Two large suitcases stood there, just where I’d put them at eight o’clock that morning. Quickly I moved them into the trunk of my car, checking the driveway each time in case I was disturbed. Another bag followed: my cabin bag that I’d bought for my last trip abroad. I hadn’t thought then that I’d use it for this journey, too. Then there were other bags that I’d put in the shed that morning containing towels, bed linen, my hair dryer and toiletries. My laptop. None of my books were there; I didn’t have room in my car to take them. I’d pick them up another day. Last to go into the trunk was a box file with all my documents: my birth certificate, our marriage certificate. Deeds to the house. Insurance. Bank statements. My passport. It had surprised me how much I’d had to take and how much I’d been able to leave. Each time I put a bag into the trunk, I closed it afterward, just in case. I was being paranoid, I knew. Tom wouldn’t be here just yet. I had more than an hour to go.

When everything was in my car, I rearranged the shed so that it didn’t look as though the bags had been there and quickly swept the tiled floor, in case there were tracks in the dust. Then I moved my car. There was space for a couple of vehicles on our driveway, but one had to park behind the other and it could be a nuisance trying to get out in the morning. Long ago I’d gotten used to Tom’s having priority. Now when I parked back on the road outside our house, I noted the irony that by doing something that he’d told me to do, I was able to easily escape.

Back in the house, I put the shed key on the hook by the back door, and stilled it with my hand. I didn’t want anything to give me away.

The kitchen was clean and tidy. It was a large room with French doors that looked out onto the garden. The patio was a sun-trap and a riot of color with all the flowering plants I’d put into pots and hanging baskets. When we first moved in, this room and the garden had been my pride and joy. Back then I’d had fantasies of long lazy Sunday lunches with children running around on the lawn afterward, of Saturday-night dinners with friends, of late weekend breakfasts reading the newspapers in our dressing gowns and planning our day. Things hadn’t exactly worked out like that.