‘I’ll say,’ Sam confirmed. ‘Somehow word has got around,’ he explained, ‘and half the village now knows that you’re the one who has talked me into doing something.’

‘You said she’d nagged you into it a minute ago,’ cut in George.

‘Is that right?’ I laughed.

‘Maybe,’ Sam smiled, turning a little pink. ‘I take it you happened to mention something about it on your shopping trip yesterday, Tess?’

Now it was my turn to colour.

‘I did,’ I admitted, ‘but I didn’t say anything to suggest that I was involved in the organization.’

‘That’s village life for you,’ Gladys beamed.

‘I was simply trying to work out if anyone would come,’ I went on.

‘And?’ Sam asked.

‘You’ll be inundated,’ I told him. ‘Everyone was thrilled with the idea.’

I didn’t mention that they were also surprised.

‘And you already know that really, don’t you, Sam?’ joined in George as he surreptitiously fed Skipper a morsel of beef under the table, ‘because you’ve had folk coming in all morning asking if they need to buy tickets.’

Sam nodded.

‘We’ll talk later,’ he said to me, ‘after I’ve finished the lunches.’

*

‘So,’ I grinned, once the rush had died down and Sam had a couple of minutes to spare, ‘that’s a definite no to the selection of seaside shots party games then.’

It wasn’t the first thing he had vetoed. So far, he’d managed to blackball all the things I had added purely for my own amusement.

‘Absolutely,’ he said firmly. ‘We don’t want folk to drink too much.’

That had to be the oddest thing I’d ever heard a pub landlord say.

‘May I just remind you,’ I said, pointing to the bar and the range of optics behind it, ‘that this is a pub and people do actually come here to drink alcohol.’

‘I know,’ he shrugged, offering no further explanation for his strange comment.

‘Okay then,’ I sighed once we had worked our way through all of his ideas as well as mine. ‘You really are determined that traditional is the right way to go, aren’t you?’

What he had in mind sounded a bit staid to me, but then he knew the locals better than I did, even if he hadn’t noticed that they were crying out for some form of entertainment.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘definitely. This is just the sort of thing everyone will be hoping for.’

If it was up to me, that would have been the perfect reason to give them something a bit different. I was just about to say as much when Sam leant back in his chair and gave the biggest yawn and I changed my mind. He looked absolutely exhausted.

‘You know what,’ I said tapping my pencil on the list, ‘I think you’re right. This has the potential to be a really great night.’