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Jack had no need to bother with a blindfold.

Zeph slept almost the entire way. Though when they left the house tomorrow to go shopping, it would become obvious they were back in Middleton.

Zeph might not know where Thomas and Jack had lived, but he knew the area.

Thomas had rented the house out after they’d left and recently had it repainted.

He’d also updated the security systems. Another bolt hole, though it wouldn’t have been where they’d stayed if it had just been him and Thomas for Christmas.

Thomas made it quite clear that he was pissed off not to be in the house in Aversham. But Jack had also made it clear that if Zeph couldn’t come, he wouldn’t be coming either. Thomas had relented.

His car was on the drive when they arrived. Thomas had considered putting electric gates on the property but Jack had talked him out of it. They wouldn’t deter those out to get them, and might make the house look more enticing to a burglar. The motion sensors and CCTV should be enough.

He left Zeph in the car and approached the house. Thomas opened the door and greeted him with a glare. Django jumped up, wagging his tail hard enough to raise bruises.

“Good boy.” Jack stroked Django’s head.

“You’re not.”

“No. Sorry and thank you.” Jack hoped to disarm Thomas but he was still scowling.

“Where is he?”

“Asleep for the last thirty miles. It’s only until Boxing Day. I didn’t want to leave him on his own. Or you.”

“I had a perfectly good Christmas tree. Now we need another one.”

“I’ll take Zeph to the garden centre tomorrow.”

“I warned you about getting involved,” Thomas said quietly.

“He makes me happy. I deserve happiness, don’t I?”

“It can’t last.”

Jack shrugged. “I’ll take what I can get.”

Thomas sighed. “Wake him up. I turned on the heating remotely and I’ve plenty of food. If there’s anything special he wants, you’ll need to buy it tomorrow. I’m not happy about this, Jack.”

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed. You seem your usual benevolent self. Try to be nice.”

“I’m making pizza. That’s as nice as I get.”

Jack went to the car, carried their bags in and returned to wake Zeph.

He opened his eyes and jerked upright. “Are we there yet?”

Jack chuckled. “The answer to that question, for once, is yes.”

Zeph put on his coat for the few metres it took to get to the house. Snow was drifting down, illuminated by the security lights. Jack shut the door and Django fussed around the pair of them.

“Ohh! Aren’t you beautiful!” Zeph stroked the dog. “Yes, you are. What a good boy. You like being tickled there?”

“You’re only allowed to tickle my balls,” Jack whispered.

Zeph let out a choked laugh. “I was not…” He straightened up and Jack realised Thomas had come into the hall.

“Thank you so much.” Zeph walked forward with his hand out. “It’s an imposition, I know. I’m sorry. Jack’s really hard to say no to. But if you want me to go, I’ll go. Well…maybe not tonight but—”

“Do you like pizza?”

“I love pizza.”

“Come and help me then.”

“I’ll show Zeph round first,” Jack said. “Are the beds made? We can do those.”

“Fine.” Thomas headed for the kitchen.

“Hang up your coat.” Jack put his own coat on the row of hooks by the door, then picked up both bags and carried them upstairs.

“It’s a nice house,” Zeph said as he followed him.

“Not as nice as the one in France.” Oh shit. But maybe Zeph wouldn’t assume the house in France belonged to Thomas.

“Nowhere will ever be as nice as that.” Zeph joined him on the landing.

Jack realised he’d got away with that slip. “This is my room. Our room.” He put the bags down and closed the curtains. Habit made him careful but he didn’t see anything that worried him.

“Will Thomas be okay with us sharing?”

“We’re not teenagers.” Jack took bed linen, pillows and duvet from the wardrobe and they worked together to make the bed. “Bathroom through that door. With a bath.”

“Okay.” Zeph smiled.

Thomas’s room was across the landing and they made his bed up too.

“Two more bedrooms on this floor.” Jack showed them to him. He wanted Zeph to see ways out in case he needed them. “I once jumped from this window into the tree.” When he’d gone to see Zeph.

“Are you nuts?”

“I like to know all exits, just in case.”

“Fire. Yes, that’s a good point. I do the same in a hotel. I’ve never thought about jumping into a tree though, then again, tree or fire—tree wins.”

Jack left the room. “Can you find the stairs to the next level?”

Zeph looked around, walked up and down the landing, tapping at walls. “No.”

“Look again. You’re on the right track.”

Zeph repeated what he’d done, then paused in front of a mirror at the end of the landing. “Here. The sound is wrong.”

Jack pressed the lever at the side of the mirror and the door swung open.

“Wow.” Zeph beamed at him. “Secret staircase! Can we go up?”

“Yes.” The light came on automatically as they climbed. “This is an old house. The staff would have used this route to move between floors. The lower section of stairs was incorporated into a utility room.”

The top floor was a large, empty, windowless space with storage areas in the eaves behind a series of three-foot square doors.

“I’d have loved this as a kid,” Zeph said. “A place to play, build forts and dens, hide away with a book.”

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Django joined them, staying close to Zeph.

“He likes you.”

“I like him too.” Zeph stroked him. “His coat is so soft.”

Thomas pointed to the wine. “Pour everyone a drink, Jack.”

“Not for me, thank you,” Zeph said. “I’ll just have water.”

“Zeph’s doing work on facial recognition.” Jack could almost see Thomas’s antennae twitching. “Tell him about it, Zeph.”

Jack poured two glasses of wine, and water for Zeph. He briefly wondered why Zeph hadn’t wanted a drink last night, nor tonight. Antibiotics? He didn’t appear to be ill. Zeph settled on the couch in the kitchen. Django jumped up beside him and rested his head on Zeph’s thigh.

Thomas asked questions about eigenvectors.

“I’d never heard of those until you mentioned them.” Jack sprinkled more mozzarella on his pizza.

“An eigenvector is associated with linear equations,” Zeph said. “The eigenvector of a matrix is also called a latent vector, proper vector, or characteristic vector.”

“And for dummies?” Jack asked.

“Just tools used to find a problem’s natural bases. You use them to change the form of the problem.”

“And for even dumber dummies?” Jack raised his eyebrows.

“I give in,” Zeph said.

Thomas laughed.

Jack was glad Zeph had amused Thomas. “Thomas is a weather fiend.”

“Weather is fascinating,” Zeph said. “I remember a conversation with a physicist after I’d said how windy it was.

I ended up being lectured to about the difference between rotating and inertial reference frames as the cause of geostrophic wind.

That served me right, so please tell me to shut up if I bore you with maths. ”

“What’s geostrophic wind, Jack?” Thomas asked.

“Not a clue.”

Zeph gaped at him. “You don’t know? As an air mass starts to move, it’s deflected to the right by the Coriolis force. The deflection increases until the Coriolis force is balanced by the pressure gradient force. Thenthe wind will be blowing parallel to the isobars. Result, geostrophic wind.”

Jack yawned and Thomas chuckled. But Jack’s ploy had worked and the two of them had a long conversation about clouds and wind that Jack understood more of than he let on.

They sat at the kitchen table to eat the pizzas. Thomas seemed to be warming to Zeph. It was interesting that Django hardly stirred from Zeph’s side. He’d even got up and followed when Zeph helped clear the table.

“What do you plan to do when you’ve graduated?” Thomas asked.

“I might do a PhD.”

“Maths or computer science?” Jack asked.

“Not sure. I’ve not really thought too much about it.”

Jack didn’t believe that. Zeph was a planner. He remembered where he’d wanted to work. So would Thomas.

He and Zeph washed up while Thomas took Django outside to pee.

“Is he really okay with me being here?” Zeph whispered.

“Yes. Stop worrying. You look tired. Are you?”

Zeph nodded.

“Go to bed, then. I’ll be up soon.”

Zeph snuck a kiss and left the kitchen.

By the time Thomas came back in with the dog, everything was neat and tidy.

“Zeph?” Thomas asked.

“Bed. He’s beat.”

“Did you drive all the way here?”

“Yes.”

“And he really slept the last thirty miles?”

“He has no idea where we are.”

“He will when you go out tomorrow.”

“Zeph’s no threat.”

Thomas rolled his eyes. “You know that’s not true. A careless word to the wrong person? He doesn’t know what’s at stake.”

“He does. He thinks we’re in witness protection. He won’t say anything.”

“Until he’s made to.”

Jack bristled. “You won’t be staying in this house anyway. Only over Christmas.”

“I feel uneasy.”

“He’s no danger to us.”

“No matter how many times you repeat that, it doesn’t make it true. Of course he presents a danger.”

“I want…” Jack licked his lips. “I want out. I want to live a normal life. I mean it. I’ve decided.”

Thomas’s eyes flared.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

“A normal life is never going to be within your grasp. You know that. You accepted that the moment you agreed to stay with me.”

I was six years old! “I want to try.”

He’d expected Thomas to be angry and dismissive but he wasn’t.

“What could you do?” Thomas asked.

“Teach languages? Ski instructor? Start a business? I have enough money to do what I like.”

“Except you can’t just walk away. You won’t be allowed to. You know too much. Just like me. Try and step out of the game and they’ll appoint someone to replace you, then take your life to make sure you keep quiet.”

“They’d have to catch me first.”

“You and Zeph? Is that what you want for him?”

Jack didn’t reply. It wasn’t what he wanted but…

Thomas shrugged. “He’s your weakness.”

Jack stared at him a moment, then turned and headed for the stairs.

“He will break you,” Thomas said.