‘Oh,’ said Sam, who I found on the doorstep, looking absolutely livid. ‘That’s all right then. You are alive. I won’t keep you. I just wanted to make sure.’

He turned around and was already at the gate by the time I grabbed his sleeve.

‘What on earth’s the matter?’ I asked, all thoughts of my cosy nap forgotten.

He spun around, his face flushed and his lips set in a thin tight line. The memory of my mouth pressed against his suddenly jumped into sharp focus and I looked up at his eyes instead. Faced with his fury, it was hardly the moment to wonder, but why hadn’t he mentioned our kiss after the party? There was no way that he had, like me, forgotten it, because he hadn’t been drinking. Was his recent bad mood a result of guilt, or did he consider himself blameless and think it was all my fault? Was that what this fiery outburst was all about?

‘I’ve just been worried sick, that’s all,’ he said, roughly tugging his sleeve out of my grasp. ‘We all have, I mean,’ he added, turning red.

An elderly couple on the other side of the lane looked at us curiously and given the show we were putting on I could hardly blame them.

‘Look,’ I said to Sam, ‘come inside for pity’s sake. Before we’re the talk of the village.’

‘Thanks to you,’ he said, reminding me of my outburst in the pub, ‘we already are. Folk are still gossiping about that you know.’

‘Well, let’s not make the situation worse then,’ I said, walking back inside.

He reluctantly followed, slamming the door behind him.

‘Is that why you’re so angry?’ I asked. ‘Because we’re still the hot goss?’

‘Of course not,’ he snapped. ‘I’m angry because you buggered off yesterday without a by your leave and no one knew where you were. In case you hadn’t noticed, there was one hell of a storm raging last night and for all we knew, you were out in it.’

‘Well, in that case,’ I told him, ‘I’m sorry, but Hope knew where I was. She knew days ago where I was going to be yesterday. Why didn’t you ask her?’

He shifted from one foot to the other.

‘Because we aren’t talking at the moment.’

‘But she still would have told you,’ I insisted. ‘She wouldn’t have let you worry unnecessarily.’

I hoped the pair of them hadn’t fallen out because Hope had somehow found out about The Kiss.