‘Okay,’ he said.

She blinked. ‘Okay?’

He shrugged. ‘Sure. If it’s not what you want, that’s fine. But we’re going to have to work out what you’re going to do instead, so why don’t you and me sit down and have a chat about that, all right?’

Gilly frowned, as if she had been prepared for a fight and now that she wasn’t going to get one she wasn’t sure what to do. After a moment she stepped back and let him in, sitting on the edge of her bed while he arranged himself at her desk.

‘Come on then. What’s your plan?’ he asked, leaning forward on the small chair and clasping his hands between his knees.

Gilly sniffed. ‘I thought I could get a job at the Co-op. If I pass my Highers—’

‘You will.’

‘If I pass them, that should be enough.’

Ezra nodded. ‘What if there aren’t any jobs going at the Co-op?’

Gilly shrugged. ‘There’s the filling station on the main road. They’re always looking for people to work overnight.’

‘Well, that does sound like fun.’

‘Or there’s the pub.’

‘You’re going to go and work for someone who sacked you once?’

‘He didn’t sack me,’ Gilly said. ‘I was never really working there, not officially. And maybe he’ll feel like he owes me another chance, especially now all the stuff about that McCreedy cow has come out. Anyway, if none of those places need me, I can find something in Great Dunbar, can’t I? They’re building that new shopping centre out by the industrial estate, there’ll be loads of jobs going there.’

‘All right. What about your art?’

‘I can still do that. I’ll be working proper hours so I can pay rent and buy my own materials. I can work and I can carry on learning with Edie. Then maybe when I’ve got better at it, I can sell my work online, the way she does.’ She looked pleased with herself. ‘I’ve thought this out, Ezra. I know what I’m doing.’

‘I can see that,’ Ezra agreed. ‘But something’s changed, Gilly, and Edie and I don’t understand what. You and I, only a few weeks ago, had a chat about all the different techniques you were looking forward to learning when you went to college. Back then you were still planning to go. What happened to change that?’

Gilly’s face darkened and she looked away. ‘Nothing. I just don’t want to.’

Ezra raised his hands. ‘And that’s fine. It’s your decision. No one’s going to make you do something you really don’t want to do. But equally, I don’t want you not to do something you want to do because of some problem we don’t know about. Talk to me. What changed?’

Gilly was quiet for a long time. ‘I didn’t think about how I’d have to live somewhere else,’ she said eventually. ‘I mean… At first it seemed so unlikely that it was even going to actually happen…’

Ezra shifted in his chair, trying to understand. ‘I see.’