Chapter 2

As usual Richard walked his dogs that afternoon. He really enjoyed it. The countryside was waking up and the chestnut buds had just started to burst. The blackthorn was blossoming. There was just a gentle breeze and the sun was shining.

As he turned down what he termed the home straight he saw a car parked under a tree. Nothing strange in that: as a lot of people used the tree as a starting point for their walks but sitting beside the car and looking rather forlorn was a black and tan Jack Russell. Despite his shouting at them to come to heel his two dogs rushed up to talk to it. It fled back down the ride it had presumably come up. Richard restrained his dogs from giving chase and went to look further along the ride. Quarter of a mile away was a figure walking towards him. The terrier was sprinting towards it. The figure bent down and talked to the dog and then the two moved on towards where Richard was standing.

Richard knew who the figure was. Only one person he had met owned a black and tan Jack Russell: the woman with the blue eyes. He waited until she arrived.

"Hello!" he said. "I wanted to make sure she had found her owner. I'm glad she has."

Blue eyes smiled at him.

"Thank you!" she said. "She shot off after a deer on the way to the Old Dairy. I kept on walking thinking she'd catch me up but she didn't and obviously turned for home when she lost interest. I spent ages calling her on the way back."

"I know the feeling," said Richard mesmerised by her eyes. "Tilly, the dachs, tends to go off and I sweat blood waiting for her to reappear. Several kind people in the village have found her for me over the last year."

Blue eyes grinned. Now that the weather was warmer she was not wearing a hood and her black hair was like a curly halo round her head except that it fell almost to her shoulders. She had a broad intelligent forehead, those hypnotic blue eyes, a delicate upturned nose and a wide smiling mouth.

"Snap!" she said.

Richard grinned back.

"Oh well, all's well that ends well."

"Yes and thank you again!"

Richard nodded, turned and collected his dogs and set off again down the home straight. Two minutes down the road he had to call the dogs in to the verge to let her car pass. Blue eyes smiled again.

Richard had had a hard time dealing with her and was relieved that he had managed to maintain a normal conversation without stammering or looking at his feet.

"I'm not a tongue-tied teenager," he thought. "But I was lucky to be able to string a sentence together. She's lovely. I liked her eyes the first time I met her but now, seeing her face properly..."

She was on his mind for the rest of the day and he kept wondering how he could see her again. Another six weeks would be far too long.

He did not have to wait that long. The next day, he was walking along the old Roman road that bordered the railway line. He was always a bit wary of the dogs straying onto the line and was keeping them under fairly close control. He never ceased to marvel at Teal's obedience. Tilly was a slightly different story. She always wanted to know the reason for a command, not that she could understand the explanation.

Then, there she was, the blue-eyed woman not Tilly, coming towards him carrying part of the front of a car.

"Hello!" he said. "Starting a spare parts business?"

"Wretched fly tippers!" she said scowling at him but it did not last. "Why can't they take their junk to the tip instead of driving out into lovely country and dumping it there. It's not as though the tip costs them anything."

"I agree," he replied. "The only thing about the recycling places is that they're often run by little Hitlers and they'd probably make someone who brought that in break it down into plastic and metal before they'd accept it. Again, if the tipper turned up in a commercial van they might not let him in without a charge."