I think not. Lauren may like to kid herself that she’s harder than me, but I know that she’s a sucker for a sob story. In my position, I’d like to bet that she would have handed over the money too. ‘This –’ whatever this turns out to be ‘– has hit her very hard.’

Lauren flops back in her chair and puffs out, ‘I’ll bet.’

‘We have to help her, Lauren. Both of us. She needs us. I can go to Peru another time.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Lauren says. ‘It’s no good trying to be philosophical, Annie, when it’s taken you nearly twenty years to pluck up the courage to do this.’

More wine. More crying.

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Nothing,’ I snivel. ‘Stay here rotting away in this prison of a marriage.’

My sister makes a frantic cutting motion across her throat, but it’s too late.

From behind me, my husband says, ‘Thank you, Annie. That lets me know exactly where I stand.’

‘Greg . . .’ I spin round. My husband is standing there, hands in pockets, looking stony faced. ‘I didn’t mean it. I was just being overly dramatic. I’m just dis appointed that I can’t go to Peru.’

‘So I gather,’ he says, then heads towards the back door. ‘Your gaoler is going fishing. I don’t know when I’ll be back.’

‘Greg!’

‘Let him go,’ my sister advises. ‘Bloody men.’

‘What shall I do now?’

‘Get me a glass,’ Lauren says. ‘I’ve given up my vow of not drinking. You and I, my dear sister, need to be very, very drunk.’

I sigh inside. I’ll drink to that.

Chapter 106

Chapter 106

Greg couldn’t face going fishing with Ray today. This was a day when he needed to be alone, to think, to wonder what had gone wrong with his marriage, why he and Annie were so far apart when once they had been so close.

He’d stayed away from the canal, because it was more than likely that Ray would be down there anyway. Instead, he’d parked up, walked for miles with a light bag of tackle and gone to a secluded bank on the River Ouse with a view to spinning for a pike.

Normally, he wouldn’t head out in search of a pike but he wanted a battle, wanted to struggle; he didn’t want the ease of plucking perch one after another out of the still waters of the canal. There were some big fish lurking in this spot – twenty pounds and more – that had grown fat in relative peace, largely untroubled by the rods of anglers.

The day was overcast, the sun sulking behind the grey clouds. And it was cooler than it had been. The perfect day for his mood.