actor?’

She shrugged, still none the wiser.

‘He was in that vampire trilogy years ago – In The Darkness, The Taste of Blood and, my personal favourite, The Spoils of War. God, that bit when he bathes naked in the moonlit lake… I think I ruined my video by pausing it so often in the same place. I should have realised back then that I was gay, when all my friends were drooling over the beautiful Scarlet Rome and all I could see was Finn.’

He must have seen the blank look on her face.

‘You haven’t seen them, really? You must be the only living woman not to. What exactly were you doing twenty years ago?’

‘I was nine, so…’ She trailed off as she realised exactly what she was doing twenty years before.

‘You might have been a bit young to appreciate the first film, but the second and the third? How could it have passed you by?’

She shrugged. ‘I guess it did.’

‘He was fourteen when he filmed the first one and nineteen by the time the last one came out. Overnight he became this Hollywood sensation, the press followed him around everywhere. He hated it. I don’t think he had any idea what it would be like for him to be suddenly famous. After Spoils was finished he withdrew from public life. He had so many offers to do so many different projects, but he wasn’t interested at all. He hasn’t done anything for the last fifteen years.’

She smiled at Casey’s enthusiasm for Finn. ‘I guess it’s safe to say, you’re his biggest fan.’

‘I am yes, but we’ve been friends since we were both knee high to a grasshopper. It wasn’t the fame thing that attracted me. Hell, you’ve seen him – the man’s a god.’

‘I take it you haven’t told him how you feel?’

‘Good Lord, no, definitely not. No one knows I’m gay. You’re the first person I’ve told, and I wouldn’t have told you if you hadn’t caught me drooling. I’m normally better at disguising it than that. Well I hope I am.’

Joy frowned slightly. ‘You’ve been gay for fifteen years and never told anyone?’

‘No. Not really. I mean yes, my inappropriate crush on my best friend has lasted fifteen years but I guess I never really accepted I was gay until recently. A year, maybe two.’

‘But why haven’t you told your parents? Would they be awful about it?’

Casey poured two large glasses of wine, broke off a huge chunk of chocolate and shoved it in his mouth. It took him a few moments to answer whilst he chewed on it.

‘Honestly, I think they would have been ok with it. I come from a very loving family and all they’ve ever wanted was for me and Zach to be happy. But I think their friends would give them hell over it. They’re… Mum’s incredibly wealthy and there’s always social gatherings – balls, seven course dinners, big charity events that they used to attend with Lord and Lady Chalsworth, the Earl of Menton Hall, and Sir Ronald Chase-Matthews.’ He affected a posh voice as he reeled off his fellow socialites. ‘I’ve always shied away from it myself, which I think disappointed them slightly. Zach is more into the social networking, keeping up with the Joneses malarkey than I am. As the oldest son, they would have loved nothing more than if I attended these functions with some beautiful lady on my arm. If I were to turn up with a beautiful man on my arm instead… Well, I don’t think their friends would be as understanding.’

Joy broke off a chunk of chocolate and chewed on it, thoughtfully. ‘So you’re never going to tell them?’

‘I suppose, if I found someone I loved, truly loved and who loved me too, then perhaps I would be brave enough to say, “this is the man that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with”. But it’s hard to find that man when no one knows I’m actually gay.’

‘My brother’s gay,’ Joy said and then laughed at the look on his face. ‘No, don’t worry. I wasn’t trying to set you up with him. I hate that when people do that to me, “oh you’re single, he’s single, why don’t the two of you get together?” No, you’re not his type at all. Alex prefers big men, just as you do it seems. No I just meant maybe he could take you out to some gay bars, give you a chance to meet some men that are in the same boat.’

‘He’s… openly gay?’

She nodded.

‘And how did your parents take to that?’

‘They didn’t. They were both killed in a car accident when he was seventeen. I’m not sure if he had even figured it out by that point. He came out to me a few years later.’

‘Oh god Joy, I’m so sorry, that’s terrible. Your parents being killed obviously, not your brother being gay.’

She swallowed the lump in her throat that was always there when she spoke about her parents. ‘It’s fine. It’s been twenty years.’

‘You were nine?’

She nodded again.

‘That’s what you were doing twenty years ago. I was fawning over my best friend dressed in leather and you were mourning the loss of your parents. I’m sorry. Who raised you after they’d died?’

‘Al did. He was three weeks away from been eighteen. He lied about his age, told the authorities he was eighteen and as such was my legal guardian. By the time they checked, he was eighteen.’

‘He raised you on his own?’

She smiled. ‘I know, looking back, I just took it for granted that he was there. He had always been there, always would be there for me. I didn’t think until I was eighteen myself what he should have been doing – that going clubbing, getting drunk, going to parties should have been a way of life for him. He wanted to go to university, train to be in the film industry. He put it all on hold to look after me. He did a superb job too. He wasn’t just my brother, he was my dad, my mum and my friend. Can you imagine, when all his friends were graduating university, or coming back from travelling the world, he was sitting down with me explaining to me about periods. He was amazing.’

‘Sounds like someone I’d like to meet.’

‘You should, just so you have at least one gay friend to talk to about all this stuff. Maybe he can help you to come out to your family. Or at least help you find someone other than Finn to set your sights on.’

Just then there was a loud knock on the door.

Casey stretched back into the sofa. ‘Well I don’t think we’ve done too badly in the sharing of our deepest, darkest secrets for one night. Maybe we’ll stop there before I discover that the chainsaw is for hacking up bodies.’

‘Damn it, now I’m going to have to kill you too.’ She moved to answer the door and Darcy followed.

Joy opened it and the man standing on the doorstep was so obviously Casey’s brother, Zach. He had the same washed denim eyes, the same black floppy hair, but where Casey’s unkempt style had probably taken seconds to achieve, Zach’s unruly “I don’t care about my hair” look had probably taken hours of styling. He had the sexy designer stubble in comparison to Casey’s clean shaven face. But feeling horribly disloyal to her new friend, she had to admit that Zach had the edge when it came to sex appeal.

‘What have you done with my brother?’ asked Zach, his mouth twitching into a smirk. ‘I know he’s in there with you. I saw him carry that chainsaw into your house, and he hasn’t come out since. If you’ve chopped him up into tiny pieces you’ll have me to answer to.’

She fixed him with a dark look. ‘Why don’t you come down to the cellar and I’ll show you what I’ve done with him.’

‘Ha I’ve seen that film. I go down to the cellar with you and the next thing I’m manacled to a table as you cut out my innards. Not a chance. Unless it’s bondage you’re into, then I wouldn’t mind a bit of manacling.’

She laughed. ‘I’m Joy, you must be Zach?’

‘Ah he mentioned me did he, just before you brutally murdered him?’

Just then Casey appeared behind her. ‘Fret not little brother, she tried to kill me, but I fought her off. Are you ready to go down the pub?’

‘Yep, is the murderer coming with us?’

‘She sure is. We’ll introduce her to the friendly folk down The Pride.’

Joy couldn’t fail to miss the sarcastic way Casey had said friendly.

‘Hey, they’re ok… just not keen on newcomers,’ Zach said. ‘They’ll take a while to warm to you but I’m sure you’ll win them round.’ He moved closer to her, his eyes casting over her. She stroked Darcy, a useful prop to focus on as she found herself embarrassed by the sheer hunger in his eyes.

Casey moved to stand by her side, forcing Zach to move back a bit. ‘Go and grab my wallet would you, I left it on the coffee table.’

Zach nodded and with a last dark look in her direction, he scooted back to his house. Joy tried to calm her heart down before she turned back to Casey. What was wrong with her? Three times her pulse had quickened in the last half hour, each time with someone different. It had clearly been too long since she’d been with a man.

Casey closed the door behind Zach and turned to her.

‘I like you Joy, so let me give you one piece of advice. Don’t get involved with my brother. Women are like a game to him. He’ll lavish you with attention and charm but once he’s had you, he’ll move onto the next. If he had notches on his bedpost, he would’ve gone through several bedposts by now. I shudder to think how many women he’s actually slept with. Don’t be one of them. Now…’ he opened the door and offered her his arm, ‘… let me escort you down The Pride.’

Zach was already waiting with his dark looks of appreciation. Joy sighed inwardly; she really didn’t need to get involved with a serial womaniser. And with her definitely not being Casey’s type, and Finn hating the ground she walked on, it didn’t seem her dry patch would be ending any time soon.

Chapter Two

The Pride was a rustic, country pub, with low beamed ceilings and a great fireplace which Joy could imagine sitting by in the winter months, chatting with her new friends. Zach and Casey were funny and friendly and the fact that she wouldn’t be getting involved with either of them made things very easy and comfortable between them. She would just have to ignore the way her heart raced every time Zach brushed against her or looked at her.

The unfriendliness of the locals didn’t seem to be a problem either. Chloe, standing behind the bar and serving them, was as overenthusiastic as a puppy. She was sweet and had a huge smile that lit up her entire face.

‘So you’re friends with Zach?’ Chloe said, finally diverting her attention from the man himself, as he chatted with her.

‘She’s my friend actually,’ Casey said and Joy was thrown by the slight protective tone to his voice.

Zach obviously picked up on the tone as well and he slid an arm round Joy’s waist, clearly trying to piss his brother off or make him jealous. Little did he know. ‘He’s always been the same Joy, never wanted to share his toys.’ He turned back to Chloe. ‘Joy’s just moved in next door, so I’m just showing her the sights, making her feel welcome.’

Chloe let out a girly, high-pitched giggle, twisting her hair round her finger.

Joy looked around at the scattering of customers. Was it her imagination or did the pub suddenly go quieter when Zach announced that she had moved in next door? They were bound to be curious about any newcomers to their tiny village, but the room seemed colder all of a sudden. Although a nearby pair of older men were seemingly focused on a game of chess, and three old ladies – all supping pints of dark coloured bitter and wearing thick woolly cardigans, despite the heat of the night – were chatting quietly in a small booth. None of them seemed to be interested in her. She must have imagined it.

Sitting in the corner, reading a paper, was Finn Mackenzie. And there it was, the huge tidal wave of desire crashing over her again. She could see why Casey was head over heels in love with him. The permanent scowl did nothing to detract from his appearance.

She hadn’t made the best first impression on him. But even if she wasn’t his type, they should at least be civil to each other for the sake of neighbourly relations. She turned back to Chloe.

‘Can I get a pint of whatever Finn is drinking?’

Casey and Zach sucked in their breath.

‘Seriously, you really want to go there?’ Zach said.

‘This is not going to be pretty.’ Casey shook his head in warning.

‘Look, I’m not chatting the man up. I just think we started off on the wrong foot after I got ice cream all down him earlier. If we’re going to live next to each other, it makes sense that we can at least be on talking terms.’

Chloe put a pint of bitter on the bar. ‘Good luck.’

‘When he shoots you down, we’ll be over in the corner.’ Zach gestured to the part of the pub that was the furthest away from Finn.

A smile and a free pint went a long way with most men, so she picked up the bitter and walked over to him.

‘Finn, hi,’ she said, gaining his attention. His eyes cast over her for a second, before he returned his gaze to the paper again. She was undeterred – determined to get one civil word from him, she pressed on. ‘Look I know we started badly, but I’m sure we can at least be polite when we see each other. I’m Joy Cartier and…’

‘I don’t care,’ he said, without even looking up.

Annoyed, she stepped closer. ‘I’m not hitting on you and I know I’m not your type but…’

He looked up, appraising her with what appeared to be a look of disgust. ‘You’ve got that right; you are most definitely not my type. Now I suggest you run along back to your friends.’

He turned back to the paper again and Joy felt her jaw clenching at the dismissal. She slammed the bitter down on top of his newspaper, so it splashed over the glass, soaking the article he was reading. ‘You’re welcome.’

With that she turned and stormed back to the warmer side of the pub.

*

Finn watched her go. The girl could certainly flounce. The black dress she was wearing seemed to flounce as well; it shook dramatically around her bum and legs as she moved. Damn it. He didn’t like short women. He was so big that kissing someone small was always a problem. And redheads? No way, not again. He would just ignore the flash of heat that surged through him when she had walked over.

Joy Cartier though, not Jo Carter as everyone thought. Joy Cartier from Ascot. So she was rich. She probably had a pony called Princess and a butler called James. Even the way she said Cartier screamed of wealth, not Car-te-er but Car-te-yay. She drove a Range Rover too, big flashy thing that had probably never seen a fleck of mud in its life. He didn’t like snobs.

As she walked, the eyes of every single person in the pub followed her. They weren’t friendly either, some glared at her with mistrust, but most eyes were filled with pure venomous hatred.

He pushed away the sudden need to protect her. He forced his eyes away from her and back to his paper. The ale stain was spreading slowly across the article about The Dark Shadow that he had been avidly reading. He tried to pick out the words through the watery mess. He would not get involved.

*

Joy knew she had a big, stupid grin on her face. Apart from the cretin in the corner, life in the tiny village had started just as she had imagined it would. She already had two friends and was sitting in her local, putting the world to rights. Zach was very funny and, as Casey said, very charming and attentive. Finn was a git, but she wouldn’t let that spoil her mood.

Casey got up to get another round in, coincidentally at the same time that Finn went to the bar. As the appreciative gaze from Zach returned, Joy excused herself to go to the toilet.

It was as she was washing her hands that Chloe came into the toilet behind her. Joy turned round to speak to her, but she was thrown by the look on her face. Gone was the giddy over exuberance and huge smile – her eyes were dark, filled with hate.

Chloe grabbed Joy by the scruff of the neck and threw her against the wall. Pain seared through her as something stabbed into the back of her shoulder. Joy reacted instinctively, without thought. Her self-defence teacher had taught her well and in that moment when the mind was still processing the attack, her body seemingly reacted by itself. She kneed Chloe hard in the stomach and as she staggered back, Joy kicked her legs out from under her and slammed her into the floor, pinning her down with her foot to her chest.

Shit.

She hadn’t meant to do that. But as Chloe struggled against her, she didn’t think it was safe to let her up any time soon.

‘What’s your problem?’ Joy said, concerned by the amount of blood that was pouring down her arm. She looked round to see some kind of nail or picture hook hanging out of the wall, which Chloe had inadvertently thrown her against.

‘Zach’s mine,’ Chloe growled.

‘Seriously!! You’ve just attacked me over Zach? Honey, I have absolutely no interest in Zach whatsoever. Casey has already warned me off him, says he’s with a different woman every week. I have no desire to be another notch on his bedpost. I’ve just moved next door to him, that’s all.’

‘He loves me. Those other women mean nothing to him. He’s just sowing his seed. When he’s finished, he’ll come back to me. You’ll see. He’s mine, so keep your filthy hands off him.’

Joy shook her head at the lack of comprehending on Chloe’s part. ‘And you’re welcome to him.’

‘And Casey is with one of my friends, so you can’t have him.’

‘He…? Erm… I’m not interested in Casey either.’ That was a turn up for the books.

‘Or Finn…’

‘The man’s an arse, I’m definitely not interested in him.’

All the fight seemed to go out of Chloe. ‘Zach does love me.’

Still not sure whether to let her up, Joy kept her foot on Chloe’s chest a moment longer. ‘I’m sure he does.’

The toilet door suddenly opened and another lady that worked behind the bar came in. Joy presumed she was the pub landlady. She was a large, short woman who would look right at home on a rugby field.

‘What the hell is going on here?’

Joy thought this might be an opportune moment to let Chloe off the floor. ‘Just a difference of opinion, right Chloe? I think we’ve sorted things out now.’

Chloe scrabbled up, clearly still winded by the knee to the stomach, and shot Joy a filthy look. ‘She attacked me Pam, said I was to stay away from Zach, she just threw me to the ground for no reason.’

Joy opened her mouth to protest, but stopped. The landlady’s face was like an open book. Joy could tell that Pam knew Chloe was lying, Pam clearly knew of Chloe’s inappropriate infatuation for a man who didn’t return her feelings, and she had already seen the blood trickling down Joy’s arm. But Pam had already decided whose side she was on, and it wasn’t the side where the customer was always right.

‘How dare you come into my pub and attack my staff like this. Get out now.’

‘But…’

Pam took a threatening step towards her and, recognising that that was one fight she certainly didn’t want to have, Joy held up her hands in a symbol of defeat and surrender. ‘I’m going.’

‘And don’t you dare show your face in this pub again.’

Joy scooted out, past Pam and into the pub. She hurried over to Zach’s table and grabbed her jacket.

‘Hey, where you going? I’ve just bought you a drink.’ Casey said, as he sat back down.

‘I’ve got to go. Sorry, you boys stay here, enjoy your evening. Don’t worry about me.’

‘Are you ok?’ Zach stood up, suddenly filled with concern. ‘You’re bleeding. Here, let me walk you back.’

She edged to the door. ‘No, I’m fine. My house is only a minute away. I’ll be fine. Stay here, please and finish your drinks.’

With concerned looks from both of them, she hurried out the pub.

*

Finn glared at Joy as she ran out the pub. He felt annoyed by the protective feelings she provoked in him.

Chloe was about as unhinged as Kathy Bates’s character in Misery so when he had seen her stalking into the bathroom after Joy, he’d known it was going to lead to some confrontation. He had to physically stop himself from going into the bathroom after them. He was shocked to see Joy hurrying out of the bathroom a few minutes later, bleeding and shaken, but stunned that Pam had to physically help Chloe out of the bathroom seconds after Joy had left. Little Joy Cartier had obviously given as good as she’d got. But he still had this need to go after her to make sure she was ok.

He would not get involved. That would only lead down one path and he wasn’t going to let that happen again.

His eyes flitted to Mrs Brannigan who was hurriedly finishing her pint and heading out the door after Joy. Albert Cole, with a dark look of venom in his eyes, met her at the door and with a mutual nod of understanding between them they quickly left.

Finn was already on his feet as he slammed down the pint that he knew would now go to waste. He cursed Joy for making him care and stormed out of the pub after them.

*

Outside, Joy slipped off her shoes and leaving her jacket on top of them, she walked down to the edge of the small pond. Moonlight bathed the waters with silvery ribbons. The village was so quiet. There was not a single sound to be heard. It was a beautiful place and she was so desperate to finally find a place that she could call home. But now it seemed that Bramble Hill would go the same way as the other places she had tried, though she had never left because she had been involved in a fight before. She had thought the tiny little village would be the answer. London and the other big cities, where her neighbours had barely said two words to her for the entire time she had lived there, certainly hadn’t been.

She hadn’t even been here a day and she had alienated her neighbour by spilling ice cream down him, had a fight with a barmaid and been banned from her local. It wasn’t the rose-tinted start to village life she had hoped for. Suddenly she was pushed hard from behind and as she tumbled head first into the inky cold water she heard a man speak.

‘Piss off back to Ascot you little bitch,’

But then she also heard a far off shout that sounded like, ‘Oi, leave her alone.’

The coldness of the water was shocking against her hot skin, reeds closed around her like fingers, dragging her down as she fought against them to reach the surface. She gasped out as her head burst through the water and she struggled against the reeds to get to the side. She grabbed a log and pushed her hair out of her eyes, shivering against the cold.

Finn was standing on the edge of the pond, his expression thunderous and she wondered if he was capable of any other expression.

‘Oh very good, payback for me covering you with ice cream was it? A bit childish, but yes revenge is certainly a dish best served cold.’ She was trying to laugh it off, keep some dignity even though she looked like a drowned rat, but she had been shocked by the maliciousness of the push. She heaved herself out of the cold water and clambered up onto her knees, aware of pain in her ankle and shin. The heat of the night did nothing to stop the chill of the cold water on her skin.

‘It wasn’t me,’ he said.

She looked around; the village was quiet and deserted. ‘Well who then? The ghost of the pond perhaps. Oh was it Chloe?’

‘No she was still clutching her stomach when I left. People here are not going to take kindly to you after what you did.’

‘To Chloe? She attacked me, I just defended myself –’

‘I’m not talking about that nut job, everyone round here knows what’s she’s like – though beating her up certainly isn’t going to curry favour with the locals. I’m talking about Mrs Kemblewick.’

She looked up at him in confusion. He was a lot bigger than her, but from her position kneeling on the floor, the feeling of intimidation that seemed to seep from him was certainly more prevalent. She moved to get up, but quickly realised that the pain in her ankle was from a bad twist or sprain. She was determined that he wouldn’t know he had hurt her as well as soaking and embarrassing her, so she stayed where she was. She would wait till he had gone before she hobbled home. She shivered again.

‘Who’s Mrs Kemblewick?’

‘The lady you kicked out so you could move in. Classy, you don’t even know who was living there. Did Daddy’s solicitor handle everything for you?’

Her head was swimming with cold, confusion and pain and he clearly wasn’t going any time soon. She stood carefully, deliberately trying not to put any weight on her ankle. Her dress clung to her and she realised her bra had come undone at the back. To her absolute horror as she stood, one of her breasts fell out the top of her dress.

To her surprise, as she quickly scooped her breast back in, Finn’s coat was suddenly around her. It was huge, swamping her from neck to toe, making her feel like a child in her dad’s clothes. It was warm and smelt earthy.

She glared at him. ‘What the hell is wrong with you? You push me in the pond, then hang around so you can see how humiliated I am, give me some cryptic warning about some Mrs Kemblewick and then give me your coat because you suddenly feel guilty?’

‘As I said, it wasn’t me and if you don’t want my coat I’ll take it back.’

‘Fine.’ Joy shrugged out of it and passed it back to him, then wobbled a bit when she inadvertently put weight on her twisted ankle. Finn grabbed her arm to stop her falling back in.

‘You’re bleeding.’

Joy looked down at her shoulder. ‘I know, where Chloe attacked me, silly cow, threw me against a picture hook.’

‘I meant your shin.’

Joy glanced down and sure enough her shin was pouring with blood from a large gash just underneath her knee. Though the water was probably making it look worse than it was.

‘Just… go away Finn. You don’t like me; you’ve made that perfectly clear…’

Just then Casey came running down the banks towards them, closely followed by Zach.

‘What happened?! Joy, are you ok?’ Casey shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it round her.

‘Someone pushed her in,’ Finn said.

‘Over Mrs Kemblewick?’ Casey said, rubbing her arms trying to get her warm.

Finn nodded then turned to walk away but stopped when he came face to face with Zach. If she thought the look of anger and hate that he had given her was bad enough, it was nothing in comparison to the look he gave Zach. It was pure venomous loathing. Zach stepped back under the weight of it, and with another filthy look in his direction, Finn stormed off.

Zach watched him go, then quickly moved to her side.

‘Are you hurt?’ he said, his arm round her shoulders.

‘No, not really – my ankle is twisted, I’ve cut my shin, but my pride is hurt more than anything.’

‘Here, lean on me, I’ll help you get back.’

Casey grabbed Joy’s shoes and jacket and with Zach supporting her she hobbled the short distance back to her house. On the way, she explained what had happened between her and Chloe and then with Finn and the pond.

‘It wasn’t Finn,’ Casey said, as he opened her front door for her. ‘I know he can be a moody sod, but there’s no way he would do that.’

Zach nodded. ‘Me and Finn don’t get on, as you no doubt saw, but I’d have to agree with Casey, Finn would never do something like that.’

Joy sighed as Zach helped her onto the sofa.

‘Then who, and more importantly why?’

Zach moved into the kitchen, probably to get some ice and Casey sat next to her.

‘My guess would be Albert Cole and Mrs Brannigan, they left the pub straight after you. I only thought it odd when Finn got up and went after them. He must have known something was wrong.’

Zach came back with a bowl of water and a towel. He knelt at her feet and started to clean up her cut. There was something about the way he ran the damp cloth up her leg that was incredibly intimate. His eyes were on hers as he moved the cloth over her and swallowing the desire to suddenly lean forward and kiss him, she tore her eyes from him and focused on Casey instead.

‘Who’s Mrs Kemblewick?’

‘A very sweet old lady that lived here for twenty years or more – so say the gossips.’ Casey said. ‘It seems she was the lover of the man that owned the house…’

‘Joe?’ That was a surprise. Her landlord was young, very good looking and had struck her as a bit of a ladies’ man. Who knew those ladies were of the elderly variety?

‘His father apparently, Eric Carter from Ascot. He would turn up two or three times a week, keep her entertained, so to speak. He died a few months ago, leaving the house to his child. Joe then gave Mrs Kemblewick notice that if she wanted to stay there she would have to start paying rent, seemingly paying rent in sexual favours for the last twenty years wasn’t going to cut it with the recently bereaved offspring. Mrs Kemblewick, having no income of her own, was forced into a retirement home. Something that the residents of Bramble Hill were less than impressed with. She died last week and I think the locals are baying for blood.’

Zach moved to sit on her other side, so he could clean up her shoulder.

‘We all thought that it was Joe Carter that was moving in. Or Jo as in Joanne. When you introduced yourself to me as Joy Cartier and told me you were renting, I knew we were going to have some problems. Though I didn’t expect this,’ Casey said.

‘Are you saying that my landlord Joe kicked out some old lady from her home and I’m now being punished for it?’

‘Sums it up, yes.’ Casey eyed his brother suspiciously over her shoulder.

Joy turned round to see what Zach was doing and regretted it immediately when she nearly clashed mouths with him. She shuffled away from him and he moved back as well.

‘Er… your cut to your shoulder is pretty deep and as it was a nail, I’d recommend getting a tetanus jab.’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘And what the hell is this thing with Chloe about?’

‘She is an absolute fruit loop. I slept with her, three, four years ago, just one drunken night. She’s been like my stalker ever since. I’ve made it clear that it was a one night only thing, that I’m not interested, but she won’t listen. Sorry about that. I’ll talk to her.’

‘So… that’s your thing is it, sleeping with a different woman each week, not worrying about the broken hearts you leave behind?’

‘No.’

‘Yes,’ Casey said. ‘She summed you up pretty quickly.’

‘With a little help from you no doubt.’ Zach glared at his brother. ‘I’m looking for love, Joy. It’s just very hard to find. And when you know that the person you’re with is not the one you’re going to spend the rest of your life with, there’s no point in continuing with it is there?’

His eyes were so honest and she suddenly felt like she’d found a kindred spirit. That’s what she had felt about all the places she had lived in over the last few years. She knew almost instantly that a place wasn’t going to be her home, so there seemed little point in sticking it out.

She felt her frown soften slightly. ‘I suppose not.’

She smirked when she heard Casey let out a sigh of exasperation behind her.

‘Listen both of you, get out. I need to think about how I’m going to persuade the village I’m really very lovely.’

Zach stood and with the sexy smile fixed back on his face, he moved towards the door. ‘I’m already persuaded.’

Casey rolled his eyes as he watched him go, then turned back to her. ‘You ok?’

She nodded.

He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. ‘I’ll probably see you tomorrow.’

She smiled as she watched him go. Damn his sexual preference.

*

Finn was lying in bed when he heard Joy come upstairs and start to move about in her room. He switched the TV off and listened.

The four houses in Blackberry Row used to be two larger houses and were converted into four smaller cottages, many years before. He shared floorboards with Joy. Zach shared them with Mr and Mrs Butterworth. The split had been done very successfully downstairs, so that you would never know that it once had been one large house. But up in the smaller back bedroom, they had either run out of time, money or patience and the dividing wall between his and Joy’s houses was so thin that he could hear everything. This hadn’t been a problem when Mrs Kemblewick lived there. Her bedroom, the one she shared with the previous owner of the house, was the front one, so Finn didn’t get to hear their sexual antics two or three times a week. But Joy, it seemed, preferred the amazing view that the back bedroom gave, which was the very reason he had chosen it to sleep in too.

The wall was so thin, or built so badly, that he could even see a thin sliver of light underneath the skirting boards. He rolled over to his side to watch the shadows move around the room as she did, finding it oddly comforting to have her there.

He heard her on the phone, putting the person she was calling on loud speaker as she no doubt got undressed.

‘Hello my lovely,’ said a man’s voice, which gave Finn an unexpected surge of jealousy.

‘Hey Al,’

Alex. That was her brother.

‘How’s your first night going?’

Finn heard the hesitation in her voice. She clearly wanted to tell Alex all about Chloe and the pond incident and the nasty man next door, but she didn’t.

‘Fine.’

‘Joy, I know that tone, what’s happened? Is it that moody sod that you spilt ice cream over, is he giving you grief?’

Little did Alex know that the moody sod next door was the least of Joy’s worries.

‘No, well I don’t think I’m going to win him round with my famous apple pie, but … everything’s fine. I’ve met some other people, there’s Casey, he’s lovely. I may give him your number actually; you might be able to advise him on a few things.’

‘Oh yes?’

‘Well I’ll let him tell you all about it, it wouldn’t be fair for me to tell you. And I’ve met his brother Zach who lives the other side of me.’

There was a pause from Alex and Finn could hear the laughter in his voice when he spoke.

‘And Zach, is he lovely too?’

Joy laughed. ‘Yes he is, but by all accounts he’s a complete tart. Casey warned me off him, so I’m staying well clear. We can just be friends.’

‘Men and women can’t be friends.’

Finn nodded in agreement. He certainly didn’t want to be friends with Joy, because then it would be friends who would hang out together, friends that would kiss, friends that would… No it would be better all round if he stayed as the moody sod next door.

‘Sure they can. You’ve got lots of women friends,’ Joy said.

‘That’s because I’m gay. That’s like being an honorary female. Besides they know they’re never going to get anywhere with me, so they don’t have to worry about impressing me or making me jealous, they can just be themselves. That’s the only time male/female friendships works. You can sort of be friends with the husband of a female friend, that’s ok as long as the female friend is laidback enough or comfortable enough in their relationship not to get all jealous and psycho every time the two of you speak. Other than that, being friends with a man doesn’t work, especially not when you’re both single and both attracted to each other.’

‘Well I’m going to prove you wrong. Absolutely nothing is going to happen between me and Zach.’

‘How much do you want to bet?’

‘A million pounds.’

‘Done.’

Finn sat up. Bloody hell. Was she that rich that she could so easily bandy about that kind of money?

‘Anyway, I’m going to sleep now, that’s if I can shift Darcy off the bed, she’s slept all afternoon, lazy sod.’

‘Joy, are you sure you’re ok?’

‘I’m fine, everything’s okay. Goodnight. I love you.’

‘Love you too, kid.’

There was a beep to indicate the call had finished and then there was a heavy sigh.

‘Yeah, everything’s fine Al, the moody sod next door hates me, the locals are going to run me out of the town with pitchforks and burning torches, I was pushed in a pond, had a fight with a barmaid and I’m now covered in so many cuts and bruises I look like I’ve had a run in with Mike Tyson. Yeah everything is absolutely fine.’ She sighed again. ‘Shift your arse Darcy, you big fatty.’

There was the sound of the bed creaking, the light went out and then silence.

Finn lay back on his pillow. She’d not had the best start to village life and he was part of the reason for that. He couldn’t help feeling guilty. The villagers were going to make her life hell; he didn’t need to add to it. In fact, he was probably the only one that could stop it. His position in the village as local celebrity should be able to afford him some weight in these matters. But then again, her moving out wouldn’t be such a bad thing either. Then he could just go back to his uncomplicated life.

Suddenly there was the sound of a really loud fart.

He sat up in surprise. Surely not.

‘Darcy, I swear, if that stinks, I’m shoving a cork up your bum.’

He smiled to himself. Maybe having her next door wouldn’t be so bad after all. Just as long as they weren’t friends.

Chapter Three

Finn was standing at the bottom of his garden, staring at the heather covered hills that swept up from his back fence. It was early morning and the sun, if it had bothered to come out at all, was currently hiding behind heavy rain clouds. He had never minded the rain. In fact he loved it, it was always so peaceful. The only noise he could hear was the soft thud of raindrops hitting his hood. That was until he heard a wailing behind him.

He turned quickly, wondering if someone had been hurt, and immediately saw Joy dancing around in her bedroom window, seemingly singing or rather shrieking her version of ‘It’s Raining Men’. She was wrapped only in a towel, a tangle of red wet hair hanging down her back. She spun around and as she did the towel fell away. His eyes drank her in. In a flash, his hands were caressing her pale, milky skin, feeling the fire of her hair between his fingers, pulling her warm body against his.

Unashamed, she carried on dancing. If it could be called that. Every part of her seemed to be wiggling as if she was attached to strings and controlled by a very drunk puppeteer. Her arms were punching up and down, her hips going side to side and her knees knocking together. But none of this detracted from the incredibly beautiful body. The innocent enthusiasm was incredibly endearing. After the night before, he expected her to be moping around, but it seemed nothing could keep Joy in a bad mood. He couldn’t help but smile at her.

The music obviously changed, because the next thing she was screaming along to ‘Lady Marmalade’ by All Saints. He didn’t need to be fluent in French to know the lyrics meant ‘Do you want to sleep with me tonight.’ Every teenage boy on his university trip to France made sure they knew those words if nothing else. The terrible dancing had changed too. It was still terrible but was now what could only be classed as provocative, as she ground her hips round in slow circles.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her. What an absolute creep he was. But no matter how much he despised himself, he could do nothing to stop it.

Suddenly anger flooded through him. She knew he was out here, that’s why she was dancing like this. How could she not see him? He was wearing a bright yellow hoodie; it’d be pretty hard to miss. She was either trying to turn him on, or she was just teasing him to wind him up.

Either option was not pleasing in his book.

He stormed back into the house, out onto the street and hammered on her front door.

It took a few moments for her to answer, when she did she was thankfully wrapped in a white robe. Her face was flushed with happiness, which immediately vanished as soon as she saw him.

‘Let’s get one thing straight, I don’t like you, and I certainly don’t fancy you. That little show you’ve just put on for my benefit only made you look ridiculous.’

Her mouth fell open, her face going a bright shade of red. She’d clearly had no idea he was out there. But he’d started now, so he was damned sure he was going to finish.

‘I suggest if you want to dance, badly may I just point out, that you put some bloody clothes on or draw the curtains. That way I won’t see something I really don’t want to see.’

With that he marched back to his house.

But she was hot on his heels.

‘You arrogant, conceited, jumped up little shit. I was not dancing for you. I didn’t even know you were there. And you know what, if I want to dance naked in the privacy of my own home, I will. I suggest if you are offended by my nudity, you look away, instead of perving on me like the disgusting creep that you are.’

She flounced away.

He caught her arm and span her round.

‘Hey!’ came Zach’s voice, protectively, though he was wise enough not to come any closer.

Finn stared down at Joy, his jaw clenched. Her eyes, currently filled with hatred, were an intense olive green, tiny freckles covered her nose and shoulders. Her lips…

He let her go, taking a step back before he closed the gap between them and kissed her. What was wrong with him? She infuriated him; he certainly didn’t like her in that way.

He flashed Zach an obligatory filthy look, looked back to Joy, at her wet hair dripping down her neck, at the swell of her breast that was peeping out the top of her robe, and then stormed back into his own house.

*

Joy watched him go, her heart pounding.

‘You ok?’ Zach stepped up to her a fraction too late.

She nodded, aware that her hands were shaking.

‘What was that about?’

‘Er…’ she tore her eyes away from Finn’s front door and looked at Zach instead. ‘Just Finn making it very clear he doesn’t like me.’

‘Oh that. Don’t take it personally, he doesn’t like anyone.’

She noticed Zach’s eyes travelling down her body, his pupils widening with lust. She looked down to see that her wet hair was making the robe damp and see-through. Folding her arms across her chest she moved back towards the house.

‘I’ll see you later.’

His face fell slightly as she closed the door.

How strange to be so desired and so hated within a matter of seconds. Her heart was still pounding furiously. In part it was down to anger at Finn’s arrogance and comments, but she knew mainly it was down to a wave of desire and need that had crashed over her when he had grabbed her and spun her around. If he had thrown her over his shoulder and carried her back to his cave right then, she would have only protested out of principle.

Suddenly a disgusting smell hit her nose. She looked around to find the source and saw a piece of paper, with what could only be dog poo on it. Scrawled across the paper in large angry capital letters was the word BITCH. It had clearly been posted through her letterbox that morning, but because she had opened the door, she had dislodged half the poo and it had mushed into the carpet and underneath the door.

Retribution for Mrs Kemblewick was swift indeed. She stomped into the kitchen to get a bowl of hot soapy water to clean up the mess and knew she would have to come up with a plan and quick.

*

Casey let himself through Finn’s back door and helped himself to a bottle of beer from the fridge before moving through to the front room. Finn was sprawled out on his sofa, reading a book and he looked at Casey over the top of it when he walked in.

‘Could have got one for me while you’re raiding my fridge,’ Finn said, marking his place in his book and throwing it onto the coffee table. He stood up and stretched, showing the toned muscles in his stomach for a brief second. If Casey didn’t know better, he’d think Finn was deliberately torturing him.

Casey sat down, picking up the book as Finn went to get a beer for himself.

‘Any good?’ he waved the book in the air as Finn returned.

‘I have no idea,’ Finn sighed.

Casey smiled. ‘Yeah, I thought you might say that. Are you doing ok?’

‘Not really.’

‘Joy’s incredibly beautiful.’

‘She’s not my type.’

‘Oh come on, are you saying that to convince me or yourself?’

Finn sat down. ‘Me, obviously. If I say it enough, I might start to believe it.’

Casey stroked the head of Billy, Finn’s straggly dog. His heart went out to Finn. For him to have his heart broken twice by the same woman must have been horrendous. Finn’s child would have been a year old now and Casey wondered how often Finn must think about that.

‘Admittedly Joy has red hair like Pippa but that’s where the similarities end. She’s lovely. You’d really like her if you gave her a chance.’

Finn stared at Casey as if he’d just suggested he should chop off his own head.

‘I can’t do a relationship again, I just can’t. Pippa hurt me spectacularly and I never want to be hurt like that again.’

‘Mate, I’m not suggesting you marry her or even jump into bed with her, I’m just saying be nice. Don’t treat her like scum just because she has the same hair colour as your ex-wife. She’s had a bit of a rough life…’ He hesitated in telling Finn about Joy’s parents, but there was a vulnerability in Joy that he wanted to protect. ‘Her parents were killed when she was a kid. I feel like she’s come here for a fresh start and now the villagers are all giving her grief over this stupid Mrs Kemblewick fiasco – which has nothing to do with her, by the way. Her landlord is Joe Carter, the man that kicked Mrs Kemblewick out, she just has a similar name.’

‘You’re kidding?’

‘No, she has no idea who Mrs Kemblewick is. Look, she needs a friend and if you can’t manage that, then at least be civil to her.’

Casey put the empty bottle of beer on the table. ‘I’m going next door to see if she’s ok after last night. Anything you want me to say to her?’

Finn shook his head as he stared at the floor. Casey smiled sympathetically at him. Finn had gone through a rough time too, but Casey was damned sure he wasn’t going to let Finn take his anger out on Joy just because he was still messed up over his own heartbreak.

*

Finn watched Casey go and groaned. Joy’s parents were dead. That made things so much worse. He had this innate need to protect, to comfort. That was how he had met Pippa. She had driven her car into a ditch at the side of the road and although she was unhurt, she was very shaken and tearful when he had pulled over to see if he could help. Her tears, her clinging to him as he held her, was what had done it. He had been lost, beyond redemption from that point on.

Now he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms round Joy and hold her.

An orphan. She could only be about thirty and she had lost both parents. He would be distraught if he lost his, he couldn’t even begin to think what that would feel like. And she had moved here and the welcome party was well and truly out.

He would have to try to be civil to her from now on. He wouldn’t be friends with her, that would lead to trouble, but at least he could be polite.

*

There was a knock on her door as Joy was knee deep in tissue paper and pretty lilac notelets. The kitchen smelt delicious and Darcy had moved downstairs in the hope of scrounging some morsels. She should have taken poor Darcy for a walk ages ago, though she seemed happy to sleep on the cool tiles of the kitchen floor at the moment.

She hurried to the door; Casey was standing there, looking lovely and dishevelled.

‘Hi, how you feeling today?’

‘I’m good, come in, you can help me.’ She turned back down towards the kitchen and Casey followed her.

She watched him look at the chaos and mess across the breakfast table and then at her with amusement. She tried to look at it through his eyes; the desperation of a mad woman.

‘What are you doing?’

‘These are my friendship cakes. I’ve made one for each house in the village. I’m wrapping them in tissue paper and putting a note in with each one explaining who I am and inviting them all to a housewarming barbeque this Sunday. Here, read the note and tell me what you think.’

He picked up one of the lilac notelets and read it. It explained that she was Joy Cartier and was renting from Joe Carter, that though their names were similar she was not related to him or the previous owner. It said she was very sorry for what had happened to Mrs Kemblewick, but it really had nothing to do with her. It was brief, friendly but to the point, and had taken her hours to construct those few little lines.

‘It’s fine,’ Casey said. ‘But I don’t know if it will work. They seemed to be quite irate when I was in the village shop this morning. I tried to explain to them who you were, but they practically shooed me out of the shop, telling me it was village business and as such was none of mine.’

She stopped in the middle of wrapping up another cake in red tissue paper. ‘You don’t live here?’

‘No, I live in Ashton Woods, the next village.’

‘Oh.’ This bothered her more than it should. She thought that she had at least two friends in the village, now it was down to only one – and Zach was only friends with her because he wanted to sleep with her. ‘Well, it’s clear they’re never going to be my best friends but maybe I can persuade them not to push me in the pond again or post dog poo through my letterbox.’

‘What?’ Casey’s eyes widened as he picked up one of the cakes and artfully arranged the tissue paper around it in a way that she could never achieve.

‘Found it this morning, with a note telling me I’m a bitch.’

He shook his head. ‘Well then, you certainly can’t make it any worse. I’ll give you a hand.’

They worked diligently between them for a while until all the cakes were wrapped.

She sat down, her back aching a bit, and looked out the window at the rain that hadn’t stopped all morning. The hills looked dramatic, silhouetted against the grey sky.

‘It needs to stop raining by tonight, I really need to go out to work,’ she said, then wished she hadn’t as that was bound to lead to questions.

‘A lady of the night are you?’ Casey’s eyes gleamed with excitement. ‘A prostitute? A spy?’

‘Yes to both. Spying doesn’t pay well, so I supplement it with a bit of prostitution.’

‘Noble.’

‘I thought so. Oh that’s what I meant to ask you,’ she quickly changed the subject. ‘When Chloe was threatening me to keep away from Zach, she also said that I couldn’t have you because you were with one of her friends.’

Casey picked up a crumb of cake from the baking tray. ‘Umm… yes, Arielle.’

She waited for more details but clearly none were forthcoming. ‘You’re dating a girl?’

‘Yeah, well not really dating, sort of…’

There was another knock on the door, interrupting what Casey was clearly finding embarrassing to tell her. She presumed it was Finn or Zach and found herself straightening her hair as she moved to answer it, then cursed herself for doing it.

Opening the door, Joy came face to face with a spaghetti thin blonde, her hair scraped back in a very severe looking French roll. She was dressed in a very expensive, very short dress with matching jacket and her face had that look of someone who had sucked a lemon. She was pretty, Joy supposed, and would be even prettier without the excessive makeup and angry pursed lips. She was holding an umbrella over her that matched the colour of her dress suit exactly.

‘Is my fiancé in there with you?’

Joy felt like she’d just received a smack to the face with that news, but quickly collected herself. Clearly this woman had come to the wrong house.

‘Arielle, hi,’ came Casey’s voice behind her.

There was a silence as Joy processed this information and Arielle cast her beady eye over her.

‘This is Joy, she’s just moved in next to Zach,’ Casey said.

‘Evidently,’ said Arielle, icily.

‘Er…’ Casey fumbled for something to say. Gone was the happy, relaxed Casey – he had rapidly been replaced by someone who was clumsy, awkward and clearly petrified of his fiancé. ‘Joy is my cousin. Remember me telling you about Uncle Raymond, well this is his daughter.’

Arielle stared at Joy vacantly for a moment as well she might. Joy was feeling equally confused. Finally Arielle nodded and stretched out her hand for a delicate and formal handshake. ‘Of course, Cousin Joy, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. You’ll be coming to the wedding next week?’

‘Yes, we invited her ages ago, she RSVP’d straightaway. We were quite close growing up.’ Casey squeezed past Joy who seemed to be frozen in the hallway.

Arielle cast her eyes over her again. ‘Of course, well if I don’t see you before, we’ll see you then. Casey do come along, we must meet with Jules to discuss the flowers. Apparently I can’t change the roses to daffodils as they aren’t in season. You need to talk to her.’

Without waiting for an answer, Arielle marched down the path to a little red convertible that was gleaming on the street. Casey glanced at Joy as he followed.

‘I can explain, I promise,’ he said and hurried after Arielle.

‘I can’t wait,’ Joy shouted after him.

But whether he heard or not, she didn’t know because her voice was lost in the noise of the engine as the car roared up the road.

*

Joy delivered the cakes to each doorstep in the village, though she hadn’t quite been brave enough to knock on the doors. Then it was time to take Darcy for a walk.

She intended to trek along the hill range past Menton Hall. She had a job to do there that night, if the rain stopped, and she wanted to get an idea of the lay of the land.

That’s what she was telling herself, it wasn’t at all because the hills held sentimental attachment to her.

When one of Alex’s friends had mentioned that his cousin was doing up a place in the country with a view to renting, Joy had taken it as a sign that it was time to move on from the busy town of Milton Keynes. She had been a face in the crowd there and had no more than a nodding acquaintance with her neighbours of three months.

It was only as she had driven round to see the house that the village names started to sound familiar. She had rounded a corner and was suddenly met with the striking hills that bordered the cluster of villages, the same hills that she had trekked over every weekend with her dad, right up until the weekend before he died.

Even before she saw the house, she knew she was going to say yes. Maybe she could never go back home, but maybe walking these hills with Darcy, as she had done many years before with her dad, would be all she needed to feel at home.

Joy sighed as Darcy left her side and went galloping up to greet Finn’s straggly dog. Seemingly, in the dog world, you just had to shove your nose up the other dog’s bum and you were best friends for life. She wondered what Finn’s reaction to that would be if she tried it. She hung back a little, hoping Finn would try to avoid her, but he was obviously on his way home now, so their paths had to cross if she intended taking Darcy on the walk she had planned. Finn called his dog away from Darcy, but Billy, tongue hanging out, stupid grin in place, was very interested in her. He had that demented look about him when a dog smells a bitch in heat. Damn it. Darcy had been a bit listless the day before, but Joy had put it down to the move. Still they wouldn’t be here long enough for Billy to get lucky. Hopefully Finn would pass without a single word.

He drew closer. He always looked so cool, even today tramping over the rain sodden fields with his dog, he looked like he’d just stepped out of a clothes commercial. He was wearing a simple baseball cap and a waterproof hoodie, but he still looked sexy. And also, as he drew closer, she saw he was wearing a sneer just for her. Her heart sank. Well attack was sometimes the best form of defence.

She marched up to him. ‘Why is it you hate me so much? It can’t possibly be about the ice cream, that would be unbelievably petty. And as you don’t get involved with village matters it can’t be about Mrs Kemblewick either, which by the way had nothing to do with me. So it’s either like Casey said, you hate me because I have red hair, which would be very shallow and small minded or it’s just that you’re a bastard for no other reason than you like to make people’s lives a misery. So tell me, which is it?’

He glared at her but when there was clearly no answer forthcoming, she turned away from him. ‘I’ll take that as the latter then. Darcy, heel!’

She walked away from him, her hands clenched into fists in her pockets, and refused to look back.

*

Damn it. Finn watched her go, his hand on Billy’s collar, who seemed very keen to follow them. Just like his owner. She was right, he was a bastard. He felt beyond guilty for shouting at her that morning just for singing and dancing – and then as she walked towards him, he had been appalled by how turned on he was after seeing Joy dressed in her waxed jacket and cap. It was a waxed jacket and cap, how could it be sexy? The black dress she had worn the day before was sexy. Not a waxed jacket and a pair of battered walking boots. He was determined to be polite, regardless of these insane feelings for her slamming through him. He was going to say hello, that was as good a start as any but as his emotions clawed away inside him his face must have been a picture as he battled with a sudden fear of redheads, a fear of intimacy and a fear of what might happen if they got too close. And whatever she had seen in his face had not been good, going on the defence before he attacked her again.

So now not only did he have to be polite to a woman, a redhead none the less, but he was going to have to work on his facial expressions too. He practiced a smile, the feeling of his mouth turning upwards felt alien to him. He looked down at Billy with the rictus grin stuck on his face, Billy glanced up at him and whined with something akin to fear. Finn sighed and headed for home.

*

The sun finally decided to make an appearance late afternoon as Joy came back home from her walk.

Though would it ever be the place she could finally call home? She would give Bramble Hill a chance, just like all the other places she had tried over the years. Joe, her landlord, had said if she wanted to stay, permanently, he would sell the place to her, but he was quite happy to rent in the meantime. She could easily afford the asking price if she decided to buy it; her job paid her ridiculously well. But as with the other places, she rented first, in a “try before you buy” type way. So far, she’d not found anywhere that she had wanted to buy.

As she drew close to her house, she noticed a collection of flies and wasps around her front door. More dog poo? But then the wasps wouldn’t be interested in that.

She moved closer and realised, with a crashing wave of disappointment, that many, if not all, of her lovingly made friendship cakes had been deposited on her doorstep. Some had seemingly been stamped on and some had even been forcibly shoved through her letterbox. They either hadn’t bothered to read the notes once they spotted it was from her, or hadn’t believed the declaration that she’d had nothing to do with the ousting of Mrs Kemblewick. It did seem slightly implausible that she was Joy Cartier and her landlord was Joe Carter; she and Joe had laughed about it when they had first met. It was much more believable that she was lying about who she was.

She couldn’t even get through the front door, there were so many wasps. She had legal access to her back garden through Finn’s garden. There was a side gate that allowed her to walk through his garden and into hers. She hadn’t used it yet, though she had every right to do so. She thought that it would be the polite thing to do to check with Finn before she strolled across his land. But since the man was an arse, she certainly wasn’t going to extend that courtesy to him.

She opened his back gate, which legally had to be kept unlocked, and walked purposefully towards her own gate, biting her lip as she hoped she could get past unnoticed. She would just walk across his garden as if she had every right to do so, which of course she did. Five metres away, four, three… and if he had noticed her he hadn’t come out and yelled at her yet. Suddenly something in Finn’s downstairs window caught her eye, and despite her best intentions to be in and out in mere seconds, she couldn’t help but look.

There was Finn, stark naked, drying his wet hair with a towel.

Chapter Four

He had evidently come downstairs to answer the phone, as he was chatting away on it, not expecting anyone to stroll across his back garden.

His body was glorious, he was so tall and big. His great broad chest, with that tantalizing pierced nipple. Muscles screamed from every part of him. Every single part. She couldn’t help but let her eyes wander, following the thin smattering of hair down from his navel to his groin. She swallowed. He really was big in every single sense. She wondered if he had to have some special licence for it, an operator of heavy machinery. His thighs were huge too, there would be a lot of strength and stamina in those hips and thighs. She imagined what it would feel like to be wrapped around those hips, to feel that much strength under her hands, against her own body.

Suddenly aware of what she was doing, that she had been frozen to the spot for at least a minute, if not more, she looked back up at Finn’s face. How long he had known she was there was unclear, but he was staring at her – his mouth partly open in shock. Not only had she looked through his window and caught him naked, but she might as well have opened a bag of popcorn and pulled up a chair for the amount of time she had spent enjoying the show.

She turned away and hurried through the back gate. Out the corner of her eye she saw Finn quickly wrap a towel around himself and move to the door to confront her.

‘Oi!’ came Finn’s voice through the gate. ‘Get a good enough look did you?’

Stifling the smirk from her mouth, she whirled to face him. He was so tall that even though the gate was closed, she could still see his head and chest above it. That chest with the pierced nipple.

‘Let’s call us even shall we, since you stood perving at me in my bedroom this morning.’

‘I was not…’ He paused, clearly fighting with the decision to shout at her or accept she was right. ‘Fine, let’s call it even.’

This surprised her. She fumbled with her keys, trying to get inside as quickly as possible, but the damned key wouldn’t turn and he was still standing there watching her. Finally she undid the lock and tumbled through the door, knowing her face was burning bright red yet again.

*

Dusk fell on Bramble Hill, leaving trails of plum and tangerine across the sky. The village, as always, was peaceful and quiet. Though next door to Finn was a sudden hive of activity.

For the last few minutes he had watched Joy load up the back of her car with boxes and bags. She was dressed entirely in black.

But the weirdest thing was what she was doing now, obscuring her number plates with a purpose made black cover. He wasn’t an expert on the law, but he was pretty sure that was illegal.

She hopped in the car and to his great surprise, she tied a black bandana round her head, like a pirate. With a great wheel spin, she disappeared up the road.

One thing was for sure, she was up to no good.

*

Joy stood in the darkened trees, gently touching what she had achieved. It was beautiful. The dragon almost glinted in the moonlight. A huge sense of pride filled her and she wanted to stand and stare at it all night. But now she needed to be gone before anyone discovered her.

She quickly loaded her gear into the back of the Range Rover and manoeuvred out through the trees with the skill of someone with years of experience in off-roading at night. It wasn’t long before she hit the road, and minutes later she arrived back at her house.

This was the first job she had done so close to home. She had always worked far away in case she got caught, but this particular job was going to pay very well.

She moved silently into her garden, diligently unloading all her gear into the shed. Her tools would need cleaning the next day, so she quickly disassembled them ready to be cleaned and left their parts spread out on the work bench.

She moved out into the garden, stretching her arms above her head as she looked up at the stars that glittered like diamonds above her. Thousands of them peppered the inky blue sky, some were in great white clusters but others were separate, proudly standing alone. Without the lights of the city here, the night sky seemed endless above her. She lay down on the chair swing to look at them properly. She and her mum used to lie and look at the stars sometimes. She tried to remember some of the constellations that her mum had pointed out to her all those years before. Orion was easy, as was The Plough and Cassiopeia. And there was Draco – the dragon constellation. Joy smiled fondly as she remembered what she had achieved that night. The Seven Sisters was harder, the constellation you could only really see when you didn’t look directly at it.

She smiled as she put her hands behind her head. She would just stay there a while longer and find a few more.

*

Finn stood annoyed at the window. For someone who never got involved, he was doing a pretty poor job of it.

He had watched Joy take all her boxes back to the shed and then lay down on the chair swing and she hadn’t moved since. That had been over an hour before. She had evidently fallen asleep on the chair and all Finn could think about was how cold she would be.

He was determined not to care so he’d forced himself to go back to bed. Sleep evaded him and periodically he kept sitting up to look out the window to see if she was still there.

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he resolved this, he grabbed a thick blanket off his bed and stormed down the stairs. It was like having a child next door. She was old enough to look after herself, she certainly shouldn’t be falling asleep outside.

He opened the connecting gate and walked straight over to her. One arm was behind her head, her eyes were closed, casting shadows over her pale cheeks with her long dark lashes. Her red hair, glinting in the moonlight, looked like curls of fire as it hung over her shoulders.

Cursing himself, he placed the blanket gently over her, and tucked it in around the edges. She stirred slightly and he prayed she wouldn’t wake up and see him.

‘Dad?’ she mumbled.

God, his heart ached for her. He had to physically stop himself from carrying her into the house and putting her to bed.

He went back to his own house, happy that she was now at least warm, though it was still several hours before he actually fell asleep.

*

Joy woke the next morning and smiled when she realised she had spent the night outside. Her grin broadened even more when she realised she was tucked warmly underneath a blanket.

It had to be Zach. He really was lovely. It was such a shame that he had this reputation. She would be silly if she thought she could be the person to change him.

She stood up, wrapping the blanket tightly round herself to protect her against the cool chill of the morning.

The man himself was standing in his garden, smoking a cigarette. Startled to see her there, he quickly stamped it out, grinning at her sheepishly.

‘Morning.’ Zach stepped closer to the fence. He smelt of smoke, and though it was not a particularly attractive habit, the smell of it always reminded her of her dad. He leaned across the fence to touch her face and to her horror he gently pulled a snail from her forehead. She blushed as he placed the snail on the fence between them.

‘I erm… fell asleep on the chair,’ she explained lamely.

‘So I see.’

His eyes were so gentle, filled with amusement.

She gestured to the blanket. ‘Thanks for this, that’s very sweet.’

He paused for a moment then smiled. ‘You’re very welcome. I didn’t want you to get cold.’

She buried her face in it, relishing the earthy smell.

‘Joy, would you like to go out for a drink with me, maybe a meal somewhere? Somewhere that’s not The Pride obviously.’

She wanted to, of course she did. But unless she entered into it knowing it would only ever be a one night stand, she would be very disappointed. And she had never been the type for casual flings. She was an old romantic at heart and ultimately was looking for The One. Her mum and dad had been together for years, and every memory she had of them together was of them giggling, kissing and holding hands, just like they were in the first throes of love. They would sit under the old oak tree in the garden and kiss and cuddle every night. She wanted that, to grow old and grey with the man she loved. And although she had dated a few men over the years, never really knowing whether they were going to be The One until she had been with them for a few weeks or months, it was quite clear that with Zach, it was only going to last a few days.

Zach smiled at the length of time it was taking her to answer. ‘Well at least it wasn’t a straight out no.’

‘It’s still a no I’m afraid. I like you Zach, I really do, but I’m not the sort that has one night stands.’

‘Neither am I.’

She arched an eyebrow at him.

‘I know my track record isn’t great, but I genuinely am looking for love. So many times I think I’ve found it and so many times I’ve been disappointed.’ He took her hand, stroking his thumb over the back of it. ‘But this time I really do think I may have found the one I’m looking for.’

She smiled but shook her head. ‘And how many women have you said that to?’

‘You’re the first, I swear. Look what can I do to prove to you that you’re the only one for me?’

‘No sex for a month.’ She didn’t know where she plucked that one from but it seemed to put him off her all of a sudden. He dropped her hand like he had been burnt, his face fell and she almost thought he might start to cry.

‘A month?!’

‘If I’m the only one for you, then you should have no need to pursue other women.’

He clearly toyed with the idea for a moment. ‘Ok, no other women for a month, I promise, and then will you sleep with me?’

‘I’ll go out with you.’

He scowled slightly, but then nodded. ‘Ok, you have a deal. I will prove to you that you are the only woman for me, that we can be happy together. Look I have to go, I’ll see you later.’ He sent her one last dark appreciative look before he went back into the house.

She watched him go with a smile.

‘He’ll break your heart,’ came Finn’s voice behind her.

She turned and quickly looked away when she realised he was standing in the garden with no top on.

‘He won’t because I’m not going to give it to him. You know him better than I do, but I’m pretty sure he won’t make the month.’

‘He’s a determined sort. When he wants something he’ll keep going after it until he gets it.’

‘You make that sound like a bad thing.’

‘It is if it belongs to someone else.’

‘Well he isn’t going to get me.’

He looked at her with disbelief and she rolled her eyes as she moved back towards the house.

*

Finn watched her go back in and went back into his own house. He had two gardens to sort out today, one on the far side of Bramble Hill and one in the nearby village of Strawberry Green. He was good at gardening and he loved the satisfaction it gave him of seeing plants grow and flourish under his care.

He had started off doing odd gardening jobs at the weekends when he was fourteen, helping his dad. It was when he was working in one of the large houses on the outskirts of Ashton Woods where he grew up, that he was spotted by a casting director for The Darkness Trilogy. He was freakishly tall even back then and was apparently perfect for the role of the dark and brooding Seth. After the films were finished and Finn wanted to retire from movies, he thought perhaps he would start his own landscaping and gardening business. He didn’t need the money, The Darkness had set him up for the rest of his life, but he certainly wanted something to keep him occupied.

When he had posted leaflets through the doors of the surrounding villages, hoping to get a few jobs, he had been inundated with responses. It seemed having your garden tended to by a world famous movie star was very popular indeed. He had been kept busy for over three years, doing a different house every day. He loved it, working outdoors and with his hands. As his popularity slowly faded so did the demand, but he still had a large handful of clients who he saw on a regular basis. That was enough for him, just as long as he wasn’t stuck in the house every day. Well Billy made sure he went out at least once a day for long walks over the hills; the gardening gave him something to do when he got back. Too much time doing nothing allowed too much time for thinking and brooding. Since Pippa had left eighteen months before, he had brooded far too much.

He grabbed a bottle of water, shoved his baseball cap on his head and was just about to turn the radio off and head out when he heard the words ‘The Dark Shadow’ on a news bulletin. He had followed the career of The Dark Shadow avidly since he first appeared on the scene two years before. This man was clever, very clever. He didn’t seem to do it for the money but for the adulation and reputation he gained. Finn had to admire him for it – for his obvious skill but also for the continued secrecy, for never getting caught. He smiled as he listened to the story, but his smile quickly fell off as the newscaster continued. Menton Hall, in the next village of Chalk Rise, had been robbed. Diamonds had been taken from a safe and from a jewellery box, most notably a diamond necklace shaped like a dragon. It seemed the thief had entered through the loft window of all places, as all other doors and windows were alarmed. No one had seen him come and go and there was no other evidence at all, other than the loft door being left open. There was no damage and nothing else had been taken. Police were appealing to anyone who might have seen anything suspicious in the immediate area.

Finn stroked Billy absently. His neighbour dressed in black, wearing a scarf round her head and covering her number plates was very suspicious indeed. Was Joy the diamond thief?

He had strict rules about not getting involved in people’s affairs, and phoning the police to turn in his neighbour was definitely getting involved. Maybe her going out dressed in black was merely a coincidence. Maybe he should talk to her to see what she knew. Maybe he should keep his head down and get on with his gardening.

He grabbed his keys and headed out.

*

Casey was listening to the news as well as he drove round to Bramble Hill. The Dark Shadow appearing in Chalk Rise, now that was very interesting. He had been down to Menton Hall that morning as soon as he’d heard. The grounds were filled with local and national journalists, much to the annoyance of the police. It was merely a coincidence, he thought with a smile, that Joy and that chainsaw had moved into the neighbouring village just a few days before. And, by her own admission, she worked at night and she was repeatedly vague about what she did. He smiled; he was damned sure he was going to find out just how much of a coincidence it was. Though if he was right, it did seem that Bramble Hill had another celebrity in its midst – a celebrity who was just as reluctant as Finn was to bask in the limelight.

*

After putting fresh food down for Darcy and making a fuss of her, Joy stepped out into the hall meaning to have a shower and tackle some of the unpacking she had been putting off.

Sitting on her door mat was another pile of dog poo, but she’d had the foresight to put newspaper down the night before just in case of another attack. She scooped the newspaper up around the poo and opened the front door to throw it in the bin outside. She wasn’t looking where she was going and as she stepped outside she toppled straight over something large on her doorstep. With a shriek she landed headfirst in the nearest bush, the parcel of poo flying out of her hands.

She wiggled around trying to gain enough leverage with her hands to right herself, but the branches were in the way and there was too much of her in the bush to flip herself up.

Suddenly strong hands were around her calves, and with the ease of great strength she was pulled free of the bush and righted back on her feet. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and came face to face with Finn again. Well sort of face to face since he was almost two foot taller than she was. He seemed determined to always be present in her most ungraceful moments.

‘Thanks.’ She was annoyed that she had to thank him.

‘You should look where you’re going.’

She looked back to the doorstep to see what had tripped her up – there was a bucket of soapy water but that hadn’t been it, it had been something much bigger than that. She glanced back at Finn, who had a scrubbing brush tucked into his pocket and was covered in soapy water.

‘You tripped me up, it was you wasn’t it? What were you doing on my doorstep?’

He flushed. ‘I was … There was dog shit on your doorstep, I was trying to clear it up.’

She stared at him. ‘Why?’

He shrugged, snatched the bucket up and headed back into his own house. She stared after him. Was that Finn’s attempt at being nice?

Just then Casey pulled up outside in a purple Ford Focus, not the neat little convertible he had taken off in the day before with Arielle.

He saw Joy, and shielding his face, he quickly made for Zach’s front door.

She smirked as he peered through his fingers at her. ‘Casey Fallowfield, you have some explaining to do.’

He sighed theatrically. ‘Damn it, how did you know it was me?’

She indicated that he should go into her house. ‘I think me and you need to have a little chat.’

He slunk past her like a naughty schoolboy. ‘If this is stage two in the unburdening of our gruesome secrets, you can start off by telling me what you were doing last night?’

She followed him through to the lounge, so news of it had hit the headlines already. ‘I watched Romeo and Juliet on the TV and was tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate and a fat dog for company by ten.’

Casey pulled out a very official looking notepad. ‘And do you have an alibi, a witness that will testify to this?’

She sighed, pulling affectionately on Darcy’s ears as the dog sat down on Casey’s feet to be stroked. ‘If only Darcy could speak, she would confirm my story.’ She watched him make a hasty note in his notebook. She leaned round him to see what he had written and he snapped it shut before she’d seen it, though she was pretty sure Casey had just drawn a quick doodle of a flower. ‘What are you, the local constabulary?’

‘Actually yes.’

She stared at him, his eyes were so honest. ‘Really?’

He fished his wallet out of his pocket and showed her his ID. ‘Detective Inspector Fallowfield, CID.’

‘You’re kidding?’

He smiled and shook his head. ‘As I said before, people interest me, but taking an interest is actually part of my job.’

‘That’s so cool, bet you’ve seen some interesting cases.’

‘Yes, they’ve been some weird ones. There was a squirrel killer.’

The smile fell off her face. ‘An actual squirrel killer?’

‘Yes.’

‘I wouldn’t think CID would get involved in that.’

‘Normally we wouldn’t. The bodies of mutilated squirrels kept turning up on people’s doorsteps. But the first person to receive a squirrel was found dead a week after the squirrel was reported. Then, when more dead squirrels started appearing we thought it might be some kind of calling card of a serial killer, we thought that those that received a dead squirrel would be killed too. Turned out it was just some sicko who liked killing squirrels who used the opportunity to get his own back on a bunch of people he didn’t like. The first death was merely a coincidence.’

‘That’s horrible, did he go to prison?’

‘For six weeks, and a hefty fine for animal cruelty.’

‘Six weeks?’

‘Legally you can kill squirrels, grey ones, it’s just the method that has to be humane.’

She shook her head over the lack of justice.

‘Oh there was Bonnie and Clyde, a husband and wife crime duo. Jewellery shops, petrol stations, car jacking, they left behind quite the trail of guilt wherever they went.’

‘They weren’t really called Bonnie and Clyde were they?’

‘She was, Bronwyn was her real name but everyone called her Bonnie.’

‘What was his name?’

‘Derek.’

She laughed. ‘Did you catch them, did they go down in a hail of bullets?’

‘Not quite as dramatic. We thought it was mainly the wife, that she was the brains and he was the brawn. We finally caught up with him when their car ran of petrol just round the corner from a petrol station he’d robbed. But all the evidence pointed to him, we couldn’t pin anything to her, even though we knew she was as involved as he was. He went down for three years, she walked away scot free.’

The legal system really did have a lot to answer for.

‘It does sound like an interesting job.’

‘It is, I love it, no day is ever the same.’

‘But… why aren’t you at work? In fact, you’ve not been at work since I’ve met you.’

‘I have a few weeks off, for the erm…’ He trailed off.

‘The wedding?’

Casey flushed obligingly. ‘Yes, this Saturday, a week today, you will come won’t you?’

‘I’m your cousin, Uncle Raymond would be very disappointed if I didn’t show my support.’

He grinned at her, but then the smile fell off his face.

She squeezed his arm. ‘Casey what are you doing, marrying someone you clearly don’t love.’

‘It just sort of got out of hand. I’ve dated a few women in the past, years ago, before I really accepted I was gay. Of course, they never worked out. I’d been single for years and Mum came to me and said one of her friends wanted to set me up with one of their children. When she told me it was one of the Carmichael kids I was delighted. I only knew of the Carmichael boys, big strapping lads, really fit. It turns out they had a little sister too.’

Casey sighed. He grabbed a flower from a vase and started slowly demolishing it, ripping the petals off one by one.

‘Mum was so excited about the date and when I came downstairs to find Arielle waiting for me, I could hardly say, “Urgh a girl!” So I went on the date and when I next saw Mum, she was as giddy as a school girl about how well Arielle had said it went. In truth, there was no chemistry at all, not even as friends. I found myself telling Mum that of course I’d be seeing Arielle again. I didn’t want to upset her. It just spiralled out of control.’

With the flower ruined and confetti-like petals scattered about his feet, Casey reached for another one. Joy didn’t really mind. She’d only picked them from the garden.

‘I’m not quite sure how I ended up engaged. Of course that had never been my intention and to Arielle of all people, she’s an absolute cow. We’d only been dating a few weeks and I was desperately trying to find a way out. But there I was walking through the woods one day with Arielle and her parents and my mum. I spotted a ring on the floor, knelt to pick it up and the next thing, she’s squealing, her parents are squealing, my mum was crying, proper tears of joy and everything. I don’t even know how the ring got there, but it fitted Arielle like a glove, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she threw it on the floor in front of me. Well it quickly snowballed from there. Before I knew it there was an engagement party, marquees were ordered, a band, a harpist, flowers, the best champagne from France. I couldn’t stop it. I have never seen my Mum as happy as she has been over the last few months organising this wedding and I just couldn’t break her heart, I couldn’t do it.’

‘So you’re just going to get married? Live happily ever after with a woman you can’t stand?’

Casey sighed. ‘My dad died, three years ago.’

‘Oh Casey, I’m so sorry.’

‘Mum was a wreck, but after the initial grieving was over, the constant crying, she just became this empty shell, devoid of any life. She’d get up, get dressed, meet friends, she was involved with the village council, but… she wasn’t really there if you know what I mean. She was always this sparkling woman who laughed a lot, who had this zest for life, and when Dad died he took all that with him. Her eyes were flat, her skin was grey. She never laughed anymore. She moved through life, she engaged with people, but she was lifeless, a living corpse. It devastated me to see her like that and year after year, it never got any better. It was almost as if she was just biding her time until she could die herself and be reunited with him. This engagement has brought her out of that shell – she laughs now, she’s excited, she has plans, she has a purpose. My old mum is back and so yes, I’m going to marry Arielle if that’s what it takes to keep my mum happy and to keep the smile on her face, because I never want to see her go back to how she was before.’

‘Your mum would be devastated if she knew you were doing this for her,’ Joy said quietly.

‘I know, but I’m just enjoying her being happy again. I’ll deal with the fall out when it happens. It won’t last Joy, Arielle doesn’t like me either. I’m pretty sure she’s shagging our pool boy, or the gardener or maybe both.’

This was madness. ‘So why is she marrying you if she doesn’t like you?’

‘The Fallowfields are pretty high up in the social scheme of things. If there was a food chain made up of Lords, Ladies, Earls and Countesses, the Fallowfields would be at the very top. We’re richer than most of the nobles in this country.’

He wasn’t saying it to show off, in fact he seemed quite embarrassed by the whole thing. ‘So it’s safe to say you don’t actually need to work?’

‘No, I just enjoy it. But Arielle, despite her flashy clothes and car, would be down at the bottom of the food chain.’

Joy bit her lip. ‘Have you slept with her?’

‘No, lord no. I made the excuse that I wanted to wait until after we were married.’

‘Honeymoon?’

He let his head fall into his hands and nodded. ‘Two weeks in St Lucia. I think she’d like to try for a baby.’

‘Oh Casey. What are you going to do?’

‘Hope that I catch her with that pool boy before she walks down the aisle.’

*

Finn was busy tweaking things in his front garden, tying up the trailing clematis when the police car pulled up outside.

He had spent a good few hours tidying the two gardens of his clients earlier and had come back to work on his own. Joy had just left about ten minutes before to walk Darcy, dressed in that sexy jacket and cap again. She had flashed him a small smile as she walked past. He didn’t give one back; in fact he was pretty sure he glared. He cursed himself for getting involved, for feeling sorry enough for her to try to do something about the dog shit on her doorstep before she found out.

He straightened from pulling a stray weed out from near the roots of the clematis as he watched the police man and woman walk up Joy’s garden path.

‘She’s out,’ he said, wondering why he couldn’t stop himself from getting involved. ‘She’s just left.’

They turned to face him and gave him that look that most people gave him when they met him for the first time. The look of “My God, he’s huge.” He was used to it now. At six foot ten he always got that look. He was broad as well, and he understood that some people found him intimidating.

The policeman found his voice first. ‘Do you know which way she went; we really need to talk to her?’

Instinctively and not really knowing why, except having this intrinsic need to protect her, he found himself pointing in the opposite direction to the one she had just taken. ‘She normally walks through the village to The Pride and follows the little path up to the old beacon.’ God, now he was lying to the police as well.

The policeman nodded. ‘We would appreciate it if you didn’t tell her you saw us. We’d like to speak to her first. We wouldn’t want her to worry.’

‘No, of course not.’ Finn nodded, feeling his stomach clench with that exact same worry.

The police got back in their car and drove off in the direction that Finn had pointed. Finn threw down his tools, whistled for Billy and quickly followed in Joy’s footsteps.

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