Hannah’s tiny hand grabbed Jack’s bare foot and she looked up at him with a bright, smiling face. ‘Well . . .’ Penny looked exhausted. ‘That’ll do for today.’ Penny scooped Hannah up. ‘She’s a bit ripe. I’ll change her.’ Penny looked up just as Jack tried to subtly wipe the tear from his cheek. ‘My boy . . .’ Penny said as she kissed his forehead and held back tears of her own. ‘I’m so glad you’re safe. There’s no prouder mum, or dad anywhere in the world.’ Then she went inside the house with Hannah.

Jack and Maggie sat together on the rickety garden chairs in perfect, contented silence. She was once again resting her head on his shoulder. ‘I know you see me, Mags. For who I am. Who I need to be. You’re the only person in the world who does.’

‘I feel . . .’ Maggie chose her words carefully. ‘Not all the time, but every now and then, I feel the danger . . . of who you are. But that’s OK, because we both know that life’s not black and white. But if you ever bring danger to this door, Jack . . .’

Jack tightened his grip on her, and Maggie knew that she didn’t need to finish her sentence. ‘I swear on my life. I’ll never do anything to hurt you. Or make you ashamed of me. Or make you doubt me.’

Jack felt her cheek lift on his shoulder as she smiled, and he could feel her cool tears soaking into his sleeve.

She laced her fingers into his and their perfect, contented silence returned.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the staff at my publisher, Bonnier Books UK, with special thanks to Kate Parkin, Bill Massey, Stephen Dumughn, Ben Willis, Francesca Russell, Blake Brooks, Nick Stearn and Ruth Logan.

Thank you to my team at La Plante Global, Nigel Stoneman, Tory MacDonald and Cass Sutherland. Special thanks to Debbie Owen and Mick Randall, for all their help with Judas Horse.

Thanks also to the team at Allen and Unwin in Australia and New Zealand, and in South Africa, to all the staff at Jonathan Ball.

In Ireland, thanks to Simon Hess and Declan Heeney for all their hard work selling and publicising my books.

To all the booksellers and retailers, reviewers and bloggers who stock, read, review and promote my books, thank you again for your support, time and words.

Finally, thank you to my readers, who keep in touch via my social media and who I have met on Facebook Live in the past year. I hope you’ve enjoyed our chats as much as I have.

About the Author

About the Author