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‘Ant!’

I sat down abruptly on a kitchen stool, flooding with relief. I'd been on my own too long, in an empty house. That was all. Well, one night. ‘Darling, how are you?’

‘I'm OK.’ He sounded guarded. My chest tightened.

‘Good,’ I said lightly. ‘And Anna?’

‘She's fine.’

I licked my lips. This wasn't right. Didn't sound right.

‘So, when are you coming home?’

‘Well, there's been a bit of a hitch. The publishers have just rung to say that the rep who was taking me on the book tour in Devon is ill. He's put his back out, apparently. Can't drive.’

‘Oh, well, never mind. Another time perhaps?’

‘But they've managed to cobble something together with the rep up here, in the North, and he's going to take me to Harrogate, Leeds and Ripon instead.’

‘Near where you are now?’

‘Exactly.’

‘But… what about publicity, that sort of thing? Will anyone know you're coming?’

‘Oh, they've managed to do a few flyers, and they've just about caught the deadline on the local paper, apparently. They've clearly known about this for a few days and have jacked it up, knowing, of course that I'd be available.’

‘Right.’

‘So I'll stay here, if that's all right?’

‘With Bella?’

‘Yes, it makes sense.’

Was he telling me or asking me?

‘Of course. And Anna?’

‘Well, Anna says she's got some Pony Club rallies—’

‘She has,’ I said quickly.

‘So I'm going to put her on a train.’

‘Oh!’

‘She's quite old enough, Evie. You protect her far too much.’

Right. It was all coming out, wasn't it? I was an overprotective mother.

‘So if I put her on the nine fifteen, she'll change at Ripon, get to Paddington, and be on the twelve o'clock to Oxford, but I'll get her to ring you en route, OK?’

‘Yes, OK.’

Silence.

‘Ant, is… everything really all right?’ I asked tentatively.

‘It's fine.’

My mouth felt sticky. No saliva. ‘Why don't I come too? We could stay in Harrogate. It's such a pretty town, apparently, and I've never seen it. We could find an old coaching inn or something, make a break of it.’

He laughed. ‘It's half-term, Evie. What about Anna?’

I swallowed. ‘Yes. No. Silly of me. OK, I'll meet the twelve o'clock. Tell her not to talk to anyone.’

‘I will.’

We said goodbye and I put the phone down. Gazed at the wall. A damp patch we'd been meaning to sort out for ages stared back at me. A huge lump had lodged itself in my throat. I was cold, I realized. I got up and went to the understairs cupboard to flick the thermostat on. Heating an entire house for one person to sit in the basement with a cup of coffee was absurd, but Anna would be home soon. I looked at my watch. In… four hours. I stood, for a moment, in the hall. Then I took a duster from the cupboard and a can of Pledge. Upstairs, in the dining room, I began polishing the furniture that Maria had already polished. But she didn't quite buff it up the way I liked. We didn't use this room enough, I decided, straightening up and gazing around. It was a lovely room. I'd have a dinner party soon, I determined. Been meaning to have one for some time, kept putting it off. I'd get Lottie and her husband round, the Devlins perhaps. I polished away. The longcase clock in the corner ticked on.

Anna got off the train at two minutes past one and walked towards the barrier carrying a Cath Kidston overnight bag and looking deliberately nonchalant. Like she alighted from trains from York every day of her life having changed at Paddington. Like this was nothing new.

‘How was it?’ I slipped round the barrier to greet her and give her a hug.

‘Fine,’ she said with studied boredom Her hair needed washing. ‘I was in bags of time at Paddington, so I had a hot chocolate in Pret a Manger.’

I smiled and took her bag as we walked along. Now that would hit the spot. Having a hot chocolate in London, alone, at fourteen. Would have hit my spot too, at that age. I'd probably have imagined a romantic encounter as I sat there with my Jackie magazine.

‘Bye, Anna.’

‘Bye.’ She flushed as she nodded to a tall, sandy-haired boy who'd handed in his ticket at the same time as us, and was strolling off across the