A Roll in the Hay Read online

  “You look like a whole new woman,” Finn said.

  “Let’s not overdo it.”

  “You disappeared before the end of the reception yesterday, and nobody had seen you by the time Dave came to pick me up. Is that good news, or…?”

  “Alas, Finn, it seems a certain someone has been trying to use her name and connections to turn the council to her side. It’s been quite successful too.”

  Finn slapped the desk in annoyance. With Finn’s contact lenses swapped in for glasses, and a light sweater instead of the usual sharp tailoring, they looked softer today, more casual. It was quite appealing, really.

  “So, what do we do?”

  “Yesterday my answer was cry, get drunk, maybe go out after dark and shout obscenities at the moon.”

  “Did it work?”

  “I changed the plan a little, which left me refreshed and ready enough to realise that it’s time for a real charm offensive. Robin has sold these smarmy bastards a mirage. She has no power here, and doesn’t make any decisions. Sure, she has money, but she’s not the real carrier of the Karlson name anymore.”

  Finn leaned forward in their seat, sensing blood in the water. “And?”

  “And we need to make everyone aware of that. Remind them who will be making the money and the deals around here. Who will be calling the shots. It’s a new day, and it’s time I stood up for myself properly. First stop: get a journalist from that local rag up here today. Time for more than just tossing a press release to the wind and hoping for the best.”

  “Really? A journalist?”

  “Yes. I want all this reframed on the grieving widow. I’m not happy with my marriage being dismissed, because whatever our reasons for marrying, we were partners for years and kept all this going together. That doesn’t mean it takes second place to some sibling nonsense. No, it has to be about me, about women succeeding, and how dare anyone get in the way.”

  Finn nodded and started tapping furiously on their tablet.

  “Then I want to make appointments to go and see these horses that need to be stabled. Can you, uh…make sure someone from the vet surgery is free to come and check them with me?”

  “No problem,” Finn replied. “Anything else?”

  Susannah hesitated again, digging the heel of her shoe into the thick carpet. It was a half-baked notion at best, an idea that mostly came to her in a dream. An idea that had persisted through exercise, a long shower, and dressing.

  “Speaking of getting back on the horse, well, sort of… I don’t suppose there are any little soirées coming up where I might cross paths with some interesting people? Only I think I’ve been stuck indoors as the grieving widow long enough, don’t you?”

  Finn actually squealed.

  Should have seen that one coming.

  “Are you serious? Oh, Susannah, that is such good news. That’s progress is what that is!”

  Fiddling with the button on her white blouse, Susannah avoided looking up for the moment. These things were excruciating enough to say without having to maintain eye contact.

  “Yes, well. I admit I’ve been a little lonely up here. You’ve been wonderful, above and beyond, really. It’s just I rather feel there might be at least someone interesting out there. Someone I could talk to about things other than work, and the inner workings of this place.”

  “You can—”

  “I know, Finn. But you know what I mean. What you have with Dave in all his loveliness, I’d like to have that too—or at least see who’s out there, just in case they turn out to be amazing.”

  Finn got up and walked slowly around the table, drawing Susannah into a sudden and fierce hug. They stood like that for a moment.

  “Jimmy told me to move on when he left,” Susannah said. “And, you know, I saw a woman or two in private now and then.”

  “So, no dating apps, then?” Finn asked. “You want to meet someone the old-fashioned way?”

  Susannah nodded. “I don’t really want my dating profile to end up in the papers, just to have a fun drink with someone, you know?”

  “Oh, I certainly do know. Susannah, you don’t have someone in mind already, do you?”

  Damn that Finn and their suspicious mind. Honestly, Police Scotland didn’t know what a top-class detective they were missing out on.

  “Please, with the dating pool around here? I know you don’t have to live in the big city to find your fellow queers these days, but if I wanted to meet a like-minded person, someone who probably won’t rob me after the third date…any suggestions?”

  “I’m afraid lesbian bars are a dying breed these days,” Finn said. “But there are plenty of mixed places, and lots of one-off nights in great venues. I could come with you, you know, for moral support.”

  “Then I’d look like I was already coupled up.”

  “Ah, then a group? No? Wow, you’re brave to face these places alone. I never could.”

  “If you think of anything, put it in my calendar? We have more important things to crack on with than my love life.”

  “How could anything be more important? You’re ready to get back in the saddle, and I don’t mean the one on Billie Jean. This is a big day. We should definitely get donuts with lunch.”

  “Last week you said that ordering new Post-its was a good enough reason to get donuts,” Susannah said. “But okay, we’ll think about it.”

  “Don’t worry, we certainly will.”

  It didn’t take Finn long. It took them exactly one day, three hours, and seventeen minutes, unless Susannah’s watch was slightly out of time.

  “I’ve got it!”

  Susannah half expected them to tack on a “Eureka!” for good measure. “Got what?”

  “The perfect night for you. There’s a queer ladies’ night at the Kilted Coo. You know it, right? Just a couple of towns over that way.”

  “And that’s big enough to host…what? If you say speed dating—”

  “Speed dating went out with frosted tips and Hannah Montana, Suze. Honestly, you’re like the before part of a rom-com sometimes.”

  Susannah winced at the accuracy of that one. Maybe she should be staying in with a bowl of popcorn and Love, Actually, getting annoyed all over again that the lesbian storyline got cut. “And this place is okay?”

  “It’s really nice. Not for nothing, but it has some things about it that might be ideas for The Spiky Thistle. If the day should ever come where you want to tart it up a bit.”

  “Just give me the details, please.”

  “Already on your calendar. There’s a website if you want to see some pictures from previous nights. It’s all very classy, no forced rituals and no cheesy games. Just people meeting people and seeing what they might have in common.”

  “Thank you, Finn. I might be a little embarrassed about all this, but you’ve been a gem.”

  “No problem. You off for a ride?”

  Susannah looked down at her obvious riding clothes, including the boots, and waved the riding crop in her hand. “That or a costume party where the theme is the Derby, yes.”

  “You better brush up on your jokes before inflicting them on some unsuspecting woman, Boss. Maybe just lead with how you’re rich and have horses. Play to your strengths.”

  “Thanks for that.”

  It wasn’t often Susannah brought the horses down towards the village. They didn’t mind the cobbled streets, not with their solid hooves and sturdy legs, but it meant coming closer to cars and idiotic pedestrians, something she tried to avoid for them whenever possible.

  Still, it was important to keep the horses stimulated, and it was as far as she could take Billie Jean from the limited routes she had been following as part of her recuperation. Very successful that had been too since the horse was trotting along like she had never so much as stubbed a toe.

  The quickest w
ay back home was down behind the pub and up through the fields, a chance to really work up to a gallop. Susannah idly thought of one of the smaller properties in her portfolio, just down that way. A charming little two-bed with ivy around the door. That one shouldn’t even be hers. Jimmy had sworn off buying any more village property after the pub. Then the family who’d been living there had lost their son in some terrible accident, and they wanted to sell up quickly and move somewhere less haunted by memories. Ever the compassionate one, Jimmy had paid them over the odds for it and arranged the movers too, to spare them the cost.

  As she bumped along the uneven road, Susannah considered whether she could live up to that example. All the money and decisions on how to spend it were down to her now. Would she help out a neighbour that way, now she could afford to? A straw poll of the villagers would probably not go in her favour, especially lately.

  She was almost past the house, with its quaint courtyard and the neighbouring properties that overlooked it, when the front door flew open and Waffles came bounding out. Susannah knew that dog anywhere now, and his owner was becoming just as familiar.

  Sure enough, Tess followed the dog out, calling him to heel as soon as she heard the horse’s hooves. Then she noticed Susannah was the rider and did that rarest of things in these parts: she actually smiled.

  “Coming to check I haven’t wrecked the place?” Tess asked.

  “Sorry?” Susannah wasn’t sure if she should dismount. It seemed a little imperious to be talking down from such a fine, tall horse. Tess wasn’t exactly towering; she was barely five-foot-nothing if she was an inch.

  “I saw the paperwork. You’re my landlady. Suppose it’s just as well we made friends, eh?”

  “Well, I am glad about that, yes.”

  “Not as glad as I am. Don’t want to be jobless and homeless in one fell swoop. Had enough of that kind of upheaval to last me a lifetime, thank you.”

  “Ah. That was your ex. Caroline, wasn’t it?”

  Tess seemed taken aback that Susannah would remember.

  “It was only last night, you know. Not such a strain on the memory cells.”

  “Right, I suppose so.”

  “Anyway, I seem to remember you taking great offence yesterday to someone thinking you’d be anything less than completely scrupulous. Or did I imagine that shouting match?”

  The scrunch of Tess’s nose suggested she knew what point was being made. It was really very pretty, the way she did it. Her whole face, actually; it was damned near magnetic in pulling Susannah’s attention back to it.

  “You’re saying you’d expect the same benefit of the doubt be given to you as my landlord, eh?” Tess scuffed a boot against the ground. “That’s only fair. I’ll stop talking about you like something out of Dickens.”

  “Never did like Dickens—always reminded me of school,” Susannah said. “Of course, I would say that. In Dickens, someone like me is usually the villain. Still, give me Wilkie Collins any day.”

  “You’re quite the nerd, Your Ladyship.”

  “Enough of that,” Susannah warned, giving Tess a mock telling-off by waving the riding crop in her direction. “It’s Susannah to you. Maybe one day you’ll work your way up to Suze, but we’ll see.”

  “Well, it’s important for me to have goals.” Tess’s smile was progressing to downright cheeky. “Must be getting back to work. Don’t want to lose wages in case I can’t pay rent. My landlady’s a real dragon, you see…”

  “Oh, the worst. Breathing fire is the least of your worries.”

  Tess walked off, laughing, Waffles bounding in large circles around her.

  Susannah was more surprised that she was laughing too. When was the last time she felt this light? She started off on the ride home. Maybe she really was ready to get back out there.

  Chapter 13

  “No, no, no… Would you like me to try it in other languages? Non. Nein. No. Oh, well that was a Spanish no. You get the point though, yeah?” Tess turned slightly, wary of her position at the top of the ladder, to give Babs the stink-eye.

  It wasn’t the sturdiest of ladders she had ever worked with, but borrowers couldn’t be choosers. Running the pub clearly didn’t make for much of a DIY enthusiast. Tess found herself itching for the imminent delivery of all her things, from furniture to fill the empty rooms right down to the toolboxes and personal knick-knacks that would make her new house a home.

  “Doc, you should at least consider it,” Babs said from where she was sitting on an upturned crate in Tess’s new bedroom, reading The Daily Mirror and sipping from a huge mug of tea. Considering they’d only hung out twice before, Babs was certainly making herself at home. “That isn’t straight, by the way,” she added about the curtain rail, looking up for just a moment.

  “Yes, it is,” Tess replied, but a quick balance of the spirit level confirmed Babs’s uncanny eye for these things. “Okay, now it is. Thanks for the curtains. I’ll give them back when I work out what I’m doing with this room. But this stops me flashing the neighbours for now.”

  “Well, that would be quicker than going to some lesbian dating night,” Babs said. “But since you’re going with curtains and modesty, I’m dragging you out to at least meet people.”

  Tess came back down the ladder, a little overheated even in her white tank top and cargo shorts. It was warm work, setting up a house. “You know, when I mentioned in the pub the other night that I wanted to meet more people, I meant as friends.”

  “Right, uh-huh. Can’t tell you how many friends I’ve gone looking for at a dating night. Often find myself frustrated for the lack of a good friendly chat.”

  As Tess rolled her eyes and excused herself for the bathroom, her phone rang in the bedroom. “Get that for me, will you? I don’t want to change my energy supplier and I haven’t been in any accidents.”

  It only took a couple of minutes to freshen up, but Babs was still chatting away as Tess returned to tackle the next task.

  “Yes, of course. Well, it’s not really my place to say,” Babs was saying. “But we’re all very happy to see Tess so happy. Actually, Caroline, it looks like she’s just headed out to the car. I’ll get her to call you back instead.”

  “Caroline?” Tess felt her stomach sink towards her knees as Babs ended the call. “You could have just gotten rid of her.”

  “Oh no, glad I picked up,” Babs replied, getting up off the crate. Her brassy hair was pulled up into a formidable top-knot, and she was dressed in comfortable dungarees with a pink T-shirt underneath. “You told me so much about her last time you propped up my bar, and Caroline had a lot to tell me, too. Engaged, is she?”

  “Yeah, I was meant to—”

  “Not that you’ll be bothered about that. What with your new girlfriend and all. Anything you want to tell me?”

  “Did you…?”

  “I covered for you, don’t worry. Although you’ll never believe what she thinks your girlfriend’s name is.”

  Tess fumbled for a less embarrassing explanation, but nothing came to mind quickly enough. Did this really have to happen with one of Susannah’s great loyalists in the village?

  “I mean, I assume from talking to her that Caroline isn’t big on things like bothering to get a name right. Asked if you were bringing Susan to her wedding. And I couldn’t help thinking that Susan sounds an awful lot like Susannah. Funny that.”

  Tess took a seat on a crate, squeezing her knees for something to do with her hands.

  “Don’t you think if I was getting it on with your boss that you’d know about it? Or Margo might have noticed, since I’m still sleeping in her spare room?”

  Babs patted Tess on the shoulder, her floral perfume a little overwhelming. “You don’t have to make things up. Nice-looking girl like you won’t take long to find someone. Susannah could do with the same, but she’ll know herself when she’s ready.�
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  “I wasn’t… Babs, it is really super important that you know this isn’t some wishful thinking on my part. The name just came out because I’d been reading about her, and Caroline was talking about me like I’d been permanently taken off the market. It really was just a freak coincidence, so you won’t mention it to Susannah, will you?”

  “Oh, I’ll try my best not to let anything slip. But you’re still on the market?” Babs sipped her tea, a twinkle firmly in her eyes.

  “I’m still on the market if you promise you won’t say anything to your boss about me?”

  “Fine, I promise. But you are coming to the big night out at the Kilted Coo, and you’re going to get to know some fun new people. All work and no play makes Tess—”

  “Tired and gay?” she answered, knowing already it wouldn’t be anything like enough to deter Babs.

  “You’ll have fun. Trust me. And besides, I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  Tess didn’t recall agreeing to giving up a huge chunk of her Friday to get ready for the damn event. How much time could it take to pick out some clothes, a bit of eyeliner, and some hair product? Okay, fine, so she was a little precious about her hair when she wore it down. That part was a little time-consuming.

  It also turned out Babs wasn’t kidding about making it a group event. When Tess slipped in through the back door of the pub through to the living area, there was already a gaggle of women. Some she’d seen around the village in varying degrees of biker gear or full femme fashion, and a couple were strangers. In the blur of introductions, Tess didn’t retain a single name, but the drinks were soon being passed out, and that was invitation enough.

  “You brought options?” Babs asked as soon as she swept in from the bar. “Because I don’t think work jeans and a T-shirt look like you’re making an effort.”

  “The jeans are nice. Tight,” one of the new girls chimed in, but she was already coupled off, leaving Tess to take the compliment at face value and nothing more.

  “There’s some stuff in my bag,” Tess said, sipping at the beer bottle that Babs had handed her. “It’s barely half-six; surely we’re not heading out already?”