Grady let the information sink in. Then he pulled the messages up on his phone again. I used to be married to him. I’m still on good terms with my MIL who lives in Middledip … she said you’re seeing someone called Laurel Hill … there’s something you should know … your brother attacked Laurel Hill … ‘So this is all bollocks. Someone wanted me to know the story, so they found a way to do it. But why?’

Mac tugged nervously on his bottom lip. ‘Sometimes people do just feel a story ought to be told. Or maybe someone wants to come between you and me?’

‘Why?’ Grady demanded, not buying it. ‘And who?’

‘Revenge,’ Mac said heavily. ‘Maybe Laurel’s trying to blow us apart. It would make things easier for her.’

‘No!’ Grady slapped the table, making several darts players look around in surprise at the whip-crack sound. ‘Laurel’s not like that and if she was going to do it, why wait until now? Why not tell me the day after it happened?’

Several seconds ticked by. Then Mac nodded. ‘OK. You’re right. So, someone’s trying to make mischief for you.’

You ought to know what your family did to her … Grady read from the messages again. ‘They wanted me to see things might never work out with Laurel.’ He felt his face set in grim lines. ‘I can only think of Pippa.’

Mac began to nod, but then frowned. ‘But how would Pippa know what happened?’

Chapter Seventeen

Middledip Christmas Fair

December 18th and 19th

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The enormous red banner hung over the entrance to the village hall. Inside, the foyer had been transformed into a coffee shop by volunteers, their coffee pod machines in a row on a counter and their patio sets pressed into use as café seating. Gold and red tinsel twirled and balloons hung from the beams, swaying every time the door opened. Laurel had already drunk two cups of coffee and eaten a scone and was beginning to think about buying another.

In the past couple of weeks the village had roughly doubled the number of lights and Christmas trees on every cottage, and the hall itself was a clamour of cheery voices and jolly Christmas music. Bauble-bedecked stalls trying to out-Christmas one another ran down the middle and around three sides, while the art wall was situated against the fourth. The Craft Stuff Christmas scene was the centrepiece of the art wall and would remain after the fair was dismantled, ready for the Christmas parties that would take place in the space in the coming week – tots, teens, over 65s, and the yoga and Pilates groups. Laurel smiled to see the ice-skating couple again, eyes only for each other. It reminded her of Grady’s eyes twinkling as he silently got the joke that the couple looked like them.