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 looked at this boy—what was he? Fifteen? Sixteen?—and asked him to tell his brother that she wanted to see him. No, she corrected herself: she needed to see him. She added with a shake in her voice that it mustn’t be like this. Please, she said. Please. The words hung in the air between them. Liam’s brother looked for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but instead he simply nodded and she turned and left.

For several days, she sat listlessly in the living room at home, a blanket over her in spite of the heat, her head throbbing and her face turning to mauve and yellow, and watched daytime TV. Friends came to see her, exclaiming over the exciting awfulness of what had happened. She tried to smile and tried to talk. They brought body lotion and brownies they’d baked. Rosie gave her a vast potted plant which she said Jude should take to university with her, but which died within a week.

The crash was like a garish nightmare, remembered in fragments. Liam was like a figure in a fading dream. Sometimes she woke in the early hours and found she was crying.

She collected her results, which were better than predicted. So she would go to Bristol and she would become a doctor. Her life was still on track.

Liam’s life was still not on track. Benny told Jude that his results weren’t great. “He knew they wouldn’t be,” he said, as if that was a comfort. “He’s not that bothered. You know what he’s like.”

What was he like?

For weeks she thought about him all the time and then, bit by bit, it was easier not to think about him.

It had only been three months of her life: three intense, giddying months that had burned a hole in her life.

A few days before she was due to leave for Bristol, she saw him in the street with a girl. They were walking away from her, but she would have recognized him anywhere: the tall figure in tatty jeans; the slightly loping walk as if he couldn’t be bothered to lift his feet; the dark, unruly hair. She started to cry, thick tears sliding down her cheeks that weren’t bruised anymore, into her mouth. But she didn’t try to catch up with him; instead she turned away and walked in the other direction.

She thought that she would never see him again.

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