Not at Henry’s story – it all made plausible sense. But the fact that while talking to me about potentially getting stuck in a blizzard, trying to figure out where he was going to sleep that night, Henry had not only noticed a man looking stressed, and then bothered to go and offer help. He’d rummaged through the contents of a service station bin.

Spending time with Henry was only reinforcing my belief that he wasn’t normal. But I was starting to appreciate that he was abnormal in some of the best ways.

9

‘Do you think they’ve taken down your number plate and the police are in hot pursuit as we speak?’ I asked, two doughnuts and thirty miles later.

‘I’d hope the police have better things to do. I did put most of the rubbish back.’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if Bob and Ange decide to go rogue and bring you down themselves.’

Henry twitched one eyebrow. ‘Ange wouldn’t know what to do with me if I drove back and handed myself in.’

‘Looks like we’ve made it to the border, anyway. Home free.’ I nodded at the ‘Welcome to Scotland’ sign up ahead, the turn-off for Gretna just beyond it.

‘Two hours to go.’

‘I’ll call and let them know my driver will be requiring a room,’ I said, putting on a frightfully posh accent that did nothing to disguise how uncomfortable I felt. To my great relief, Baxter’s assistant, Melody Briggs, didn’t answer the number she’d given me. Rather than garbling a message, I decided the best (least scary) thing to do was to leave it for now.

I put the phone down and settled back into the heated leather seat, closing my eyes and trying to focus on what questions Baxter Bigwood might ask, and how I could answer them in a way that portrayed me as the perfect combination of red-hot television personality and expert meteorologist.

When a ping startled me out of my snooze a while later, night had fallen, as had the first dusting of fresh snow. Thinking it might be Melody, I hurriedly rummaged about in the darkness until I found my phone in the footwell.

One word flashed up on the screen.

Hey

I pressed the phone against my pounding chest as various potential responses raced through my head. Henry adjusted his position, rolling his shoulders, and the reminder that I wasn’t alone was enough to stop me giving in to temptation and immediately calling Adam. Instead, I took a deep breath and went for the safer option.

Hey

A second later, he replied.

You busy?

Henry had his eyes firmly on the road. At some point while I’d been sleeping we had left the motorway and were now on a winding lane.

Not especially

I was thinking how this will be our first Christmas apart