Eve Devon - The Little Clock House on the Green - A heartwarming cosy romance perfect for summer

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First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2017

Copyright © Eve Devon 2017

Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2017

Cover images © Shutterstock.com

Eve Devon asserts the moral right

to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

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and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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hereinafter invented, without the express

written permission of HarperCollins.

ISBN: 9780008211042

Ebook Edition © March 2017

Version 2017-02-15

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Harper Impulse an imprint of HarperColl‌insPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2017 Copyright © Eve Devon 2017 Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2017 Cover images © Shutterstock.com Eve Devon asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. ISBN: 9780008211042 Ebook Edition © March 2017 Version 2017-02-15

Dedication For anyone who ever brought a dream back up to the surface, dusted it off and made it come true

Epigraph ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all.’ Emily Dickinson

Chapter 1: Accidental Selfie Hell

Chapter 2: Logos and Gossip

Chapter 3: Within the Sound of Silence

Chapter 4: Boys and Their Toys

Chapter 5: Back – From Outer Space

Chapter 6 : Voice of the Beehive

Chapter 7: Then I Saw Her Face, Now I’m A Belieber!

Chapter 8: The Whirling Dervish in the Wild Wellies

Chapter 9: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

Chapter 10: And the Cats Just Keep on Coming…

Chapter 11: Birdsong, Baskets and Business Plans

Chapter 12: It’s All in the Timing, Mr Wolf

Chapter 13: The Clock House Challenge

Chapter 14: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Chapter 15: Let the Right One In

Chapter 16: A Lot Like Losing a Locket and Finding a Pebble

Chapter 17: Support Groups

Chapter 18: Breaking Bread

Chapter 19: A ‘Fete’ Accompli

Chapter 20: Let Them Eat Cake

Chapter 21: Sun Tzu and the Offside Rule

Chapter 22: Juliet and Oscar Standing by a Tree, A-R-G-U-I-N-G

Chapter 23: Is That a Presentation in Your Pocket?

Chapter 24: All the World’s a Stage and Now I Get Stage-Fright?

Chapter 25: Queensberry Rules

Chapter 26: Parallel Universes

Chapter 27: Conversation Starters For One

Chapter 28: Past Tense, Present Tense, Totes Tense

Chapter 29: The Girl Next Door

Chapter 30: Life Isn’t Like in the Movies

Chapter 31: By The Light of the Silvery Moon

Chapter 32: Nocturnal Habits

Chapter 33: Money, Money, Money – It’s So Funny…

Chapter 34: You’ve Got To Be In It To Win It

Chapter 35: The Curious Incident of the Plan in the Night-time

Chapter 36: Thanks For Nothing, Mr Tumnus

Chapter 37: Going Once, Going Twice… Sold

Chapter 38: How to Lose a Guy in Zero Dates

Chapter 39: Out of the Barbecue, Into the Fire

Chapter 40: Gonna Swing From the Chandelier

Chapter 41: Red Sky at Night

Chapter 42: Sign of the Times

Chapter 43: All For One and One For All

Chapter 44: The Writing on The Clock House Wall

Chapter 45: On That Fete-ful Day

Chapter 46: Fete-fully Yours

Chapter 47: Clocking Off

Acknowledgements

Dear Reader

Keep Reading …

About the Author

About HarperImpulse

About the Publisher

For anyone who ever brought a dream back up to the surface,

dusted it off and made it come true

‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.’

Emily Dickinson

Jiminy Cricket! It was hotter than Hades in the shade. Kate didn’t think Tobago was ever supposed to get this hot. Arching her neck, she held the water bottle she’d been eking out for the last quarter of a mile to her skin and rolled it back and forth in the hope of teasing out the last condensation-filled cooling properties.

Honestly, how couples even – you know – coupled in this heat she had no idea. Not that she was here for coupling, which was probably why she was attracting attention and almost certainly what was making her job reviewing the luxury resort’s facilities so difficult.

Was there anywhere on earth more guaranteed to make you stick out like a sore thumb than at a couples-only resort when you weren’t part of a couple?

If she’d still been seeing Marco, she could have invited him along. But she wasn’t. And besides, Marco would have hated it. He was more Rough Guide than Forbes list. Weirdly, all the time she was with him she would have sworn she was the same, enjoying reporting on some of the more out-of-the-way and definitely cheaper destinations for the holidaying masses. But now, despite the fact that she was a singleton in couple-land, she couldn’t help remembering how she’d used to subscribe to the notion that a little luxury in everyday life was no bad thing.