‘I hate to tell you this, sweetheart, but I think you’re getting confused between sleep and real life,’ said Michael. ‘You know how you make up stories sometimes. I passed out all night. I came nowhere near this cottage. You know how your mind can be. You’re not always in the real world, are you? After your mother neglecting you like that. And then the cancer. The treatment played havoc with you, didn’t it?’

It’s true, I thought. I’m not stable. I’m losing my mind. It was some weird dream. He fell asleep in the house and I made up the rest.

‘Well, you still left me alone all night,’ I said.

‘Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I passed out. Swear to God.’

‘It was scary out here. And cold.’

‘Let me make it up to you. I can hardly help falling unconscious through tiredness, can I? Forgive me. Let’s not hold on to this. Listen, Diane’s gone now. She left last night. Let’s get everything back on track and I’ll make sure you’re the girl who gets steak today, okay?’

‘Diane left last night?’

‘Yeah.’ Michael rubbed his nose and forehead. ‘She’s not good. Not good at all. Still talking about suicide and all sorts. It scared me, to be honest. Here I am living with another woman, and she’s telling me she’d break into a million pieces if I ever left her.’ He kissed my head. ‘But my little Lorna wants me to tell Diane the truth, and the truth it shall be.’

‘You know, maybe you should hold off telling her about me,’ I said. ‘Until Diane’s better. I don’t want to be the cause of anything bad happening. And if she’s so fragile …’

‘But, princess, you don’t like all the sneaking around. Right?’

‘I don’t. But … I don’t want Diane to hurt herself. It’s fine. Like you say, a bit of acting might be needed. We know what we have.’

Michael gave me his earnest eyes then. ‘You are pretty much the perfect woman, do you know that? The perfect, understanding, considerate woman. And I am madly in love with you.’

I grinned reluctantly then, sun coming out from behind a cloud.

‘So what do you want to do today?’ Michael asked. ‘I need to make this up to you. We have the whole day together. Do you want to go out on the quad bike?’

‘You’d let me ride your bike?’

‘On one condition,’ said Michael, kissing my neck. ‘You take your clothes off while you’re doing it.’

I laughed. ‘I’ll do anything to ride that bike around.’

Michael made it sound like a fun game, but naked bike riding was just another control thing. If I was naked, I couldn’t go far. Like always, Michael made sure he had an invisible leash around my neck.