It sickened her to think that, for the three months she had been with Ian, he might unwittingly have had a child. Ian hesitated for a second then rose to his feet in one lithe movement and left without looking back. As she closed the door of the flat behind him, Geraldine burst into tears. Alone once more, she poured herself a second glass of wine and collapsed on the sofa, sobbing quietly. After just a few short months, her only chance of happiness had been snatched away and she had no resources left to comfort herself. She had assured Ian that everything would be all right, but that was a lie, at least where she was concerned. For the rest of her life, nothing would ever be all right again.

15

15

Turning on the ignition, David could hardly see anything through the film of slime on his windscreen as he drove round the bend in the drive, out of sight of the house. It was going to take a few minutes for the glass to clear, so while he waited he fished out his phone to check his emails. However furiously he worked his wipers, the mess continued to smear back and forth across the glass without seeming to clear. An automatic car wash was unlikely to remove all the traces of slime and fragments of shell left by the eggs that had been thrown, but he had no other choice until the next day as the hand valeting service at the garage would be closed by the time he reached the garage. The car wash machine was better than nothing, although he might be better off to wait until the morning when it could have a more thorough hand wash, but if he left the car as it was overnight, the viscous muck might dry and be more difficult to remove. He was still undecided what to do, and couldn’t help feeling the situation had become more challenging than it ought to be for an intelligent man accustomed to dealing with problems.