Waiting for Rain (21 page)

“What’s happening?” my boyfriend whispered in my ear. “Has he stopped?”

I nodded. “Yes. God, I don’t believe it. The guy steals sheep using a motorbike and a sidecar? Imagine if he got stopped on the road. ‘Son, is that a sheep in your sidecar or are you just happy to see me’?”

Toby’s snort of laughter was explosive, and I leaned forward and laid a hand against his lips, muffling him as he giggled quietly. I was starting to wish I’d never said the lines, because I felt the same amusement welling up inside me. We stared at each other, trying to contain the laughter. Toby’s eyes crinkled in merriment as his body shook. I hoped the would-be sheep burglar hadn’t heard us. Finally, Toby stopped laughing, although his eyes were wet with tears. I released his mouth, and he giggled more softly.

“Hell, Rain, we’re supposed to be keeping a low profile. Don’t make jokes like that when we’re undercover.” He wiped his eyes and took the glasses from me, raising them to his eyes.

“He’s walking around, looking at the sheep,” he murmured. “Probably wondering which one of them he can fit in the sidecar. Some of them are too big to fit, so he’ll need a small one.” Even as he said the words, I winced at the sheer absurdity of it.

“We need to go over there and see what the hell he’s up to,” I whispered. “If we make our way out of here and round the hedge barriers on the outside to the other side, we can get closer to him than where we are now. It’s not far away. It’s also closer to the way he came in, so we can catch him there.” And I’d still be far enough from the sheep as well if we had to confront him, so it was a win-win situation. But if one of them made a move toward me all bets were off.

Toby nodded. Together we struggled out of the spot we were in, onto the outside of the hedge that surrounded the field. Walking as quietly as possible down past the one side of the hedge and down the other, we finally got to within about ten feet of where the man stood on the outskirts of the sheep gathering. He muttered to himself as he paced around the sheep, no doubt looking for the right one to steal. I looked at Toby, and he nodded. Together we moved swiftly through the hedge, which luckily was sparser than where we’d been, and onto the inside of the field. The man wheeled around in a panic as we appeared about eight feet away from where he stood. He made a quick, darting move toward his bike, but Toby was quicker. His long legs made short work of getting to the bike before the other man, and he held on to the handlebars as the man reached him.

“Going somewhere?” my lover asked lazily. I groaned. I could hear another sheep joke coming forth. “The sheep has hit the fan, sunshine. You’re not taking one more of these animals from my friend. He’s worked damn hard to get them.”

“Get the hell away from my bike and leave me alone.”

I frowned. The voice was younger than I’d have thought. It was also filled with trepidation. I guessed being accosted by two strange men in a deserted field when you were trying to perform a crime was a little scary.

“You’re stealing something that doesn’t belong to you,” I said. “We’ve been asked to tell the owner of these animals when we find out—” For the first time I realized that a bunch of sheep had started to mosey on over toward us. The sheep of my nightmares grew closer with every step of their hooves. I felt faint, taking a couple of steps backward, ready to bolt back through the hedge. One of the sheep sped up, almost as if it was determined to get to me, and I lost it. I turned, crashing through the bush, back to the outside field. I stood there, my chest heaving with panic, listening to the conversation from the other side of the hedge.

“What the fuck’s his problem?” The thief’s voice sounded a little worried. He probably thought I was some sort of psycho.

“He has a thing about sheep,” explained Toby. “He really doesn’t like them.” He shouted loudly. “Rain, hold on there. Let me sort this chap out, and I’ll be out in a little while.”

I took a couple of deep breaths. Christ, I’d left Toby back there with someone who could be dangerous. What kind of boyfriend was I? But nothing could induce me to go through that hedge yet. Not after seeing that sheep coming toward me with a sort of demonic purpose. In
my
mind, anyway. I waited with trembling hands, willing my heart to slow down. I heard muttered conversation on the other side, a few murmured phrases, an exclamation of surprise, and then more conversation. Finally, after what seemed like ages, I heard the sputter of the motorbike starting up. It moved away, the sound growing fainter. The bushes rustled as Toby came clambering through.

His eyes were full of concern. “Rain, are you okay? Jeez, sweetheart, I’ve never seen anyone bolt like that before. How are you holding up?” He reached over and drew me to his warm body, and I relaxed against him, feeling stupid and useless.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It just got a bit much, that’s all. I’m sorry, Toby. I shouldn’t have left you with that nutter. I promise if anything had happened, I’d have gotten over my phobia and been there like a shot—” I was lying through my teeth. I’d no idea whether I’d have managed it. I’d like to think that if some psychopath had started to carve my lover into bloody little pieces that I would have done something.

Toby leaned forward and pressed sweet chocolate lips to mine, stifling my protest. Like said chocolate, I melted into his mouth. For a while I simply relished the taste and the feel of him, and then he moved away. “Don’t apologize. You can’t help it. I’d no idea it was so bad. I feel like a heel now for teasing you about it.”

“Bugger me… what about the bloody sheep thief? You let him get away?”

He looked at me in surprise. “Of course I did. We said we’d find out who it was, not that we’d haul his arse kicking and screaming back to Dave.” He sighed. “It’s a bit of a sad story, really.”

I gazed at him in disbelief. “You feel sorry for the thief?” Only Toby could end up with a reaction like that.

He nodded. “I know him. It’s young Mark Hampton from the town. He’s only sixteen, Rain. His little sister, Megan, is only seven. She has a heart condition. Everyone in town knows about her story. He was stealing the sheep to sell to an abattoir in Lincoln to try and raise money for the family. Apparently they have some money put aside from remortgaging their family house, so they can meet the hospital expenses. But they need a bit more for travel expenses and the like. He thought he’d do his bit to find it by stealing poor Dave’s sheep.” His voice was sad. “The lad is at the end of his tether. I gathered things have been a bit rough at home. They’ve been living on bloody baked beans for two weeks to try and save money to get to London for the operation in a couple of months’ time.” His tone was regretful. “I think he’s been stealing more than sheep, from what I can read between the lines. He’s been trying to scrape money together wherever he can.”

I was aghast. “I can’t believe you got all that out of him. You’re a regular emotion-Svengali, you know that? You’re amazing.”

He preened at my words. “You just have to know how to talk to people, Rain. Let them get their emotional side out. Listen to them.” His voice was wry, and I knew he was probably having a dig at me and my lack of emotional response. “Anyway, I told him I’ll have to tell Dave about him. He at least left without a sheep, and he promised me he’d leave them alone from now on.” Toby grinned proudly. “Dave will be happy at that.” He yawned. “Hell, we’d better get home and get some sleep. We can sort all this out later. It’s half past bloody one. I have work in a few hours. I think we should go back to my room at the hotel so you don’t have to bring me in later.”

He marched away round the side of the hedge, no doubt back to his spot where the picnic basket and his other investigative paraphernalia had been secreted. God forbid we left the tools of his detective trade behind.

I followed him, and we collected all the gear and trudged tiredly back to my car, parked in a lay-by not far away. Luckily, we didn’t have far to go. Twenty minutes later we were curled up in Toby’s bed together, half asleep, both horny but not having the energy to do anything about it.

“Rain check?” Toby asked sleepily as he spooned into my back.

I nodded at the old joke. “Uh-huh. Sleep now, nooky later.”

I felt a light kiss on the back of my head as Toby settled in. The room went dark, and within minutes I was asleep.

T
HE
FOLLOWING
morning we awoke bleary-eyed and fractious from lack of sleep. We showered, dressed, and dragged ourselves down to the hotel lobby. I needed to go home and get ready for the day ahead.

Toby called me a few hours later. I answered my phone as I was busy with Lucas, off-loading a consignment of timber onto the street, then into the basement of the customer’s house for the wine rack we were building. The sun was warm, I was sweaty, and a small respite was definitely needed. I sank down gratefully onto the pavement as Lucas carried on working with a mutter that sounded suspiciously like “Bloody slacker.” My partner had been very amused at the sheep story but had no sympathy at all for the late night I’d had.

I took a sip of water from my bottle. “Hey, you. Did you manage to tell Dave about our success last night in finding his sheep thief?”

Toby sounded very pleased with himself. “Yup. He threw a wobbly at first and was about to storm into town and confront the youngster. But I managed to calm him down when he heard why Mark was doing what he was. So, it turns out he’s actually quite understanding about the whole thing. He still wants to give Mark a piece of his mind, but at least it won’t be with his fist.”

“That’s good news.” I rubbed the back of my neck tiredly. “So no more late nights watching bloody sheep, then?”

“Err, no. The sheep thing is over. But there’s one other thing….” There was silence from the other side, and I felt a prickle of unease.

“Toby, what the hell have you gotten us into now? I swear, I refuse to go into any more fields with livestock. You can definitely do that one by yourself.”

“It’s not that. I’ll talk to you when you get home. I don’t want to tell you on the phone.” His voice was hesitant.

I huffed. “Toby, you sod, don’t leave it there. It’ll worry me all afternoon. What the hell have you done?” I rolled my eyes at Lucas, who was glaring at me as he lifted the timber off the truck by himself. I mouthed at him, “Be there in a minute.” He scowled.

Toby’s voice continued, getting a little more animated. “Well, you know we usually have this whole Winter Festival thing in November on Guy Fawkes in Dave’s barns, and it’s quite a big thing, with people all over the country coming to take part?”

“Yes, I know about it.”

“Well, Dave and I were talking, and we thought that maybe we could do some fund-raising before the fair, try and get Mark some of the money he needs for his sister’s op.”

I felt a warmth surge through my body. Trust my compassionate Toby to think of something like that. “That’s a great idea. What are you going to do—have sheep-throwing contests?” I chuckled at the thought of one of my woolly nemeses being hurled through the air at great speed. There was another bout of quietness on Toby’s side. The prickle of unease intensified. “Toby. What have you gotten us into this time?”

“Errm. This is why I wanted to speak to you when you got to the hotel later rather than on the phone. Maybe we should just leave it and talk then—”

I interrupted him in agitation. “What the hell have you done? I really don’t like the sound of wherever this is going.”

There was a pause, and then he spoke diffidently. “I might have volunteered you for a pole dance on a stage and maybe a bit of a dance or a striptease so we can sell tickets for it. You’re so good at it. I’m sure loads of people will come—”

“You fucking what? Are you out of your bloody mind?” If I hadn’t been sitting down, I would have sunk to the ground with boneless legs. Lucas stopped what he was doing and watched in surprise as I leaped to my feet and strode around in sheer disbelief. “I’m not doing any pole dance and striptease for the whole bloody town! What the hell were you thinking of?”

Lucas’s mouth dropped open at my words, and as they filtered through, a huge grin traversed his face, and he chuckled loudly. I gave him a withering look, turning back to the conversation with my boyfriend.

Toby tried to reason with me. “Rain, honey, you know you’re a bit of an exhibitionist. Dave and I thought it was such a great idea. We can sell tickets all over the place, and I’m sure we’ll get a huge turnout for people to see you. You know the ladies love you, the guys too. It’s for a good cause. We needed something really different, and I didn’t think you’d mind once you got used to the idea. You love performing for me.”

“Toby, that’s for you, in the privacy of my own home and not with my junk splayed out for all to see. For God’s sake, this has to be the most harebrained idea you’ve ever had. The answer’s no. I’m not doing it. And Dave’s starting to sound like a bloody pervert.” I was breathing heavily now, and for all the wrong reasons.

When Toby spoke again his voice was subdued. “Okay. I thought you’d be up for the whole
Full Monty
thing without the actual full monty. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I’ll figure something else out. Not the sheep tossing, though. The RSPCA wouldn’t like that at all. I’ll speak to you later, then.”

The phone went dead, and I stared at it in frustration.

Lucas sauntered up to me, a wide smile on his face. “Well, well, well. From what I heard that sounded like a really interesting conversation. What has your crazy boyfriend got you doing now?”

“He offered my services to the Winter Festival to raise funds for that little girl that needs the heart operation. Services that included pole dancing and a blasted striptease,” I said indignantly.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “And you said no.”

I stared at him in exasperation. “Well, of course I bloody did. I’m not going on show in front of the whole fucking town and anyone else that comes along. And it’ll be bloody freezing, and all my bits will get frostbite!” I thought guiltily that I wasn’t going to admit that the idea did have a certain appeal to it. I’d always loved dancing and using the pole in the nightclubs to hordes of onlookers, and I’d gotten quite a thrill out of it. Toby knew that, so I supposed I shouldn’t have been all that shocked that he might think I’d do it again. But the whole thing with Toby had just caught me a little by surprise. My knee-jerk reaction was once again to go on the defensive.