“I was just wondering if I could have my husband back at some point,” she said. “He isn’t well, you know – called in sick today, but you still packed him off on some fool’s errand to –”

Ellie broke in on Thelma’s chuntering. “Tom volunteered to go out to the Height and try to raise Matlock from there.” How long ago had that been? “He’s not come home?”

Thelma sighed theatrically. “Would I be here if he had?”

Ellie didn’t rise to the bait. “I’ll go check on him now.”

Thelma sniffed and gave the whisky another pointed look. “Are you sure you’re fit to drive?”

“Quite sure,” said Ellie. “Thanks for your help, Madeleine.”

“No problem. Give us a shout if you need anything else.”

Ellie scooped up her phone and ruffled the Bedlington’s hair, prompting a loud sigh and tut from Thelma. Madeleine rolled her eyes.

“I saw that, Reverend Lowe,” said Thelma. “I would have thought you of all people would want to uphold standards in this community. I’ll be raising this issue at the next parish council meeting –”

Madeleine bowed her head over the Jack Russell, pretending to fuss over the sleeping dog. “Get out while you can, Ellie,” she muttered. “Save yourself.”

Ellie managed to keep her face straight as she picked up her hat and gloves and made for the door. She felt rather guilty about leaving Madeleine in the lurch, but told herself the vicar might have trained the Jack Russell to hump legs on command.

Ellie went back down the High Street as fast as she dared to the Assemblies of God building. She knocked as much crusted snow off Tom’s X5 as she could, got the engine running and the wipers beating, switched on the blue light and drove past the roundabout towards Halliwell Way.

Most of the roads around Barsall, even long stretches of the North Road, were unlit. The streetlamps went some way to improving visibility, but once Ellie had passed the last of them she only had her headlights to rely on, and the world collapsed into a swirling tunnel of illuminated snow.

Ellie cut her speed to twenty miles per hour, then ten. She didn’t anticipate any traffic coming the other way, with the possible exception of Tom, returning to base and the wrath of She Who Must Be Obeyed (as he occasionally referred to Thelma when safely out of earshot), but there was always the danger of ice on the road, and if she was going to encounter that she intended to do so at the lowest possible speed.