It hadn’t entered my head before but having always worked the farm I now considered that Charlie might not be in favour of selling it and, if Joe’s deal hadn’t progressed too far, then we might be able to persuade him to change his mind. Surely, while Charlie was the manager, Joe couldn’t just sell it all out from under him?

Unfortunately, my plan fell at the first hurdle, as I discovered a note from Joe on the cottage doormat, explaining that he was leaving again. Only temporarily, but most likely long enough to unsettle Hope and have her telling everyone what he had in the pipeline. I supposed I could drive out and talk to Charlie on his own, but it wasn’t an ideal compromise.

I sat on the sofa, with my head in my hands, wishing I’d stuck to sorting out my own dramas rather than getting drawn into everyone else’s and wondering what on earth I was going to do. Why hadn’t I stuck to being a holidaymaker, someone keen to unwind and de-stress, rather than turning into someone intent on becoming embroiled in the minutiae of local Wynmouth life?

Just as I was set to sink even deeper into the murky depths of the ‘one is fun’ pity party of my own making, a heavy knock at the door pulled me back into the cottage.

‘This was delivered to the pub earlier,’ said Sam gruffly, handing over a package and walking in. ‘You weren’t in and it had to be signed for.’

‘Come in, why don’t you?’ I frowned, wondering what on earth it could be. Certainly not the phone I had ordered because that would have been super-fast, even for express delivery. ‘Thanks.’

‘But never mind that,’ he said, pulling it out of my hands and dumping it on the sofa.

‘Hey,’ I objected.

‘You can look at it later,’ he said dismissively, ‘right now I’m more concerned about what you saw and heard at Home Farm.’

‘What?’

Surely Hope couldn’t have cracked already.

‘I’ve had Hope in tears at the pub.’

Or perhaps she had.

‘I thought the two of you weren’t talking,’ I tersely reminded him.

‘We weren’t,’ he said. ‘We are now.’

As loath as I was to offload, I couldn’t help thinking that if I didn’t fill Sam in then he was likely to go out to Home Farm and tackle Charlie himself and that was the last thing I wanted.

‘Thanks for that,’ he said, once I had finished explaining what I had discovered.

His expression was unfathomable, but I had the feeling that Joe’s Sunny Shores project wasn’t going to be under wraps for much longer.

‘I’ll see myself out,’ said Sam.