In Vera's debt

I decided that turning up at the pub, drinking a sherry and going home again, was a compromise I could deal with. She would doubtless ride.

I walked home via the stables and dropped in on Sid. I had to tell her that Vera was looking for a lover. But Sid was busy reading stories and being a mother and housewife. I popped next door, to give her time to get straight, but Charley kept me busy a long time.

When I finally walked home the pub was shutting. I hated walking in the gloom when strangers were around. Strangers? The village has enough of its own home grown scrumpy-head loonies. Why be scared of the visiting ones?

Most of all I was scared of the hunt. That was new territory and I had never dreamt I would cross the threshold into the biggest openly flaunted symbol of plutocracy in these fair isles.

I needed Sid to walk with me. What would my severest critic have said?

'I am excited and flattered that Vera is so keen on my ideas for disbursing the