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Back A Change of Circumstance
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

Ten minutes later, she had run through Starly, and headed out towards the fields, where the spring onions and young carrots were grown by the thousand and rows of caravans housed the foreign pickers, in season. Now, they were not yet ploughed and the ground was dark with pools of water. She ran more slowly, then dropped down to a walk, as the road was so muddy, before turning up a track that led across a field to some barns. Beside them was a row of half a dozen old cottages, in various stages of decay. But the last one had unbroken windows, old cars and bits of motorbikes littered around, and smoke coming out of the chimney. A dog barked crazily as she approached but it was safely held back on a short chain tied to a post, and could only leap and lunge at her helplessly. No one came out but a voice shouted something from inside the end house. Olivia had the packet ready in her hand and she dashed towards the door and shoved it into the letter box, barely pausing, before starting back along the track.

‘Oi!’

She did not look round or stop, she had done what she was forced and paid to do, and she didn’t want to see or talk to the man with the belly hanging over his trousers and wearing a filthy vest and jerkin, the man who leered at her and made sucking noises between his teeth. She ran, never mind if she slipped and fell over, she always felt like this after she’d been there, the fear and the panic came then, not as she went across the field towards the place. She would tell him she wasn’t going again. Not anywhere again. Not doing it again. Not doing it. Never. Never doing it. She ran in time to her own voice.

Not again not again not again not again . . .

A stitch in her side drew her up, and as she bent over to ease it, an image of her father flashed across her mind, her father by himself, looking stern, as if he were telling her off, but was finding it hard to be entirely serious, and she reached for her phone, suddenly needing to see him or speak to him at least, needing him around her but at home and as it used to be. He would have been able to do something, help her, she would have told him about the Weasel and he would have somehow sorted it all out, she was quite sure. But why wouldn’t he do that anyway, even though everything was different and he was not at home with them? He still existed, she could still see him, and then he could, he would, because he was her dad. Nothing changed that.