‘Even though it’s nothing like the Ibiza-style extravaganza you were hoping for?’ Sam asked, leaning forward again.

‘Even though it’s not quite what I imagined when you first asked if I’d help,’ I conceded, ‘I do think you’re on the right track. What we’ve got here will suit this place perfectly.’

‘Now all the pair of you have to do,’ said Sophie, as she carried over a tray of coffee, ‘is organize it. Do you think you can pull it off in time?’

Sam picked up the notepad and let out a long breath.

‘Of course,’ I said forthrightly. ‘No problem.’

‘You sound very sure about that,’ he said, putting the pad back down and stretching his arms above his head, treating me to a tantalizing glimpse of torso in the process.

‘That’s because I am,’ I swallowed, my mouth had suddenly gone dry. ‘We can do this standing on our heads.’

‘We’ve literally got just five days,’ Sam reminded me, holding up his right hand to further stress the point. He sounded nowhere near as confident as I hoped he would. ‘And now everyone knows that something’s going to be happening, we can’t let them down.’

‘We won’t let anyone down,’ I told him. ‘Just you wait and see.’

*

As it turned out, given the nature of what Sam had agreed to, there really wasn’t all that much to arrange. The difficulty for him came down to timing so, having noticed how tired he was on Sunday, I took over most of the organization and simply asked for his approval as we went along.

My body clock was still firmly fixed in work mode so getting up bright and early every day was no problem, especially as I was determined to make sure everything ran like clockwork and exceeded expectations. There might not have been all that much to do when I got down to it, but the project ensured my mind tracked back to thoughts of my phone and my father’s reaction to my disappearance far less than it had when I first arrived. I was resisting the temptation of Mum’s diary too. I hadn’t forgotten about any of it, I was just putting it all on hold for a little while longer.

By Tuesday lunchtime everything was booked and I had even designed a poster on Sophie’s laptop. I’d printed off plenty too so I could pin them up around the village.

‘Does Sam know about this?’ Sophie gasped, as she pointed out the name of the group listed, rather grandly, as headlining the event.

‘Not yet,’ I grinned, feeling well pleased with my efforts. ‘He knew there were a few names in the hat because he’d approved them, but I haven’t told him who I managed to get. These guys are a big deal, right?’

‘Just a bit!’ she exclaimed, reading the poster again.