We bypassed the Monkey Jungle – ‘No way am I going through there,’ Josh said.
‘Oh why not? They’re so funny!’
‘And very destructive. When I brought my sister’s kids here they pulled every bit of beading off my windows and demolished the wipers and the aerial too. If you want to see the monkeys, you’re going to have to get out and walk!’
Since that was not an option even if I hadn’t been on crutches, I reconciled myself to missing the monkeys.
‘Let’s feed the deer instead,’ Josh suggested.
The road curved up and round a bend to where a wooden shack stood at the edge of a parking area. A whole herd of deer surrounded the cars that had stopped there, and gambolled eagerly between them. Josh found a pound coin in the well of the car and I used it to buy a cup of food pellets. Immediately the deer honed in on us, jostling the car and poking their heads right through the open windows to take the pellets from the palm of my hand. Some were fully grown and quite tame, others were little more than babies, and more nervous. As I fed them, Josh snapped away with his camera, and at one point I turned to find it trained on me.
‘Hey!’ I objected. ‘It’s the deer you’re supposed to be photographing!’
He grinned. ‘Thought I’d get one of you too. Nose to nose with a deer.’
When the food had all gone we shared the disinfectant wipe the shop girl had given us and set off towards Lion Country.
It was a slightly scary moment as the first set of security gates closed after us and we waited for the second set to open. I’ve always been a bit claustrophobic, and I didn’t much care for being trapped with goodness only knew how many big cats on the loose just the other side of the fence. But the moment the ranger let us through I forgot my fear, sitting forward in my seat and eagerly scanning the woodland for my first sighting.
We were in luck; as we rounded a bend we saw several cars stopped at the roadside, a sure indication that there was something to see. And there was – three females and a male, lounging in the grass. As we watched, one got up and loped off into the trees, and another strolled in front of our car, so close that she brushed against the bonnet. Further on was another pride, gathered around a shelter, and then we were out of the lion enclosure and into the one that was home to the tigers. We must have seen at least half a dozen of the magnificent beasts before we passed through yet another set of security gates and into the domain of the wolves.
‘Which do you think are the most dangerous?’ I asked.
Josh was driving a little faster now; he’d seen enough wild animals for one day, I guessed.
‘Let’s say I wouldn’t want to meet any of them on a dark night,’ he said lightly. ‘Time to get out of here before we get locked in, I think, don’t you?’
‘I suppose.’ I was enjoying myself here, but dusk was beginning to fall.
‘Plus,’ Josh said, ‘I could do with a pint.’
We had a drink and a bite to eat in a country pub somewhere between Longleat and home, and for all that I’d eaten a fair helping of Mum’s roasted lamb at lunchtime, I still managed a delicious lasagne and garlic bread.
‘I seem to be doing nothing but eating these days!’ I groaned, mopping up the last of the sauce. And it was true! Where my appetite had come from I hadn’t a clue, and didn’t much care. All I knew was that I felt better and happier than I had done in a very long time, and that was partly down to having something to occupy me, and partly down to Josh.
Only when he raised the subject of the silent phone calls, asking if I’d had any more, did the niggling discomfort shiver through me.
‘No, it hasn’t happened again,’ I said, neglecting to mention the fact that I’d thought my phone had rung some time during the night. ‘I still think it must have been Alice, though she denied it . . .’
I went on to tell him how I’d called in to see her this morning, and once again come up against a brick wall.
‘You’re still determined to go on with this, then?’ Josh said.
‘Too true! And I plan to go to a meeting of the Compton Players tomorrow evening, too.’
‘Sally, I really wish you’d think again about this . . .’
‘Don’t start that again!’ I warned, and managed to change the subject.
When we finally made it home, Josh once again refused my invitation to come in for coffee, but he did kiss me very thoroughly whilst sitting in the car, and again when he helped me out. And it felt every bit as good as it had last night – better!
‘You fascinate me, Sally Proctor,’ he whispered into my ear, and I stretched my neck in what felt to me like a very sensuous way so that he could nuzzle into it.