Me Before You: A Novel

still a bit of tidying up to be done. Possibly an ear to slice.’
    I was in the bedroom, going through his drawers in search of a small mirror, when I heard the door. Two sets of brisk footsteps, Mrs Traynor’s voice, lifted, anxious.
    ‘Georgina, please don’t.’
    The door to the living room was wrenched open. I grabbed the mirror and ran out of the room. I had no intention of being found absent again. Mrs Traynor was standing in the living-room doorway, both hands raised to her mouth, apparently witnessing some unseen confrontation.
    ‘You are the most selfish man I ever met!’ a young woman was shouting. ‘I can’t believe this, Will. You were selfish then and you’re worse now.’
    ‘Georgina.’ Mrs Traynor’s gazed flicked towards me as I approached. ‘Please, stop.’
    I walked into the room behind her. Will, the towel around his shoulders, hair in soft brown fronds at the wheels of his chair, was facing a young woman. She had long dark hair,pinned into a messy knot at the back of her head. Her skin was tanned, and she was wearing expensively distressed jeans and suede boots. Like Alicia, her features were beautiful and regular, her teeth the astonishing white of a toothpaste commercial. I knew they were because, her face puce with anger, she was still hissing at him. ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you would even think of it. What do you –’
    ‘
Please
. Georgina.’ Mrs Traynor’s voice lifted sharply. ‘This is not the time.’
    Will, his face impassive, was staring straight ahead of him at some unseen point.
    ‘Um … Will? Do you need any help?’ I said, quietly.
    ‘Who are you?’ she said, whipping round. It was then that I saw her eyes were filled with tears.
    ‘Georgina,’ Will said. ‘Meet Louisa Clark, my paid companion and shockingly inventive hairdresser. Louisa, meet my sister, Georgina. She appears to have flown all the way from Australia to shriek at me.’
    ‘Don’t be facile,’ Georgina said. ‘Mummy told me. She’s told me
everything
.’
    Nobody moved.
    ‘Shall I give you a minute?’ I said.
    ‘That would be a good idea.’ Mrs Traynor’s knuckles were white on the arm of the sofa.
    I slid out of the room.
    ‘In fact, Louisa, perhaps now would be a good time to take your lunch break.’
    It was going to be a bus shelter kind of a day. I grabbed my sandwiches from the kitchen, climbed into my coat and set off down the back path.
    As I left, I could hear Georgina Traynor’s voice liftinginside the house. ‘Has it ever occurred to you, Will, that believe it or not, this might not be
just
about you?’
    When I returned, exactly half an hour later, the house was silent. Nathan was washing up a mug in the kitchen sink.
    He turned as he saw me. ‘How you doing?’
    ‘Has she gone?’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The sister?’
    He glanced behind him. ‘Ah. That who it was? Yeah, she’s gone. Just skidding off in her car when I got here. Some sort of family row, was it?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I was in the middle of cutting Will’s hair and this woman came in and just started having a go at him. I assumed it was another girlfriend.’
    Nathan shrugged.
    I realized he would not be interested in the personal minutiae of Will’s life, even if he knew.
    ‘He’s a bit quiet, though. Nice work with the shave, by the way. Good to get him out from behind all that shrubbery.’
    I walked back into the living room. Will was sitting staring at the television, which was still paused at the exact moment I had left it.
    ‘Do you want me to turn this back on?’ I said.
    He didn’t seem to hear me for a minute. His head was sunk in his shoulders, the earlier relaxed expression replaced by a veil. Will was closed off again, locked behind something I couldn’t penetrate.
    He blinked, as if he had only just noticed me there. ‘Sure,’ he said.
    I was carrying a basket of washing down the hall when I heard them. The annexe door was slightly ajar and the voices of Mrs Traynor and her daughter carried down the long corridor, the sound coming in muted waves. Will’s sister was sobbing quietly, all fury gone from her voice now. She sounded almost childlike.
    ‘There must be something they can do. Some medical advance. Can’t you take him to America? Things are always improving in America.’
    ‘Your father keeps a very close eye on all the developments. But no, darling, there is nothing … concrete.’
    ‘He’s so … different now. It’s like