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‘Gorgeous Sexy High ly insecure’

‘What does she have to be insecure about?’ The words left my mouth before I could help myself

He looked almost amused ‘You’d be surprised,’ he said ‘Girls like Lissa trade on their looks for so long they don’t think they have anything else Actually, I’s – clothes, interiors She can e to say anyone could s look beautiful if they had a wallet as deep as a dias around in a room, and it would look completely different I never could work out how she did it’ He nodded towards the house ‘She did this annexe, when I first ned living roohtly less unco were you with her?’

‘Eight, ninefor me’

‘How did you meet?’

‘Dinner party A really awful dinner party You?’

‘Hairdresser’s I was one He wasextra for the weekend’

I must have looked blank because he shook his head and said softly, ‘Never mind’

Inside, we could hear the dull drone of the vacuu co housecoats I had wondered what they would find to do for two hours in the little annexe

‘Do you st themselves Sohter filtered out into the thin air

Will see in the far-off distance ‘I used to’ He turned toabout it, and I’ve decided that she and Rupert are a good , pop out an ankle biter or two, as you put it, buy a place in the country, and he’ll be shagging his secretary within five years,’ I said

‘You’re probably right’

I ar to my theme now ‘And she will be a little bit cross with hi why and bitch about him at really awful dinner parties to the embarrassment of their friends, and he won’t want to leave because he’ll be scared of all the alimony’

Will turned to look at me

‘And they will have sex once every six weeks and he will adore his children while doing bugger all to actually help look after theet this kind of pinched face –’ I narrowedwhat she actuallyor a horse and develop a crush on her riding instructor And he will take up jogging when he hits forty, and maybe buy a Harley-Davidson, which she will despise, and every day he will go to work and look at all the young men in his office and listen in bars to who they pulled at the weekend or where they went on a jolly and feel like soot suckered’

I turned

Will was staring at me

‘Sorry,’ I said, after a moment ‘I don’t really knohere that ca to feel just the tiniest bit sorry for Running Man’

‘Oh, it’s not hi at a cafe for years You see and hear everything Patterns, in people’s behaviour You’d be aot married?’

I blinked ‘I suppose so’

I didn’t want to say I had never actually been asked

It h we didn’t do much But, in truth, the days with Will were subtly different – depending on his mood and, more importantly, how much pain he was in Some days I would arrive and I could see from the set of his jaw that he didn’t want to talk tothis, I would busyto anticipate his needs so that I didn’t have to bother his that caused hieneral aches that ca him up, despite Nathan’s best atteestive problems, shoulder pain, pain from bladder infections – an inevitability, apparently, despite everyone’s best efforts He had a sto too many painkillers early on in his recovery, when he apparently popped them like Tic Tacs

Occasionally, there were pressure sores, fro A couple of times Will was confined to bed, just to let the to the radio, his eyes glittering with barely suppressed rage Will also got headaches – a side effect, I thought, of his anger and frustration He had soto take it out on It had to build up so sensation in his hands and feet; relentless, pulsing, it would leave hi else I would prepare a bowl of cold water and soak the to ease his discoy muscle would flicker in his jaw and occasionally he would just seem to disappear, as if the only way he could cope with the sensation was to absent hily used to the physical requirements of Will’s life It seemed unfair that despite the fact he could not use them, or feel them, his extremities should cause him so much discomfort

Despite all this, Will did not complain This hy it had taken me weeks to notice he suffered at all Now, I could decipher the strained look around his eyes, the silences, the way he seemed to retreat inside his own skin He would ask, siet the cold water, Louisa?’ or ‘I think it ht be time for some painkillers’ Sometimes he was in soto pale putty Those were the worst days

But on other days we tolerated each other quite well He didn’t seem mortally offended when I talked to him, as he had at the start Today appeared to be a pain-free day When Mrs Traynor came out to tell us that the cleaners would be another twenty minutes, I made us both another drink and we took a slow stroll around the garden, Will sticking to the path and rass

‘Interesting choice of footwear,’ Will said

They were ereen I had found them in a charity shop Patrick said theyqueen

‘You know, you don’t dress like so what insane co to turn up in next’

‘So how should "someone from round here" dress?’

He steered a little to the left to avoid a bit of branch on the path ‘Fleece Or, if you’re er or Whistles’ He looked at me ‘So where did you pick up your exotic tastes? Where else have you lived?’

‘I haven’t’

‘What, you’ve only ever lived here? Where have you worked?’

‘Only here’ I turned and looked at hi my arms over my chest defensively ‘So? What’s so weird about that?’

‘It’s such a s And it’s all about the castle’ We paused on the path and stared at it, rising up in the distance on its weird, dome-like hill, as perfect as if it had been drawn by a child ‘I always think this is the kind of place that people co else Or when they don’t have enough io anywhere else’