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Henry quickly rushed to the co
Henry slammed the co
‘Going somewhere with all that stuff?’ Henry asked.
The man stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. He pointed vaguely to the open door, made some kind of squeak of pure fear and then bolted out the door, taking the bag with him.
Henry was hot on his heels. The guy was fast, but Henry was faster and, as the man sprinted round the corner of the house, Henry threw himself at his legs, bringing him face down onto the gravel driveway. The man let out a wail of pain as Henry used all his weight to keep him pi
‘Henry, what the hell are you doing?’ Pe
‘I caught this thieving little shit stealing your purse, phone and camera. Call the police.’
‘Henry, this is Josh, a friend of mine. He helps me to take my carvings to events. I told him to grab my bag. And you just threw him down on the floor.’
‘He’s a friend of yours?’
‘Yes. He works for me.’
Henry processed this and quickly scrabbled off Josh, and then pulled him to his feet, brushing the dirt and stones off him.
‘Sorry about that, mate, I just saw you come into Pe
Josh still looked absolutely terrified of him, obviously wondering if he was going to get a pummelling at any second.
‘Because you probably scared him, have you seen the size of yourself? You scare me too.’
Henry blinked at this new revelation. ‘You’re scared of me?’
‘Oh, there’s a million things that scare me about you. Josh, get in the van, we need to go.’
Pe
‘Why are you scared of me? I would never do anything to hurt you.’
Her face softened slightly and she ran her hand over his stubble. Her touch was like fire on his skin and he instinctively moved his hands to her waist.
‘I’m not scared of you physically hurting me, though I suspect the end result will be the same.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Why did you kiss me last night?’
‘You know why.’
‘But you told me you’re not looking for anything serious, and I get that, I totally do. Daisy is your number one priority and I never want to get in the way of that, but we agreed we would just stay as friends. I know I kissed you, I know it’s my fault. I really like you and I suspect that the discrepancies in what we want will be the thing that hurts the most.’ She sighed. ‘I have to go.’
She opened his back door and stuck her head inside. ‘Daisy, we need to leave now, are you ready?’
He heard the thunder of feet as his daughter came down the stairs and he quickly dropped his hands from Pe
Pe
Daisy ran outside, stepping between them as she shoved her feet into her Converse and dragged a coat on. He was surprised to see she had done her hair in curls and even put some make-up on.
‘I’d like her back by ten,’ Henry said, trying to distract himself from what Pe
‘Dad!’
‘Half ten then.’
Pe
He watched Daisy link arms with Pe
He went back inside, a little bit a
After setting up Pe
She moved back into the village hall and found Daisy pressed against the back wall, seemingly too nervous to mingle or look around. The room was dark, lit up only by the spotlights arranged underneath the sculptures, making them look ethereal and magical in silvery puddles of light. Pe
‘Everyone will laugh at my snowflake when they see it, I shouldn’t have entered.’
‘Of course you should. You have a real talent. In all honesty I don’t think either of us will win tonight. I’ve just seen the list of competitors and there’re at least three other entrants who always enter something that is truly magnificent. Fabio is from Italy and apparently he has won some big international championship in America this year so I don’t think we can compete with that, but it’s fantastic to see other people’s work and skills.’
‘I just don’t want to come last, that would be so embarrassing.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with coming last. But as it happens these competitions choose first, second and third place so there is no last. If you don’t come in the top three you can say you came joint fourth.’
Daisy gri
‘I’ve come joint fourth on many occasions.’
‘Have you ever won?’
‘Once, last year, which is why the big competition is being hosted in White Cliff Bay this year, at the ball – the wi
Pe
‘Shall we have a look around at the other sculptures? Watch out for the other carvers, they’re a slightly weird bunch. Just stay out of their way and it’s probably best to not talk to any of them unless I say it’s OK. It gets highly competitive.’
‘Is that why the police are here?’ Daisy joked.
Pe
‘Ewww, that’s disgusting.’
‘I know, he’s probably the weirdest of them all. He was ba
They moved off to look at the first sculpture, a wonderful mermaid that was bursting from the waves. It was very well done though some of the un-textured surfaces were not as smooth as they could be, suggesting that the carver was new to the craft. It was beautiful though. Pe