Chapter Forty-Three

ANNA YAWNED. IT was late. She checked the clock on her bedside table. It seemed that, while she’d been reading, Monday night had slipped into Tuesday morning. She put the book she’d been holding down on the bed. She really should turn out the light if she was going to make it to work on time.

A fortnight or so after her break up with Lee, Gabi was still at a loss as to what to do with herself. She’d called around just after Anna had got in from work the day before, bearing a bottle of wine and insisting they have a girls’ movie night. They’d started with Green Card, then had gone on to Moonstruck. Even though Anna had been ready to call it a day after the second film, Gabi had pleaded with her to squeeze just one more in as she’d found Sleepless in Seattle on Netflix. Anna hadn’t had the heart to say no.

Gabi was currently sprawled across the bed in Anna’s spare room, snoring softly, but Anna had come up to bed and hadn’t been able to resist picking up the book on her bedside table before she’d closed her eyes. Two hours later, she was still reading.

It was Brody’s book. Or, to be more accurate, it was the fourth book in Brody’s children’s series. Anna had already read the first three. In just over a week. The lady in the bookshop was starting to recognize her. The last time Anna had gone in, the sales assistant had reached below the counter and produced the book Anna was looking for before she’d had the chance to amble down to the children’s section.

‘Th-thank you,’ Anna had stuttered.

The lady had just smiled. ‘It happens a lot with this series,’ she’d explained simply. ‘Although I must say, you’re coming in faster than most. Your little one must be a voracious reader.’

Anna had just nodded and tapped her debit card on the machine.

It was hard not to read these books voraciously, she’d discovered. They were set in a fictional kingdom where magic and the unexpected were orders of the day. She understood completely why any child would be entranced by them. There were dragons and knights, elves and giants, gorgons and gryphons – along with some fantastical creatures she’d never even heard of and was convinced had come straight from Brody’s imagination. These books were full of adventure for the central character, Pip, a poor stable worker’s daughter who had dreams of being a knight, but there was also an elegance in the writing, a wistfulness. And wisdom too. Brody didn’t talk down to his young audience but credited them with the capability to understand that life had both triumphs and disappointments. No wonder they’d been popular with hundreds of thousands of children and their parents alike.

Anna opened her mouth to yawn and then shut it again, trying to stall it, which only made her want to yawn more desperately. She stared at the cover of the book, which showed a little girl with short blonde hair, wielding a sword in the face of a hydra. She still couldn’t believe that Brody had written it, that it had all come from his imagination. And there was no doubt it was her Brody who had written these words; she could hear his voice in her head as she read each sentence, hear the rhythm and pattern of his speech, certain turns of phrase that were uniquely him.