The Barn on Half Moon Hill Read Online Free PDF

sauce.
Ooooh.’ And he made a noise as if something wonderful and tickly had just tripped down his spine.
    â€˜I hope it’s the best place in town,’ said Franco.
    Yes, why didn’t you suggest the best place in town, numpty?
Cariad’s brain tutted.
    â€˜Well, I’d hardly call it that . . . Firenze is the best place . . . oh, hang on, they’re shut for refurbishment. Let me think. Ah yes, I know – Rotherwood Hall, if
you’re going posh,’ said the driver. ‘Yes?’
    Franco turned to Cariad for approval. She nodded enthusiastically.
    â€˜Definitely,’ said Franco to the driver then.
    Cariad couldn’t believe it. Not only was she going to Rotherwood Hall for lunch, where the starters cost more than her mam’s house, but she would be sitting opposite Franco Mezzaluna
at a table there. Oh boy.
    â€˜Rotherwood Hall it is.’ Franco turned to Cariad. ‘I owe you the best restaurant in the area at lea—’ His words dried up as he closed his eyes against the thought
which had just entered his brain. Cariad guessed what that thought was.
    â€˜You’ve left your wallet in your suit, haven’t you?’
    â€˜Oh ‘eck,’ chuckled the driver.
    â€˜I don’t carry money. Logan does that for me.’
    â€˜Best make it Sedgewick’s after all,’ said Cariad, leaning forward to instruct the driver. She didn’t have enough money to cover Rotherwood Hall prices. Plus, now that
Franco had jeans and a Winterworld sweatshirt on, there was a good chance they’d be turned away at the door. Still, eating at Sedgewick’s with Franco Mezzaluna wasn’t that much of
a drop between first and second prize. The food was sort of the least important factor.
    â€˜Well,’ Franco shifted in the back seat so he was facing Cariad as much as the seatbelt would allow him to. ‘After all these years, we finally get to meet.’
    â€˜You do know who I am then?’ Cariad’s heart was jumping around in her chest like a wild bouncy ball.
    â€˜Of course. I’ve read all your letters. I’ve kept them. Every single one. Yours was the first fan mail I ever got from the UK. The dragons you drew on them have increased in
quality though over the years, I have to—’
    â€˜You bastard.’
    The insult had spiralled up and out of Cariad before she had a chance to stop it. And with it, a large attached chunk of fury which had been stuffed down and repressed since the days of her
childhood.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜You heard. For nearly fourteen years you’ve had my letters and never once replied. Then you turn up and think I’ll just drop everything . . .’
    Franco dropped a heavy sigh. ‘I am so sorry. You’re right. I am a bastard. But I kind of hoped I’d have the chance to make it up to you. Let’s talk over lunch,’ he
said, aware that the driver was listening to everything they said. ‘I like seafood.’
    â€˜It’s a fish-and-chip place,’ said Cariad. ‘You won’t be able to pick your own lobster out of a tank.’
    â€˜Thank goodness,’ replied Franco with a slight shudder. ‘I wouldn’t ever do that.’
    The taxi driver was in full Sedgewick’s appreciation mode now. ‘We like a Sedgewick’s haddock. Old Betty in the kitchen is wonderfully heavy-handed with the portions as well,
thank the Lord.’
    Franco grinned at the driver’s smiling eyes framed in the rear-view mirror, before shifting his focus to the scenery. ‘What beautiful countryside.’
    â€˜Nice innit,’ said Cariad. ‘We’re nearly here. It’s just over the brow of this hill.’ Was she really going into a fish-and-chip shop on the outskirts of
Barnsley with one of the world’s most gorgeous film stars? The two things didn’t quite match up.
    â€˜Are you a body double?’ asked the taxi driver