Overcome with sudden relief, my body collapsed and as I exhaled I threw my arms around him. ‘Really?’ I laughed, my eyes welling with tears. ‘Thank you!’

‘Let’s get you a towel and that cup of tea, shall we?’

He pressed his sleeve gently against my face to blot my tears. I laughed again and gripped his hand and he smiled at me.

Then a bloodcurdling scream tore through me.

CHAPTER FIFTY

CHAPTER FIFTY

Edie

August 1986

‘I can’t believe we’re really going to do this.’

Her body thrummed with excitement. She was finally escaping the mind-numbing dullness of her gilded life with its rotten core.

Out of sight of the house, they leant back on the dry-stone wall and rolled cigarettes.

‘You seem quiet,’ she said as she watched him lick the paper. ‘You’re not having second thoughts, are you?’

He shook his head. ‘I want to leave as much as you do.’

But he didn’t look excited. He looked sad. So she threw her arms around his neck and bit the edge of his earlobe. ‘All we’re going to do is have sex. Everywhere. All the time.’

He smiled and she laughed.

It was as if she’d been dead up until now and at last her life was about to begin.

They finished their cigarettes and threw them into the gorse behind the wall. ‘Don’t bring much,’ he said. ‘We can’t fit a lot on the bike.’

‘I only need my building society book. I’ll grab some clothes from the London house.’

‘Do you know where we’ll go after that?’

She laughed. ‘Not at all! Isn’t it exciting? I can’t wait to get on the road!’ She kissed him.

‘After we’ve got your stuff I need to make a stop at mine. I can’t leave without saying goodbye. I shouldn’t have lied to her. I can see why she thought what she did.’

Edie raised her eyebrows.

‘Don’t look at me like that. She’s my mum and I love her. I want to see her before I leave.’

‘What if she tries to stop you?’

‘She won’t. She and my dad got together at our age. She’ll be happy for us.’

‘Well we’re definitely not telling mine.’

‘You sure?’

‘Positive. They’ll tie me up and make me take A levels and go to university and be a lawyer or something respectable like that.’

‘A lawyer?’ He laughed.

She frowned. ‘I could be a lawyer.’ Then she smiled. ‘I can be anything I want.’

‘Come on then, Miss I-Could-Be-A-Lawyer, let’s grab your stuff and get going.’

They left the bike in a farm gateway and walked down the lane. She jumped onto him and he carried her piggy-back, while she nuzzled his neck.

‘Car’s here,’ she whispered as they reached the house. He lowered her down. ‘We need to be quiet.’

He nodded.