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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

Did he expect an emotional attachment? A sexual attachment? She had felt immediately relieved that there were two bedrooms in the house. She had made it clear that she was engaged, she was committed. Had she made it clear enough, though? She considered it from his point of view and then from her own. Liam had been her first, and she could still remember the shock of that intimacy. It had been terrifying as well as thrilling. She had left herself so open, so exposed. She’d heard of people, she’d even known people, who had met up with old boyfriends from years before and rekindled something. Sometimes it had been disastrous and sometimes it hadn’t. She pushed away the idea. That was then and this was now, and in the now she was happy and in love with the man she was going to marry.

Liam was a stranger to her. She would carry out this favor for him, without doing anything she didn’t want to do, and then she would go back to her life.

She heard the tell-tale rattle of the rails. A train was coming. She looked at her phone: 9:24. Yes, this was the one. She stood up and took a step forward and looked in the direction of London. In the darkness she could see the glow of the approaching train, surprisingly distant. She felt nervous. She wondered if Liam was feeling nervous as well. Probably not. After all, he had planned this, and in the past he had never seemed to feel apprehension about anything at all.

The rattling of the rails increased and she heard the clacking sound of the train itself becoming louder and the lights on the front of the train becoming larger. As it approached, she could see the figure of the driver, silhouetted, and she reflexively stepped back from the edge of the platform.

It slowed with a screeching sound. As it drew to a halt she glimpsed the outlines of passengers in the lit windows. It stopped. No doors opened. No one got on and no one got off. And then, after a couple of minutes, it was gone and Jude watched the red lights in the back disappearing into the darkness.

Six

Jude was so startled that for a few moments she had trouble thinking straight. She took out her phone and looked at the time. There was no doubt about it. The train had arrived on time but Liam had not got off. Was it the right train? Perhaps the real one was about to arrive.

She would give it ten minutes. Now she found it impossible to sit calmly on the bench. She walked up and down the platform. She constantly checked her phone. The passing of the minutes was agonizingly slow, but finally ten minutes had gone and there was no sign of another train.