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I looked up at his owner again He seemed okay And if the spaniel was happy there … I turnedlook on the man, and waited for him to look down and notice Because, of course, it wasn’t up to the pets who got taken in That came down to the owners

The lanced down at me, brow furrowed

‘Sorry,his attention back to Jack ‘Don’t even re around the street And I’d definitely rehed with hiain sometime soon

My ears are nificent, thank you Daisy says so

It was the same story everywhere ent Everyone nodded and said, ‘Hmm, yes, number 11 …’ but in the end, they had to admit they didn’t know Daisy and Oliver at all

Inside every house, I saw gli, happy smiles and delicious smells But none of it spilled outside their houses, out into Maple Drive And none of it was for sharing with a poor, lost and abandoned French Bulldog

I tried– this one a etic, at least, for her owner’s comments on my appearance – and two cats Unfortunately, both the felines were , and one of the last time I chased them over the fence, so that was that

The McCawleys and I officially had no friends in Maple Drive

Well, except for Jack I had Jack, for now, at least

He’d told the man on the phone he’d think about it – think about whether he really wanted to leave? Probably In which case, all I had to do was find a way to convince Jack that Maple Drive orth staying for None of the people we’d spoken to that afternoon had helped with that at all But this… Holly had let him into her house, had welcomed him, talked with him

Maybe that was a start Maybe we just needed more people like Holly to talk to

Because one way or another, I had to find Jack a reason to stay here on Maple Drive Otherwise, I had no idea ould look after me

The ferry lurched port-wards (or was it starboard? She never could keep those straight) and Daisy clung onto a row of chairs to keep her balance Oliver and the kids were still be crisps in the bar, so Daisy had volunteered to go and find out about getting a seat on the next ferry ho, and if they ever et a table in the restaurant, she suspected they ht not all keep their food down until they reached Portsain

There you go A good reason to be grateful she hadn’t booked a table in the restaurant

Mind you, no one see else And yes, okay, she hadn’t pulled off the smoothest family holiday ever so far on this trip, but she had put a lot of work into it, whatever Oliver seemed to think

She’d booked the ferry, ordered the M&S haht and wrapped all the Christ or two of gifts in need of wrapping when they were somewhere that didn’t sway quite so badly) and decorated the dah they weren’t there to enjoy it

She had done Christmas, and it wasn’t even Christmas Eve yet

Still, if they could just get back to Maple Drive, back to Claude, and have a nice Christ on the sofa watching a bad movie, it would all be worth it

Daisy joined the queue at the inforainst hope that whoever wasit noould be more sympathetic than the idiot ouldn’t turn the boat around

No such luck

‘Ah, Mrs McCawley, isn’t it?’ Henri smiled insincerely at her ‘I do hope you enjoyed your free drinks’

‘Not really Listen, I need to book passage for my family on the next ferry from Caen to Portsmouth Can you do that for me?’

‘Of course!’ he said, and Daisy’s spirits started to drift slowly upwards, in the manner of mulled wine steam Until he added, ‘Normally But not today’

‘Why not today?’ Daisy ground out, wishing she had a vat of stea mulled wine to pour over the odious man

‘The seas, in case you failed to notice in your all-encoh today, s after this one have been cancelled, until to’

Toht They’d never done that before, not anywhere He’d always come with theht stay The

What was he going to do? Daisy hoped against hope that Claude had– it seeet back to his comfy basket, or his food bowl