Elle couldn’t believe it. Annoying little Karen who used to run after Elle and her old friend Paula back in their primary school days. Wow, talk about the time flying by . . .

‘Of course I do, it’s great to see you again.’ She put on her most winning smile, the one she used with clients. ‘Hope Paula’s keeping well?’

‘Didn’t you know? She emigrated to Australia about ten years ago. Married an Aussie and has two kids now.’

Elle swallowed. She didn’t know. In fact, she knew very little about what had become of her old friends these days. Her meeting with Hazel yesterday had underlined that.

After a few minutes of idle chit-chat with Karen, Elle smiled and left the shop, promising to call back and have a proper look around some other time, although she was really only being polite. But she was too distracted (and dare she say it nervous?) to go anywhere else for the ten minutes or so till her appointment. She might as well go to the bank early and wait.

The bank was one of the oldest buildings in town. Set at the very top of the pedestrian walkway, it was built from sandstone blocks, and lay gleaming under the sun, as bright and imposing as the day it had first stood there. It was a lovely building and Elle had always liked it, though she had long since moved on from thinking of that style as sophisticated.

She arrived at ten minutes to ten. As soon as she entered, she immediately spied several familiar faces.

There was Joanie Sawyer, who left secondary school a year before her, she thought, as she took in the appearance of one of the bank tellers. She also saw an old friend’s mother whose name she couldn’t remember, and Elle was pretty sure that her old Maths teacher was waiting in line. Crikey, she knew practically everyone in here. Elle had no doubt that news of her visit to the bank would soon spread, along with speculation about what was going on. After all, this truly was a really small town, and if Elle remembered correctly, Joanie was a hopeless gossip.

A staff member at reception (who for a change didn’t seem to recognise Elle) informed Mr Grant that she had arrived, but ten o’clock came and went with no sign of him. At 10:15 the girl smiled anxiously and went to check again.

‘It won’t be long,’ she said when she came back out. ‘Mr Grant can be very busy in the mornings.’

Elle smiled tightly. The long wait wasn’t really improving her mood, and poor time-keeping was one of her pet hates.