Free The Country Escape by Fiona Walker Page B

clearlya position he took up regularly – Dawn suspected that Russ’s orchard arboriculture work involved a lot of testing the end product – but with an end product this magical, she could hardly blame him.
    ‘Dave would bloody love it here.’ Dawn gazed around mistily, largely because the turquoise lenses made her eyes smart.
    ‘Do you miss him?’
    ‘I miss what we had at the very beginning.I want that with somebody else.’
    The scrumpy was filling Dawn with the glow of goodwill and Cupid’s arrows. It was Valentine’s Day tomorrow and she suddenly longed for new love. Kat had warned her to go easy on the local brew, which had a lethal reputation, but it held no fears for Dawn, who had won bets based on being able to drink her way through the cruise ship’s entire cocktail menubefore performing ‘
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
’.
    The Eardisford Arms was tiny and old-fashioned, perched on the bank of the river by the bridge that divided Upper from Lower, its half-timbered walls decked with hunting prints and horse brasses. The small public bar was packed with locals, all agog to know who Dawn was, and satisfyingly appreciative of her Topshop dress and turquoise eyes.One of the better-looking men had been staring at her in open-mouthed admiration from the moment she arrived.
    ‘Calum the Talon,’ Kat told her, in an undertone. ‘He’s a falconer. He handles the hunt’s eagle owl for them.’
    ‘Should I swing a piece of meat around on a string to beckon him over?’
    ‘His girlfriend’s the one with the pink hair serving behind the bar, so don’t encouragehim. The last time there was a fight in here, she knocked someone unconscious.’
    Dawn studied the small, stocky Tank Girl lookalike, who was laughing with Russ as she loaded the dishwasher, reaching out a tattooed hand to ruffle his white-tipped hair affectionately. Her square face was so heavily disguised with piercings and eyeliner it was hard to tell her age, but she guessed she was aboutforty.
    ‘She a relative?’ She knew Russ had family in the village.
    ‘No, but they’ve known each other since they were kids – she used to babysit for the Hedges family,’ Kat explained. ‘That’s Mags.’
    ‘
That
’s Mags?’ Dawn remembered the mention of the old friend who hung around at Lake Farm. ‘The one with the band?’ She’d somehow imagined a cross between Courtney Love and GwenStefani, not Peppa Pig with piercings. On closer inspection, Dawn realized she was the sort of earthy, buxomly extrovert woman who probably looked fantastic in full rock chick regalia rasping out ballads in a smoky spotlight.
    ‘They’ve just formed a new line-up,’ Kat said proudly. ‘It was called Dirty Mags, but they’ve decided to change it to broaden its appeal. Russ wants them to call itAnimal Magnetism to help raise money for the sanctuary. Mags is onside – she helped organize an open day for us last year, although it was mostly hairy bikers and music fans who turned up and there was a bit of a fight there too.’
    ‘Don’t tell me she broke that up as well?’
    ‘She started it, actually.’
    They watched as Mags pretended to swing a punch at Russ, cackling loudly.Heavily tattooed and wearing more chunky jewellery than Mr T, she possessed a dirtier laugh than Sid James. ‘I know she looks scary, but she’s soppy about animals,’ Kat insisted. ‘She cried so much when we watched
War Horse
on DVD that her one of nose piercings blew out. Calum’s birds of prey are her babies. Nobody messes with Mags, so it’s great she looks out for Russ and me. She’s like a bigsister to him.
    ‘Bill Hedges, Russ’s uncle, almost gave up on him as a teenager – he was always in trouble when he came here for summer holidays – but Mags helped smooth things over.’
    ‘I thought he grew up in the village.’
    Kat shook her head. ‘His mum did – Bill’s younger sister Gloria – but she ran off with one of the fruit pickers. They’re all from Eastern