Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Harry was sitting in his favourite chair in the corner of the bar at the Fountain Inn, in Hawes, and sipping on a truly wonderful pint of Gamekeeper.
The eventful evenings of the stag and hen dos were now almost two weeks behind them.
He was as relieved as he was unnerved by the fact that, in less than twenty-four hours, the celebration of his and Grace’s, and Ben and Liz’s, marriages would be well underway.
It was too late now to make any changes to the plans, so they’d just have to go with it and hope for the best. The only thing that really worried him was Dave’s goats, because if they escaped, and he fully expected them to, then he wasn’t going to be rushing off after them to bring them back.
Grace was back at home, and Harry, still rather baffled by why he’d agreed to it, was staying over at the Fountain itself, on the orders of Mandy, who owned and ran the place with her husband, Angus.
‘You can’t be staying at home with Grace the night before!
’ she’d said, and it had been very clear to Harry that she wasn’t going to listen to anyone but herself on the matter.
‘You’ll be staying here, and I’ll not hear any more about it.
Honestly, what were you thinking? You’d be seeing her in her wedding dress before she’d even left the house, never mind walked down the aisle!
And what about you, Harry? You’ll be wanting to save that suit of yours as a surprise as well, won’t you?
Of course you will! So, that’s decided then. I’ll book you in!’
And she had, and here Harry was, three pints in and on with pint four, belly full of lasagne, garlic bread and chips.
He wasn’t alone. Sitting with him, and making very slow progress with a half pint of Falconer, was Dave, along with Dave’s Catterick mate, Smithy, who, much to Harry’s surprise, was drinking pints of water.
He was the only one of the three of them who’d eaten, Dave and Smithy joining him after he’d polished the very generous portions away.
After the night when Liz and Grace had been kidnapped, Harry had heard little about what Smithy had got up to, mainly because Dave had insisted that he needed to hear it all from the man himself. Now that he was, he was having a hard time believing it.
Smithy was a wiry man, with a face almost as craggy as Harry’s. He had a good story in him, and was just cagey enough about his past to make Harry suspect that the man’s military life didn’t sit with the usual regiments.
‘So, you saw that Grace and Liz weren’t with them, and still went ahead anyway?’
Harry needed to hear it all again, just to make sure he’d not missed any of the details.
‘Well, it’s a bit of a laugh, isn’t it?’ said Smithy. ‘Reckon they all fair shat themselves when they saw us standing across the road, the way ahead blocked by a couple of knackered old Land Rovers. No point taking anything decent to something like that, so just grabbed what we could.’
‘A bit of a laugh?’ Harry wasn’t so sure.
‘The best bit though was when we cut off their exit with the Pinzgauer. That was brilliant!’
‘They didn’t resist?’
‘Didn’t give them chance. It’s amazing how convincing you can be in the middle of the night, especially if you’re kitted out right and your face is all camo’d up. Plus, there’s always the advantage of numbers, isn’t there? Only three of them, against six of us.’
Harry was trying to get his head around how his cousin must’ve felt when he’d been asked to get out of his car by Smithy and his pal.
‘And after that you...’
‘Blindfolded them, zip-tied their wrists behind their backs, bundled them into the back of the truck, and drove them round and round for a few hours, just to make sure they were knackered and properly travel sick. Then we dragged them into this old barn, and gave them a bit of a scare.’
The glint Harry saw in Smithy’s eye gave him just enough indication as to what the man meant by bit of a scare.
‘Please tell me you didn’t waterboard them.’
‘Couldn’t,’ said Smithy. ‘No water.’
Not the most reassuring response.
‘Then what?’ Harry asked.
‘Threw them in the truck, drove them about a bit more, then dumped them back at their car a few hours after you’d gone. Can’t say they looked very happy about it all.’
‘They didn’t try and chase after you?’
‘Couldn’t. We’d flattened the tyres. I was hoping they’d still be there next morning when we started tank manoeuvres.’
Smithy finished his water, stood up.
‘Well, I’d best be going. Nice to meet you at last, Harry. Let me know if you need any more help. Always happy to lend a hand.’
Dave stood up, embraced Smithy. They both watched the soldier leave.
‘He’s got a few tales to tell, hasn’t he?’ said Harry, leaning back in his chair.
‘Just a bit,’ agreed Dave. ‘You’ve not heard from this cousin of yours then?’
Harry shook his head.
‘Not a dicky bird.’
He would though, he knew that for sure. Whether the man was staying away because he had made a promise to, because he was just a little bit afraid now of the kind of friends Harry could call on to help, or a bit of both, he wasn’t sure.
Neither did he care. He was just happy that the last two weeks had been calm, and that tomorrow, once it got going, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
He and Grace, and Ben and Liz, they were just passengers.
From here on in, the way the day went rested on the shoulders of others.
Dave, at long last, finished his half pint.
‘How did you make that last so long?’ Harry asked, as Dave stood up.
‘Just savoured the taste,’ Dave replied. ‘Anyway, best I get off now, Harry, if that’s okay? You’ll be away to bed yourself soon enough I should think. Big day tomorrow and all that. Room comfy?’
‘It’s grand,’ Harry said. ‘Weird to not be with Grace, but I get where Mandy’s coming from.’
Dave laughed.
‘Wouldn’t matter if you didn’t, you’d have still ended up doing as she’d said.’
‘True.’
Dave moved away from the table, and walked over to the door.
‘See you tomorrow, Harry,’ he said. ‘You’re a lucky man, you know that, right?’
Harry raised his glass.
‘Just a bit,’ he said.