Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

Louisa looked a bit shaken but he had gone over and murmured something to
her, and that was the point at which I saw it. She went kind of pink and laughed,
the kind of laugh you do when you know you shouldn’t be laughing. The kind of
laugh that spoke of a conspiracy. And then Will turned to her and told her to take
it easy for the rest of the day. Go home, get changed, maybe catch forty winks.
‘I can’t be walking around the castle with someone who has so clearly just
done the walk of shame,’ he said.
‘Walk of shame?’ I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice.
‘Not that walk of shame,’ Louisa said, flicking me with her scarf, and grabbed
her coat to leave.
‘Take the car,’ he called out. ‘It’ll be easier for you to get back.’
I watched Will’s eyes follow her all the way to the back door.
I would have offered you seven to four just on the basis of that look alone.
He deflated a little after she left. It was as if he had been holding on until both
his mum and Louisa had left the annexe. I had been watching him carefully now,
and once his smile left his face I realized I didn’t like the look of him. His skin
held a faint blotchiness, he had winced twice when he thought no one was
looking, and I could see even from here that he had goosebumps. A little alarm
bell had started to sound, distant but shrill, inside my head.
‘You feeling okay, Will?’
‘I’m fine. Don’t fuss.’
‘You want to tell me where it hurts?’
He looked a bit resigned then, as if he knew I saw straight through him. We
had worked together a long time.
‘Okay. Bit of a headache. And … um … I need my tubes changed. Probably
quite sharpish.’
I had transferred him from his chair on to his bed and now I began getting the
equipment together. ‘What time did Lou do them this morning?’
‘She didn’t.’ He winced. And he looked a little guilty. ‘Or last night.’
‘What?’
I took his pulse, and grabbed the blood pressure equipment. Sure enough, it
was sky high. When I put my hand on his forehead it came away with a faint
sheen of sweat. I went for the medicine cabinet, and crushed some vasodilator
drugs. I gave them to him in water, making sure he drank every last bit. Then I