me.”
Roz laughed.
“And I hope I don’t, or I shall be considerably poorer by this evening.”
Roz approached the Poacher by the alleyway at the back and knocked on the kitchen door.
“You’re early,” said Hal, opening it.
“I know, but I have to be in Swanage by three and if I don’t leave fairly soon I won’t make it. Have you any customers?”
He gave her a withering smile.
“I haven’t even bothered to open up.”
She chose to ignore the sarcasm.
“Then come with me,” she said.
“Forget this place for a few hours.”
He didn’t exactly jump at the invitation.
“What’s in Swanage?”
She handed him the details of Bayview.
“A “des. res.” overlooking the sea. I’ve committed myself to looking at it and I could do with some moral support or I might end up buying the wretched thing.”
“Then don’t go.”
“I have to. It’s by way of a quid pro quo,” she said obliquely.
“Come with me,” she urged, ‘and say no whenever I look like saying yes.
I’m a sucker for a soft sell and I’ve always wanted to live on a cliff by the sea and own a dog and go beach combing He looked at the price.
“Can you afford it?” he asked curiously.
“Just about.”
“Rich lady,” he said.
“Writing is obviously very profitable.”
“Hardly. That was by way of a pay-off.”
“Pay-off for what?” he asked, his eyes veiled.
“It’s not important.”
“Nothing ever is in your life.”
She shrugged.
“So you don’t want to come? Ah, well, it was only a thought. I’ll go on my own.” She looked lonely suddenly.
He glanced behind him towards the restaurant, then abruptly reached his jacket off the back of the door.
“I’il come,” he told her, ‘but I’m damned if I’ll say no. It sounds like paradise, and the second best piece of advice my mother ever gave me was never get between a woman and what she wants.” He pulled the door to and locked it.
“And what was the best piece of advice?”
He dropped a casual arm across her shoulders could she really be as lonely as she looked? The thought saddened him and walked her up the alleyway.
“That happiness is no laughing matter.”
She gave a throaty chucide.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, woman, that the pursuit of happiness deserves weighty consideration. It’s the be-all and end-all of existence.
Where is the sense in living if you’re not enjoying it?”
“Earning Brownie points for the great hereafter, suffering being good for the soul and all that.”
“If you say so,” he said cheerfully.
“Shall we go in my car?
It’ll give you a chance to test out your theory.” He led her to an ancient Ford Cortina estate and unlocked the passenger door, pulling it half-open on screaming hinges.
“What theory?” she asked, squeezing inelegantly through the gap.
He shut the door.
“You’il soon find out,” he murmured.
They arrived with half an hour to spare. Hal drew into a parking space on the sea front and rubbed his hands.
