She’d lost track of her last period, so intent had she been on her plan to escape. Richard rarely went away on business, and usually when he did, she was persuaded to go with him. After all, as a writer, he said, she could work anywhere.

When he’d announced his solo trip, she’d remained silent and biddable. Perhaps that was why he’d seemed comfortable about leaving her behind. Either that or he’d found some other female to take with him.

She’d hoped he had because that might free her. In fact, she’d prayed for it, even though she had no deity to pray to.

Reading the NHS website, she had just learned that, using no contraception, typically eighty-five in one hundred women would get pregnant in a year. With condoms you could expect fifteen pregnancies; the combined pill, nine.

They didn’t give a percentage for the muddled method of forgetting to take a pill, which was the one she’d been using.

She took herself into the bathroom, having made up her mind that should the test prove positive, she would immediately book an online appointment for a termination. But where? Stay in Scotland or go back to London?

That was a decision too far, one she might not have to make at all.

Testing for the virus had become so much a part of life that the thought of another test shouldn’t have freaked her. After all, at the height of the pandemic, for many people a positive test meant real sickness, often leading to a horrible death.

A pregnancy test was something else entirely, she told herself. Although, a small voice reminded her, a death might result from it too. Either of the foetus or her, should Richard find out.

It was over in seconds, much like the nose and throat swabs. The wait to find out the truth, however, seemed interminably long. She had just read the result when she heard Caroline’s voice call her name.

Looking wildly around, wondering where she might dispose of the evidence, she eventually stuffed it in the small cabinet holding Greg’s shaving gear.

This time she couldn’t hide out the back because Caroline would no doubt come looking for her.

‘I’m here!’ she shouted as she headed for the kitchen, where Caroline already stood, her face a picture of despair.

‘You’ve heard?’ she said.

‘We were having dinner at the hotel when it happened.’ Joanne paused. ‘Also, Greg called me first thing this morning.’

‘He did?’ Caroline looked put out by that. ‘What did he say?’

‘That he didn’t do it.’

‘Of course he didn’t.’ Caroline threw her a disparaging look. ‘I told you what that bitch was like. She was determined to get Greg, no matter how often he told her no. Plenty others didn’t refuse. Josh Huntly for a start. Why didn’t they pick him up?’