[Churchminster #3] Wild Things by Jo Carnegie

fancied lunch in the Jolly Boot.
    The phone went straight to voicemail. She was probably in a meeting with clients. Calypso had barely been at home since she’d started Scene Events, and so her famously messy ways had not unleashed themselves on the cottage much. Camilla wouldn’t have believed it, but she missed the ashtrays of overflowing fag butts, dirty plates, and fishnet tights hanging off the radiators.
    She decided to call Jed instead, and was pleasantly surprised when he answered. Jed hated having a mobile and rarely took it out with him.
    There was a lot of engine noise in the background and she could hear the ‘beep beep’ of a lorry reversing.
    He had to shout to be heard. ‘Camilla? Are you all right?’
    ‘Yes, I’m fine!’ Camilla said. ‘How are you?’
    ‘Fine. Was there anything?’
    ‘I just wondered what you wanted for dinner tonight.’
    ‘I’m easy. You know I’ll eat anything you give me.’
    ‘How about some kind of chicken dish? I’ll use some of the herbs from the garden.’
    ‘Great! Look, I’ve to go …’
    ‘See you tonight. I love you.’
    ‘Love you too, Cam. See you later.’
    Camilla put the receiver down happily. Jed was working so much at the moment, it was a treat to have him back for dinner at a reasonable time. She loved having a busy house, looking after people and feeding them with hearty home-cooked dinners. For a moment she envisaged their children sitting expectantly round the kitchen table, filling the room with their laughter and chatter while she stirred a big pot on the stove. They’d have little girls with blonde hair and a little boy with dark hair and green eyes, just like Jed. Maybe he’d take after his dad and go to work at Clanfield Hall. Camilla had a vision of father and son returning after a fulfilling day at work, dirty but happy …
    She shook herself.
You’re getting carried away
. She’d only just come off the Pill, and things might not happen for a while. Her older sister Caro had taken ages to get pregnant with her first child, Milo. Camilla could already feel herself getting swept away with it, though, wondering, waiting …
    Giving herself another shake, Camilla went to start on dinner.

    The next day, as she drove back from another frustrating morning at Top Drawer Travels, Camilla’s good mood was somewhat dimmed. She had been doing some research of her own on South America, and had found what she thought would make a great new tour, but when she’d broached it to her boss, Mr Fitzgerald, he’d looked at her as if she was mad.
    ‘You stick to what you know, and I’ll do the same,’ he’d told her. ‘Be a good girl and stick the kettle on, will you?’
    Camilla had gritted her teeth. She was beginning to feel more like a glorified dogsbody than a trainee travel agent. Hopefully things would start to pick up.
    Her stomach rumbled. Camilla decided to stop at the shop and pick up something nice for lunch, maybe a piece of one of the home-made quiches Brenda had started selling recently. A local farmer’s wife made them; Camilla would never risk her teeth on Brenda’s famously rock-hard cuisine.
    The upcoming film had made the front page of the
Bedlington Bugle
two days running.
    ‘RAFE TO RUN RIFE IN THE COTSWOLDS!’ said today’s headline on the board outside the shop.
    The bell on the door tinkled as Camilla entered. Brenda popped up from behind the counter. ‘Afternoon!’
    ‘Hi, Brenda, how are you?’
    Brenda slid a copy of the
Bedlington Bugle
across the counter. ‘’Ere, what do you think about this! Rafe Wolfe, in Churchminster! I never thought I’d live to see such a thing.’
    Camilla looked at the front page, which had a picture of Rafe in a dinner jacket on a red carpet somewhere, looking extremely dashing. ‘Yes, it is exciting, isn’t it? I saw his last film at the cinema, it was awfully good.’
    Brenda cackled. ‘I’ll say. Cor, if I was twenty years younger! I’m driving my Ted up the wall going on