At lunchtime, a hire company delivered trestle tables and chairs to seat thirty, along with glasses and crockery. Steph arrived shortly afterwards to help me decorate the tables in long rows with jam-jar lanterns, tiny bouquets of wildflowers and the brightly coloured runners that Aunty Linda had sewn for me.
We set up a drinks table a safe distance from Drew’s barbecue (which he and Nicky had volunteered to man) and pegged down a cheap offcut of vinyl flooring to serve as a makeshift dance floor. That left the food. After much deliberation, I’d gone for the easiest option I could think of. This included placing a mammoth order at Hatherstone farm shop for meat, salad and bread, which I would supplement with nibbles, sides, sauces and other items to create a build-your-own hot dog and burger bar. All the extras were arriving as part of a supermarket delivery later that afternoon, along with the drinks.
It was nearly five when we returned with the farm shop order. I was already starting to stress because I felt like I had a million things still to do, and the guests were due to arrive at seven – one of whom would be my mother.
But that was nothing compared to the lightning bolt of panic that hit me when I realised Nesbit was gone.
I’d left him in the garden – Ebenezer had promised to be around tidying up the flower beds and checking no stray weeds had dared plant themselves in the garden on my big day. Besides, the garden was fully enclosed. When he failed to come bounding up to greet me as we arrived back, my first thought was that he’d been stolen. What a stupid, thoughtless thing to do – leaving a beautiful, friendly dog outside where anyone could take him.
‘He’s probably feeling disconcerted by all the strange things in the garden and found a quiet place to hide,’ Steph said, her face creased with worry.
‘I’m carrying fifty sausages, Steph. If he was anywhere within sniffing distance he’d be here trying to convince me that he deserves at least one of them.’
I left the cool boxes on the barbecue table and went to look at the gate, which as usual was latched closed but unlocked.
‘He couldn’t have run out and closed the gate behind him.’ I ran over to Ebenezer’s cottage, where he confirmed that he’d been napping, and not seen Nesbit since we left.
‘Someone’s taken my dog.’ I collapsed onto one of the chairs, my voice rising in panic and fury. ‘It’s my thirtieth birthday and someone’s stolen my dog!’
‘Call Sam,’ Steph instructed. ‘He’ll know how to handle this.’
I’m not sure I managed one full breath in the next hour and a half.
Sam arrived on my doorstep less than ten minutes after I’d called him, my blood thundering even as my heart sat like a lump of ice in my chest. While Steph called the police, who were pleasant and helpful but not hopeful, Sam set about using Nesbit’s blanket and his dog-whispering magic to convey to Scout and Willow that we needed to find their spaniel friend.
‘Whoever took him isn’t going to have just walked him through the forest!’ I said, despite being willing to follow those dogs to the ends of the earth if it meant the tiniest chance of finding Nesbit.
‘Maybe not, but they must have entered your garden via the forest, and pretending to be a weekend dog walker is in some ways a brilliant getaway disguise.’
The other rangers would be on the lookout for a chocolate-coloured spaniel, stopping vehicles as they left the main car park and questioning anyone appearing suspicious. In the meantime, Steph was going to stay at the cottage and let the party guests know what was happening, while Sam and I followed the only lead we had.
For a long, frantic hour we followed the collies as they pressed on, keeping to the smaller, more overgrown trails, noses to the ground, only stopping every few minutes to allow Sam and I to catch up with them.
My head was clogged with terrified questions but I was too breathless to express any of them. I was slowing the search party down enough already.
How can we be sure this is a fresh scent?
How will we ever catch up with the thief?
More importantly – what will we do if we catch up with them?
Does Sam think this is going to work, or is he chasing after his dogs through the woods to humour me?
In the end, I shut off the questions and just concentrated on putting one exhausted foot in front of the other.
And then, Scout and Willow suddenly accelerated, sprinting off to the side through the undergrowth. For a despairing moment I thought they must have gone after a squirrel, but then we heard several joyous barks, followed by more barks in return.
Barks that made me ignore the stitch in my chest and run as fast as I could towards the sound, screaming my dog’s name.
Emerging endless seconds later into a tiny clearing, I found Nesbit spinning in a jubilant circle with his rescuers.
While I slipped on his lead, fed him a chunk of cheese and then sat in the dirt squeezing him against my chest while he wriggled about trying to get back to his friends, Sam searched the clearing.
‘There’s no sign of anyone.’
‘Do you think whoever took him changed their mind and let him go? Or did you manage to escape and were on your way home?’ I asked my dog, giving the fur behind his ears a good rub as he looked at me, tongue lolling.
‘Or someone left the gate open and he got out himself,’ Sam said, shrugging. ‘Ebenezer could have seen it open and closed the latch without thinking.’
‘Leon could have left it open,’ I mused. ‘I didn’t think to tell him that the gate needs to be kept closed.’
‘Leon?’
I felt an uncomfortable prickle that was completely unnecessary.
‘The new neighbour. He moved in yesterday.’
‘Oh?’ Sam was staring at me with a strange look on his face.
‘Yep.’
‘What’s he like?’
‘We only had a brief conversation. He’s a teacher at Brooksby Academy. He seemed okay.’
‘Just him? No partner? Kids?’
‘No.’ I stood up, concentrating so hard on brushing the debris from my jeans that I couldn’t possibly answer any more probing questions.
‘Anyway,’ I added, once it felt like the topic had been shelved. ‘I can’t thank you enough for finding Nesbit. It would have completely… well.’ I shrugged, suddenly overcome with emotion as it hit me how close I’d been to losing my housemate. ‘You have dogs – you know.’
‘Just doing my job.’ Sam had gone back to polite ranger mode, before perhaps realising quite how cold he’d sounded. He crouched down to where Nesbit had been tugging at the end of the lead, causing him to immediately flip over for a belly rub. ‘Losing him doesn’t bear thinking about. Whatever happened, I’m very relieved he’s been found so quickly, and that he seems fine.’
Straightening up, he signalled to the collies that it was time to leave. ‘Probably time you got a lock on that gate, though. A bolt at least.’
‘Ebenezer will no doubt have already fitted one by the time we get back.’
‘And have a word with this Leon bloke about shutting gates. Next time it could be a herd of sheep wandering loose.’
And with that, Sam stalked off. I attempted to follow him, given that I had no idea where we were, but Nesbit dug his heels in and ducked his head, determined to stay.