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Back The Favor Save as PDF
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

Jude tried to make the heating work but only one radiator got warm. She thought she might run a bath but the plug seemed to be missing.

Outside, it was completely dark. There wasn’t even a moon. Water dripped from the gutters.

She’d brought a book with her but couldn’t concentrate on it. She made the risotto. She flicked through TV channels, read the news on her phone. She wanted to open the wine but couldn’t because she was going to be using the car.

At ten past nine, she left the house, locking the door and sliding the key into her coat. She drove to Ixley station, the headlights making a tunnel of light through an unfamiliar world of woods and fields and marshland. Little creatures spun across the road.

There was a bang, and in the distance she saw a spark arcing into the sky and then exploding into petals of light, then another. She was missing Bonfire Night. She imagined her friends gathered in the park, setting off rockets and drinking mulled wine, and here she was in a place she had never heard of, meeting a man she hadn’t seen for eleven years.

The car park was empty. The little station was deserted. She sat on the bench, in the darkness and the cold, and waited. She tried not to think about what Liam was going to say to her, what this favor actually consisted of. She tried not to think about why he had specifically chosen her, rather than one of his friends. The more she tried not to think about these things, the more she thought about them. What was it that she could do that nobody else could?

She made herself a promise. When Liam arrived, she would make sure she was absolutely clear about what it was he wanted her to do and then, whatever the obligation she felt to this man she had once loved, if it was wrong, she wouldn’t do it. It would be embarrassing, he would probably be angry with her, but there was a line she wouldn’t cross.