‘He’s still as in demand as ever,’ teased another, sitting at a table. ‘I reckon I need to get me one of those bionic legs. That must be the thing that attracts the ladies, coz it can’t be his rugged good looks!’

Sam smiled and shook his head.

‘And there was me thinking it was my lived-in, careworn features and my unrivalled wit,’ he laughed.

I hadn’t realized that my voice had been raised enough to draw that much attention but I was too annoyed to care. Perhaps, I thought, it wouldn’t hurt to call Sam out in front of a few people. Maybe that would make him think about keeping his silly words to himself in the future.

He finished serving and then came to me.

‘Is everything all right?’ he asked, finally spotting my scowl and lighting the blue touchpaper by pointing it out, ‘You don’t look very happy.’

‘No,’ I said, banging my keys down on the bar, ‘everything is not all bloody right and I look like this because I’m not happy.’

There was a cheer from somewhere behind me and then everyone fell silent. You could have heard a pin drop.

‘Why did you tell Joe Upton that we kissed on Saturday night?’ I demanded, all thoughts of keeping it from Hope shoved aside as the red mist descended.

‘What?’

‘Why did you tell Joe Upton that we had an after-hours snog?’

I fixed him with my best death-stare, ignoring the confusion I could see clouding his usually bright green eyes.

‘You know as well as I do, that nothing happened,’ I said, lowering my voice a little, but not enough to make it too difficult for everyone else to hear, ‘so why lie?’

Sam sighed and looked over the top of my head to where everyone was still holding their breath, waiting for his explanation and, hopefully, heartfelt apology.

‘I haven’t seen Joe Upton,’ he said.

His volume matched mine, but he sounded angry and not, as I had hoped, at all contrite.

‘The last I heard he’d left again,’ he hissed.

‘So,’ I said, feeling more indignant than ever, ‘how do you explain the fact that he’s just turned up at the cottage and told me that he called in here earlier and heard straight from the horse’s mouth all about what happened Saturday night.’

There was a low-level murmuring breaking out behind me, but I didn’t take my eyes off Sam.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ he said, looking right back at me, ‘because I’ve been at the cash-and-carry all afternoon. I only got back about ten minutes ago.’

That rather took the wind out of my sails and I could hear a titter as well as muttering coming from the rapt crowd of listeners.

‘What?’