‘Briony will be sleeping in, I’ll bet!’

Cissy pushed Mrs Horlock in the shoulder gently. ‘Oh, you’re terrible you are!’

Tommy walked into Briony’s bedroom, shutting the door gently behind him. Briony lay asleep, her hair around her head like a deep red halo. She had on a small night light which flickered as the door opened and closed, giving her milky skin a luminous glow. She turned on to her side, giving him a tantalising glimpse of breast, then as she began to burrow under the covers, she froze. Opening her eyes in alarm, she realised someone was there.

‘All right, Bri, calm down, it’s only me.’

She lay on her back once more, staring up at him in wonderment.

‘Tommy?’ She blinked her eyes a couple of times as if unsure what she was seeing was real.

Sitting up in the bed, her face glowing, she hugged her knees through the blankets.

‘You came back? Oh, Tommy, it’s good to see you.’

She flung her arms around his neck, pushing her body against his and feeling the comforting warmth as he hugged her back.

Tommy remembered the love he had had for her, felt the pull of her. He disengaged himself from her arms with difficulty.

‘I’m not back for good, Bri, let’s get that straight now.’

Her face darkened. ‘What do you mean?’ He could hear the confusion in her voice.

‘What I say, Bri. We’re old news, love. I came to tell you something important, something that has to be said face to face. Joshua and his mother are gone. They won’t be back again. What he knew about you and Eileen is as safe as houses.’

‘How did you know... How did you know he’d found out? No one knew, no one except me and me mum and our Eileen...’ She was stammering.

‘I found them tonight, and heard everything they said. At least his mother had the sense to know he’d gone too far. Well, I’ve shut the pair of them up, permanently.’

Briony’s face dropped. Her whole countenance seemed to crumple before his eyes.

‘You don’t mean...’

He nodded.

‘You didn’t have to do that! I could have shut them up. Fear would have shut them up, Tommy, plain and simple fear. I wanted to kill them myself, but I know I never would have. It was just temper. I could have shut them up by myself!’ She pushed him away from her then. Getting out of the bed, she pulled on a wrapper and began pacing the bedroom floor as she tried to comprehend what Tommy had done.