‘This arrived in the post,’ Edie said. ‘I know you won’t even want to look at it, but—’

‘I don’t,’ Gilly assured her, concentrating on the screen.

‘—but I know the head of the department of this place. We were at art college together, back in the day, actually, so I called her.’

Gilly stopped what she was doing and looked up with a frown. ‘Why?’

‘To talk about you, Gilly. I explained that I’ve been doing some private tuition of a student who has real potential but needs help getting back into the formal education system.’

‘But I don’t,’ Gilly said. ‘I don’t want help, I don’t need help. How many times do I have to tell you that?’

‘Gilly,’ Rachel said, coming to join them. ‘Why don’t you just listen to what Edie has to say? She’s obviously got news.’

‘I’ve been listening,’ Gilly retorted. ‘It’s all she ever talks about.’

‘That’s not even slightly true,’ Edie huffed.

‘Yeah, you’re right, it’s not,’ Gilly agreed. ‘You also whinge non-stop about Ezra and that bloody goat.’

Edie gave her a look that could have curdled the milk in her coffee. ‘I don’t know why I bother.’

‘I don’t know either!’ Gilly told her, her voice rising. ‘That’s what I’m saying! Don’t bother, because I don’t want you to bother!’

‘Gilly,’ Rachel said again, her voice gently warning.

Gilly sighed. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Look, I know I owe you a ton—’

‘That’s not what this is about,’ Edie said. ‘It annoys me to see talent go to waste. And that’s what you’re doing – you’re wasting your talents when you could be putting them to good use to build yourself a future. What’s going to happen to you, Gilly? How will you live?’

Gilly stared at the computer screen, resolutely ignoring Edie’s face and stabbing harshly at the old keys. ‘I’ll get a job.’

‘Where?’

‘I don’t know – wherever will take me.’

‘For minimum wage, you mean? You think that’ll be enough to build a life on?’

Gilly threw up her hands. ‘What do you want from me?’

‘I want you to have a better future than you have now. You can’t stay in my spare room for ever.’

Gilly stared at Edie, hard. ‘Is that what this is about? I’ve outstayed my welcome? Fine. I’ll go tonight, as soon as I’ve finished here, I’ll grab my things and get out, okay?’

‘That’s not what I mean!’ Edie said, her irritation beginning to show. ‘God, trying to talk to you is like trying to talk to a brick wall! I won’t be here for ever, Rachel won’t be here for ever, the bookshop won’t be here for ever, the situation as it stands right now will not last for ever! You need to think about the future, Gilly. You need to be able to find your own home.’

Her own home? Gilly almost laughed out loud at that one. Did this woman know nothing?

‘I know that from where you are now, that sounds impossible,’ Edie went on. ‘You’ve been barely surviving for so long that you can’t imagine life ever being different. But it can be. If you work at it.’