It was as if a cloud has come between the sun and Sarah. A great weight that had temporarily been taken off her mind rolled back into place.

"Do you know who it is?"

"From the description you gave me last night, it sounds like that youth Terry you were talking about."

"How on earth could he have followed me here?"

"Jim, the landlord of the pub, gave me this." Beth tossed two colour computer prints onto the table.

Framed by the large bedroom window and brightly lit by the warm morning sun, the pictures were of Sarah and Peter. They left nothing to the imagination.

Jim overheard Terry and the assistant barman talking about you and Peter. It seems that the assistant barman had a profitable sideline publishing home brewed porno to the Internet. Terry saw the picture, recognised you and came down hot foot from London to find out more. The assistant barman has now been sacked of course. Jim said he didn't seem bothered. Claimed he was making enough from the Internet anyway.

Sarah looked glum.

"And after last night at the pub just about everybody in the valley will know I'm back."

"It's a small community. Everybody knows everything that goes on. People knew you were back even before you visited the pub last night."

"Well there is one thing for sure, if I stay on a few more days here, it can't be with you. It would be too risky. Who knows what the idiot might get up to. There's no point in you becoming a target."

Beth remained silent for a moment then "Why don't you stay at that house that you said Peter bought while he was down here. It's out of the way. You could borrow the key from Maggie the estate agent, make a copy and it would give you a base to work from while you sort out what to do next. I'll just tell anybody that asks that you've gone back to London or abroad, whatever you like. If he thinks you've gone from here, he won't want to hang around."

Sarah had no better idea and reached for the phone.

"If it's OK to use your phone, I'd better tell Peter. It seems wrong just to move in without his say so."

To Sarah's surprise, Peter had already completed on his purchase of the property. She could move in legitimately just by asking the estate agent for the key.

"I might even pop down this next weekend and see you. I can also collect the deeds that I told the solicitor to send to the house. I'm off to America next week and it makes good tax sense to get the deeds on deposit outside the UK tax area," said Peter. "It'll be nice to see you again."

"For me too," murmured Sarah, unconvincingly".

Sarah left Beth to get on with her life, pausing briefly to drop into the local town of Middlehay to pick up a mobile telephone with prepaid calls registered to it. The utilities may well need putting back on and it made her feel less cut off.

As Peter had promised, Maggie happily handed over the keys and, a short drive later, Sarah turned off the main road down the rutted lane that led to Peter's new house.

Could it be she was coming home, Sarah wondered.

The house was set at the top of a small rise, facing south with good views of the valley and the stream passing through. It was at the entrance to the local manor house. Two columns with a hobby horse statuette on top guarded the entrance to the manorial drive.

The gate creaked and the path to the front door was already overgrown. Nature reclaims its own so quickly thought Sarah.

The door swung open. For a place that had been empty for weeks, it smelt fresh and welcoming. As promised, the furniture had been left and Sarah wandered from room to room getting the feel of the place. It made her feel she was in a cocoon of safety cut off from the rest of the world. In a sudden rush of emotion, she thought she could be happy here and then missed her children dreadfully.

She lunched on some Camembert cheese, fresh bread and Blackberries from the garden washed down with some home brewed cider Beth had insisted she accept.

Feeling mellow, sitting in the sun on the back porch, she lightly dozed and dreamed of Hobby Horses, barn dances and a better life for her children. Had she been aware of them she may have been surprised to find that neither Peter nor Sam or even Tim figured in these dreams. As is so often the case, our unconscious minds intuitively have more wisdom than their up front town cousins.