Into the Dark (ORIGINAL AND UNEDITED EDITON)

Eight

I get home around 2pm - my mini weighed down with my stuff from France and the wedding.  I'd left my car at Nicks and we'd all taken the tunnel over; Nick and I, and Tash and Greig. We'd come back the same way and I'd driven straight to Illeam Castle for the wedding. I feel like I haven't been home in months.

After parking the car in the driveway, I rummage in the boot for the gift hamper I'd brought back as a thank you to Ed and Betty for having Fred for me. I'd had Delmar make it up the day I'd gone in to settle our account.

My mind flickers briefly to Laurent, but it doesn't linger on him any longer than a few fleeting moments. Gratitude is mainly what I feel. I'm grateful for his words the night I walked him home, and strangely, I also feel grateful for the drunken 'almost' I had committed - even if it did now feel more like a dream that belonged inside another mind. 

The 'almost' had been a catalyst, rerouting my mind and thoughts and heart back onto its rightful path.  That night under the stifling hot summer air had shifted something inside me and helped re-order things and I had Laurent to thank for that. Disorganised piles of unmanageable things had been re-distributed, and more important things stacked in their place.

There's no answer when I press Ed and Betty's doorbell, but their car is there and when I walk around the side of the house I hear the sound of the lawnmower start up. The gate is open and I edge my way through it tentatively feeling like an intruder. Ed's head is down and focused on the loud machine working its way across the grass, but as I move further into the garden and lift my hand up to wave at him he sees me. He waves back before the obnoxious sound of the mower cuts out.

"Hi Ed," I smile as I approach. He wipes his hands on his shorts and comes toward me, smiling in that fatherly way he does.

"Alex, hello!" he says, jovially. "I knew it was today you were back but Bets was convinced it was tomorrow."

"Nope, today. I wish I was still there, though, trust me."

He nods. "And how was Robyn's wedding? Weather was great for it,"

"It was magical. She throws a wedding as well as she throws a dinner party - not that anyone was surprised by that."

He laughs softly as he comes to a stop in front of me and casts a suspicious looking eye over the twine shopping bag I'm holding. "I hope that's not for us,"

I shrug apologetically. "Unfortunately, it is," I hold it up. "It's got a tonne of cheese in it so you better hurry it inside," I gaze up at the blinding sun and Ed takes the bag from me with a sigh. "Is Betty around?" I ask, following after him as he heads for the house.

"No, she's up at the farmers market with Silvia and Jess," he tells me. Silvia was Silvia Trousdale. She lived down across from the Pig & Hen - a nice woman but with a tendency to overshare on personal details. She'd update me on her foot bunions every time our paths crossed. They were receding as far as I could recall.

Jess was Mrs Knight. A widowed old trout with the sourest expression I'd ever seen on another human. Thankfully our paths never crossed because I made sure of it. She carried a faint scent of vinegar around with her too which I always imagined was because of her diet of lemons and pickled vegetables - the cause of her expression. 

"Ah so it's back then; that's good," I remark.  "I picked up the most amazing cherry Jam from it last year."

"Some lovely stuff that's for sure. Pity you missed it. It'll be a back at the end of the month I'm certain." he nods, plonking the bag on the worktop with a noisy clunk. "It's heavy Alex - you need to stop this. We've told you we don't mind keeping an eye him. He's no trouble at all."