Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

10
They looked a bit surprised. Actually, that’s an understatement. Mrs Traynor
looked stunned, and then a bit disconcerted, and then her whole face closed off.
Her daughter, curled up next to her on the sofa, just glowered – the kind of face
Mum used to warn me would stick in place if the wind changed. It wasn’t quite
the enthusiastic response I’d been hoping for.
‘But what is it you actually want to do?’
‘I don’t know yet. My sister is good at researching stuff. She’s trying to find
out what’s possible for quadriplegics. But I really wanted to find out from you
whether you would be willing to go with it.’
We were in their drawing room. It was the same room I had been interviewed
in, except this time Mrs Traynor and her daughter were perched on the sofa, their
slobbery old dog between them. Mr Traynor was standing by the fire. I was
wearing my French peasant’s jacket in indigo denim, a minidress and a pair of
army boots. With hindsight, I realized, I could have picked a more professionallooking
uniform in which to outline my plan.
‘Let me get this straight.’ Camilla Traynor leant forward. ‘You want to take
Will away from this house.’
‘Yes.’
‘And take him on a series of “adventures”.’ She said it like I was suggesting
performing amateur keyhole surgery on him.
‘Yes. Like I said, I’m not sure what’s possible yet. But it’s about just getting
him out and about, widening his horizons. There may be some local things we
could do at first, and then hopefully something further afield before too long.’
‘Are you talking about going abroad?’
‘Abroad … ?’ I blinked. ‘I was thinking more about maybe getting him to the
pub. Or to a show, just for starters.’