‘Han!’ Will banged down his newspaper. ‘She knows. You get it, Lor – right?’
Laurie took a biscuit, and Hannah had to stop herself from grabbing it and putting it back on the carefully arranged plate.
‘Hannah, please, just let me speak. I’m a mum and a nursery teacher. I know the kind of things she’ll want to know.’
There was the crunch of a car on the gravel outside.
Hannah gasped. ‘Oh God!’
Barbara was here.
Laurie stood up, matter-of-factly. ‘Good. Now, listen, the house looks great. Everything’s fine. Just relax.’
‘Will, you sure you haven’t left anything stupid lying around?’ Hannah asked.
She checked up the stairs, terrified of seeing Elvie at the top.
‘Just a bit of porn and coke by the bed.’
‘OK,’ she said, distracted.
Will and Laurie laughed. Will took her shoulders and made her look at him.
‘Han, it’s going to be fine.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yes.’
‘God, this is exciting!’ Laurie said, moving the hall rug an inch to cover a crack in a tile. ‘I can’t believe I’m going to help find my new niece or nephew!’
Will opened the front door, and Hannah followed.
Just one hour, that’s all they needed. Then half an hour back at Laurie’s house, and it would be over.
Will halted abruptly and Hannah nearly walked into his back.
She peered round, expecting to see Barbara’s white hatchback.
Instead there was a mud-spattered Land Rover jammed carelessly across the forecourt.
An angry shout came from behind it.
‘Oi. I want a word with you!’
Madeleine?
‘No!’ Hannah said.
She grabbed at Will.
‘How dare you?’ the farmer yelled, her boots hammering gravel in all directions as she strode towards Hannah.
‘What’s going on?’ She heard confusion in Will’s voice.
Madeleine’s eyes flashed like an angry dog’s. Up close, she was an inch taller than Will, and probably two stone heavier.
‘You cheeky fucking cow!’ The farmer poked a finger at Hannah’s chest. ‘How dare you. You come here, and make accusations about me to my neighbours. After what you’ve been doing, you mucky bitch?’
Hannah stood, stunned, her eyes darting, checking for Barbara.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You think you’re going to report me? After what you did?’
‘It’s about the donkey,’ Hannah said to Will and Laurie. ‘Please. Can we please discuss this later. We’re waiting for someone important. It involves a child. You need to go.’
The farmer planted her strong legs on the gravel. Her elbows under the rolled-up shirt-sleeves were red and raw.
‘Tough! Now I’m going to tell you this once. You say another word about me to anyone and I’ll report you.’ She turned to Will. ‘You know about this, do you – your wife shagging Dax in his truck down at the beach? Susan and her kids bloody saw you, as well. Kids! And Old Samuel.’
Hannah stared. ‘What are you talking about?’
The words flew at her.
Shagging. Saw you. Kids.
The farmer made an unconvinced face.
‘I said, what are you talking about?’ Hannah shouted.
Will wouldn’t meet her eye. She grabbed his arm. ‘Will. Ignore her. She’s only doing this because Dax told her I saw her assaulting the woman next door.’
‘I thought you said it was about a donkey,’ Laurie asked, confused.
‘Dax, from last night?’ Will cut in, ice in his voice.
She faltered and realized the implication. ‘No! No. That’s what I was doing, in the garden with Dax. Looking for the daughter. She’s gone missing. He was helping me find her. And I knew if I told you, you’d tell me to butt out and . . .’
The distant sound of a second car appeared in the distance. Hannah glanced, terrified, at the gate.
‘Will. That’s her. Oh God.’ She looked at Madeleine beseechingly. ‘Please, you’ve got to go!’
There was disgust on the farmer’s face. ‘I’m telling you. One more word – and I’ll have the police on you. Public indecency, they call it. Bloody cheek!’
She returned to her truck and reversed at speed down the driveway, gravel spraying everywhere.
Hannah watched in shock.
Will put his hands behind his head. She saw Laurie touch his arm, immediately taking his side.
‘Oh, don’t tell me you believe her, for God’s sake!’ Hannah yelled. ‘Will! Elvie – the daughter – is here, right now, in the house. That’s what I was going to tell you. I’m hiding her because she’s so scared – of that woman.’
‘What are you talking about . . . ?’
‘She’s in the house, now?’ Laurie asked.
‘Yes! That’s what I was trying to tell you. Will?’
Will’s eyes flashed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me last night?’
‘I don’t know! I thought you’d make me ring the police. And she did run away yesterday. Then she appeared upstairs, literally ten minutes ago. I don’t even know how she gets in.’
He blew out his cheeks.
‘OK. Where is she, Hannah?’ Laurie asked.
‘In the attic.’
‘Right – you two, stay there. I’ll sort this out.’
‘Laurie, be careful, she’s not very . . .’ Hannah started, but Laurie was gone.
Hannah put her hands on Will’s shoulders. ‘Will, please, come on – you don’t seriously believe I had sex in a truck with that man, do you? Or with anyone, for that matter?’
He wouldn’t meet her eye. ‘That was the day, wasn’t it?’
‘What day?’
‘The day after we had that fight. When you thought I wasn’t coming back. You said you’d been on the beach with him.’
‘No!’
‘You did. You were upset. You said you thought I’d walked out on you, and on the adoption.’
‘No! Don’t be stupid. Even if it was true, I wouldn’t do that, would I?’
A sound of feet on the stairs. ‘There’s nobody there,’ said Laurie.
‘What?’
Hannah ran past her and took the stairs two at a time.
Laurie was right. The attic was empty, the skylight still open. Hannah cursed. How was Elvie doing this?
‘There are biscuit crumbs on the floor, and her water bottle is still here,’ she shouted, returning downstairs. ‘Elvie! Come out now, please.’
Will wandered past her to the kitchen and slumped onto a chair.
‘Will! Don’t be ridiculous – why would I do that?’
Another car pulled up outside.
Hannah shrank back. ‘Will, please. Not now. She’s here.’
Laurie came out from behind Hannah and pushed her face into Will’s. ‘Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here, but you are going to get up and do this.
NOW!
’
She yanked him upright.
‘Stop it, Lor,’ he said, shaking her off.
Laurie smoothed down her skirt. ‘Pull yourselves together, both of you. You can talk about it afterwards.’
Laurie took Will’s hand and dragged him to the door.
In shock, Hannah followed. Everything was spinning out of control, and she didn’t know how to stop it.
Barbara stayed for exactly an hour.
Despite every minute of the last two weeks having led to this precise moment, the details of her visit would remain patchy in Hannah’s memory forever.
She would only recall managing to force a manic grin on her face, and glancing repeatedly at Will, willing him to speak.
‘What a super house!’ Barbara said. She’d straightened her black hair into a bob and wore her usual smart suit, with a chunky necklace. ‘Wow, there’s so much space.’ She made suitably impressed noises about the garden, too.
Hannah filled in gaps in the conversation whenever Will said little.
Laurie helped, too – talking about her kids and Ian, and all the beaches, and trips to the circus at Great Yarmouth, and her nursery work. At one point Hannah and Will left Laurie and Barbara in the garden and went inside to make tea.
‘She likes the house,’ Hannah said, her cheeks flushed.
Will put on the kettle, his back to her.
‘Will. That farmer is nuts.’
Barbara and Laurie walked into the house, chatting.
‘Right, I’ll head back, Barbara. Get the troops ready. See you in half an hour?’ Laurie said. She shot Will and Hannah one of her meaningful looks.
Barbara waited till Laurie had gone, then sat down and opened her bag.
‘Right. Now, I said I had some news.’
Hannah nodded numbly and sat down too.
Will stayed standing.
Barbara pulled out a file. ‘There’s a little girl I want to talk to you about. She’s three, and lives in east London. She’s been in foster care for one . . .’
She began to talk, and Hannah willed Will to sit down.
Barbara gave her a photo as she continued talking.
Hannah blinked hard, praying that she would feel something, then opened her eyes.
She tried to focus.
A chubby white face with lips stretched in a shy grin, a missing tooth, deep-brown eyes. Red wavy hair, badly cut into a publicly funded fringe.
Everything around Hannah fell still.
Barbara’s voice faded.
There was something familiar about the child. A chemical connection that Hannah didn’t understand. Physical elements of the child were like other people in both of their families. It was as if she already belonged here.
And her eyes. The photo had been taken in the sun, yet the little girl’s eyes were in shadow. As if she was shy, and unsure about coming out.
Nothing in Hannah’s life had been as certain as this moment.
She wanted to take the child’s hand and lead her out of the shadow, and tell her it was OK.
This was her – this was Hannah’s daughter.
Happy tears filled her eyes.
‘. . . and as far as I know,’ Barbara said, her voicing re-entering Hannah’s consciousness, ‘there are no other families in the picture.’
Hannah showed the photo to Will.
‘Oh God – look, Will. She has brown eyes like you. And hair, like me.’
Barbara turned to watch Will’s reaction. He smiled. ‘She’s cute.’
When Barbara turned back, Hannah saw his smile fade.
Ten minutes later Barbara drove away.
Hannah waved from the doorstep, then spun round. ‘Will?’
Something about him had changed. He was rubbing his torso, as if he’d been punched. He sat down and put his head in his hands.
‘Oh, Will.’ She put her arm round him and kissed the side of his head, and his cheek. ‘Don’t be stupid. The farmer’s just terrified I’m going to call the police on her.’
He sounded shattered. ‘Han, you’ve got to be telling me the truth.’
‘Of course I am. And it’s easy to prove. We can do it now. Come on.’ She grabbed the car keys from the hall, pulled him to the car and started it. Wearily Will climbed in, and they headed down the driveway.
‘Listen, I was in Dax’s pickup on the beach, but I was helping him to move tyres. I wanted to walk to the beach, and he gave me a lift – then I didn’t want to go back to the house because I was upset, so I stayed out all afternoon . . .’
‘And . . . ?’
‘That was it. It was boring. He delivered stuff all day and hardly spoke to me, but I was lonely, so I went for the ride. And I was upset with you – but that doesn’t mean I had sex with him.’
They took the bend and pulled up outside Dax’s cottage.
‘Come on,’ Hannah repeated, touching his cheek. ‘Apart from anything else, you know how I feel about sex at the moment. And why would I throw everything away for him? You said yourself he’s a tosser.’
But Will wouldn’t get out of the car.
‘OK. Wait here,’ she said. She climbed out and marched up to Dax’s front door. She was so stunned by events that she didn’t register the objects around her.
A toy truck on the doorstep.
A skateboard on the lawn.
Ballet-dancer ornaments on the windowsill.
She banged on the door. To her relief, Dax opened it. For the first time he was not wearing his boiler suit. His face was clean, and his hair brushed down into a greasy side-parting. He was dressed in a green T-shirt and tracksuit trousers.
‘Aye-aye. Thought you’d be round.’
Women’s shoes on the hall floor. Photos of children on the wall.
A photo of an older man Hannah vaguely recognized, with two blonde women.
Have you got kids, Dax?
Do I look bloody stupid?
She brushed away an uneasy feeling.
‘Hi, Dax. Listen, something really bad’s happened. Could you come out and speak to Will?’
Dax peered at the car. ‘What’s this about then?’
‘Would you just come?’
‘All right. Keep yer hair on.’
He strolled down the path after her and she opened the car door. Dax leant against the car in a way she knew would annoy Will.
‘Dax, listen. Madeleine has just turned up at our house, screaming at me. She told Will that you and I – we . . .’ Hannah sighed. ‘That we had sex in your truck on the beach. And that people saw us. And obviously that’s not true, so can you please tell Will. And can you also explain that you told Madeleine that I saw her hitting Elvie.’
Dax folded his arms. ‘Well, that’s difficult, in’t it?’
‘Why?’
‘Well, I don’t want to get no one into trouble, but I don’t want to lie, do I?’
Hannah blinked. ‘Dax, will you just tell him?’
Dax crouched down and looked in the car door. ‘Sorry, mate, but she was all over me. Once down the beach, once up in the meadow, once by Snadesdon. Summat you’re not giving her at home?’
Hannah reeled. ‘Dax, stop it! This is not a joke. Can you please tell him?’
‘She likes it doggy-style, don’t she?’
The passenger door flew open. Will shot out.
‘No!’ Hannah yelled. She ran and jammed her hands into his chest. His eyes above her were aflame. ‘Will, no. Dax? Why are you doing this?’
A woman emerged from Dax’s cottage. It was the woman from next-door who she’d seen on her walk the other day. Confused, Hannah realized it was this blonde woman’s photo that she’d just seen in Dax’s hall.
‘Is this her, is it?’ the woman barked. ‘Your tart Mad was on about? Fucking cheek!’
Dax glowered. ‘Back inside, Carol. Now!’
A child’s grubby face popped up at the window.
The woman ducked around Dax and jabbed her finger at Hannah.