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need to seclude yourself over here. You might move nearer home again, to us, then we needn’t worry so much.’
    Tess began to gather the plates, knowing her hand movements were too fast and uncoordinated; in a minute one of the dishes would crack. ‘You needn’t worry at all and I’m hardly the globe’s diameter away. Let’s have a walk before you go.’
    It was a brisk walk because Tess set the pace and she needed exercise before she exploded with frustration. God, must they be so bloody reasonable about Olly? If she wanted to blame him, she would!
    Rain flung odd spots against their faces, golden leaves spinning around their ankles and the wind in their ears as they marched to the Cross and up Main Road towards Bettsbrough.
    And Tess wondered how quickly she could point her parents towards home.
     
    ‘Guy, you’re a pain in the arse.’ Tess sighed down the phone. Wintry rain skittered against the kitchen window like handfuls of gravel. Hardly had she got her parents out of the door and Guy was on the phone! She’d wanted to chill out. Well, that was out of the window!
    ‘Just for a week, Tess, I’ll pay you straight back.’
    Tess wondered how many times it had happened now; Guy finding himself short and, reluctant to share the information with his wife, Lynette, approaching Tess for funds. Which, when Lynette discovered it as she always did, would make her resent Tess even more.
    She sighed again. But Guy was her cousin. All those climbed trees and teenaged exploits counted, the learning together, the lying for each other.
    ‘The bank is being bloody,’ he explained apologetically.
    ‘And you’re mystified that there’s no automatic unlimited overdraft for an unspecified period without collateral? Particularly as you’re on their staff?’ Tess couldn’t help a gurgle of laughter. Poor old Guy, life was tough on disorganised self-servers, sometimes, but Tess loved him. And it wasn’t his fault her mum and dad had made her feel stressy. She capitulated. ‘I’ll send you a cheque.’
    ‘Thing is,’ – she could picture Guy rubbing his angular nose at having to go into boring detail – ‘I need a couple of hundred cash straightaway or I can’t meet the mortgage. I was hoping you could transfer it online ...’
    She laughed. ‘I’m not hooked up to the Internet here, yet. Out of luck, Guy.’
    He wheedled, ‘I’ll take you to the cash machine.’ She pictured the beginnings of his triumphant grin.
    ‘You do that,’ she agreed. Let Guy come out of his way. If she was going to be two hundred pounds out of pocket and in Lynette’s bad books again, let Guy drive the necessary miles.
    Waiting for the sound of his car in the lane an hour on, she finished her salad and cheese and thought about her Dragons illustrations. They were going well; it had seemed a big commission to dive into, but hadn’t it been ideal? A project that carried her along into a different world where she needn’t worry about people.
    People. After the Simeon Carlysle debacle they’d lain in wait for her. Angel to commiserate, her pretty mouth an O of dismay. ‘Ratty and Jos just standing there like imbeciles! “ We didn’t realise she was in trouble !” Would you believe it?’
    ‘I’m not sure I do.’
    Angel half grinned, lowered her voice. ‘Did you know Ratty went for him? Smacked his head on the side of a van! But he wouldn’t have left you in that situation intentionally – he said it just looked like a bit of passion, from behind. He’s sorry you were ... upset. He did go looking for you but you seemed to disappear.’
    Disappearing was something she was good at.
    But all of this was irrelevant when Tess, two hundred pounds poorer, sat in the passenger seat of Guy’s car feeling the wheels spin impotently beneath them in soft, saturated soil. ‘You just about take the bloody biscuit,’ she sighed flatly, plaiting the front of her hair. ‘Doesn’t your brain ever engage? “ Let’s stop, I need to