She sits up straighter. Saffy! She hasn’t called her all day. Damn it, she’d promised she’d ring on her way home. She rummages in her bag for her phone. Where is it? She has so much crap in her bag: old receipts, business cards, a notebook, two pens, her purse and makeup. But it doesn’t matter how much she searches, it’s not there. She flops back against the seat. She must have dropped it or did she leave it on the table when she left? She groans, startling a man in the seat opposite. Her whole life is on that phone. She doesn’t know any of the numbers by heart. Who does any more? She suddenly feels naked and vulnerable without it and inwardly curses the modern world, the advances in technology that have made her so dependent on a stupid little machine. She fights the urge to scream. What is she going to do now? She just hopes there’s a taxi rank outside the station in Chippenham or she’ll have a long walk back to Beggars Nook. It’s at least five miles. And without her phone she won’t know the way.

There’s nothing she can do about it now anyway, she thinks, as she watches the Kent countryside whizz past her. She has no choice but to drink her coffee and try to relax.

It’s gone eleven by the time her second train pulls into Chippenham station. She hopes Saffy and Tom aren’t too worried about her. She feels a stab of guilt that she’s probably keeping them up because she hasn’t got her own key.

The station is deserted: the other three passengers who disembarked with her have melted away into the dark night. She shivers in her tweed jacket and pulls it around herself, aware of her heels echoing on the empty platform. She walks fast, wanting to get home now, back to Saffy, to tell her everything she’s found out today.

At the entrance there are no waiting taxis. Just an empty strip of road. What is she going to do now? Could she ask to borrow someone’s phone? A young guy she recognizes from the train is waiting by the exit, a briefcase at his feet, headphones on and red Nike trainers, at odds with his business suit. His head is bent as he scrolls through his phone.

She sidles up to him, aware she must look a bit manic. He removes his headphones as she gets closer. ‘Excuse me? Can I use your phone to call a taxi?’

‘Sure,’ he says, without smiling. ‘I’ll call one. I’ve got a number in my phone. Where do you want to go?’

‘Beggars Nook.’

He laughs. ‘Beggars Nook? Where the hell is that?’

She forces a smile. ‘It’s a little village nearby.’

He calls the taxi firm, then places his hand over the mouthpiece. ‘Name?’ he whispers.