Lost and Found on Foxglove Street (The Foxglove Street #9)

Chapter 33

33

Grace heard faint barking sounds coming from somewhere to the northeast of where she was searching for Stanley. She stopped walking and listened harder.

Woof! Woof! Yap! Yap!

“Stanley!” Grace shouted, relief surging through her at the sound of the dog’s bark, distant but recognisable. “Stanley! Come here, boy!”

She heard another volley of barks and turned in the direction she thought they’d come from. Ryan, who had veered off towards the west but was still visible through the trees, heard the barking too and turned in the same direction as Grace.

There were more barks and yips, the tone growing urgent. It wasn’t easy to home in on where they were coming from exactly, and she only hoped she was moving in the right direction.

A few moments later, she heard heavy footsteps in the distance, and a few moments after that, a figure emerged from the trees.

It was Charlie, the man she’d met in the beer garden and who, with his wife, had volunteered to help find Stanley. He was striding towards her with a huge smile on his face… and with Stanley cradled in his arms.

Grace thought her legs would give way beneath her with relief. Breaking into a run, she quickly closed the distance towards Charlie. Behind her, she heard Ryan running, too.

“Stanley!” Grace shouted when she reached Charlie. “Oh, you found him! Thank you!”

Charlie laughed as the dog launched itself out of his arms and into Grace’s, sending her reeling backwards with the force of his little body slamming into hers. As she hugged the dog close, Stanley licked her face frantically, yelping and whimpering all the while. The dog was dirty from the woodland floor, and his damp paws were trailing mucky stains across her clothes, but Grace didn’t care.

All she cared about was that they’d found Stanley.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Grace said to Charlie.

“I was happy to help,” he said, already tapping out a message on his phone to his wife to let her know the search was over. “This little detour into the woods has worked up an appetite, which means I can convince my wife that we’re entitled to a spot of dessert after we finish our pub meal.”

“I’d love to buy your lunch for you, as a thank you,” Grace said as they walked out of the woodland. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Don’t be daft,” Charlie said. “The dog didn’t take long to find.”

They’d reached the edge of the woodland, and when they stepped out from the treeline, they saw Charlie’s wife already waiting beside the beer garden.

“Oh, thank goodness, the little dog is fine!” the woman said, looking happy. “When I saw no sign of him, I decided to loop back here in case he reappeared and we missed the chance to catch him.”

There were more thanks uttered, and when Charlie and his wife continued to refuse Grace’s offer to buy their lunch, they reached a compromise and agreed to a round of drinks instead. After fishing cash from her purse to cover their beverages—and, at Grace’s insistence, their well-deserved desserts, too—Grace said goodbye to the couple and followed Ryan to the other side of the beer garden, where she deposited Stanley on the ground and gave him a thorough checking over in case he’d hurt himself while running around in the woods.

“I think he’s okay,” Grace said, straightening up after completing her brief examination. “He’s scruffy again and a bit dirty and dusty too, but he doesn’t seem to have done himself any injuries.”

“That’s a relief,” Ryan said, and ruffled Stanley’s ears. “You gave us a proper fright there, Stanley.”

“You mustn’t run off, you daft little dog,” Grace said, amused to see a sheepish expression in the dog’s eyes. Scooping him back up into her arms, she cuddled him close, sighing softly as the dog nestled into her. “I thought I’d lost you, Stanley. What would I have done without you?”

Stanley yipped, making her laugh. She put him back down on the ground.

“And what would I have told the dog warden, hmm?” she asked the dog. “He wouldn’t think much of me if I had to confess to losing you after I insisted I was the best person to look after you, and…”

She trailed off with a frown. Ryan gave her a curious look, as if prompting her to continue, but instead she just let out another soft laugh, not quite ready to explain where that particular train of thought was headed.

“Anyway, let’s get back inside the pub,” Grace said. A fresh thought seized her. “Oh! Your poor grandmother! She was soaked in spilled drinks when I dashed out to chase after Stanley. Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Ryan assured her. “A bit wet, but nothing worse than that.”

“You should’ve stayed with her instead of running after Stanley and me.”

“She was the one who insisted I come and help you. And I couldn’t leave you on your own, searching for this rascal while in a panic.”

Inside the pub, they found Miriam still sitting at the table and dabbing at her clothes with paper towels. The broken glasses and plates had been cleared up, and a member of staff was now mopping the floor to wash away what remained of the spilled liquids.

“Are you okay, Miriam?” Grace asked when they reached her.

“I’m fine,” Miriam said. “Just a little damp, that’s all.” She smiled when she saw Stanley at Grace’s feet. “You found him. I’m so relieved.”

“He ran off into the woods behind the pub,” Grace explained. “A nice couple who were sitting in the beer garden helped us search for him, or we might still be out there.”

Miriam patted the dog’s head and then set aside the damp paper towels she’d been using against her blouse.

“Well, the bar manager came over and apologised profusely for the upset and inconvenience of having that tray crash to the floor right beside us,” Miriam said. “He offered us free drinks with our meal to make amends, which was very nice of him. However, I am unfortunately quite sticky and rather uncomfortable from having almost an entire glass of beer poured all over me, along with goodness know what else. If you two don’t mind, I think I’d rather skip lunch and go back to Ryan’s house so I can get changed.”

“Of course we don’t mind,” Ryan said, already pulling out his car key. “Let’s go.”

They were soon piling back into the car, their pub lunch outing brought to a swift close. After settling Stanley in the boot, Grace sank into the front passenger seat with a sigh, not realising how shaken up she was by all that had happened in the last fifteen minutes until she was glancing out the window at the passing scenery and trying to stop her hands from shaking.

Ryan pulled his attention from the road for a moment and looked her way. Clearly reading her mood, he reached across and squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile before returning his eyes to the road.

She was grateful for his smile and for his touch, and for the comfort both those things gave her.

She was grateful too for the little dog currently sitting in the back of his car, peering out the window and looking very much at home.

Grace realised at that moment that she had a big decision to make.

No, that isn’t true, she realised. I’ve already made the decision.

As understanding and acceptance dawned, Grace found she couldn’t keep the smile of happiness from her face.

When they arrived back in Hamblehurst, Miriam insisted that Grace and Stanley have lunch at Ryan’s house. Miriam had wanted to treat them all to a slap-up pub meal, and it wasn’t their fault that events had conspired to derail those plans. As they were all still hungry, they agreed that sandwiches at home were the order of the day.

While Miriam changed her clothes and freshened up, Grace and Ryan prepared sandwiches and fed Stanley, who scoffed his bowl of food in record time, no doubt famished after his high-speed dash into the woods.

By the time they’d eaten their very late lunch and topped Miriam up with her essential Earl Grey tea, it was almost time for Ryan’s grandmother to catch her train to Bournemouth. After packing her small suitcase, they piled back into the car for the short drive to Hamblehurst station.

On the platform, Miriam pulled Grace into a warm hug.

“Thank you for your wonderful company over these last few days, my dear,” Miriam said. “I’m sure spending your precious time off with an old lady like me wasn’t quite what you had in mind, but I’ve loved every minute of it.”

“Me too,” Grace said, and meant it. “Thanks for letting me gatecrash your time with Ryan, and thanks for your dog-sitting help, too, when Stanley first came on the scene.”

Releasing her from the hug, Miriam waved off this remark. “Both you and that silly rascal of a dog have made this week such fun.” She cut her gaze to where Ryan was standing nearby, waiting for his turn to say goodbye, and then pulled Grace close again to whisper conspiratorially in her ear. “You’ve lit up my grandson’s life, too.”

Grace blushed, and was grateful when Miriam laughed softly and kissed her cheek, and then turned to Ryan to say goodbye.

Stepping away to give grandmother and grandson a moment of privacy, Grace tugged Stanley’s lead to stop him fussing around their feet while they said their goodbyes. Ryan and Miriam hugged at length, and as they separated, the train arrived on the platform. Miriam ruffled Stanley’s ears and gave Grace one last kiss goodbye before stepping into her train carriage and taking the suitcase Ryan handed to her.

“Goodbye, my dears!” Miriam said. “I hope I’ll see you both again very soon!”

“Bye, Grandma!” Ryan called out as the train doors closed.

The train slid away from the platform. Miriam waved from the window, and Grace and Ryan waved back until she vanished from view.

They left the station and returned to the car park.

“Will you drop me off at my house on your way home?” Grace asked as she once more loaded Stanley into the boot of the car, a process with which the little dog was now quite familiar.

Ryan gave her a thoughtful look as he opened the passenger door for her, as if he was weighing up what he wanted to say.

“Come back to my house,” he said. “There’s something I want to share with you.”

Intrigued, Grace nodded, wondering what lay in store.