Matthew said the next day. They were walking briskly, both of them huddling against the cold. It was drizzling, a foggy rain that sank through everything, and after only an hour of walking Alex could barely feel her feet. “It’s still August,” she’d grumbled earlier. “Not bloody October.”“My turn what?”“To tell me about John.” He threw her a quick look and pulled his plaid tighter around himself.Alex didn’t reply at first. The intimacy of yesterday had been difficult to recapture when they woke up cold and wet, and she hadn’t known if to take his hand or not when they started off, and now it felt as if it was too late.“He was the new kid at school, come all the way from London, and we made life hell for him.” She laughed, seeing a very confused John standing in the middle of the school yard trying to understand what everyone around him was saying. “I don’t really speak Scots,” she went on, making Matthew smile. “But I can, if I want to. And I did, playing along with the rest, all of us doubling up with laughter when he misunderstood.”“You went to school?”
