‘Let’s go straight to bed,’ he said. He pulled her towards him and they kissed. Kelly closed her eyes and felt, in that tiny moment, the luckiest woman alive. Not simply because of Johnny, but because she didn’t have a kid in the mortuary, she didn’t have a brother at the bottom of a lake, and she didn’t have a mother hacked to death in her own home. She shivered again and she felt goose bumps form on her skin. She followed him through to his bedroom, passing Josie’s.

Johnny’s house was a bungalow and she could find her way around in complete darkness. There was no sound in the house at all, and the village of Pooley Bridge was fast asleep. She couldn’t even hear the sound of a lone drunk staggering home and kicking an empty beer can. Nothing stirred.

She fell onto the bed and, suddenly cold, wrapped herself in the covers, peeling off her work clothes, eager to rid herself of the association. Johnny had little to take off but he did it quickly. He unwrapped her and she stifled laughter as he tried to find fastens and buttons underneath the fluffy duvet. They fumbled in the dark and to Kelly it felt glorious. They said nothing, and heard only their breath becoming more rapid. Kelly’s clothes fell in piles away from the bed as Johnny found them and got rid of them. Kelly noticed a small shard of moonlight across the bed and it illuminated her lover just enough to watch him watching her.

‘I love you,’ he said. It was a tiny whisper but enough for her to hear, and it was all she needed.

Tomorrow was a day away, and, for now, everything she wanted or needed was here in bed with this man.

Chapter 46

When she woke, her head was heavy and her eyes felt stuck together. She felt Johnny’s pillow. He wasn’t there. She heard the reassuring hum of father-daughter conversation coming from the kitchen. She put her hands over her eyes and blinked a few times, trying to wake up. Her body ached. She needed a shower and forced herself to the en-suite bathroom to gather the toiletries she needed from the stash she kept at Johnny’s. The hot water revitalised her and she took her time, hearing Johnny come into the bedroom and announce that breakfast was ready. She poked her head around the shower curtain and smiled.

‘Thank you. God that was a good sleep. I can’t even remember moving.’

‘I don’t think you did. Josie is just about to leave, I’m going to say goodbye, and apparently she’s meeting Callum on the bus.’

‘It’s getting serious?’

‘I took him home last night, he seems a nice lad.’

‘I’ve met his father.’

‘Really?’ Johnny asked.

‘Yes, you know the girl who was wandering around Castlerigg?’