‘I don’t feel well,’ she said, and she did feel nauseous and weak. She had an urge to sit down but there was nothing to lean on except the bike and she couldn’t trust that machine. She closed her eyes and waited for the moment to pass. The nausea passed but, coming out of her daze, she was leaning against him and he was holding her up. She could smell Brylcreem underneath the tang of the cologne. Verity pulled back sharply and looked around her. The sun that had seemed so bright minutes ago had disappeared behind grey clouds, tinging them gold. Rain clouds. Deep shadows came across the marshes, turning them a dark blue. The dull light, the dizziness and the loss of control made her panic. How would she get home?

‘Come on, I’ve got something to show you.’ He was indicating across the marsh towards the sea. But she was afraid.

‘I need to go home now, you promised me only a few minutes, and it’s getting late.’ She took off the scarf from her hair, tied it back round her neck and started walking away in the direction of the town.

‘You’re not even going to ask me what it is?’

He sounded young then, and it pulled at something inside her. She almost felt sorry for him. But she sensed this slight power that she had over him could easily be lost. Not on any account could she get back on that bike.

‘Maybe you can show me another time,’ she called and she was pleased with herself. Tired, aching, two miles from the town, she nonetheless felt a grim satisfaction as she walked. And even when he came up behind her on the road and asked if she was sure she didn’t want a ride back to town, she shook her head.

‘Another time then, I guess,’ he said, looking straight at her in the disconcerting way he had, and she shrugged. ‘I come here every week. Sundays usually.’ He roared off. As his figure disappeared into the distance, already the incident with the bike was in the past and could be laughed at. She’d had a lucky escape.

‘Where on earth have you been?’ Mrs Timms had said, through a cloud of flour in the kitchen, when Verity sneaked in the back entrance at home. ‘Your father wants a word with you.’

‘Just for a walk,’ she said.

*

The train came into Norwich station and she caught the connection for the line to Wells. She was supposed to be meeting Arthur at the hollow tree in the woods, but she didn’t want to see him.