Hidden Cottage by Erica James

world, but to say she had to do it to get away from him must have been unbearable.
    Too wound up to sleep or to read, Mia went quietly back downstairs, anxious not to disturb Daisy and Eliza, who were sleeping in their old rooms. Jensen and Tattie hadn’t stayed the night; they’d driven home to London.
    In the kitchen she filled the kettle, put it on the Aga and wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. It was the end of May, but the nights were still quite chilly. The kettle soon boiled and after dunking a teabag in a mug and adding milk, she drew up a chair and inevitably thought again of Daisy. After she had rushed from the room, Jensen had gone to look for her. She didn’t know what he’d said to his sister to bring her round, but minutes later, they reappeared and nothing more was said on the subject. Everyone, even Jeff, tactfully concentrated on Jensen’s birthday cake and him blowing out the candles, all thirty of them.
    Jensen, Mia thought fondly, thirty years old. How was that possible and where had the time gone?
    She and Jeff had met when she was in her first year at Bristol University. A shy and somewhat naive girl, she had been drawn to him by his charm and maturity and his extraordinary belief in his own worth and capabilities. He also made her laugh. He was the first person who made her feel that she took life just a little too seriously, that actually there was a world of fun out there. Six years his junior, she was in awe of his confidence and being with him made her believe she could be like him, that she could do anything she wanted, that the skies really were the limit.
    Having left school at sixteen Jeff Channing was a world away from the man her parents had in mind for her and, of course, that only increased the attraction. The more they disapproved, the more independent and liberated she felt, elevating herself above their appalling narrow-mindedness. With hindsight, she was behaving as a perfectly ordinary rebellious nineteen-year-old girl, hell-bent on flouting convention and all the rules her parents had laid down.
    Jeff came into her life in the middle of her first term and such was the effect he had on her, the newly made friendships with her fellow students were all but forgotten in her eagerness to be with him. Their paths crossed in an off-licence; she was there to buy a bottle of cheap wine to take to a party, but when she tried to pay for it, the man behind the till refused to believe she was old enough to be served. She had produced her student union card but he’d waved it away without even bothering to look at it, dismissing it as a fake. She’d explained that it most certainly wasn’t, that she wasn’t a liar or a cheat, and that if he’d just take the time to look at the card he’d see that it was genuine. Reluctantly he had. ‘Doesn’t look anything like you,’ he said of the photo.
    ‘That’s because I’ve got my hair done differently; I’m going to a party. That’s why I need the wine.’
    ‘You can go empty-handed for all I care. I’m not selling you any alcohol. And that’s that. So on your way and let me serve the rest of my customers.’
    She’d had no choice but to swallow back her humiliation and leave. She was a few yards down the road when she heard her name being called. She turned to see a smartly dressed man in a suit coming towards her. ‘Do I know you?’ she asked.
    ‘Not yet you don’t,’ he said.
    She frowned. ‘Then how do you know my name?’
    ‘I was standing behind you in the off-licence just now and saw it on your student union card. Here, this is for you.’
    She continued to frown, not sure what was going on. Who was this man?
    He smiled. ‘Take it, it’s the bottle of wine you wanted.’
    ‘But . . . but why would you do that?’
    ‘Because I felt sorry for you, for the way that idiot treated you. Anyone can see that you’re a bona fide student, and not a liar or a cheat.’
    ‘Are you teasing me?’
    His smile widened.