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Back The Favor
Chapters (78)
  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-One
  25. Twenty-Two
  26. Twenty-Three
  27. Twenty-Four
  28. Twenty-Five
  29. Twenty-Six
  30. Twenty-Seven
  31. Twenty-Eight
  32. Twenty-Nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty-One
  35. Thirty-Two
  36. Thirty-Three
  37. Thirty-Four
  38. Thirty-Five
  39. Thirty-Six
  40. Thirty-Seven
  41. Thirty-Eight
  42. Thirty-Nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty-One
  45. Forty-Two
  46. Forty-Three
  47. Forty-Four
  48. Forty-Five
  49. Forty-Six
  50. Forty-Seven
  51. Forty-Eight
  52. Forty-Nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty-One
  55. Fifty-Two
  56. Fifty-Three
  57. Fifty-Four
  58. Fifty-Five
  59. Fifty-Six
  60. Fifty-Seven
  61. Fifty-Eight
  62. Fifty-Nine
  63. Sixty
  64. Sixty-One
  65. Sixty-Two
  66. Sixty-Three
  67. Sixty-Four
  68. Sixty-Five
  69. Sixty-Six
  70. Sixty-Seven
  71. Sixty-Eight
  72. Sixty-Nine
  73. Seventy
  74. Acknowledgments
  75. About the Author
  76. Remarkable Praise for Nicci French
  77. Also by Nicci French
  78. About the Publisher

When Jude woke the next morning, she saw there had been a frost overnight. It was sunny, the sky was a steely bright blue and the air was clear. Everything looked clean. Jude felt it was an omen. It was time to go home. It felt strange to be saying this in the place that for many years really had been her home. It felt stranger still, because she didn’t have a home to go to in London. But it was time to find one. Or to make one.

Her mother’s face crumpled when Jude told her.

“Today?” she said.

“Yes. I’ve got to bite the bullet.”

“But where will you stay?”

“I’m going to make sure the flat’s ship-shape and then probably move in with Dee while I find somewhere. If she’ll have me. But there are other friends I can stay with while I look for a place. It’ll be all right.”

Jude took hold of her mother’s hand and held it against her own cheek. Both of them were close to tears. “You’ve been amazing,” she said. “But I need to sort out my life and the longer I wait, the harder it will be.”

Then there was the problem of Tara. She didn’t really want to go and see her again. This was a woman she barely knew. Hadn’t they said everything they had to say to each other? Jude toyed with the idea of just slipping away and sending her an apologetic text once she was back in London. But then she thought of Tara’s face. At least she should have the courage to phone her and apologize and explain that she was leaving today.

It didn’t work.

“You’re going today?” said Tara. “That’s perfect.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dermot’s here,” she said. “He’s driving down to London later and he can give you a lift.”

There were so many ways in which this wasn’t a good idea. After everything that had happened, she felt she’d seen quite enough of Dermot. More than that, she had been looking forward to a few hours on the train without having to make conversation.

“I really don’t want to be any trouble.”

“It won’t be any trouble at all,” said Tara in an assertive tone, and then shifted into a strange kind of stage whisper so that Jude could barely make out what she was saying. “He needs to get hold of himself. It will do him good, having someone to talk to.”

That was exactly why Jude didn’t want to spend three hours in a car with Dermot Birch but she couldn’t think of any excuse that wouldn’t sound intolerably rude. So she said that it would be lovely.