‘OK,’ she said. ‘OK.’

She opened her mouth, and the ball gag was pushed in, then the hood was jammed over her eyes.

She heard her car door opening, and then there was a shove in her back and she fell into the rear seat. The door slammed shut.

2013 Christening

Having a baby – a son, he was a father to a son – was everything he had thought it would be and nothing like he had expected. The love, the wonder, the overwhelming desire to keep Norman from harm were all things he had expected.

What he had not expected was how intense they were. He had no idea before he picked up his son for the first time and lay on the hospital bed with Norman on his chest, just how immediate and complete the feeling of absolute devotion would be.

He’d known this person only minutes, and yet he was already the most important thing in his life.

He and Annabelle. Matt had looked at her, lying next to him in that hospital bed, and he had seen a different person. She had metamorphosed. He had thought he had loved her as much as he could but in the instant he met his son a new world had opened up to him. She was his wife and lover, his life partner, his best friend, and now she was the mother of his child. She had borne this child, given him this most precious thing. Without her there would be no Norman.

Without her, there would be nothing.

Without them both, his life would be meaningless.

Which he wished he could say. They were in the church – St Wilfrid’s, the same one they had been married in – getting Norman christened, and he wanted to turn to his friends and family and tell them what the baby he was holding at the front of the church and the woman by his side meant to him.

He wouldn’t, though.

He would think it, and hope Annabelle guessed it somehow, but he wouldn’t say it. He wondered why not. Was it because he thought it was a sign of weakness? That it made him look vulnerable? He was vulnerable, and showing that would not be a sign of weakness, but of strength, strength he did not yet have.

Maybe next time.

‘OK,’ the vicar said. ‘Could you hand Norman to me?’

She held out her hands and Matt placed Norman in them. He was asleep, and he twitched at the moment of transfer, then settled again.

‘A beautiful child,’ the vicar said. ‘Congratulations. And sleeping too. Although that may not last.’

She held him close to the font and scooped up water from a pewter bowl. She poured it over his head.

‘I baptize you in the name of the Father …’

Norman woke, and screwed up his face. She poured more water on him.

‘… and of the Son …’