‘Well,’ said Mum, staring after him. ‘What a turn-up.’
‘Yes. Have you finished that? I’m ready to go.’
‘What? But the night is young.’
‘I know, but I have things I have to do.’
Back in the car on the way to drop mum in Tylney, the expected interrogation began.
‘So, tell me, Luce, you’re not getting involved with him again, are you?’
‘Not in that way.’
‘I bloody well hope not. It’s his fault you buggered off to Hungary for seven years and I only got to see you once in a blue moon.’
‘No, it isn’t. I wanted to work in Hungary.’
‘You wanted to run away from him.’
‘How could I run away from somebody who wasn’t chasing me?’
‘There was more to that than met the eye. I’d put good money on it. I don’t think he wanted to treat you the way he did.’
‘Mum, just because he’s smooth-talked you tonight doesn’t mean you can rewrite history. He treated me like a doll. No two ways about it.’
I needed to calm down a bit. I was well over the speed limit. I relaxed my foot on the pedal and tried to breathe.
‘I bet he was under pressure. Boys from his background can’t just see who they like, you know.’
‘Mum, this is the twenty-first century. Everybody can see exactly who they like. And if they can’t, then they can do the other person the favour of steering well fucking clear.’
Mum sighed and fidgeted with her friendship bands as we passed the ‘Welcome to Tylney: Historic Heart of the Vale’ signpost.
‘I wish you’d told me at the time what was going on,’ she said.
‘He made me keep it a secret. What an idiot I was. As if that didn’t tell me everything I needed to know about our future.’
‘You live, you learn,’ said Mum, but I was in no mood for philosophical insights. I stopped the car in the alleyway behind Tylney Pet Supplies.
‘Aren’t you coming in?’ she asked, halfway out of the door, having noticed that I hadn’t turned off the engine.
‘No. I’ve got to see a man about a dog.’
She gave me a long look.
‘That man wouldn’t happen to be a lord, would he?’
‘Mum, it’s OK. It’s business. He wants to work on a story with me, that’s all.’
That’s all.
I knew, and I think she knew, that there was a lot more to it than that.
But she contented herself with a ‘Be careful’ before shutting the car door and skipping up the fire escape to the flat.
When I parked the car at Willingham Hall, I could see a dark figure sitting on the front steps. He was waiting for me.
He hurried across the gravel and intercepted me before I could change my mind.