“You not with the rest of your gang?” I asked, glancing towards the back of the pub. Derek, the man I’d met outside Phyllis’s shop the day before, was in the company of about a dozen other people. He spotted me and gave me a wave.

The man in the leathers shook his head without looking over. “Needed a bit of headspace.”

Tony reappeared with Maeve’s 7Up and he nodded at my new acquaintance. “This man’s an accountant. Did he tell you? I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years.” I paid him and he winked. “Mind you, this one’s a solicitor and you wouldn’t guess that either.”

“I’m not sure either of those are compliments,” I laughed as he headed off with my tenner.

The man in the leathers looked at me with amusement. “He’s right though – you don’t look like a solicitor.”

I glanced down, realizing I was still wearing the jeans and boots I’d put on this morning, when I’d no intention of spending the day at my desk. “No, I suppose I don’t. I do sometimes, I suspect.”

The man proffered a huge paw-like hand, on which he wore several interesting-looking silver rings. “I’m Jude, by the way. Jude Burns.” He also wore a single stud earring in the shape of a book.

“Good to meet you. I’m Ben – Benedicta.” I picked up Maeve’s drink. “So, you’re involved in the charity cycle?”

“Peripherally.” Jude took a slug of his Guinness, giving his beard a white trim, then placed the glass back on the counter, tapping it four times as he did so, tap-tap-tap-tap. “I’m sort of a marshal, bringing up the rear in case anyone has any trouble. There’s another motorbike at the front. I’m a trained paramedic as well as an accountant.”

“I think I’ve been parking beside your bike.”

He looked up. “The Harley?”

I shrugged with a smile. I had no idea. A bike was a bike as far as I was concerned. “Not too many motorbikes in town usually. Do you think the cycle will go ahead?”

“I hope so. Although it has to actually stop raining first.” He brushed foam off his moustache. “It’s okay if it starts somewhere along the route, but they won’t set off in heavy rain. If they do, they’re in wet gear for the day. My daughter is supposed to be doing it; my two daughters are here, as a matter of fact.”

I mentioned the two women with the toddler I’d seen heading into the pub that morning and immediately his face lit up. “Yes, that’s them. Lissa and Sue. They’re both back at the guesthouse with the chiseller.”