27
Zoe lay on the bed, listening to what sounded like intense conversation in the room below. Eventually, she heard the door slam shut and a car pull away, and heaved a sigh of relief that Virginia was gone and out of the way…perhaps out of her life for good, until she remembered that Virginia would have left her car behind and would have to collect it at some point. Zoe resolved to try and be missing when that happened, though that might prove easier said than done.
Then she heard footsteps on the landing and Billie speaking to her dad, perhaps surprised that the evening had ended and Virginia wasn’t there. Zoe wondered now what Alex was telling her and how it might make Zoe look, but Zoe also hoped that Billie knew her better than to judge. They’d grown much closer over the past few weeks, and each of them had opened up to the other in the most surprising way.
Half an hour later, she heard Billie come back upstairs and then get ready for bed. Then Alex came into their room, and Zoe pretended to be asleep. She could sense him pause at the bed, smelling the cologne that always made her feel so safe, andwanted to cry. After a moment, he draped a blanket over her and then left again.
Zoe opened her eyes. She wondered what he was going to do, until she heard the door of the spare bedroom open and then close, and then the springs on the bed creaking as someone got comfortable. Alex, she supposed, and was struck by a sudden panic. She’d been trying to make a point, that his behaviour had been unacceptable, but what if she’d really pushed it too far this time? What if this was the end?
When Zoe got up the following morning, the guest-bedroom door was wide open and the bed was empty. Fastening her dressing gown, she hurried downstairs, a knot of dread tangled in her stomach, and found the kitchen empty too. She went back to check Alex’s office, and then the rest of the house, but there was no sign of him.
Billie came down as Zoe was typing out a message to find out where he was. She yawned as she went to the sink for a glass of water.
‘Where’s Louisa?’
‘Still sleeping,’ Billie said. ‘I would have had a lie-in with her, but you woke me up stomping around the house.’
‘Sorry. I hadn’t realised I was stomping.’
‘It’s OK, you probably weren’t. I was probably half awake anyway. What happened with Virginia last night? I go to put Louisa down, and I come back to the kitchen and she’s gone… you’re in bed and Dad looks as if he’s been to war.’
‘You could say he had.’ Zoe let out a sigh as she dropped into a seat at the table and folded her arms to lean on it.
‘I know he upset you.’
‘I probably upset him. Virginia too, come to think of it.’
‘Who cares about Virginia? I told Dad she was coming round here far too often. I said it would cause trouble.’
‘In his defence, I invited her round for last night’s dinner.’
‘Only because you thought that would make him happy. I’ll kill him if he blows things with you, and he knows it.’
‘I might have blown things with him,’ Zoe said.
‘Then I’ll kill you as well. You’re a pair of idiots. You’re supposed to be older and wiser. I saw more mature relationships in the break room when I was in year eight.’
Zoe was forced into a small smile. ‘I’m sure you did. This must feel like hard work for you, being in the middle of it all.’
‘A bit. Please tell me you’re going to sort it out.’
‘I’m going to try. If your dad is willing to listen. Do you know where he is?’
‘I’m guessing he’s gone to fetch Grizzle back from Daffodil.’
Zoe got up. ‘That makes sense. I might go for a walk myself, clear my head.’
It had rained overnight, and as Zoe walked over the grass of the fields that separated Hilltop from Daffodil Farm, it soaked into her boots. The sky was mottled with the wispy ghosts of clouds, stretching in either direction, and wind shook blossoms from the trees to whirl around her in petalled eddies. In the distance, she could see Kestrel Cottage, where she’d begun life in Thimblebury. It was still empty from when her dad had briefly rented it, only to leave before the lease was done. Zoe wondered if she might need to move back in. Perhaps she’d have a word with Victor about it because the more she dwelled on the events of the last day – the last few weeks for that matter – the more convinced she became that moving in with Alex so quickly had been a mistake. They might salvage their relationship, but perhaps it needed a reset, and perhaps that was easier to do withtheir own space. And if they couldn’t salvage it, she hoped they could at least go back to being good neighbours, friends who retained a fondness for something they’d once had. After all, Alex had managed that with Virginia, hadn’t he?
She stopped for a second, surveying the ground ahead and trying to decide where she wanted to walk. And then, from nowhere, came a deafening crack that turned into a screaming, grating sound that bounced around the hillsides, and Zoe saw a fighter jet screeching across the skies. It was followed by another and then another. Zoe watched, awestruck, until they’d gone from sight and sound again.
‘They’re out on manoeuvres.’
She turned to see Victor shielding his eyes as he watched the hillsides.
‘They’ll be back round in a bit,’ he added. ‘There’s a base nearby. They’re amazing machines, aren’t they?’
‘I’ve never seen them fly over before.’
