‘Jesus,’ Jonathan groaned, crying out in pain as Beamish squeezed his arm harder. ‘I could have you for assault!’

‘And I could have you charged with that too, couldn’t I?’ I breathlessly reminded him. ‘And much more besides.’

‘I’m going to see you off the premises now,’ Beamish said quietly. ‘With no drama or fuss.’

His calm demeanour was far more powerful than any punch he could have thrown.

‘And you’re going to promise me that I won’t see you in Wynbridge ever again, aren’t you?’ he added.

‘You know what,’ said Jonathan trying to push Beamish off, but failing. ‘I wouldn’t be seen dead in this dump and I’m beginning to think I’ve had a lucky escape. You’re welcome to her, mate.’

‘I’m not your mate.’

The look Beamish gave me as he spun Jonathan out of the room suggested that he didn’t want me either. I might have finally been rid of Jonathan, but his eradication from my life had come at the highest possible price.

I gave it a minute before going back into the hall. There had been no shouting so I guessed Jonathan had gone quietly, but Beamish hadn’t come back to find me.

‘There was a guy looking for you in the interval,’ whispered the usherette who was now standing behind the audience. ‘Really good looking.’ She grinned, blinking her long dark lashes. ‘Did he find you?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘he found me.’

‘Is he a friend of yours?’

‘No,’ I said, ducking back to my seat, ‘absolutely not.’

‘Shame,’ she laughed. ‘I wouldn’t have minded his number.’

‘Where’s Dolly?’ I asked Jemma, who was now sitting in the row behind where I had left my friend.

‘Alison has taken her home,’ Jemma said, a deep frown knitting her brows as she leant forward to explain and the couple behind her grumbled about not being able to see. ‘Dolly said she wasn’t feeling well and that she didn’t know where you’d gone, so Alison took her back to the cottage.’

I hadn’t thought the evening could get any worse, but losing Beamish and my confrontation with Jonathan turned out to be just the tip of a very catastrophic iceberg.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

I grabbed my coat, told Jemma and her husband Tom to make use of the empty front row seats if they wanted them and rushed out, through the town and back to the cottage. My breath was sharp in my chest by the time I turned down Dolly’s road and saw a car I didn’t recognise parked up outside. The ‘doctor on call’ card displayed on the windscreen confirmed what Jemma had said, but Dolly had been fine when I left her to find Beamish. What on earth could have happened?

As I pushed open the gate, the front door swung open.