It had taken a week, but at the end of it Maddie had felt her plans really beginning to come together. She had been tentative at first – mindful of her previous bull-in-a-china-shop approach – but as he’d listened, Seth’s smile had become a grin, and that grin had only grown wider and wider. Today he was practically jumping about in excitement as he, Maddie and Clara waited for Tom to come down from the roof so that they could update him on the latest developments.

The weather was still stunning and looked set to continue for at least another week, which had given them the perfect opportunity to move on apace with the new thatching. It was nowhere near finished of course, but the weather, together with the first of the contractors coming on site, had given things a real lift and Tom had been hard at it since early morning.

Maddie waited until he had joined them and passed him a cool drink.

‘So, I had some ideas for the barn originally, which were total rubbish, and—’

‘Aw, they weren’t total rubbish, Maddie… just a bit—’

‘Yeah, they were, Clara, stop trying to be kind.’ Seth grinned at Maddie. ‘Sorry, I interrupted… You had some totally rubbish ideas for the barn… and?’

Maddie swung her foot at him which he evaded easily. ‘Yes, thank you, Seth. And… now I’ve had some better ideas.

‘When I first heard that Clara was going to move into the thatched cottage, I got my knickers in a bit of a twist. Purely out of concern for the financial viability of the site, you understand, and when I looked into it the numbers just didn’t stack up. So I started to look at where else we might create accommodation that would give us other benefits too. Purely by chance, I had a conversation with someone who gave me the solution to how that might work.’

‘Her name’s Trixie,’ said Seth. ‘Former barmaid of the Frog and Wicket, and soon to be Joy’s Acre’s resident cook.’

There was a surprised look from Tom.

‘Trixie was the one who put me on to the solution for our broadband problem,’ Maddie explained, ‘but, she also happens to be an amazing cook. With a stroke of incredible timing, I also discovered that she was moving out of the pub and about to start looking for another job. It took a while to make contact with her after that, but when we did, Seth explained what we had in mind here and she jumped at the chance. So now we’re going to convert the barn and make somewhere for both Clara and Trixie to live, and at the same time create a space to use as a dining area. Trixie will be on hand to cook gourmet meals for our guests and we can make it a feature of the place; self-catering but with added wow. She’s also agreed to cook for us too.’

Tom belched. ‘Oh, I’m liking the sound of that. Although I’ve been thrown out of the Frog and Wicket before, I hope she won’t hold it against me. On second thoughts…’

Clara groaned. ‘Tom, is there anywhere you haven’t been thrown out of?’

He scratched his head in an exaggerated fashion. ‘Good point,’ he added. ‘But it sounds like a great idea. People always like something they don’t think they can get from anywhere else.’

‘Well, I hope so. Now, obviously this is work that wasn’t originally planned for, but what it will mean is that as soon as the thatched cottage is ready it can be offered for occupancy, rather than having Clara move in.’ She glanced at Seth for confirmation.

She had not made reference to any aspect of Clara’s relationship with Seth since their first disastrous conversation about the cottage, and just the thought of what she’d said made her cringe. It was still a ridiculous idea for Clara to live there but she knew better than to ask Seth why it was so important; she just had to accept that it was. It was obvious that there was something between them, but Maddie still couldn’t work out what, and neither could she work out how that made her feel. What was worse was that she couldn’t work out why she should feel anything at all; after all, it was none of her business. One day she would learn why Seth felt so strongly about Clara’s presence, but that would be when she had earned her place here and the trust of others. For now, it was enough to build it into her plans without further question.

Seth nodded at Tom. ‘So we’re looking at early June for completion on the roof.’

‘That’s only six bloody weeks away,’ grumbled Tom. ‘What if we hit a spell of bad weather? That doesn’t give me much leeway.’

‘No, but it might keep you out of the pub,’ remarked Clara.

Tom threw her a dark look. ‘Yeah, all right, all right.’

Seth patted him on the back. ‘We’re all with you on this one, Tom, but I’m afraid even I’m going to have to insist that it’s finished on time. I’ll help where I can, but I’m away next week and I—’

‘What?’ Maddie butted in. ‘You’re going away?’

Beside her, Clara shifted uncomfortably.

‘Er, yeah,’ replied Seth.

‘Well, that’s news to me. Where are you going? How long are you going to be gone for? There’ll be a million and one decisions I need to sign off on, you can’t not be here.’

Seth kicked at a stone on the ground. ‘Well, I won’t be I’m afraid, and the arrangements can’t be changed.’ There was something about the tone of his voice that told her he wasn’t prepared to try, either. ‘I go on Monday, and I’ll be back on Thursday; no time at all. And I’m sure that you’ll cope with whatever needs doing, or decisions that need making. Anyway, Clara has a good idea of what’s what. Between the two of you, I know you’ll take care of things.’

Maddie looked from one face to the next. Clara was staring at the ground, and Tom was smiling but it didn’t go anywhere near his eyes. She wasn’t about to get any support from either of them. There was nothing she could do about it.

‘Right, well I guess that’s it then,’ said Seth with finality. ‘Tom, are you okay with the timescale? I know it’s tight, but I will help when I can.’

He pulled a face. ‘Not as much time as I’d like,’ he replied. ‘But I’ll make sure it’s not a problem. The boys in the band will just have to do without me for a bit. It won’t kill them.’ He gave Seth a steady look. ‘It won’t do me any harm either,’ he added.

‘And the garden, Clara? Difficult, I know.’

‘I’ll work around everyone else as best I can. Not sure what they’ll be getting, but I promise it will look nice whatever.’

Seth beamed at everyone. ‘Right then, wagons roll,’ he said. ‘Have we missed anything, Maddie?’

She looked directly at Tom. ‘Just one last thing… Super-fast broadband is being installed a week today.’

He winked at Clara. ‘Amen to that,’ he said. ‘Look out, ladies, here I come.’