Adam rubbed his head with his fingers. ‘Oh, God,’ he said, in mortification.
‘These two,’ said Mick, jabbing his pencil in the air with delight. ‘When they was little, well—you couldn’t see the daylight between them! Like a little pair of Siamese twins. Her so dark, him so blond, riding their bikes down that lane there.’ Mick’s rich, slow voice was like the scene-setting narration at the beginning of a nature film. ‘It were ever so sweet. We all thought so.’
‘Mick,’ Adam said firmly, coming up for air. ‘Leave it.’ He smiled shamefacedly across at Tess and she shook her head, smiling back at him in embarrassment.
‘Aah,’ Francesca said, and patted them both on the back. ‘That is so sweet. Now, Mick,’ she said, getting down to business. ‘This roast with all the trimmings, what is it?’
‘Chicken, did it myself this afternoon,’ said Mick.
‘Great,’ said Francesca. ‘I’ll have just the chicken, and a green salad—no iceberg please—and some of that potato salad you made for lunch if you can lay your hands on any? And I want a glass of the Chablis—shall we just get a bottle?’ Adam and Tess nodded mutely at her. ‘That’s that, then!’ she said happily, as Mick scribbled away and then turned to Tess.
‘Er…’ Tess said, at a loss. ‘Er…Same for me?’
‘No problemo,’ Mick said, scribbling it down with a flourish.
‘I’ll have the fish and chips, please, Mick,’ said Adam. ‘And a pint of Butcombe when you’ve got a minute, but I’ll have a glass for the wine just in case. Need a hand?’
‘No, you’re all right,’ said Mick, and he walked off. Francesca turned back to them.
‘That’s adorable. So you were boyfriend and girlfriend?’
‘No,’ said Tess, a little bit too quickly. Adam glanced at her.
‘No,’ he echoed. ‘Just—when we were little, five or six. That’s what some of us—’ he glared at Tess, before grinning at her—‘used to go around saying.’
‘So the two of you never…’ Francesca made a strange flapping gesture with her hands. Tess and Adam both stared at her, then at each other, in bewilderment.
‘Joined a hand puppet society?’ Adam said. ‘No. We never joined a hand puppet society together.’
‘You know what I mean,’ Francesca said.
‘No, I don’t,’ Adam said, shaking his head at her wickedly. ‘What?’
‘I don’t know…’ Francesca had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘Had a little teenage romance when you were younger. I don’t know,’ she repeated. She looked at Tess. ‘Come on, you must have thought about it, at one stage or another.’
‘Not really,’ said Tess.
‘Er—no,’ said Adam. He shook his head.
‘So you never had a moment? You’ve just always been friends?’ She shook her head. ‘That’s weird.’
They were both silent.
‘It may be, but it is true,’ said Tess eventually, aware she sounded very prim.
‘Yeah, nosy girl,’ Adam told Francesca, and she nodded.
‘I believe you. Thousands wouldn’t.’ Tess took a sip of her drink, and Adam did the same. As if realizing the conversation needed changing, Francesca said, ‘So. It’s always quiet around here, you say? No crazy rock festivals down the road or anything?’
‘I don’t knew about that,’ Tess began, and then there was a loud noise, and the door to the pub across the bar flew open, banging loudly against the wall, and a middle-aged man burst in, palming his hair firmly onto his shiny forehead as he hurried into the bar.
‘A’right, Mick!’ he called loudly to the landlord, pushing a stool out of the way and knocking over a chair.
‘A’right, Ron,’ said Mick.
‘Meeting’s starting in five minutes, that all right with you?’
‘No probs,’ said Mick. ‘Not many people in tonight, anyway, you can have the place to yours—’
‘Save the water meadows!’ Ron shouted suddenly, with enormous vigour. Francesca jumped; Tess dropped the fork with which she had been toying. Even the more stoic Adam blinked in surprise.
‘All right, Ron?’ he called. ‘How’s it going?’
Ron turned around at that. ‘ ‘Ullo, Adam!’ he said, coming forward. ‘Good to see you! It’s been a while, you all right?’ He peered, mole-like, at Tess. ‘Hullo there, Tess.’ Tess held up her hand, and Ron’s gaze moved from her to Francesca, and turned back to Adam. ‘Right you are,’ he said to him, clearly meaning, Go on, son. ‘You coming to the meeting tonight?’
‘No,’ said Adam. ‘We’re just having some food.’
‘Suggs is organizing it, Adam, didn’t he mention?’ Ron said firmly.
‘Yes, he did.’
‘You don’t agree with them building over the water meadows then, do you? Letting that Mortmain woman get away with it again, eh?’ Ron’s voice rose, his nose twitched, as he waggled a finger—benignly—at Adam.
‘You know me, I don’t like taking sides,’ Adam said easily.
He smiled at Ron, and just as Tess was looking at him curiously, Francesca said, in her charming way, ‘Ron—it’s Ron, isn’t it?’
‘Yep,’ said Ron, non-committally.
‘Sorry to be stupid, I should know this, but what exactly is going on with the water meadows? I only got here a few days ago.’
‘You haven’t heard about it?’ Ron said incredulously, as if the idea that this wasn’t front-page news across the country hadn’t occurred to him. ‘That’s strange. You know the Langford water meadows, right?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Francesca said politely.
‘You never heard of them? That’s—’ Ron scratched his head, as if he could scarcely conceive of such a thing. ‘Only the most precious bit o’ land for about a hundred miles, that’s all. There’s more wildlife, more plants, more birds sighted only on the Langford water meadows than anywhere else in the country. And they want to fill it in, drain the land and sell it off so we can have a bloody shopping centre there!’ He was shouting again now, his burr more pronounced than ever. ‘That bloody Mortmain woman, she’s got it all stitched up! What’s she want the money for anyway? She ain’t got no one to leave it to. And she thinks she can can ride roughshod over us all. Again!’
He held a finger up to heaven and his eyes looked skywards; he reminded Tess of a Roman statue.
‘Wow,’ said Francesca. She turned to Adam. ‘Is that true?’ she asked.
Adam nodded slowly. ‘Yes,’ he said. There was unease in his voice and Tess remembered what it was that had been bothering her; the truth about Adam and the bursary, how Leonora Mortmain had always been so unpleasant to him in particular ever since. ‘Yes, I suppose it is true. But it’s done, isn’t it? The council’s given initial early approval—’
‘What does the council know?’ came another loud voice from behind them, and Adam stood up, laughing, his deep voice echoing around the pub. Beside them, Mick put down the tray of drinks and started laying out cutlery, as Adam hugged the bearded man next to Ron.
‘You bastard,’ he said fondly. ‘I didn’t know this was happening tonight.’
‘Tess!’ said the stranger. ‘I didn’t know you were going to be here.’