‘If you’re hungry, I’ll make you a sandwich.’
‘No thanks.’
Having found what she was looking for, Madeleine pulled back and Judith caught a glimpse on her neck of a red-purple love bite the size of a fifty pence piece.
‘I forgot to ask,’ she said casually. ‘How was your weekend?’
‘Meh,’ she said, stepping off the chair with a lone packet of two-minute noodles left over from a school camp.
‘What did you do?’
‘Not a lot,’ she said, avoiding Judith’s gaze. ‘Caitlin was tired.’
‘Madeleine,’ Judith said softly, ‘Was there a party?’
‘At Caitlin’s? As if.’
‘Somewhere else?’
‘What are you on about?’
‘A party. That’s the place boys give girls love bites.’
‘The hickey.’ Madeleine laughed, but she looked awkward.
‘Tell me where you were.’
She was silent.
‘I’ll phone Caitlin’s mother th
