The others had lost interest already and were talking about something else, but Edie had an uneasy prickling sensation in her gut.
‘I’m a bit worried about Jessica,’ she said, interrupting the conversation. ‘It’s odd she’s not answering her phone. What shall we do?’
‘Nothing,’ Ralph replied firmly. ‘She’s an adult; she’s perfectly capable of looking after herself. You know what she’s like; she does what she wants when she wants, with little thought for anyone else. She’ll have booked herself in somewhere and she’s probably stuck in a book right now, with her phone on silent. She’ll be back tomorrow, you’ll see.’
Mac nodded in agreement. ‘I always thought it was odd going to Knossos for just one night. There’s so much there, from what I hear. My guess is she’s staying another night. She’ll be OK.’ He chuckled. ‘To be honest, I wouldn’t fancy anyone’s chances if they tried to attack her. She’d make mincemeat of them.’
Ralph laughed politely at his friend’s joke, but Edie could tell he wasn’t greatly amused. Hannah, meanwhile, looked furious.
‘That’s the most stupid, sexist thing I’ve ever heard.’
Edie shuddered and Mac’s mouth twisted in a strange way.
‘Violence against women is as high as ever and it’s all around us,’ Hannah went on, glaring at her husband. ‘You should know that. It doesn’t matter how strong a woman is, if a man wants to hurt her, he will. You should never, ever make jokes about it.’
Mac seemed to shrivel into his chair; he wasn’t a big man and Edie could swear he lost several more inches in height and girth.
‘I-I’m sorry,’ he said with a stutter. ‘I wasn’t thinking. It was foolish of me – insensitive and wrong.’
Hannah’s eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips, as if she’d bitten into a lemon. Her husband’s abject apology might have come at the right time and knocked the wind out of her sails, but there was no way she’d forgive him yet.
‘Look,’ said Ralph firmly, sounding like a referee at a football match. ‘It’s late and there’s nothing we can do now. If we haven’t heard from her by about lunchtime tomorrow we’ll make a plan, OK?’
He looked round the group to garner support, and everyone concurred. The party was definitely over, however, and when Edie rose, the others copied, helping to clear the table in virtual silence.
‘Let me know if you hear from her,’ Hannah told Edie as they went upstairs. Ralph waited at the bottom to turn off the hall light. ‘I’ll keep my phone on. It doesn’t matter what time it is, I want you to wake me, all right?’
Edie said she would.
‘Promise?’
‘I promise.’
* * *
Edie had a bad night, tossing and turning, while Ralph somehow managed to sleep soundly beside her. Every now and again she’d check her phone, hoping for a message from Jessica, but none came.
At daybreak, when light started to peep through the shutters, she decided there was no point trying to doze off any longer so she rose and hurriedly put on some shorts and a T-shirt.
After splashing her face with cold water in the bathroom, she glanced in the mirror and was dismayed to see a pair of puffy, bloodshot eyes staring back at her, with ugly dark circles underneath.
Her hair was all over the place, too. She tried patting it down, but the curls sprang up again immediately, even tighter than before, as if to mock her.
‘Bloody hell!’ she muttered to herself, turning away in disgust. ‘What a fright!’
She tiptoed downstairs, so as not to wake the others, and put on the kettle, hoping several cups of strong coffee might sort her out. She was reaching for the coffee pot when someone spoke, making her nearly jump out of her skin.
‘Mac!’ she exclaimed, spinning round. He was standing just outside the kitchen door. ‘I didn’t think anyone was awake.’
Mac looked pale and tired and, like her, he’d obviously flung on the first clothes he could find – a crumpled navy T-shirt and shorts.
‘I hardly slept,’ he said, running a hand through his thick, messy hair. ‘Hannah kept looking at her phone, hoping you’d have heard something.’
Edie leaned back, her hands gripping the work surface behind, and crossed one bare foot over another.
‘Me too. I kept imagining the most horrible things. You know how the brain works on overdrive at three in the morning?’
He nodded.
