‘It’s a quagmire out there,’ she said, cheerfully enough. Mum had never been one to let bad weather get her down; just as well, since a farm has to be run whatever the elements throw at you – the animals fed, the cows brought in for milking, the eggs collected.
‘Steve’s not going to be happy with me,’ Rachel said anxiously. ‘There was no way I could avoid the puddles in the lane, and he only took the car to the car wash on Sunday.’
I couldn’t help but smile.
‘You worry too much, Rach. Muddy splashes, scraped wing mirrors – you need to get a run-around of your own or you’re heading for a nervous breakdown.’
‘And how could we afford to run two cars?’ Rachel demanded. ‘It’s not going to happen, unless we come up on the lottery, or I get a full-time job.’
‘So what do you think about Sally’s new boyfriend, then, Rachel?’ Mum asked.
‘I think it’s great.’ But Rachel sounded somehow a bit hesitant. I’d noticed she’d gone quiet earlier when I’d been talking about Josh, and thought I was imagining things, but now there was no mistaking it.
‘Come on, Rach, show a bit of enthusiasm!’ I urged her. ‘You were the one who wanted me to ditch Tim and find somebody new.’
‘I know, I know! And I’m really pleased if he’s all you say he is,’ Rachel said.
‘He is!’
‘You don’t really know him, though, do you?’ Rachel said cautiously.
‘Well, you never know anyone if you don’t give yourself the chance,’ I argued.
‘That’s true. But you shouldn’t let yourself get carried away – get involved too heavily too soon. It sounds to me as if you’ve fallen head over heels for this chap, Sally, and I don’t want to see you hurt.’
It was almost an echo of what Mum had said to me, and I began to feel as if they were ganging up on me.
‘Oh for goodness sake!’ I exploded.
‘Just be careful, Sally.’ Rachel had her serious face on, which, to be honest was the one she wore most often. ‘There are a lot of rotters out there, who’ll tell you whatever they think you want to hear. You’re sure he’s not married, for starters?’
‘Unlikely. He’s invited me to his cottage for our next date.’
That took the wind out of her sails for a minute. Then she recovered herself.
‘OK, so he’s not living with anyone. But I still think you should be careful. He could be telling you a whole pack of lies about himself, and you’d be swallowing all of them. He could have a violent streak, or be some kind of pervert with all kinds of porn downloaded on his computer. It’s no good you making that face – I’m just saying. Don’t get carried away until you know him better.’
‘She’s right, Sally. He might seem nice, but you never know . . .’ Mum cautioned.
I raised my eyes heavenward.
‘Honestly, just listen to the pair of you! Nobody would think I decamped to the big city when I was eighteen years old, and I’ve managed to live there without getting myself raped or murdered ever since. I’m a big girl, OK?’
‘Just saying,’ Rachel repeated in a conciliatory tone.
‘Shall we change the subject?’ I suggested.
We did, going back instead to tentative arrangements for Rachel to drive me down to Dorset. But for all my insouciance, I couldn’t help a tiny niggle of unease. I really liked Josh. More than liked, if I was being honest. And really, I couldn’t imagine him being any of the things Rachel was implying he might be. A liar, a wife-beater, a pervert – or even just a heel. It didn’t tie in with the Josh I’d been dating – was, possibly, even falling in love with.
But the truth of the matter was I really knew nothing whatever about him beyond that he was a newspaper photographer, and very attractive to boot. I didn’t have a clue as to what he’d been doing before he came to Stoke Compton, his family, or where he called home. Somehow we’d never got around to talking about any of those things – or if we had been close, the conversation had always slipped away in another direction. When Josh had mentioned taking his sister’s children to Longleat, it was the closest we’d ever got to his background, and even then he hadn’t expanded on the bare remark.
I didn’t actually know a single thing about him. But what the heck? Surely I could rely on my instincts to warn me off if there was anything dodgy about the man who was beginning to loom large in my life?
‘How about one day next week then?’ Rachel was saying.
‘Sounds good to me,’ I said, and let my anxiety about meeting Dawn’s parents supersede the niggling doubts I was suddenly having about my whirlwind romance with Josh.