Lucas Rathbone blinked at the greyish glow filtering around the bedroom curtains, groaned, checked the watch on his bedside table, groaned a little louder, and rolled over to put an arm over his still snoozing wife...
Who wasn't there.
He sat bolt upright, heart pounding, breath coming in short, shallow gasps.
It was barely quarter to six in the morning. Why wasn't Clara in bed with him?
There was a quiet shuffle in the main room of their slightly too small flat, and a clatter of a fork refusing to be caught, bouncing off the table before crashing to the floor.
A sharp intake of breath followed, accompanied by the conscious silence of someone staying very, very still.
Lucas carefully rolled out of bed, hoping the creak of the bedsprings would sound like him turning over in bed.
What on earth was she up to?
Quiet movement started again, and Lucas tiptoed towards the bedroom door, opened it a couple of inches, and peeked out.
The smell of delicious food tickled his nose. Fresh bread, the clean, crisp scent of sliced cucumber, and the sugary sweetness of cakes. Rich cocoa powder hung in the air, almost shimmering in the dawn light illuminating the woman he loved and the ridiculous amount of food she was putting into a wicker picnic basket.
Lucas groaned for the third time that morning, though this time, he did so inwardly.
He'd had a whole blissful thirty seconds of not remembering that it was his damn birthday, but now he understood why she was up so early.
Clara had organised a surprise party for him.
Again.
He appreciated the sentiment, he supposed, creeping back to bed and climbed in gingerly, but he wished she wouldn't. Every year since she was twelve she'd collude with their mothers and set up a party in the village hall. Then, all the other inhabitants of Castlebury Magna would come and eat and drink, allegedly in celebration of his existence, but mostly because they liked free cake.
Not that I can blame them, he mused, pulling the covers over his head. I’ve turned out for everyone else's birthdays and, provided I can dodge the unwanted attentions of Jane bloody Kingsley, I generally have a jolly good time at them.
It's just when he was the centre of attention that it was excruciating.
A few gloom-ridden moments later, the door opened again, Clara's soft footsteps stealing back into the room. The bed dipped as she sat next to her silently despairing husband, and lips pressed against the top of his still-shrouded head.
'Good morning, my love,' she murmured, gently rubbing his back to - as she probably thought - ease him back into consciousness. 'Happy birthday.'
'Thanks,' muttered Lucas, breaking free from his cocoon. Despite his apprehension, seeing Clara's beautiful face smiling down at him lifted his spirits.
With her by his side, he could stand anything - even being sung at by dozens of people as his cheeks flamed and he wished the ground would swallow him whole.
'Go on, then,' he said, pushing himself up onto his elbow and gazing at her adoringly. 'What time's the train?'
Her face fell. 'You know?'
'Darling, of course I know,' he said, doodling on her thigh. 'You haven't been able to keep anything from me since you were five years old.'
'Hmm,' she said, mild annoyance twisting her perfect mouth to one side. 'I was sure we'd kept it a surprise. And, you don't mind? That I didn't tell you, I mean.'
Lucas chuckled, caught hold of her hand, and kissed her knuckles. 'Not at all,' he said, though the thought of so many eyes on him knotted his stomach. 'I love that you'd do something like that for me.'
Her face lit up. 'Good,' she said, bringing her lips to his. 'Because we've worked hard planning this, and the boys would be disappointed if you weren't happy about it.'
'The boys?' echoed Lucas, slightly confused. 'As in, Kilbourne and Adams? What were they doing, being involved in something like this?'
'Oh, it was Tommy's idea,' said Clara blithely, as though this phrase didn't send a shard of dread straight through Lucas's fearful heart. 'Come along,' she added, bouncing off the bed and dusting a speck of cocoa powder from her sleeve. 'Get dressed. We're meeting them at the station in half an hour.'
'Half an hour?!' protested Lucas, swinging his legs out of bed for the second time that morning. He grabbed his watch, and yet another groan escaped him. 'Darling -'
'No time,' she announced, bobbing up onto the balls of her feet to silence his complaints with a kiss. 'Chop-chop, get your kit on, or we'll be late.'
He complied, muttering darkly about how it was his birthday, so it was frankly offensive that he'd been woken at the crack of dawn and commanded to rush about, and a leisurely cooked breakfast was more suitable than a hastily buttered teacake as he and his beloved scampered to the station as the sky glowed faded blue.
'Morning, Birthday Ghost Boy,' called Tommy Kilbourne with a grin, as the Rathbones entered he thankfully nearly empty station. He bounced the baby in his arms and grinned, annoyingly fresh-faced for the time of day. 'Thought you'd overslept.'
'Chance would be a fine thing,’ grumbled Lucas, handing the laden picnic basket to Noah before happily accepting the child bundled into his arms. 'I hear you've been conspiring against me?'
'Always,' agreed Kilbourne, cooing at his daughter as she pawed Uncle Lucas's cheek. 'Though we figured you wouldn't mind.'
'And he doesn't,' said Clara, before Lucas could say anything to the contrary. 'Do you, darling?'
Lucas glared at his smirking friends. 'Of course not,' he said, forcing a smile and handing Connie to Noah, who beamed as she sank against him with a contented sigh. 'Is this our train?' he added, as one chugged gently to a halt before them. 'Let's get this over with, then...'
***
'Why are we stopping here?' asked Lucas, once more cuddling Connie, as her adoptive parents unloaded the scant luggage the group had brought them. 'Castlebury is the next stop.'
'We don't want Castlebury, though, do we?' said Tommy, hefting a second picnic basket, which gave a muffled clink. 'Not yet, anyway.'
'I thought you'd figured out what we were doing?' said Clara, a small frown appearing. 'You said as much, anyway.'
'If he did, it wasn't because of us,' said Noah, a much lighter-looking, but equally bulky basket under his arm. 'We've kept it under our hats, haven't we, Tom?'
'Haven't breathed a word,' confirmed Tommy, as Lucas passed the baby to Auntie Clara and took the far heavier picnic basket instead. 'And judging by how Ghost Boy hasn't the foggiest why we're here, I'd say he isn't as smart as he clearly thinks he is.'
'Clearly not,' muttered Lucas, following the others, the basket bouncing against his leg as they traipsed through the fields, confusion replacing his previous trepidation. It seemed unlikely the villagers of Castlebury Magna would move en masse one stop down the train tracks in order to - what? Eat his birthday cake in a field?
So, what on earth was going on?
The others kept tight lips about it, and he couldn't even ask his beloved Mrs Bird, who had given him his annual birthday present of a ghost-free day and stayed in London.
Not that she'd have told him anyway, but he couldn't blame her. She liked to be in on a surprise as much as anyone, and it was rare she got to be nowadays.
'Wait here,' said Clara, parking Lucas at the edge of a woodland. He once more was handed his adoptive niece, and the other three adults vanished over the top of the hill with the assortment of baskets.
'Oh dear, Con,' sighed Lucas, as the baby giggled and made a sporting effort of jabbing him in the eye. 'I don't know what they're up to, but it's making me nervous.'
To take his mind off it, he began instructing his change in the names of wildflowers she was far too young to appreciate - bluebells nodding in the dappled light of the forest, pungent wild garlic with delicate white flowers, pale yellow primroses and cowslips, sky blue forget-me-nots...
And just as he began to run out, his wife reappeared.
'Darling,' she called, beckoning him back. 'You can come over now.'
Taking a deep breath to quell the sudden flurry of butterflies in his stomach, Lucas walked towards her, almost afraid of what might be waiting for him.
'Surprise!' cheered Clara, Tommy, and Noah, as Lucas's jaw dropped. Not only were they the only people for miles around, but a fabulous picnic was laid out in the middle of a colour-flecked wildflower field. On the tartan blanket was plates of sandwiches, bottles galore, stacks of tiny cakes, Swiss rolls, fruit, cheese, small fruit pies, and the biggest chocolate cake he'd ever seen.
'Happy birthday, sweetheart,' said Clara, pecking him on the cheek as Papa Kilbourne took Connie back again.
'But,' said Lucas, speechless. 'But -' He turned to Clara. ‘You did this for me?’
‘Of course,’ she said, beaming. ‘Do you like it?’
‘I love it,’ he declared, pulling her into his arms. ‘Thank you. All of you.’
'Drink?' said Noah, kneeling beside a basket and digging around for a corkscrew. 'There's orangeade, elderflower wine, beer, whiskey...'
'Um, the wine, please,' said Lucas, settling onto the blanket and turning his face to the warmth of the springtime sun, listening to the birds. 'I must say, this is rather jolly,' he added, as Clara and Tommy joined them on the blanket. 'I thought you'd organised some huge, awful party back in Castlebury, and I was going to have to pretend I wanted it.'
There was a pregnant pause.
Lucas sighed. 'You've done that too, haven't you?'
'Well, they'd be disappointed if we didn't,' said Clara blithely, though her cheeks were a little rosier than usual as she reached for an egg custard. Lucas crinkled his nose as she bit into her favourite sweet treat, and reached for something more to his taste. 'And you know you'll be fine once you get there.'
'Yes, probably,' he said, biting into a doughnut and showering sugar everywhere. 'But all the same, let's not rush, shall we? As far as I’m concerned, this is my birthday party – and it’s perfect,’ he added, popping the past of the doughnut into his mouth, before reaching for a cheese and beetroot sandwich. ‘Thank you, all of you. This is the best gift I’ve ever had.’
Thank you so much for reading! To celebrate Lucas's birthday, the first three books in the Lucas Rathbone Mysteries series are approx. 50% off until 4th May 2026. If you'd like to pick up your copy, click here for links to your local Amazon store 😊