Chapters (37)
‘Peter,’ she said then. ‘I have to leave for a while, as long as you promise me you’ll be here when I come back.’ He closed his eyes and nodded. Tears coursed down his face, but she had no strength for his unhappiness just now. She stooped to rest her palm on his head though, leaving it there for a few moments in place of all the words she didn’t have, then she stood up and left the room, shutting the door and resting her head briefly against it.
‘Alison,’ Catherine shouted from the bathroom, petulant, demanding. ‘Alison, come here!’
But she descended the stairs, put the mains switch back on, picked up her satchel from the floor, and left the house. The clock said two forty-five, although she felt she’d suffered for days and days on Peter’s account. There was a bus leaving Shortridge Street in five minutes. In under an hour, she’d be at Daniel’s house, where the world was a safer place to inhabit.