‘Yes.’ She felt like she was in a trance.
‘He was talking about you, Anna.’
Anna nodded dumbly. ‘I know.’
‘So…’ Gabi took a breath, then carried on, sounding hesitant. ‘The big question is – are you going to call him?’
Chapter Sixty
IT WAS CLOSE to eight a.m. when Anna turned into a narrow lane that climbed steeply out of the valley up a wild and windswept hill. She’d driven through the night and dawn was just about to break. Thank goodness for all the Google mapping she’d done after she’d found out who Brody really was. She was pretty sure she was in the right spot. She’d driven through Hexworthy and had just passed the little stone bridge that she thought was the one Brody described taking Lewis over most days.
Halfway up the winding hilly lane, she spotted a cottage and her pulse began to hammer as she slowed down and pulled her car into a large, cobbled yard. When she turned off the engine, the silence of the countryside around her was thick and complete.
Anna got out of the car and walked up to the cottage. She was so nervous she thought she might faint. It was an inconvenient time of day to be knocking on somebody’s door, she knew, but she hadn’t been able to make herself go to bed and wait until the morning before she’d set off.
She used the large brass knocker on the door to rap a few times and waited, but there was no dull thud of feet on stairs inside,no muffled rustling as someone made their way to the door. She looked up. One of the bedroom windows was open. He might be in. He could have seen her through the window, and maybe he just didn’t want to answer.
What should she do now? Anna didn’t know. But she did know that she wasn’t ready to turn tail and flee again. She walked back out into the centre of the yard and looked around. There were a few outbuildings and a wide path that led around the side of the house towards a small porch. Beyond that was a terrace with an old wrought-iron table and chairs. She sat down on one, facing the brightening sky down the valley, and waited.
BRODY STRODE DOWN the hill with Lewis in his wake. He’d woken up sometime around three and hadn’t been able to get back to sleep again. An idea had been hovering around in his brain, yet it had refused to come into focus, even when he’d properly woken up. He’d finished writing the last volume of Pip’s adventures yesterday, yet he had the feeling that something was missing: a character, a person.
He’d been too groggy for a run that early in the day, but a long walk had fit the bill. He’d been up to the top of the hill over the valley and, sitting on a small rocky outcrop, he’d watched the sunrise. Now he was definitely ready for some breakfast.
When he turned into the yard, he stopped. There was a strange car sitting there, a little silver hatchback, and from the creaks and groans of the metal, he guessed the engine had not long been turned off.He looked around but couldn’t see the driver. He hadn’t been expecting any deliveries today.
Lewis barked and ran off down the side of the house. Brody followed him. When he turned the corner onto the terrace, he saw a woman sitting at the wrought-iron table. She was wearing a coat, a grey scarf and a knitted purple beanie with a flower on the side.
‘Anna?’
She looked up at him. Those eyes, that expression. Just like the picture on his phone. Brody started to wonder if he had actually got up and gone for a walk that morning. Maybe he’d dozed off again. Maybe he was dreaming.
‘Are you real?’ he asked as he walked towards her. A hint of a smile lit up her eyes and he realized he’d said that out loud. That was the problem with living on your own in the middle of nowhere. You forgot to filter stuff, said any old thing that came into your head.
‘As real as you are,’ she replied, standing up.
Lewis was at her feet, looking up at her, and she bent down to make a fuss of him. He then flopped down contentedly at her feet and rested his chin on his paws.
What…? How…?
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said. ‘What am I doing here?’
She moved towards him and Brody began to feel light-headed.
Anna stopped when she was a few feet away and glanced down at the flagstones. ‘I lied to you,’ she said when she looked back up at him.
‘It’s okay,’ he said, realizing that it really was. ‘I lied to you too.Mostly by omission, but that didn’t make it any more honest.’
She pressed her lips together briefly. ‘I wish you’d told me about all your struggles. It wouldn’t have changed anything, you know, about our relationship. I saw… that interview you did. You said you were doing better.’
‘A lot.’ He tried to smile. ‘There’s a stranger in my yard and I’m not freaking out, so I’d say that’s progress.’
‘A stranger…’ Anna looked away, nodding gently. ‘I suppose I deserve that. Especially after all you went through just to see me on New Year’s Eve, and I just…’ She trailed off, looking unbearably sad.
‘You were scared,’ he said, but it was a fact not a judgement.
‘I was terrified. Of you, of everything I felt.’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Are you still?’
