Free Jumping to Conclusions by Christina Jones Page B

don't they? Except those who don't, I mean. At least... Well, drinking socially is fine …’
    'I'm not an alcoholic.' Glen sat back in his chair, the Richard Gere eyes creased with delight. 'What have they been telling you? That I spend all my free time in the Cat and Fiddle?'
    'Well – something like that – not, of course, that it's any of my business ...'
    'The village hall is being renovated. We're using the back room of the Cat and Fiddle as a temporary replacement.' Glen was still grinning. 'As I sit on practically every Milton St John committee, I spend half my life there.'
    'Oh. Right.' Jemima could feel the blush scorching her throat. She pushed back her chair and stood up. 'Look, I'm sure you have loads of things to talk about – and I really should try and find my feet. Would you object if I rounded up the twins and got them to give me a guided tour of the village?'
    'Not at all. Great idea,' Glen nodded round a mouthful of cake. 'You'll probably find them on the fruit machines in the Munchy Bar. And I do hope you don't think we were being greedy over the rent on the flat. I told Gillian that I thought it was somewhat excessive. I mean, if you think we should lower it...'
    'It's fine.' Jemima paused in the doorway. The rent had actually seemed ridiculously low, but maybe that was just the difference between Oxford and the heart of the country. Gillian appeared to be trying to communicate something to her with frantic eye-signals. Jemima, completely at a loss, resorted to what she hoped was an all-encompassing smile and slid from the dining room.
    As Glen had predicted, she located the twins among the blinding whirrs and fizzes of the Munchy Bar's one-armed bandits. They were both losing heavily, and didn't raise too many objections to the Milton St John trek.
    'Mind,' Levi said as they wandered slowly along the dusty street – it was still far too hot to be energetic – 'you'll probably see everyone if you just sit on that ole bench by the duck pond. Everybody comes by sooner or later.'
    Jemima, used to the crowds and traffic of Oxford, was enchanted by the tranquillity. Everywhere was a mass of emerging green, with tiny pastel buds tipping the branches. The stream gurgled pleasantly. The honey-coloured houses still basked; dogs and cats scratched half-heartedly; people leaned on bicycles and chatted to other people with shopping baskets; somewhere, from an open window, a radio played.
    'That's it then, really,' Zeke said kindly as they reached the end of the chestnut tree colonnade. 'It's mostly all stable yards. You see more horses than cars here. There's not much more to it, apart from the football field. It's a bit boring, don't you reckon?'
    'I reckon it's paradise,' Jemima said fervently. 'No noise, no traffic ...'
    'No bloody anything.' Levi took hold of her hand. 'Still, Upton Poges is quite good.'
    Zeke, not to be outdone, caught Jemima's free hand. 'An' we go to the pictures in Wantage, and Newbury's just the biggest place in the whole world!'
    She smiled down at the twins. 'Thank you for being my escorts anyway. Now, I want a simple answer to a simple question.'
    The matching gooseberry-green eyes zoomed in from each side. Two sets of sandy eyebrows arched inquisitively.
    'I want to know,' Jemima continued, 'if they do great big ice creams at Maureen's Munchy Bar? And she raised her voice above the yells of assertion, '– I want to know if I'm the only person out of us three who fancies one?'
    'Nah! I can eat two!'
    'Betcha can't!'
    'One each,' Jemima said firmly as they approached the curve that fronted the Cat and Fiddle, the Village Stores, the Munchy Bar – and her bookshop. 'And I'm paying.'
    The twins grinned gappily, the friendship sealed, and scampered off ahead to place their orders. Jemima followed at a more leisurely pace, trying not to look smug. In spite of the rather strange undercurrents at the Vicarage, she felt that she had the measure of the twins.
    Levi and Zeke were already at