On Friday night she packs a bag for herself and one for Connor and on Saturday morning she locks up the house and they catch a taxi to the station, then at the station they take the train to Merron. During the journey, they play word games. Connor never tires of I Spy but when it’s his turn the word always begins with ‘c’ and the answer is always ‘cow’. Fen tries to find ways to distract him. The other passengers give her kind, amused looks. He takes his crayons out of his rucksack and together they colour in pictures of dinosaurs.Alan and Lucy meet them at the other end. Alan is carrying William in a sling around his neck. Connor enjoys the fuss made of him by his uncle and aunt, and he is fascinated by the sling, and by the baby.‘Can I carry Baby William?’ he asks Alan, and Alan ruffles Connor’s hair and says he can help push the buggy later.They drive back to Alan and Lucy’s house, and Fen waits until Connor is comfortable with his aunt and uncle, lying on his tummy on the floor doing a jigsaw with Alan, before she leaves.‘I don’t know how long I’ll be,’ she tells Lucy.Fen has tried to tell her sister where she is going, and what she is about to do, but Lucy does not want to talk about it, she doesn’t want to know.
