Page 104 of We Chase Shadows

‘Well, I didn’t hit someone,’ laughs Elspeth. ‘My car did!’

‘I see,’ says Rosie.

‘Ergo, that’s why I took the train,’ says Elspeth. ‘All a bit of woke nonsense. This restaurant is soooo cute. Mega rural.’

The Hunter’s Rest is not only the best hotel in the area, it also has the best restaurant.

‘Before we order,’ says Rosie, ‘do you have news for me? About the book?’

‘Let’s order first,’ says Elspeth. ‘I’m ravishing.’

‘I suspect you’re either ravenous or famished,’ says Rosie. ‘Let’s talk first though.’

‘But what if you storm out?’ says Elspeth.

‘So you have bad news?’ Rosie asks. She knew it.

‘God, depends what you define as bad,’ says Elspeth. ‘Depends if you want to be binary about it.’

‘For the sake of argument,’ says Rosie, ‘let’s say I do want to be binary about it.’

‘Oh, goodness, then it’s bad news,’ says Elspeth, still smiling. ‘Yes, then it is bad news. Do you like oysters? We could share some oysters?’

Why does she smile all the time? Either something deeply traumatic has happened to Elspeth at some point, or nothing traumatic at all has ever happened to her. It’ll be one or the other.

Rosie will not be staying for lunch. Ernesto called just before she walked in to say he’d heard gunshots outside the castle. Six of them. He and Lee are out in the grounds, investigating. Lots of gunshots in the countryside, of course, but unsettling news nonetheless.

‘Are we doing wine?’ Elspeth asks.

‘Just tell me,’ says Rosie.

‘It’s only your ridiculous publisher,’ says Elspeth. ‘They called me this morning on the old blower. They’ve decided not to renew. Which goes to show what they know. Namely, nothing!’

‘They’re not renewing my contract?’ says Rosie. ‘I’ve been with them for twenty-five years!’

‘Exactly,’ says Elspeth. ‘Long enough. New challenges. Or just retire even. See the world, play bingo.’

Rosie has never been ‘let go’ by a publisher before. She has changed publishers a number of times, sometimes for creative reasons, sometimes because a managing director has fired a crossbow in an editorial meeting. But no one has ever left her before.

‘I’m … disappointed,’ says Rosie. Something has collapsed inside her.

‘Nonsense,’ says Elspeth, reading the menu again. ‘Your publisher is leaning into fem-gore horror for the next few years.’

‘What is fem-gore horror?’ Rosie asks.

‘No idea,’ says Elspeth. ‘But another client is doing a book at the moment that has a robot wolf on the cover, so that’s a lot of fun. It’s like, how can a robot be a wolf, you know? Does not compute.’

She says this last bit like a robot and makes herself laugh.

Is this the end, Rosie wonders? After all, she is now [redacted at manuscript stage] years old. Will anybody else take a chance on her? Perhaps And the Devil Blinked First is no good? Perhaps she has become a rotten writer? Although Amy liked it, didn’t she?

What if there are no more books? No more evenings at the keyboard killing bad guys and making sworn enemies have sex with each other? What then, Rosie?

What if she can’t get up?

‘I’m going to leave now,’ says Rosie.

‘Oh no, why?’ says Elspeth. ‘Not on my account?’