Jake awoke with a sense of disorientation and it took a few seconds of staring at the elegant William Morris repro wallpaper to connect. The hospitality of the Goughs had extended beyond the excellent dinner to offering him their spare bedroom for his stay in Tewkesbury. His attempts at not imposing, brushed aside by the lure of Ishbel’s cooking, had been easily overcome.
Alia Gough had timed his letter to Jake to coincide with their annual holiday and to Jake’s question of why they weren’t going away gave a brusque answer.
“We decided to have a complete rest at home, didn’t we, darling?”
Jake, never slow to pick up on undercurrents, noted the fleeting frown, the slight hesitation and the barely detectable resentment in Ishbel’s reply.
“Ah, um, yes. It’s been a tough year at work and w
