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Oh, I’m not surprised. He could be charming. Look at how he seduced your mother – not in the physical sense,’ he adds quickly, eyes twinkling.
    I recall Nathan taking me and my parents out to lunch at a rather exclusive fish restaurant on the coast. He won my mother over then and upset my dad by announcing our engagement without asking him for my hand in marriage first. I remember how the conversation went.
    ‘I didn’t ask you because you would have said no,’ Nathan said. There was a brief pause, during which you could have heard an oyster sliding down someone’s throat. ‘Steve, I understand because your daughter is a unique and special lady, and I am not worthy of her.’ Nathan lifted my hand to show off the ring. He kissed my mother on both cheeks, and shook my dad’s hand.
    ‘Have you set the date?’ asked my mother.
    ‘As soon as possible,’ said Nathan. ‘I don’t want to risk her changing her mind.’
    Was that why he was in such a rush to get married? Was it a premonition? Dad brings me back to the present, saying, ‘I know Nathan glowed in your eyes, all shiny and bright, but I always thought there was something of the night about him. Jack obviously thinks so too.’
    ‘I didn’t jilt Nathan at the altar on Jack’s say-so,’ I point out, a little annoyed at the suggestion that I ’d actually listen to Jack, an old friend who has become a stranger. The decision was mine, and mine alone.
    ‘But what he said gave you a nudge in the right direction,’ Dad persists quizzically.
    ‘My decision had nothing to do with Jack, nothing at all.’ I will not admit it to anyone, but Jack’s dramatic gesture did endow me with an extra shot of self-confidence, and Nathan’s response failed to persuade me against my subsequent course of action.
    ‘Whatever your reasons, Tessa, you did the right thing. Life isn’t a rehearsal – it’s the real thing.’ After a pause, my dad changes the subject. ‘By the way, I rang about the dog. I knew you’d want to find out how he was.’
    ‘You’ve made me feel really bad now. I forgot.’
    ‘Not surprisingly.’
    ‘How is he?’
    ‘He’s up and about. He’s got a sore head, but Maz reckons he’ll be fine in a couple of days.’
    ‘Has the owner of the dog come forward?’
    ‘Not yet, although you would have thought someone would have noticed by now. He’s a big dog to miss. Maz was wondering if he could be the one that’s been terrorising other dogs on the Green for the past few months. She’s grateful that we caught him, even though we did have to run him over to do it.’ Dad grins. ‘He looks as if he’s been living rough – ruff, get it, ruff, ruff, ruff.’
    ‘Dad, you’re barking.’ I can’t help smiling.
    ‘That’s better, Tessa,’ he says. ‘That’s my girl. You know you have to kiss an awful lot of frogs before you find a prince.’
    ‘That’s just a fairy taIe,’ I tell him. ‘I’ve kissed an awful lot of men I thought were princes and they’ve all turned into frogs.’
    ‘Not all of them, surely. There’s Jack.’
    ‘What do you mean, there’s Jack?’ A flush of indignation spreads up my neck.
    ‘I remember you two were always snogging on the sofa when your mum and I got home from bridge. There was never any sign of him turning into a creature of the amphibious kind.’
    ‘Dad, you are so embarrassing.’
    ‘I always hoped you two might get it together again one day, but I suppose there’s absolutely no chance of that now.’ I don’t need to respond because my father continues, ‘It’s so out of character for Jack to draw attention to himself. At the club’ – he means the Am Dram Group – ‘he’s very much backstage, as you know.’ He pauses. ‘By the way, he says he’s very sorry.’
    ‘You’ve spoken to him?’ The idea of my father chatting with Jack upsets me – it seems disloyal somehow.
    ‘I spoke to him at the church, as you know, and again when he turned up this afternoon with one of