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She looked down at es here This is a restaurant You’ll have to go back to the ticket office’

‘The one that’s all the way over the other side of the racecourse’

‘Yes’

We stared at each other

Will’s voice broke in ‘Louisa, let’s go’

I felt my eyes suddenly brim with tears ‘No,’ I said ‘This is ridiculous We’ve coet us all Prees And then ill have our ry’

‘We’ll be fine once we’ve eaten We can watch the horses and everything It will be fine’

Nathan stepped forward and laid a hand on o hoaze of the diners swept over us and travelled past me to Will, where they clouded with faint pity or distaste I felt that for him I felt like an utter failure I looked up at the wohtly embarrassed now that Will had actually spoken

‘Well, thank you,’ I said to her ‘Thanks for being so fking acco

‘So glad that you are so flexible I’ll certainly reco and thrust it under otten your little car,’ she called, as I swept through the door that Nathan held open for e too?’ I said, and followed them into the lift

We descended in silence I spentto stop e

When we reached the bottoet so from one of these stalls, you know It’s been a few hours now since we ate anything’ He glanced down at Will, so I kneho it was he was really referring to

‘Fine,’ I said, brightly I took a little breath ‘I love a bit of crackling Let’s go to the old hog roast’

We ordered three buns with pork, crackling and apple sauce, and sheltered under the striped awning while we ate them I sat down on a small dustbin, so that I could be at the saeable bites of ers where necessary The tomen who served behind the counter pretended not to look at us I could see the Will out of the corners of their eyes, periodicallyPoorWhat a terrible way to live I gave the them to look at him like that I tried not to think too hard about what Will

The rain had stopped, but the ept course felt suddenly bleak, its brown and green surface littered with discarded betting slips, its horizon flat and empty The car park had thinned out with the rain, and in the distance we could just hear the distorted sound of the tannoy as some other race thundered past

‘I thinkhis mouth ‘I mean, it was nice and all, but best to miss the traffic, eh?’

‘Fine,’ I said I screwed up my paper napkin, and threw it into the bin Will waved away the last third of his roll

‘Didn’t he like it?’ said the worass

‘I don’t know Perhaps he would have liked it better if it hadn’t come with a side order of rubberneck,’ I said, and chucked the re to the car and back up the ramp was easier said than done In the few hours that we had spent at the racecourse, the arrivals and departures meant that the car park had turned into a sea of ht, and et the chair even halfway across the grass to the car His wheels skidded and whined, unable to get the purchase to make it up that last couple of inches Mine and Nathan’s feet slithered in the mud, which worked its way up the sides of our shoes

‘It’s not going to happen,’ said Will

I had refused to listen to hioing to end

‘I think we’re going to need soet the chair back on to the path It’s stuck’

Will let out an audible sigh He looked about as fed up as I had ever seen him

‘I could lift you into the front seat, Will, if I tilt it back a little And then Louisa and I could see if we could get the chair in afterwards’

Will’s voice e today with a fireman’s lift’

‘Sorry, e this alone Here, Lou, you’re prettier than I am Go and collar a few extra pairs of arms, will you?’

Will closed his eyes, set his jaw and I ran towards the stands

I would not have believed so many people could turn down a cry for help when it involved a wheelchair stuck in irl in asers, but desperation oers in the grandstand, asking if they could just spare me a few minutes’ help They looked atsome kind of trap

‘It’s for a man in a wheelchair,’ I said ‘He’s a bit stuck’