Chapter 38
Acouple of days later Nora found herself traipsing through the woodland by Dixie’s campervan with Liam.
Since their stressful date with her parents earwigging from the next table she had received a number of nice messages from Liam, thanking her for her patience because he still felt it was a little soon after his split to be embarking on another relationship but, like her, believed they needed to give theirs another chance.
He’d been busy with work so they had not had an opportunity to meet up before now.
Nora reasoned that this was different to a brand-new relationship because they had known each other before, in both the platonic and biblical sense, so it didn’t hold quite the same initial thrill.
Wandering through a woodland wasn’t exactly the best second date they could have gone on but Dixie wanted to get everyone together.
The alternative was to not bring Liam but as Nora wanted to show that she also had a thing she had decided he should be there.
Jay had brought Bruce, who was, as usual, excited to see everyone and especially the new person. Liam did not feel the same. He kept darting behind Nora, which Bruce thought was a very easy game of hide and seek. As the recall training had been going well, Jay had decided to let Bruce off the lead.
‘Why won’t he leave me alone?’ asked Liam, dashing past with Bruce in hot pursuit.
‘Because you’re new and he wants to get to know you. Stay still. He won’t hurt you, I promise,’ said Nora.
‘Dogs are unpredictable. Especially rescued ones. You have no idea what his background is.’
‘We do. He was trained to rip people to shreds,’ she said with a cheesy smile.
Liam looked terrified for a second before he realized she was joking. ‘Not funny.’
‘Watch this, he’s a teddy bear.’ She crouched down to give Bruce a fuss, but that just gave the dog easier access to the new person he wanted to get to know. Bruce leapfrogged Nora and lunged at Liam.
‘Whoa!’ The force of the big dog using her as a launchpad sent Nora flying backwards.
‘Argh!’ Liam yelled as the dog catapulted towards him. Liam ran off with Bruce right behind him, leaving Nora in a heap on the ground.
‘He likes dogs then,’ said a smiling Jay, helping Nora to her feet. They watched Liam do a passable Jack Sparrow run around the trees. Jay sniggered. Nora wanted to do the same but needed to look supportive of her new boyfriend so instead she frowned at Jay, who looked suitably scolded.
‘Maybe he’s not used to big dogs.’
‘Should we rescue him?’ asked Jay.
‘You OK?’ called Nora.
‘All under control,’ said Liam, keeping a tree between him and the dog.
‘My stalker got the airtime they were longing for,’ said Jay.
‘Why? What’s happened?’ asked Nora, feeling her stomach churn at the thought of the threats.
‘Tasha did an interview and it all came out. The press are having a field day with it. Pictures of me next to a blacked-out silhouette with a big question mark on it. And lots of speculation about the type of person they are, which makes terrifying reading. Anastasia is thrilled because apparently all publicity is good publicity.’
‘Bloody hell. Have there been any more messages?’
‘Only one saying that they love me now. So that’s nice.
’ They both pulled the same grimace at the same time, which made them laugh.
Nora found she was staring at Jay. Was it what he was wearing or had he always looked that hot?
She needed to pull herself together. He was with Tasha and she was with Liam.
She looked around for him as Dixie caught up.
‘We seem to have lost Liam,’ she said.
‘It’s OK. We’re going the same way as Bruce and Liam anyway,’ said Dixie, almost skipping past them with Ned close behind.
‘What exactly are we doing?’ asked Nora, striding out to catch up with Dixie.
‘It’s just I … well, we … kind of have plans for later this evening.
’ By ‘plans’ Nora meant she was very much hoping that they could go back to hers and fast-forward their relationship to the part where they ended up in bed together.
‘It’s a surprise,’ said Dixie. ‘And then we’re having a barbecue back at Elsie. Don’t we sound all domesticated, hosting a barbecue as a couple?’ She looked coyly at Ned.
Nora feared she wasn’t going to be having the early night she’d planned.
Dixie and Ned went on ahead and Jay walked in step with Nora. ‘How are you?’
‘Good. I’m good. We’re good.’ She pointed at Liam, who was now running away from the dog with his arms flapping in the air as he called out Nora’s name.
‘That’s um … good then,’ said Jay.
‘How are you and Tasha?’ she asked, although she was hoping she would only receive the headlines. She was still coming to terms with it.
‘Yeah. Work has been manic but we make a good double act. She was going to be here tonight but something came up last minute. It’s OK, we have Lorraine tomorrow which she’s dashing in and out for but I’ll have more time with her when I see her at the premiere.’
‘That’ll be nice,’ said Nora, the sentence not sounding like her at all.
Up ahead Bruce now had a terrified-looking Liam pinned to a tree while he tried to sniff him all over and lick his face.
‘Brucey, come here please!’ called Jay and the dog immediately complied.
He’d come a long way – in fact, both Bruce and Jay had.
He returned to Jay and relished the cuddle and praise he received.
At least, now that Jay was giving him a proper fuss as a reward, a lot less chicken was needed.
Liam was panting hard and leaning against the tree when they reached him.
‘You OK?’ asked Nora, trying to take his hand, but he was busy using it to stab the air in Bruce’s direction.
‘That brute!’
‘Hey,’ said Jay. ‘There’s no need for name-calling.’
Liam waved an arm. ‘You could have called him off sooner.’
‘By running off he thought you were playing with him,’ said Jay.
‘He won’t hurt you,’ added Nora, feeling that Liam was overreacting.
‘I wasn’t prepared to take the risk. Can you not tie him up somewhere? Or put him in the car?’
‘No, but you could sit in the car if you like,’ said Jay, searching for his car keys. The mood was getting more confrontational.
‘Let’s try and enjoy the walk to wherever Dixie is taking us,’ said Nora, trying to distract the two men, who were now glaring at each other. Jay clipped the lead back on to Bruce’s harness.
‘I don’t know why he’s here anyway,’ said Liam.
‘I’m friends with Nora and Dixie and a regular member of the Crafting and Cocktails club.
Why are you here?’ snapped Jay. Nora hadn’t seen him like this.
The last thing she needed was for her friend and her boyfriend to not get on – that was always a recipe for disaster.
She didn’t want to ever be in a situation where she had to choose between them.
‘I meant the dog,’ said Liam. ‘Nora invited me,’ he added, looking about for her hand to hold as if belatedly remembering that was the sort of thing couples usually did.
‘And I’d very much like it if we could all get on,’ said Nora. ‘This is important to Dixie, so let’s try and have a nice time.’ She sounded so much like her mother it was frightening.
When they reached a clearing Ned stood to one side and Dixie waved the others over as she got out her phone and began filming. ‘This is what we wanted to show you.’ She did a bit of a ta-dah.
Nora could see trees but other than that she wasn’t sure what she was meant to be looking at. ‘And what sort of trees are these?’ she asked, keen to show interest.
‘There’s a mix,’ said Ned. ‘Hornbeam, hazel, oak, pine and birch.’
‘But it’s what’s underneath that we’re after.’ Dixie held out a truffle.
Bruce was first there and had a good smell before Dixie passed the truffle to Nora for a closer look. Nora turned it over in her hand while Bruce continued to sniff it. ‘Where did you find it?’
‘Arnold found it and we’ve since discovered a couple more so we think what we have here is a truffle orchard.
Ned’s gran seems to remember her husband planning one but she didn’t know anything else about it.
Apparently they take years to become established.
Do you see that most of the trees are in neat rows apart from a few odd ones that look like they self-seeded? ’
Bruce started pulling on the lead. Jay hung on but the dog was off with his nose to the ground. ‘Heel, Bruce.’
But the dog wasn’t listening. Instead, he was busy scratching at the earth trying to dig a hole.
‘Can he damage the tree doing that?’ asked Nora, going to join Jay to see if she could help distract Bruce.
‘Tree roots are pretty tough,’ said Ned.
Dixie didn’t look as relaxed so Nora crouched down to try to flatten the ground that Bruce had dug over and there she discovered some recognizable lumps. ‘There are more truffles,’ she said, unearthing them.
‘Good boy, Bruce,’ said Dixie and the dog barked, his tail wagging.
‘He smelt the one in my hand and then he found more. He’s a sniffer dog,’ said Nora.
‘Truffle hound,’ corrected Liam. ‘Obviously he’s not an actual truffle hound but that’s how they find truffles.’
‘The lady at the rescue said he would be good at scent work. I guess that’s all this is,’ said Jay.
‘Probably a fluke,’ said Liam with a dismissive shrug.
‘Let’s see,’ said Jay, taking a mud-covered truffle from Nora and unclipping Bruce’s lead.
‘Bruce, sit, please.’ The dog did as he was asked.
Jay held the truffle under his nose. ‘Find,’ he said, unsure what the command for truffle-hunting might be.
Bruce carried on sniffing the truffle. ‘Fetch?’ Bruce still didn’t move.
‘Get me more of these, please,’ said Jay, sounding exasperated, and Bruce bounded off with his tail wagging and his nose down.
He only went as far as the next tree before stopping and scratching frantically at the ground.
Dixie’s mouth made a perfect O shape. ‘See, he knows where they are.’
Nora went to where Bruce was digging and he was right, there were more truffles. As soon as she took over unearthing them, Bruce went back to searching.
‘It means we definitely have a truffle orchard,’ said Ned. ‘We might need to borrow your dog,’ he added, as Bruce began to scuff up the ground at the bottom of another tree.
‘Whenever you like,’ said Jay. ‘He’s having the best time.
’ He looked across at Nora and like proud parents they both watched Bruce dig up more truffles before smiling at each other.
A shared moment that their adopted charge had come good.
She wondered how many opportunities there would be in the future for moments like this.
Liam leaned into her ear and she wondered what he was going say. ‘Any chance we can make a move now?’
Dixie had said they were doing a barbecue so it wouldn’t be ideal to leave just yet but if Liam was thinking along the same lines as Nora had been – that an evening spent rolling around naked would be the ideal next step for their relationship – then she hoped Dixie would understand.
‘It’s a bit early but what did you have in mind?
’ She found she’d slipped into a slightly husky tone.
A small frown flickered across Liam’s face. ‘I’ve got a meeting in Bristol at eight thirty in the morning and I need to iron a shirt.’ His eyebrow twitched. ‘Maybe you could—’
‘Nah-huh. You can think again on that score. I’m staying for the barbecue.’ At least she’d be enjoying some sort of sausage tonight.