Chapter Twenty-Three
Twenty-Three
Cobblestones
Billy waves to me from the harbour wall and gestures for me to come back.
‘We’ve got a bit of a problem,’ he says.
‘Oh?’
‘The driver is unavailable. Prior engagement.’
‘Right. Can anyone else take me?’
‘There is nobody else. You could walk, but you’d have to leave your luggage behind, including the cat, unless you’re stronger than you look.’
I definitely am not. If anything, I’m weaker than I look, because I present as quite sturdy.
‘I can’t leave Nemo behind. How far is it?’
‘Two miles.’
I can’t carry Nemo two miles. He’s a big, temperamental cat and his carrier is heavy. If I take him out of it and try to perch him on my shoulder like a parrot, he will scalp me.
‘Um, I don’t know what to do,’ I say.
‘Come and wait in the pub. They’ll start doing food in a couple of hours. There’s probably already a delivery of pasties in from the bakery.’
‘But how long am I going to be waiting in there for the driver to be available?’
‘No more than five hours, probably.’
‘FIVE HOURS?!’ I say. ‘I could watch half a Peter Jackson film in that time.’
‘There’s no TV in the pub,’ he says, missing my joke, such as it was. ‘But the landlady will find something for you to do.’
With these ominous words ringing in my ears, I lug Nemo’s carrier onto my suitcase, and bump them along the cobblestones to a dark, lopsided building that immediately makes me think of ghosts, and murder.
It is called The Lonely Lad.