‘It’s a pleasure,’ said Gabe. ‘And there was no arm twisting or coercion of any kind necessary.’ He mouthed ‘sadly’ to Sam and she had to glance away from him to avoid blushing. She’d spent most of her nights over the past few weeks at Clifftop House.

After everyone had voted unanimously to accept Gabe’s offer, she finally called the meeting to order.

‘I also have some news that’s not strictly related to the festival but you might be relieved to hear. The police have found out who trashed my Stargazey van.’

‘Oh my God. Who?’ said Chloe.

‘It was some guy with a mobile pasty van. We had a row once at a festival when he accused me of taking his custom, which I hadn’t. I hadn’t realised that he’d also been threatening the festival organisers and stewards so they booted him off his pitch and wouldn’t have him back this year. He saw an interview I did for a magazine about our festival and was so pissed off, he decided to take it out on me by wrecking my van.’

‘What a scumbag,’ said Drew. ‘I’m glad he was caught.’

‘Nasty little bugger,’ said Evie. ‘I wish I could get hold of him.’

Troy cackled. ‘His life wouldn’t be worth living if she did!’

‘How did they find the idiot?’ asked Drew.

‘Well, it turns out he’s also been behind some of the posts on our social media pages. I have to thank Ben and Zennor for tracing his IP address and doing a bit of cyber detective work that led us to him. We mentioned his name to the police and can you believe the idiot hadn’t been able to resist boasting about it on his own Facebook page? They even found a photo of my trashed van on his phone!’

‘Ben’s a genius,’ said Zennor proudly.

Ben looked at his hands. ‘It wasn’t that hard once I had the time to hunt for him properly after the festival.’

‘There will always be people who don’t love the festival, but it’s good to know that, thanks to Ben, there’s now one less person to cause us trouble.’

Zennor smiled. ‘And we also have some news,’ she said, sharing a glance with him. ‘Don’t we, Ben?’

She took his hand and held it on the table top. Sam noticed looks were exchanged between her fellow committee members and that everyone’s eyes were drawn to the silver ring with its sea glass stone sparkling in the evening light on Zennor’s finger.

‘We’re engaged,’ said Ben, barely audibly.

‘Eh?’ said Troy.

‘We’re getting married!’ said Ben loudly.

Troy snorted his tea. ‘I heard that.’

Evie patted him on the back as he spluttered. ‘Oh, you dark horses. You kept that quiet. Congratulations, my loves – to both of you.’