‘So you get to drive this year?’ she commented.

‘Apparently so. Though John didn’t look too convinced.’

‘It’s like—’

‘Riding a bike,’ they both finished together, laughing, but it didn’t take the shadow of concern from his eyes.

‘What is it?’ she asked, not liking seeing it there.

‘There are so many vines. So many more than before.’

‘It’s not our first rodeo, Henry. We’ve done it before and we can do it again,’ she gently insisted.

‘But why would they?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Why would they help me?’

In an instant, Lily saw all the hurt and all the damage done by his childhood. The pain of a whole town turning against him in the wake of the accident with Claudia. She might have missed it at the time, so focused on Victoria and Zoe getting better, the inquest and then just recovering herself. But she hadn’t missed the way that the locals had stopped and stared at him once he’d returned. Oh, they were slightly more polite in her restaurant, but even so. Though, the more that he’d been around, the more they got used to him. And she hoped that she was right in what she said next.

‘They would help because you need it. And yes, because the estate needs it too. Besides,’ she said, brushing away a fallen lock of hair with her forearm, ‘it’s fun.’

‘Fun? Are you crazy?’

‘It is!’

Anything further she might have said was cut off by the sounds of the school coach making its way up the drive.

‘What the …’

As the coach pulled up along the far end of the drive, Mrs Mayberry from Hawke’s High disembarked, and counted off the thirty sixth formers as they piled out. Quick on their heels were Kate and Vihaan arriving in his little red beetle.

Henry looked at her then, his eyes bright and an expression so intense she wanted to reach for him. He seemed astounded that so many people would turn out for this, for him, that he was overwhelmed. And suddenly she was sad. Sad for him and the chains of the past she could see so clearly still wrapped around him.

‘Henry—’

‘We’re here,’ announced a very eager Mrs Whittaker, with a team of around fifteen villagers queuing up behind her.

‘Mrs Whittaker,’ Henry exclaimed.

‘Don’t look so shocked, Henry Hawkesbury. When we are needed, we rally,’ she said, almost outraged at the implication that they would do anything but. With a sniff, she was off, leading her little team away towards the vines. ‘Don’t worry, we know our way,’ she called imperiously. And Lily had to bite her tongue at the overly familiar insinuation.

Henry took a deep breath – seeming to stifle the growl Lily could imagine was in the back of his throat – and followed Mrs Whittaker and her team into the vines.

She greeted Kate and Vihaan with warm hugs.