BooksBarbecue
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

She was aware that Liam could arrive at any moment and it wouldn’t do to be caught rifling through his bag. So she carefully replaced everything, trying to do it in the right order and trying also not to do it too carefully. She had to pack the bag the way Liam had packed it, not the way she would have done it, which meant the clothes weren’t neatly folded and arranged but crammed in anyhow.

She picked up his mobile. She thought for a moment of checking it, to look at recent calls, emails, but as soon as she tried, it asked for the passcode. It was probably just as well, she thought. She pushed it back into the bag, under a shirt, the way it had been. She zipped up the bag, put it on the floor and went downstairs.

The risotto was ready on the stove. It just needed heating up. Jude didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to eat. She felt like a drink but she had already had two glasses of wine, maybe a bit more than two, and she had never had much of a head for alcohol. She probably wasn’t thinking clearly as it was. She had already rejected the idea of leaving as impossible. But what about staying? She had lied to her fiancé. Now Liam had failed to appear and his bag was upstairs with the phone.

She couldn’t think of what to do, so she simply sat in the armchair and stared in front of her.

Seven

At midnight, Jude finally climbed into the narrow bed. She had dozed off downstairs, waking with a jerk, unable for a moment to remember where she was, and when she did remember, she was flooded with unease.

Liam obviously wasn’t coming tonight. Tomorrow, then. The first train got in at 8:25. She would meet that, and if he wasn’t on it . . . She rubbed her face. She had no idea what she would do if he wasn’t on it. Drive back to London and leave the car somewhere, to be towed away?

She set her alarm for seven, saw a WhatsApp from Nat and sent him a string of hearts in reply, cleaned her teeth, pulled on pajama trousers and an old T-shirt. The sheets were chilly and she curled herself up into a ball, pulling her knees to her chin, rubbing her cold feet. She imagined being with Nat in their double bed at home, snuggling up to the warmth of him.

She closed her eyes and heard the wind in the creaking branches, the rain falling steadily. If she let herself, she could panic, lying here in the unfamiliar darkness, surrounded by marshland and then the sea, sweeping in over mudflats. Something had gone wrong. Something was going wrong right now.