7
Hitchhiking
‘He’ll be all right,’ Valerie said, sitting beside Lucy in a rear seat. ‘He’s got his newspaper, and he’ll probably take a nap. He’s getting too old to drive such distances in one go anyway.’ Then, turning to the three men squeezed into the seat in front of them, she added, ‘I’m Valerie Scullion-Drake, and this is my daughter, Lucy. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten your names, so run them past me again. You know the rule of seven, don’t you? Well, I pride myself on three. Back at university I was famous for knowing the names of everyone on campus.’
Lucy squirmed with embarrassment, but none of the three men seemed to notice her discomfort.
‘Dan,’ the handsome young man said, reaching around to shake Valerie’s hand, before offering it to Lucy, who gave hers a surreptitious wip
