Me Before You: A Novel

deep breath. ‘Okay. Are there any other restaurants?’
    ‘I’m afraid the Weighing Room, our relaxed dining area,is being refurbished right now, but there are stalls along the stands where you can get something to eat.’ She saw my face fall, and added, ‘The Pig In A Poke is pretty good. You get a hog roast in a bun. They do apple sauce too.’
    ‘A stall.’
    ‘Yes.’
    I leant in towards her. ‘Please,’ I said. ‘We’ve come a long way, and my friend there isn’t good in the cold. Is there any way at all that we could get a table in here? We just really need to get him into the warm. It’s really important that he has a good day.’
    She wrinkled her nose. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s more than my job’s worth to override the rules. But there is a disabled seating area downstairs that you can shut the doors on. You can’t see the course from there, but it’s quite snug. It’s got heaters and everything. You could eat in there.’
    I stared at her. I could feel the tension creeping upwards from my shins. I thought I might have gone completely rigid.
    I studied her name badge. ‘Sharon,’ I said. ‘You haven’t even begun to fill your tables. Surely it would be better to have more people eating than leaving half these tables empty? Just because of some arcane class-based regulation in a rule book?’
    Her smile glinted under the recessed lighting. ‘Madam, I have explained the situation to you. If we relaxed the rules for you, we’d have to do it for everyone.’
    ‘But it makes no sense,’ I said. ‘It’s a wet Monday lunchtime. You have empty tables. We want to buy a meal. A properly expensive meal, with napkins and everything. Wedon’t want to eat pork rolls and sit in a cloakroom with no view, no matter how snug.’
    Other diners had begun to turn in their seats, curious about the altercation by the door. I could see Will looking embarrassed now. He and Nathan had worked out something was going wrong.
    ‘Then I’m afraid you should have bought a Premier Area badge.’
    ‘Okay.’ I reached for my handbag, and began to rifle through, searching for my purse. ‘How much is a Premier Area badge?’ Tissues, old bus tickets and one of Thomas’s Hot Wheels toy cars flew out. I no longer cared. I was going to get Will his posh lunch in a restaurant. ‘Here. How much? Another ten? Twenty?’ I thrust a fistful of notes at her.
    She looked down at my hand. ‘I’m sorry, Madam, we don’t sell badges here. This is a restaurant. You’ll have to go back to the ticket office.’
    ‘The one that’s all the way over the other side of the racecourse.’
    ‘Yes.’
    We stared at each other.
    Will’s voice broke in. ‘Louisa, let’s go.’
    I felt my eyes suddenly brim with tears. ‘No,’ I said. ‘This is ridiculous. We’ve come all this way. You stay here and I’ll go and get us all Premier Area badges. And then we will have our meal.’
    ‘Louisa, I’m not hungry.’
    ‘We’ll be fine once we’ve eaten. We can watch the horses and everything. It will be fine.’
    Nathan stepped forward and laid a hand on my arm. ‘Louisa, I think Will really just wants to go home.’
    We were now the focus of the whole restaurant. The gaze of the diners swept over us and travelled past me to Will, where they clouded with faint pity or distaste. I felt that for him. I felt like an utter failure. I looked up at the woman, who did at least have the grace to look slightly embarrassed now that Will had actually spoken.
    ‘Well, thank you,’ I said to her. ‘Thanks for being so fucking accommodating.’
    ‘Clark –’ Will’s voice carried a warning.
    ‘So glad that you are so flexible. I’ll certainly recommend you to everyone I know.’
    ‘Louisa!’
    I grabbed my bag and thrust it under my arm.
    ‘You’ve forgotten your little car,’ she called, as I swept through the door that Nathan held open for me.
    ‘Why, does that need a bloody badge too?’ I said, and followed them into the lift.
    We descended in silence. I spent most of the short lift journey trying to stop my hands from shaking with rage.
    When we reached the bottom concourse, Nathan murmured, ‘I think we should probably get something from one of these stalls, you know. It’s been a few hours now since we ate anything.’ He glanced down at Will, so I knew who it was he was really referring to.
    ‘Fine,’ I said, brightly. I took a little breath. ‘I love a bit of crackling. Let’s go to the