Contents ( 57)
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sharon Gosling
She was juggling the glass and the bottle when she heard the commotion from outside – a scuffle, a sound that conjured an instant image of one of her pots thumping against the wooden wall of the shed.
‘Ezra!’ Edie shouted as she put down the items in her hands and went to fling open the door, ‘I swear, that goat is going to—’
It wasn’t the goat. She heard the voices as she opened the door—
‘Get off me!’
‘I’m calling the police. Right now!’
‘I said—’ Gilly yelled, punctuating her shout with a hard shove, ‘get off me!’
Dora McCreedy and Gilly were engaged in some sort of tug-of-war at the rear of her garden.
‘Hey!’ Edie shouted. ‘What the hell is going on?’
‘This cow jumped me!’ Gilly yelled, backing away from Dora and wrapping Ezra’s coat more tightly around her.
‘She was breaking in,’ Dora shouted back. ‘I’ve just stopped her robbing you, Edie – call the police!’
The shed door was open and there was a strange flush of blue-white light around Gilly’s feet. It took Edie a second to realize it was coming from a small torch lying on the floor.
‘I wasn’t robbing anyone!’
‘You’re trespassing!’
‘I’m not!’
‘Edie, are you calling the police or not? Because if you don’t, I will.’ Dora started to fumble in her pocket for her phone. She was standing in front of the gate, blocking Gilly’s exit. The girl tried to make a run for it, but Dora moved as she wove.
‘Get out of my way,’ Gilly said. ‘Or I swear to God—’
‘Yeah? Threatening me now, are you?’ Dora said, pressing numbers on her phone.
‘Bitch, I haven’t even started—’
‘Enough!’ Edie yelled, louder than both of them. ‘Stop it. Dora, don’t call the police.’
Dora paused with the phone at her ear. ‘What?’
‘I said, don’t call the police. Gilly isn’t trespassing.’
Dora narrowed her eyes, looking between Gilly and Edie. ‘She was! I saw her breaking into the shed – look!’
Edie glanced at the shed’s open door. ‘She’s my student, she was here for a lesson.’
Dora made a scoffing sound. ‘That’s a lie.’
Edie had had just about enough. ‘Oh, you’re accusing me of lying now? In my own garden? Go on, get out of here.’
‘If she’s a student, what was she doing in your shed?’
‘I asked her to water my plants.’
‘It’s raining!’ McCreedy yelled. ‘This is ridiculous. I’m calling the police.’
‘Call the police and I’ll press charges against you. Got it?’
‘What? You can’t—’
Edie spread her hands. ‘You’re the only one trespassing here. What are you doing here anyway, skulking around on the hill after dark in the first place? I’d leave, if I were you. I’m not having a great day and this hullabaloo has used up my last stores of patience.’
Dora opened her mouth to protest, looking from Gilly to Edie with undisguised rage. Then she turned and wrenched open the gate, not bothering to pull it shut behind her. They listened to her angry footsteps stalking away across the hill, then the crunch of her boots as she joined the gravel footpath into town. Eventually there was nothing but silence.