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On Monday evening, she asked if Camilla and I would come with Nathan into the annexe She had laid out the table with brochures, printed tis that she’d printed off the internet There were copies for each of us, in clear plastic folders It was all terribly organized

She wanted, she said, to present us with her plans for a holiday (She had warned Caleaning all the benefit, but I could still see Carow a little steely as she detailed all the things she had booked for them)

It was an extraordinary trip that sees I couldn’t i even before his accident But every ti, or bungee ju or what have you – she would hold up a docu part, and say, ‘If I’ I should, then you have to do them with me’

I have to admit, I was secretly rather i

Will listened to her, and I could see hi the documents she laid out in front of him

‘Where did you find all this information?’ he said, finally

She raised her eyebrows at hie is power, Will,’ she said

Andparticularly clever

‘So … ’ Louisa said, when all the questions had been asked ‘We will be leaving in eight days’ time Are you happy, Mrs Traynor?’ There was a faint air of defiance in the way she said it, as if she were daring Camilla to say no

‘If that’s what you all want to do, then it’s quite all right by me,’ Camilla said

‘Nathan? Are you still up for it?’

‘You bet’

‘And … Will?’

We all looked at hio, when any one of these activities would have been unthinkable There was a ti no just to upset his mother He had always been like that, our son – quite capable of doing the opposite of as right, si, in soe to subvert Perhaps it hat otiator

He looked up at me, his eyes unreadable, and I felt irl, and s forward to seeing Clark throw herself into soirl seemed to physically deflate a little – with relief – as if she had half expected him to say no

It’s funny – I admit, when she first wound her way into our lives I was a little suspicious of her Will, despite all his bluster, had been vulnerable I was a little afraid that he could beoff with his friend had made him feel about as worthless as anyone in his position could feel

But I saw the way Louisa looked at hiratitude on her face, and I was suddenly ih we never said as much, was in the , it see him just a small respite from that

There was, for a few days, a faint but definitely celebratory air in the house Cah she refused to admit to me that that hat it was I knew her subtext: what did we really have to celebrate, when all was said and done? I heard her on the telephone to Georgina late at night, justifying what she had agreed to Herfor any way in which Louisa e herself

‘She offered to pay for herself, Georgina,’ Ca I don’t really think we have a choice We have very little ti to hope for the best I think you really have to do the same now’

I knehat it cost her to defend Louisa, to even be nice to her But she tolerated that girl because she knew, as I did, that Louisa was our only chance of keeping our son even halfway happy

Louisa Clark had beco hiht Ca her sister, so ent for a walk down by the river on the way back

‘Will’s going to take a holiday,’ I said

‘Hoonderful,’ she replied

Poor Della I could see her fighting her instinctive urge to ask me about our future – to consider how this unexpected developht affect it – but I didn’t suppose she ever would Not until this was all resolved

We walked, watching the swans, s around in their boats in the early evening sun, and she chatted away about how this ht all be actually rather wonderful for Will, and probably showed that he was really learning to adapt to his situation It was a sweet thing for her to say as I knew that, in soitimately have hoped for an end to it all It was Will’s accident that had so curtailed our plans for a life together, after all She must have secretly hoped that my responsibilities towards Will would one day end so that I could be free

And I walked along beside her, feeling her hand resting in the crook ofvoice I couldn’t tell her the truth – the truth that just a handful of us knew That if the girl failed with her ranches and her bungee ju and hot tubs and what have you, she would paradoxically be setting me free Because the only way I would ever be able to leave my family was if Will decided, after all, that he was still detero to this infernal place in Switzerland

I knew it, and Camilla knew it Even if neither of us would admit it to ourselves Only on