Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts (48 page)

The orchard looked gorgeous, with most of the trees covered in foamy blossom, and underneath them was a modest selection of stalls – a cake stall, a raffle, a table with all Dot’s leaflets about dog care, now updated by Rachel, some doggie stuff donated by the pet store, face painting and mini grooming (dogs only) run by the students, and a table with cups on for the Fun Dog Show.

According to the entry forms Megan had pinned to the trees, there would be classes for Waggiest Tail, Dog Most Like Owner, Fancy Dress Pairs, Handsomest Dog, Prettiest Bitch, Guess the Weight of the Dog, and Best Friends.

Bertie could win at least three of those classes, Natalie thought, and pencilled in his name next to Waggiest Tail, Handsomest Dog and Best Friends. She paused over Dog Most Like Owner and decided to risk it, if only to force a smile out of Johnny. There was no sign of him and Bertie, but Natalie assumed he’d taken off on a long walk, if it was going to be a farewell one.

She took out her mobile to check if he’d rung, but there was nothing. As she was dialling his number to see where he’d got to, Megan waved at her from over by Freda’s catering table, and Natalie knew at once from the two people standing by her side what she wanted her for.

They looked like nice people. That was even worse.

She took a deep breath and went across to say hello, plastering her happy face over the new aching in her chest.

‘Natalie! There’s someone here I’d like you to meet?’ Megan smiled as she pointed to the couple who shook her hand eagerly. ‘This is Adam, and this is Paula. This is Natalie, who’s been the most amazing foster mum to Bertie for the last few months.’

‘Oh, he’s been very easy,’ said Natalie. ‘He’s such a lovely, lovely dog.’

‘He’s a cuddle bug,’ agreed Megan. ‘We can’t understand how anyone could have thrown him out!’

‘He is naughty, though,’ Natalie added, before she could stop herself. ‘He’s worked out how to open our fridge. And he howls like you wouldn’t believe. And he’d sleep in bed with you if he could.’

‘Nat!’ Megan gave her a sideways look. ‘Don’t put them off!’

‘Well, we’re used to Bassets,’ said Adam. He rolled his eyes. ‘We know all about the fox poo and the deafness and the hairs everywhere.’

‘We’ve got two others,’ his wife explained. ‘Wouldn’t have any other kind of dog now! They’re such characters.’

‘But good for you, fostering,’ Adam went on. ‘I couldn’t do that. Our house would be full of rescue dogs in a month! I wouldn’t be able to hand them over to the new owners!’

‘Natalie and Johnny are very special people,’ said Megan quickly. ‘I think they’d keep him, given half a chance.’

‘We would,’ said Natalie. ‘Like a shot. Um, Bertie’s with my husband at the moment – I sent them off for a quick walk and they’ve been gone ages. Shall I ring them?’

‘Please!’ said Paula. She looked genuinely excited. ‘We can’t wait to meet him.’

Natalie’s heart sank as she imagined Bertie in the back of their car, driving off to his new life, leaving his empty basket behind in their kitchen.

‘We’ll just mill around here,’ said Megan. ‘Come and find us when you track them down?’

‘I won’t be long,’ said Natalie, and slipped off into the crowd, where they wouldn’t see the pain on her face.

‘You might have to hold these on, Leo. Toffee, sit! Sit, please!’

Zoe was trying to make Toffee’s rabbit ears stay on his head when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

‘That is the best rabbit and magician I have
ever
seen!’

She turned round awkwardly, since she was crouching on her heels at Toffee height. Bill was standing behind her, with Lulu on a smart new silver lead. She looked freshly clipped, as if she was going to Crufts even if the rest of them were slumming it.

‘You know what you need, don’t you?’ he went on, smiling down at Leo, who gazed in awe at the very tall man above him. ‘You need . . . this!’

He whisked a white handkerchief out of his back pocket and handed it very solemnly to Leo.

‘Say thank you,’ prompted Zoe.

‘Thank you,’ said Leo, obediently.

‘Muuum,’ whined Spencer. ‘I want an ice cream.’

‘Not now, Spencer,’ she said in a firm Toffee-training tone. ‘Leo’s about to go and do his competition. We’ll get ice cream when we’re all ready.’

‘Give me the money and I’ll go on my own.’

‘No.’ Zoe glared at him, then glanced up at Bill. The last thing she wanted was for Spencer to throw a wobbler now. ‘Just wait.’

‘How are you?’ Bill asked. ‘Lulu and I have missed your company at lunchtime.’

‘Oh, I’ve been rushed off my feet. Bit of nice weather and everyone wants their highlights doing.’ Maybe it was the spring sunshine filtering through the blossom, but Zoe felt as if the air around them was suddenly warmer. She’d forgotten how much she liked just standing next to Bill. His easy company made her feel younger and less frazzled.

The megaphone crackled and Megan’s voice boomed out over the orchard. ‘Would all entrants for the Fancy Dress Pairs please make their way over here? Cheers!’

Zoe began to lead Leo by the hand, but he shook her off. ‘I want to go on my own,’ he announced. ‘I’m a big boy.’

‘No, you’re not, you’re just a baby,’ snotted Spencer, and Zoe gave him her hardest, scariest stare, to which he responded by shoving his tongue under his lower lip.

Don’t rise to it, she told herself. Ignore the bad, reward the good.

‘Go on, Leo.’ Zoe gave him a little push. ‘We’ll be watching you from right here! Good luck!’

She and Bill watched as Leo wove his way across to Megan, who welcomed him and Toffee with open arms and a little round of applause.

‘I think he’s a shoo-in,’ said Bill, nudging her, and little sparks of electricity shot down her arm where his shirt touched her bare skin.

She glanced down and saw Spencer staring sulkily around the field, then asked Bill how things were going with his plan to get the patients dog walking to health. They chatted away easily, and then clapped heartily when Leo and Toffee took first prize from the Lady Mayoress against a boxer who’d come as a Dalmatian, two clowns and Superman.

‘Ice creams all round, I reckon,’ said Bill.

‘Yes, ice creams! What kind do you want, Spencer?’ Zoe turned round when he didn’t answer. ‘Spencer?’

He wasn’t behind her any more.

Oh, for God’s sake, she thought, crossly. He’s wandered off.

It was another of Spencer’s new range of irritating tricks to wind her up: drifting away in supermarkets or shops to do his own thing, leaving her breathless with panic. It was irritating because it worked every single time, and every single time, when she found him, he did his ‘Muuuum, I was only reading the magazines/looking at the dog/picking my nose’ whine.

‘Problem?’ asked Bill as Leo came bounding across to them, with Toffee in hot pursuit, minus his bunny-girl ears.

‘Spencer. He’s gone to get his own ice cream, I think.’ She grimaced apologetically. ‘Sorry, he’s going through an arsey phase.’

Bill looked around the orchard. ‘Get used to it. I understand it lasts about fifteen to eighty years with average males. Do you want me to stay here in case he gets back?’

‘Would you?’ Zoe was relieved at the casual way Bill offered. ‘I won’t be long. Here, take Toffee’s lead. Can I get you anything?’

‘Chocolate and a flake.’ Bill winked at Leo, who was looking askance as Toffee sniffed around Lulu. ‘Don’t worry, Leo, they’re old friends.’

‘Come on, you.’ Zoe picked Leo up. Baby or not, she wanted to get back before Spencer reappeared and started giving Bill the worst possible impression of her family.

Natalie tried Johnny’s mobile, but he didn’t answer, and then she found herself distracted by two charming ladies from the bakery by the town hall, who were awfully keen to sponsor a kennel, so long as it was just used for German shepherd dogs.

By the time she’d shown them round, and explained about the random selection box of dogs the rescue cared for, there was still no sign of Bertie and Johnny, and she walked down to the bottom of the orchard to get better reception. Before she could dial she spotted Johnny coming up from the footpath, and waved to get his attention.

As he came nearer, she realised he was on his own. No Bertie. Her heart sank and she rushed over.

‘What’s the matter?’

Johnny’s face was red, and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. ‘I’ve lost him.’ He bent over, his hands on his knees, panting.

‘What?’

‘I’ve lost Bertie. I let him off the lead, just for a second, to have a pee in that thickety bit at the end of the orchard, and he must have smelled something because he . . . vanished.’ Natalie could tell he was panicking. ‘One moment he was there, the next all I could see was his tail, and then nothing! He must have smelled a hare, or something.’

Natalie felt sick. Bertie looked like a couch potato but when he decided to move, there was no way of keeping up with him. He could vanish in the woods in seconds.

‘Did you call for him?’

‘Did I call for him? Of course I bloody called for him.’ Johnny looked despairingly at her. ‘But come on, Nat – you know what his recall’s like. Zero, unless you can make the noise of a roast chicken.’

‘That’s not funny. What were you thinking? I never ever let him off where I can’t see him.’ Natalie grabbed her head. ‘How big is that wood? It’s massive.’ Collingdale Wood stretched all the way back from Four Oaks towards Rosehill, with the big dual carriageway on one side. But there was a wall, Natalie reasoned, and fields on the other side – he’d have to run a long way to get onto a main road.

But the wood itself was huge. A horrible thought suddenly struck her. ‘It’s got traps in it, hasn’t it? And rabbit holes. Jesus, Jon, what if he’s gone down a hole and got stuck? Or put his nose near a rabbit trap?’ Her voice cracked and she had to cover her mouth. She knew she was over-reacting but the combination of the past few months’ tension and fear for unsuspecting, curious Bertie was unbearable.

Johnny put his hands on her arms. ‘Look, don’t panic. We’ll find him.’

‘Don’t tell Megan. She’s with the couple who want to adopt him. They’re looking for us now! Oh God, what if he’s hurt? How will we find him?’

‘Natalie.’ Johnny shook her gently. ‘This is Bertie. He’ll probably run around the wood for half an hour, get covered in deer shit, and then head back to the kennel for a bacon sandwich.’

‘Maybe we should look there.’ Natalie started walking, then stopped. ‘Johnny . . .’

She was about to say, please let’s keep him. Please don’t let him go.

He stopped, his face red. ‘What? We’re wasting time.’

‘Nothing,’ she said and carried on.

When Spencer had been gone for half an hour, and Zoe had done four laps of the orchard with Leo and Toffee in tow, her annoyance started to take on a sharper edge of panic.

‘Are you
sure
you don’t know where he might have gone?’ she asked Leo, for the tenth time. There were so many people and dogs milling around now that it was hard to see if Spencer was just lurking behind a tree. ‘He didn’t say anything about wanting to go into town, did he? He hasn’t walked down there on his own?’

Leo bit his lip and wouldn’t look at her. Zoe dropped down next to him, wrapping Toffee’s lead around her wrist so he couldn’t escape.

‘Tell me, Leelee,’ she soothed. ‘I won’t be cross.’

‘Spencer said last night he was going to see Daddy but I thought he meant next week. Not now.’ Leo started to go red. ‘I didn’t think he meant now. How will he find Daddy? Daddy isn’t here! And he took the bag with Toffee’s things in it.’

Oh shit, thought Zoe. She straightened up and tried not to let Leo see how rattled she was. Spencer could have gone out of the gate, through the garden and down to the town, or he could have headed across the open fields.

He was too smart to get into anyone’s car, she told herself. But if he was planning to go all the way to David’s?

‘I think we need to start looking a bit harder for him,’ she said. ‘Naughty Spencer – he’s going to make poor Toffee miss his special class!’

‘Naughty Spencer,’ agreed Leo, and grabbed hold of her hand as if he was scared she was going to leave too.

‘Let’s see.’ Zoe searched the crowd for Megan’s blonde plaits, and spotted her over by the leaflet stand, cooing over a fierce black Scottish terrier that looked like a giant Hitler moustache. ‘Why don’t we find Megan and show her your lovely costume?’

She marched over so quickly Toffee and Leo could barely keep up, and arrived just as Megan was rapidly withdrawing her hand from the dog. ‘Megan, can you mind Leo for five minutes?’

‘What’s up?’ Megan shook her fingers and put on a brave smile.

Zoe dropped her voice. ‘Spencer’s vanished. I’ve got to tell Rachel so she can make an announcement or something but I don’t want Leo to get worried. Can you distract him?’

‘Oh no!’ Megan’s eyes rounded. ‘Course! But he’ll turn up, Zoe – he can’t have gone far. Do you want me to send one of the hounds after him? They’ll pick up his scent! Might be quite interesting to see how quickly they find him.’