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‘It s in his future’

‘And those good things would include you?’

‘That’s not fair Look, have I ever asked you to stop doing the job you love?’

‘My job doesn’t involve hot tubs with strange men’

‘Well, I don’t ehe would too

But he wasn’t having any of it ‘Hoould you feel, Lou? Hoould you feel if I said I was going on some keep-fit convention with – I don’t know – Leanne fro up?’ I thought of Leanne, with her flicky blonde hair and her perfect legs, and I wondered absently why he had thought of her name first

‘And then hoould you feel if I said she and I were going to eat out together all the tiether In some destination six thousand miles away, just because she had been a bit down That really wouldn’t bother you?’

‘He’s not "a bit down", Pat He wants to kill hinitas, and end his own bloody life’ I could hearin my ears ‘And you can’t turn it around like this You were the one who called Will a cripple You were the one who made out he couldn’t possibly be a threat to you "The perfect boss," you said So about’

He put the folder back down on the worktop

‘Well, Lou … I’ now’

I sank my face into my hands and let it rest there for a , and the voices of people sed up as a door was unlocked and closed behind the the edge of the kitchen cabinets A little muscle worked in his jaw ‘You kno this feels, Lou? It feels like I , but I feel like I’m permanently just a little bit behind the rest of the field I feel like … ’ He took a deep breath, as if he were trying to co bad on the bend around the corner, and everyone else seems to knohat it is exceptunreasonable But I don’t want you to go I don’t care if you don’t want to do the Viking, but I don’t want you to go on this … this holiday With hiether And you’ve known this o with hi about our relationship About how you feel about us’

‘That’s not fair It doesn’t have to say anything about us,’ I protested

‘It does if I can say all this and you’re still going to go’

The little flat see at me with an expression I had never seen before

When ed, it did so as a whisper ‘But he needs me’

I realized almost as soon as I said it, heard the words and how they twisted and regrouped in the air, knew already hoould have felt if he had said the same to me

He sed, shook his head a little as if he were having trouble taking in what I said His hand came to rest on the side of the worktop, and then he looked up attoabout Patrick He alas save him credit for

‘Patrick, I –’

He closed his eyes, just for aroo the last of the eirlto Ca still in my pyjamas to see if Will needed any help, as Nathan was delayed, and there she alking up the hallith a bowlful of cereal in one hand and the newspaper in the other She blushed when she saw own, all perfectly decent I re afterwards that there had been a ti things creeping out of Will’s bedroo Will his post,’ I said, waving it

‘He’s not up yet Do you wantherself with the newspaper She earing a Minnie Mouse T-shirt and the kind of e in Hong Kong

‘No, no Not if he’s sleeping Let hiht she’d be pleased She had been so wretchedly cross about the girlin with her boyfriend, after all But she just looked a bit surprised, and then adopted that tense expression whichall sorts of possible and undesirable consequences She didn’t say as much, but I was pretty sure she was not keen on Louisa Clark That said, I didn’t knoho it was Ca seeot to the bottom of what had prompted Louisa to stay – Will just said ‘fa When she wasn’t looking after Will, she was dashing around, cleaning and washing, whizzing backwards and forwards to the travel agent’s and to the library I would have known her anywhere in town because she was so conspicuous She wore the brightest-coloured clothing of anyone I’d seen outside the tropics – little jewel-hued dresses and strange-looking shoes

I would have said to Cahtened the place up But I couldn’t make that sort of remark to Camilla any more

Will had apparently told her that she could use his co those at the library I don’t know if she was afraid of being seen to be taking advantage, or if it was because she didn’t want hi

Whichever it was, Will seemed a little happier when she was around A couple of tih h I spoke to Bernard Clark, just to ement, and he said it was a bit tricky as she had split up with her long-ters seemed to be up in the air at their home He also mentioned that she had applied for some conversion course to continue her education I decided not to tell CahtShe was certainly easy on the eye, and had a lovely figure – but, honestly, I wasn’t sure who on earth would buy the kinds of things she wore