Secrets to a Happy Ending

Chapter 14

The village square seemed busier than ever. Lydia spent all afternoon talking to Julie about different things, fashion, famous movie stars, she told her about the encounter with Claire Baldwin thinking it was Chvonne Lumley.

"Claire has had that a lot actually, the resemblance is indeed uncanny."

She found that they had a lot in common and time clearly had gotten ahead of her. Then the sound of Julie's phone went off alerting her to a text message. Julie pulled the phone out of her bag and read the message, after reading it her face went a shade of white, she quickly replaced it and grabbed her belongings.

"Everything ok Julie?"

"Yes, yes of course sorry, a friend has some bad news, I need to go and call her and I have some cucumbers and tomatoes I need to get out of the garden, but I have really enjoyed our chat, feel free to come by for a coffee anytime."

Lydia smiled and they said goodbye to each other. Lydia thought about Julie and the conversation that she had mentioned about Joanna, she reached down to get her Ipad and opened a Google page. She searched for Julie and her books, but could not find anything about her at all.

The time was now 4.45pm and Lydia had not begun any writing yet for the article, feeling a flash of panic she considered cancelling her plans tonight meeting with Ben. She drove back to the hotel and started to think about the conversation she had with Julia yesterday and the recording and felt a sense of guilt that she had not come clean about what she was doing in the village.

Even though Lydia had been at the village for a very short time, she felt that it was a lot longer as if the village was some sort of time capsule and things go slower somehow than the rest of the world.

She thought about her next move and what she still had to do, remembering what Michael had said to her about getting to know the villagers to maybe find out more about Mark Ross.

Then she remembered what Ronnie had said, so Lydia decided to go and make a to-do list and an action plan. She gathered her belongings and headed towards the entrance of the hotel, once inside a man was at the reception desk and there was no sight of Gladys.

"Good Afternoon Miss Spalding." He said.

" Good afternoon." Replied Lydia.

"I have a message for you."

He handed her a note in a small envelope, Lydia opened it and it read.

Miss Spalding, Happy Endings is not so happy. You have to scratch deeper to find out more,

Lydia frowned at the note and checked the envelope, it certainly had her name on it.

"Can I ask who delivered this?" She asked.

"Oh, I don't know Miss Spalding, I understand that it was left on the counter while the desk was

unmanned." Replied the man.

"Don't you have a security camera to check?"

"Security Camera? Miss Spalding the worst crime that has probably happened here in 50 years is maybe a sheep was stolen, security cameras are not really necessary here."

Lydia smiled and headed for her room while she re-read the note again.

Was she being watched? Who could possibly know about why she was in the village? Whom had she talked to? Lydia tried to recall anyone that could have their nose put out of joint so much to leave a note, but could not recall. She walked into her room and put her items down on the dresser and headed to the bathroom to get ready to meet Ben. While she was in the shower she thought again about Ben not knowing about who she really was, and wondered about telling him later in the night.