CHAPTER 7
September came, and the new school year was there in wait for me. I was actually impatient, because despite my most careful inspection, the drugs Maman had secured for me did not appear to be doing anything at all. What had worked, or was at least beginning to, was the careful attention she had paid to those few hairs that were starting to appear on my face.

CHAPTER 6
It was indeed a wonderful Summer, but it had to end with the return of the August people and the imminent opening of the new school year. Everything had changed for me, and it was a delight. Our neighbours, the new ones, had only seen me as that tall and bony girl who had moved in with her mother and the big policeman, and the local shopkeepers treated me as just one more woman doing the morning bread run.

CHAPTER 4
In the end, the fear got to me. It had been a rush, leaving the old place with a chest, and it was a delight to be dressed so beautifully in the hypermarket, but the closer Roland’s little car got to our flat the more nervous I became, till I begged him to stop so that I could change. I was so frightened that I insisted it be done behind a hedge on a side road, and when I returned, in scruffy jeans and baskets, as Maman had described them, and flat in front, I felt as if a door was closed, slammed in my face. She saw, and had a tissue ready for my tears almost before they fell.

CHAPTER 49
“Hiya James. You are James and you are my friend, aye?”

He smiled, which was always a highlight of my life. Karen saw, and smiled with him.

“Out in the open, Jill?”

“Aye, for today. Brought the support crew, like, but it is still a little off. We sort of thought London, you know, all used to seeing oddities, all strangers. Just wanted…”

CHAPTER 2
And he sat there, and sat there. Not a word, for at least five minutes, which seemed an age, and I wondered what he would do. He was my big brother, the man who took up Papa’s torch when he dropped it in the mud. He drew a long, soughing breath.

“Does anyone else know?”

PART 3
Geoff explained our idea, with Eric’s help. The former looked across to me, frowning.

“I only learned some of this to try and keep up with Steph. If it’s talking about bits of bikes, I’m fine. This is something else”

Janet came in at that point, and Pat took her aside, putting away his mobile. I watched her face as he spoke, and each little nugget of Roland’s story led to a definite reaction on her face, culminating in an expression I found deeply scary. I had had my doubts about Janet’s agenda when we first met, but she had proven true to her declared position, and the change in Pat’s mood had been profound. This was something new from her; this was rage. She caught my gaze, and her jaw set. There was a sharp nod, an affirmation of our common cause, and she was gone again. Pat returned to the table.

“PIE! Get off my bloody face!”

The bastard dog was sat right on my chin, and even though most of his body was on my chest his smelly rear was just under my nose, tail swishing across my face. Jim’s voice filtered through the black and white fur that blocked my vision.

“Down, Pie! Sorry, Dad”

CHAPTER 46
I thrashed a little in the morning, trying to get the nightdress to ride down rather than up. I don’t know why, but every time I wore one it ended up around my waist. Nothing to do with Larinda’s designs on my body; simply some odd set of mechanics at work.

CHAPTER 45
Larinda’s head lay on my shoulder as the twin prop droned South, Rachel snoring gently across the aisle of the half-full plane. We had seen Will off on his own flight home, and there had been tears on all sides. I fully understood how he was feeling, for while I had found acceptance both at home and where I lived, he only had us anywhere near him, and one brief glimpse of the promised land to show him what could or might be.

CHAPTER 43
They were soon back, and John went for the throat, as if he had been weighing it up as the other two flirted.

“Will, where’s your Mam from?”

“Valleys, up around Ponty, that area”

“In English? Bit more detail?”

CHAPTER 41
Marsden is still a lovely place, a chaotic jumble of sea-stacks and tidewrack, sand and pebbles, with the deafening sound of kittiwakes screaming their name in case they forget it. We spent a while skimming flat stones, and exploring the caves under the Rock before returning to the Grotto terrace, where Mam, Neil and Ralph were ‘hevvin’ a bit tab, like’

CHAPTER 40
We joined the rest a little later, somewhat more relaxed, and over breakfast we planned the day’s campaign. The morning and early afternoon for Will at the college, while three of us did the rounds of the shops, and then Neil and Mam would meet us with the cars for a drive out to the coast and an early tea. Back home, change, and into the town again for our night out.

CHAPTER 39
It had ended up as a happy evening, with just the one slight shadow as Will broke away to call goodnight to his mother. The soft southern ears seemed to be tuning in steadily to the odd vowels and vocabulary, and once the rough and tough Northerners had played enough of their little game of confuse-a-visitor they did their best to communicate. Communication was clearly on Jim’s mind that night, especially where Rachel was concerned, and towards the end of the night a plate of sandwiches was brought over as a welcome. Rachel sniffed carefully at one.

CHAPTER 37
William left after the meal, so as not to alert his mother, and John drove off home shortly thereafter. I had a little chat with him, just before he left.

“Rob, I think I shall look at your idea at the reserve.

CHAPTER 35
He called us over. “This is really very, very good. It’s like a book of mnemonics, and all that James has to do now is make sure he remembers the real names of everything”

CHAPTER 34
He looked drained, and for the first time ever I saw him look uncertain, and I wondered if he had actually been following us or just stumbled into our group as he rounded the corner. He had a copy of the Helm “Shorebirds” open in his hands, so I assumed that it was the latter.

“Hello John”

CHAPTER 32
He was pushed right up against the window, a camera with a stupidly-long lens to his eye, and every now and again I saw his elbow give a dig to someone who had just knocked his arm. He wore a Bluetooth earpiece, and the shape and weight of his satchel suggested a number of heavy books. I leant over to Rachel and whispered in her ear.

CHAPTER 31
I was getting used to it. The feel of a warm presence next to me in the morning, the knowledge that I was no longer alone. I slipped as quietly as I could from the bed, and made my way via the bathroom to the kitchen.

CHAPTER 30
With Karen and Terry’s help I managed to find things I wouldn’t have thought of, including vegetarian sausages. Terry was very direct.

“Just remember, woman, that as soon as you cook these in the same pan as the meat they cease to be veggie, OK?”