She doesn’t count her steps or feel guilty for not reaching a goal. Instead, she browses in the local charity shops and chooses things for her room, even though she isn’t sure if Georgia will want her to stay. She buys an old vegetarian cookery book by Rose Elliot, and a little wooden chest with twelve tiny drawers for her earrings, and a blue vintage ink bottle with the wrong kind of plain glass stopper. And she looks at the Gumtree app and buys herself a second-hand yellow bicycle.

Chapter 77

October 2011

Four weeks after she had sent the enormous metal road sign, and three weeks after Georgia had been due to come home from France, Tess rounds the corner on her way back from the swimming pool on her bike, and stops.

Two people are walking towards 25 Library Terrace. One has short pepper-and-salt hair and is carrying her trademark green backpack. The other is white-haired and taller, wearing brown trousers and a red jacket, and he is pulling a small suitcase. They are holding hands. She watches them go through the gate. The man touches the cherry tree in the front garden. He puts his arms around the woman and leans in to kiss her. And then they disappear around the side of the house.

Tess is suddenly reminded of The Railway Children, where Father comes home, but the reader doesn’t see what happens when he goes into the house because that part of the story is not for public consumption.

She wheels her yellow bicycle round a hundred and eighty degrees and decides to go to the library to see if there are any books she has missed in the vegetarian section.

Baxter is at home.

He will look after them.

2021

Chapter 78

July 2021

Tess’s eyes are streaming with onion tears when her phone rings. She sniffs loudly and debates whether or not to answer it. She has never quite worked out why sniffing might suck the tears back up, but it does seem to help.

‘Damn.’

She taps the green icon and shouts at the phone, ‘Hi Fiona can you wait a minute I’m chopping onions give me a sec to sort myself out,’ all in one burst without stopping. She washes her hands in the scullery sink and comes back into the kitchen and sits down at the table. ‘Right. I’m here, what can I do for you?’

‘There’s Mount Washington in the utility room and the Great Ironing Pile may turn into an avalanche, but I don’t want you to feel guilty about it at all.’

Tess groans. ‘I’m really sorry, but I’m just trying to limit the number of people I see. I still think of Georgia and Stan as being vulnerable, you know?’

‘It’s OK. I understand, I’m just winding you up. You’ll be dealing with a big backlog when this pandemic is over, though, I should warn you.’