it’s just possible that he’s not a cheap blended forastero chocolate after all, but a criollo.
Chapter Twenty-eight Home Alone
I woke up after a deep and dreamless sleep to an empty house, Jake being still at Kat’s. I felt…I didn’t quite know…empty, perhaps, and as if I’d undergone some great catharsis, which I suppose I had.
But I also felt anticipatory and about to embark on a new phase of my life. Last night I’d managed to crawl out of my shabby chrysalis of bitterness, anger and blame to emerge, if not as a carefree butterfly, then at least as a halfway decent moth. Poppy had been right: I could now move on.
Unfortunately, though, the previous night had also revealed to me just how easy it would be to fall in love with Raffy all over again, going by the traitorous way my body had responded to his. He had broken that kiss, not me. In fact, I’d probably kissed him and not the other way round.
But now I’d recognised the danger existed, I could guard against it, because there was no way I was making the same mistakes all over again. I would have to make it clear that a casual friendship was all I wanted and then the kiss could be forgotten.
Raffy took his early morning walk with Arlo as usual, but didn’t so much as glance sideways at Angel Cottage. The pale, translucent skin of his face was again shadowed and bruised under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept much, though this time I was sorry to see it.
Arlo was feeling friendlier, because he obviously wanted to cross over and call in. I suspect he had every house tagged where he’d been offered food.
Poppy rang me later, and I deduced that she was giving the first of her Saturday morning lessons in the indoor riding school, since there was the muffled thump of hoofs on sawdust in the background and every so often she removed her mouth from the phone and bellowed things like: ‘Change legs!’ ‘Trot on, George!’ and ‘Kimberly, sit up straight!’
‘So, did you enjoy your birthday?’ she asked, between commands.
‘Yes, it was all lovely – and wasn’t Felix stunned when he set eyes on you!’
She gave her infectious giggle. ‘I don’t think he’d ever actually seen me as a woman before.’
‘No, but he has now, and if you carry on looking so pretty, he won’t be the only one, either. Honestly, if a bit of slap and a new hairstyle is all it takes, it just goes to show how shallow men are.’
‘To be fair, I hadn’t really seen Felix in any other light except brotherly before, but he’s quite handsome when you look at him objectively, isn’t he?’
‘Very,’ I said encouragingly, though actually ‘attractively homely’ would sum him up better. ‘Funnily enough, when you were telling me about the qualities you’d like your Mr Right to have, I suddenly realised that Felix had them all – isn’t that strange?’
‘Mmm…’ she said thoughtfully. ‘But I thought he had his eye on you, at one time?’
‘If he did, he doesn’t any more.’
‘I slept there last night, at Marked Pages,’ she said pensively.
‘What, with Felix?’
‘Not with Felix, I just fell asleep on the sofa, and he must have covered me up and left me to it. I let myself out really early this morning before he was awake and came home, and Mum hadn’t even noticed I was missing. I hadn’t had that much to drink, so I’m sure your chocolate had the weirdest effect on me!’
‘I think it might have had an odd effect on me too,’ I admitted.
‘It made me feel as though I’d drunk lots of champagne and everything was sparkling and magical – and I still do, a bit, this morning. Do you feel like that?’
‘No, it just made me understand everything clearly for the first time, probably a bit like when Raffy suddenly got God.’
‘Perhaps it has a different effect on different people?’ She broke off to yell, ‘Kimberly, get up and get right back on! No, you’re not in shock. Butterfly’s legs are only a foot long, you didn’t have that far to fall.’
‘Has she fallen off?’ I asked.
‘She slides off over his shoulder every time he stops, that’s why I put her on a Shetland. What were we saying?’
‘That you thought my chocolate gave you a champagne buzz.’
‘It was that Box B. You’d better be careful who you sell it to!’
‘I didn’t get all giggly and flirty.’
‘No, but you suddenly seemed to be getting on better with Raffy – I saw you feeding each other chocolate hearts! And you let him walk you home.’
‘A few yards across the road? Though actually, I invited him into the cottage because I needed to tell him something,’ I said and then I told her about the lost baby too, and her commands to her pupils to change legs or trot on became inextricably mixed with soft cries of: ‘Oh my goodness!’ and ‘Poor Chloe, but why on earth didn’t you tell me?’
‘You weren’t there, and by the time you got back I didn’t want to talk about it any more. But now the air’s well and truly cleared I feel better, though unfortunately I think Raffy’s gone the opposite way. He looked absolutely stricken and rushed off to the church to pray.’
‘Well, he’s a vicar, that’s how they deal with things.’
‘I suppose it is. And now we both know everything, I’ve forgiven him and can let the past go, just like you and Felix kept telling me to. But Raffy didn’t seem to understand that, because he said he would do his best to avoid me. And by the way, don’t tell Felix about the baby, will you? Zillah is the only other person who knows…I think. She might have told Grumps.’
‘I won’t tell him unless you say I can, though it would help him to understand, because we’ve both been puzzled about why you hadn’t got over it, when it was clearly more that Rachel’s fault than anyone else’s.’
‘Yes, my forgiveness doesn’t so far extend to her. I’m not sure it ever will.’
There was an anguished howl. ‘I’d better go,’ Poppy said resignedly. ‘Butterfly has got fed up and is standing on Kimberly’s foot, looking stubborn as a rock, and I don’t blame him.’
I told Grumps about the blind chocolate tasting trial and that Poppy was convinced the full spell gave the chocolate extra magical powers, and he said approvingly, ‘That girl’s not as stupid as I thought she was.’
‘She isn’t stupid at all,’ I replied indignantly. ‘She simply has an innocent, trusting nature, even though that’s pretty astonishing, considering Janey brought her up.’
‘Mmm. And you say the vicar was there last night, too?’
‘Yes, and I invited him
