Sarah was right. In some ways she had got herself stuck in a rut. Well, that was going to stop right now. If she couldn’t emigrate, then she’d find something else to do with her life. Be more proactive about it all. Running a group of offices in Upper Shenstead wasn’t nearly enough. She had a little money saved and could afford to take a risk or two, move away, start a completely new life.

She should have come back here long ago and laid the ghosts to rest. She walked slowly across the road to look at her old home more closely and mentally said a proper farewell to it.

Now she was ready to move on.

She spent the rest of the day driving round, stopping occasionally to study the view or watch the world go by from the car. She felt at peace with herself and her ankle wasn’t too bad, considering. She’d go home the next day and return to work on the Tuesday, as planned.

And Ben would ring her. He’d promised.

But even if he didn’t, she’d still make some changes in her life.

By the time she got back to Sandy’s, Megan wanted only to lie on her bed with her ankle up. She had her mobile phone switched on and had half-expected to hear from Ben by now. Which was stupid really. If he’d had to rush back to New York in such a hurry, he’d be deep in business negotiations by now, or whatever he had to do there to make this deal go through.

What did she know about what a high-powered businessman did to make money?

Only – he should have been able to snatch a couple of minutes, at least, to call her. Shouldn’t he?

Sandy greeted her with, ‘I’m glad you came back early. I was feeling so fed up today!’

Megan could hardly walk away and ignore her friend’s plea for company, so she smothered a sigh and sat down.

She had to explain why she was limping and mentioned her car breaking down. But she didn’t mention Ben. Couldn’t bear to expose such a fragile thing to public view.

When she’d finished talking, Sandy patted her belly fondly. ‘It’s really kicking hard now.’

Megan let her chatter on about the coming baby, then went to unpack and check the battery in her mobile phone. After lying on the bed for a while trying to read a book, she began to feel as if the walls were closing in on her. What she’d really like would be to go for a brisk walk, but that wasn’t possible till her ankle got better.

In the end she decided to go and visit her aunt and uncle. They’d been complaining they hadn’t seen enough of her lately.