Just The Way You Are(96)

For a long, frantic hour we followed the collies as they pressed on, keeping to the smaller, more overgrown trails, noses to the ground, only stopping every few minutes to allow Sam and I to catch up with them.

My head was clogged with terrified questions but I was too breathless to express any of them. I was slowing the search party down enough already.

How can we be sure this is a fresh scent?

How will we ever catch up with the thief?

More importantly – what will we do if we catch up with them?

Does Sam think this is going to work, or is he chasing after his dogs through the woods to humour me?

In the end, I shut off the questions and just concentrated on putting one exhausted foot in front of the other.

And then, Scout and Willow suddenly accelerated, sprinting off to the side through the undergrowth. For a despairing moment I thought they must have gone after a squirrel, but then we heard several joyous barks, followed by more barks in return.

Barks that made me ignore the stitch in my chest and run as fast as I could towards the sound, screaming my dog’s name.

Emerging endless seconds later into a tiny clearing, I found Nesbit spinning in a jubilant circle with his rescuers.

While I slipped on his lead, fed him a chunk of cheese and then sat in the dirt squeezing him against my chest while he wriggled about trying to get back to his friends, Sam searched the clearing.

‘There’s no sign of anyone.’

‘Do you think whoever took him changed their mind and let him go? Or did you manage to escape and were on your way home?’ I asked my dog, giving the fur behind his ears a good rub as he looked at me, tongue lolling.

‘Or someone left the gate open and he got out himself,’ Sam said, shrugging. ‘Ebenezer could have seen it open and closed the latch without thinking.’

‘Leon could have left it open,’ I mused. ‘I didn’t think to tell him that the gate needs to be kept closed.’

‘Leon?’

I felt an uncomfortable prickle that was completely unnecessary.

‘The new neighbour. He moved in yesterday.’

‘Oh?’ Sam was staring at me with a strange look on his face.

‘Yep.’

‘What’s he like?’

‘We only had a brief conversation. He’s a teacher at Brooksby Academy. He seemed okay.’

‘Just him? No partner? Kids?’

‘No.’ I stood up, concentrating so hard on brushing the debris from my jeans that I couldn’t possibly answer any more probing questions.

‘Anyway,’ I added, once it felt like the topic had been shelved. ‘I can’t thank you enough for finding Nesbit. It would have completely… well.’ I shrugged, suddenly overcome with emotion as it hit me how close I’d been to losing my housemate. ‘You have dogs – you know.’

‘Just doing my job.’ Sam had gone back to polite ranger mode, before perhaps realising quite how cold he’d sounded. He crouched down to where Nesbit had been tugging at the end of the lead, causing him to immediately flip over for a belly rub. ‘Losing him doesn’t bear thinking about. Whatever happened, I’m very relieved he’s been found so quickly, and that he seems fine.’

Straightening up, he signalled to the collies that it was time to leave. ‘Probably time you got a lock on that gate, though. A bolt at least.’

‘Ebenezer will no doubt have already fitted one by the time we get back.’

‘And have a word with this Leon bloke about shutting gates. Next time it could be a herd of sheep wandering loose.’

And with that, Sam stalked off. I attempted to follow him, given that I had no idea where we were, but Nesbit dug his heels in and ducked his head, determined to stay.

‘Are you serious right now?’ I glanced at the time on my phone. ‘I’ve a party starting in thirty minutes.’

I gave a sharp tug on the lead, but after taking a couple of steps forwards, he suddenly turned around, using the momentum to drag me several feet back into the clearing before I could stop him. ‘What’s going on, boy? Have you found a good smell, is that why you ended up here?’

After another fruitless tug-of-war, where I grew increasingly sweaty and annoyed, and Nesbit began whining and barking with agitation, I gave up, scooping him up and carrying him until we were closer to the cottage than the clearing. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be more exciting than the smell of Drew firing up the barbecue.

‘Oh thank goodness!’ Steph hollered, as we walked through the gate. ‘I’ve asked everyone on the list to push it back to seven thirty, but if anyone arrives before then I can keep them entertained. First things first.’ She wrinkled up her nose as she came close enough to take Nesbit’s lead. ‘Shower.’





33





‘I’ve changed my mind.’ I slumped onto the bed, lowering my head between my knees in the hope I wouldn’t faint. Then again, if I did faint, maybe it would stop this madness before it started. ‘This was a terrible idea and I don’t want to do it any more. You’ll just have to cancel. Make up an excuse about me being too upset after losing Nesbit or something.’

The doorbell rang for the second time.

‘Too late.’ Steph grinned. ‘Food’s all ready, the garden looks incredible and you look even better. Just keep reminding yourself that in four hours the Dream List will be done, the No-Man Mandate terminated and you can sit back and celebrate completing what you set out to achieve.’