‘I think they’ve just trawled your girlfriend out of the stream,’ Drew said.

Peter swung round. Stacey, Diana, and Gareth, along with at least two dozen villagers, were being wrapped inside a collection of hastily assembled coats. Jeff Henley was ineffectually patting his daughter’s sodden shoulders. Maddy was delighted. Stacey looked like a weasel that had been dunked in a bucket.

‘I must go and see if she’s all right.’

‘They’ll probably have to send in frogmen to recover the false eyelashes,’ Drew said, straight faced, ‘but I would think the wig has gone for ever. It’ll probably end up housing a family of water voles.’

Snarling, Peter stumbled down the bank towards the sobbing Stacey. Diana, her teeth chattering with rage, was jabbing accusing fingers at the crowd. The media had homed in. Those policemen who were not involved in separating brawlers, were listening intently.

‘What a perfect end to a so-so day.’ Drew was laughing as he pulled Maddy against him. ‘Oh, I feel sorry for the Pughs’, and for anyone who got caught up in the scuffle – but it was surely worth it to see Diana’s ardour cooled so eloquently, wasn’t it?’

‘Definitely.’ Maddy snuggled against his sweater. ‘And to see Stacey without her artificial bits. I wonder if she wears them in bed?’

‘Along with her riding boots …’ Drew grinned. Laughing, Maddy hugged him, then his face moved down to hers and he was kissing her hungrily. He kissed her with his lips, his tongue, his teeth.

Maddy’s body was no longer her own. It was only the sound of her name that brought her toppling back to reality. Reluctantly she pulled her lips from the onslaught.

Barty Small, his face puckered, was shouting at her. ‘Maddy! For God’s sake! They’ve arrested Bronwyn! And your Suzy!’

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Wantage Police Station seethed. The Duty Officer, used to fairly peaceful evenings – at least until the pubs turned out – was marshalling groups of angrily protesting people and wearing a perplexed frown. No one had explained to him the numbers involved, or that so many of them would be wet.

Maddy, still holding Drew’s hand, shoved her way through to the desk. ‘My sister – Suzy Beckett – is she here?’

‘I’ll look in a minute.’ The policeman was trying to fill in forms that had been dripped on. ‘Just sit down over there. With everyone else.’

‘But you arrested her,’ Maddy insisted. ‘She didn’t do anything. She –’

‘Madam, no one who ever walks through these doors has ever done anything. Please just sit down. Everyone will be sorted out in a minute.’ He turned back to the Maynard brothers, who both had bloody noses and wanted to bring charges against each other. ‘So you admit to hitting him first, do you?’

‘Come on, Maddy.’ Drew took her arm. ‘Come and sit down. There’s nothing we can do at the moment.’