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‘ W hy didn’t you call me?’ Simon put his cases down in the hall.

‘Sky asked me not to. You were busy anyway, you couldn’t have come home.’

‘I could have video-called.’

She had expected more anger. His voice was raised, but it appeared his heart wasn’t it.

‘Are you OK?’ she asked. ‘You seem a bit…’

‘What? I seem a bit what?’

‘Calmer than I thought you’d be. Has Andrew changed your medication?’

‘Now you’re making me sound like a lunatic.’

‘Well…’

‘Ha ha,’ Simon picked his cases back up and went into his room.

Rose followed. ‘Sky slept in here. Well for some of the night anyway. I’m really sorry. I wanted to tell you but she said she wasn’t ready to meet you again. I’m not sure if it’s because she had struggled to control the shifting or whether she was feeling shy.’

‘Does she strike you as a shy person?’

How do you define shy when someone’s not human? thought Rose and shrugged. ‘She said she wanted to be human without you confusing her.’

‘Am I confusing?’

Rose thought for a moment. ‘No, frankly, you’re pretty much “what you see is what you get”, but maybe she just wanted to get acclimatised again, back into human-ness before she met you. Perhaps she was afraid she’d be too… wolfy.’

‘Humanity, Rose, vulpine. Good grief, to think you went to university and everything.’

‘ Has Andrew changed your medication?’

‘Not yet. After the next full-moon, he said.’

‘Does he think things are going OK at the moment?’

Simon grunted .

‘Do you ?’ she asked.

He shrugged, rubbing his knuckles. ‘My joints still ache.’

‘I thought you’d be more upset. I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you, but she was adamant.’

‘To be honest,’ Simon wandered back into the kitchen. ‘I sort of get where she’s coming from. I’m…’

‘Don’t tell me you’re feeling shy, you wouldn’t feel shy if you found yourself standing naked in front of the King. You’d just say “how do, your Maj” and ask what he thought of your book.’

‘That would depend on how cold it was.’

‘Seriously.’

‘Seriously. Denmark seems like a long time ago. Even looking at the film, it doesn’t seem real. Especially now it’s finished, polished. There’s me, there are the wolves, there’s the work the camera crew did, that David did. It’s all unreal. Sky… she was the realest woman I’d ever known.’

‘Gee thanks.’

‘You don’t count. You’re my sister. Sky was real because she was honest. Told me what she thought. Didn’t care that I was well-off and well-known and talented and good-looking.’

‘Don’t be modest now.’

He cuffed her. ‘It’s true, she was the realest woman but she was a wolf. I sometimes wonder if I made her up, if it’s just the illness, the medication. I imagined the whole thing.’

‘You didn’t. I saw her change right in front of me. You’re not mad. Or at least, no madder than you were before.’

‘Maybe you’re mad too. They say grief can do that. Or maybe even now, I’m hearing you say I’m not mad but actually you’re saying something else. And it’s all part of one massive hallucination.’

Rose paused, a spoon of coffee poised over the cafetière. ‘Simon, it’s all real. Fourteen months ago, I’d have said this whole conversation was crazy, but it isn’t. You’re doing OK. Andrew is working on a cure. It’ll be fine. Sky will shift again and next time, you’ll be able to talk to her.’

Simon slammed his fist down on the worktop but said nothing. Then he took a breath and asked, ‘How’s Rob?’

‘Fine as far as I know. I haven’t seen him since last band practice. Stop changing the subject. Are you worried about meeting Sky, or just don’t want to anymore? ’

‘Of course I do. But why would she want me? Half a man and can’t even be a whole wolf. Anyway, as long as she’s OK. Did she seem healthy? How did she find human life?’

‘Healthy, yes. Human life she found baffling and terrifying, I think.’

‘See, if I’d been there to distract her, she wouldn’t have noticed how baffling and terrifying it is. You obviously didn’t look after her well enough.’

‘I did my best and she was all right when she was with me and Rob.’

‘You and Rob, eh?’

Rose flicked him with a tea towel. ‘Are you sure you’re OK? Only I was going to go out this evening. If you want company…’

‘You’re going out? The hotel?’

‘No, film society. I could have gone to the book club.’

‘Book club? You? Didn’t think you read anything without quavers and crochets in these days.’

Rose poured the coffee. ‘Well obviously I can’t, which is why I’m going to the film society.’

‘I suppose you’ll be watching some dreary, monochrome foreign language thing and then have to pretend to be intellectual afterwards.’

‘Hope not. But it’s a chance to get out.’

‘Why not the book club? Or was that foreign language too? You could have got to know some other people. Stop seeing them as threats and actually have a chat with them, find out what they’re really like.’

‘I thought about it, but I didn’t fancy going alone. They’re all a bit daunting and Sam wouldn’t come with me. She doesn’t like Iseult.’

‘Who?’

‘Iseult, she’s the really attractive one from the Guild.’

‘Still no idea.’

‘Tony’s wife. Remember? She came to the hotel to collect him when we were there last week. Had a little girl with her. Tall, slim, perfect.’

‘What her? She wasn’t attractive. I mean all the bits were in the right places and had the right proportions but she looked pretty ordinary to me.’

‘She dresses beautifully, her hair’s perfect, her make-up’s perfect, she walks like she owns the place. ’

‘Nah. She looked like a painted doll to me. No idea what’s underneath. I’ll never understand women. You look at each other as competition the whole time. Can she cook? That’s all I’d want to know.’

‘Actually she can.’

‘All the same,’ Simon said. ‘I wasn’t sure about her. I got the impression even Tony didn’t like her much. Or trust her. Or something. He was mumbling away about something but he’s hard to make out. You haven’t told her about me have you?’

‘You’ve got to be kidding. I wouldn’t tell her anything secret. I wouldn’t tell her much of anything.’

‘Because she’s a gossip?’

‘No. It’s just a gut feeling.’ Blackmail? thought Rose, Iseult’s perfect face merging with those of bullies at school.

‘Would Rob have told Tony?’

‘No. He wouldn’t tell anyone. Why?’

‘Dunno. Just whatever Tony was muttering, as if he knew. It felt like a sort of warning.’

‘“Keep away from my ponies, they’re not for snacking on,” that sort of thing?’

‘Ha ha. I’d had too much beer anyway and he was mumbling, I’m imagining things. Talking of which, fancy giving me and Rob a lift down to town so we can have a drink?’

‘How about you take me so I can?’

‘Nah, you know you don’t want to drink really.’

At ten-thirty, Rose said goodbye to Sam and drove from the community centre to the hotel.

The skies were clear, but there was only a sliver of moon among the stars.

She wondered where Sky was and when she would come back.

The town might not be so frightening in the evening.

Perhaps she could learn to understand human life, if they approached it a different way.

She drove slowly, the few people were unpredictable, stepping off the pavement from food outlets and late night shops without thinking about whether the road was clear.

Down shadowy side streets, people walked home, stepping in and out of the light cast by street lamps.

A movement in the corner of her eye made her brake.

Her heart started to thud, the images of her dream flashed across her mind and then she realised it was just a cat crossing the street as if the world should stop at its command.

She parked up and went to meet Simon and Rob. Tony was sitting with them, nursing a pint and muttering into it. Rob was leaning forward, frowning as he tried to listen but Simon was sitting back and tapping his fingers on the table. He looked up when Rose appeared.

‘No Sam?’

‘She’s gone home.’

‘How incomprehensible was the film on a scale of one to ten?’

‘Way above your few brain cells.’

She sat down in a chair and shook her head at his offer of a drink and he and Rob went to pay for the food they’d eaten. She was tired. It was exhausting meeting all those new people, pleasant as they were.

‘Didn’t fancy meeting my ponies then?’ said Tony. ‘Or was it just that you didn’t fancy the company?’ She forced a smile.

‘No one ever told me what the book was and someone said everyone brought home-made nibbles. I can’t cook and didn’t want to actually poison people.’

‘You could have taken wine,’ said Tony, ‘and drunk it. Probably safer than the snacks. They use a lot of herbs. They’re disagreeing with me more than normal.’

He didn’t seem to be joking. He leaned over, his eyes still cast down, his voice barely audible. ‘I keep telling Simon, but he’s not listening. He needs to keep away from those women?’

‘Who, what, the book club?’

‘That’s just an off-shoot. I mean the Guild. They’re on to Simon. They know what he is. They know what they want to do about it. He needs to change his mind about that talk. Maybe even move away.’

Rose went cold, she glanced up at Rob, who was watching from the bar. As if reading her mind, he scowled and shook his head.

She chose her words carefully. ‘What do you mean “They know what he is”? He’s a naturalist, a TV presenter. Everyone knows that.’

Tony shook his head hard and with what appeared to be an effort, glanced into Rose’s eyes than back to his beer.

‘They can smell it out. Dunno how. S’a kind of inherited trait.

Till the last forty years or so, this population was pretty much static.

Whoever was left from before, has descendants living here now.

They know. They can tell when someone is …

whadyacallit? Other. They know what to blame.

And they’ll weed it out no matter what the co st.’

Rose struggled to hear.