Time chech, Ruby! I said as cheerfully as I could.
Don't want to be timekeeper. It's boring.
Just have a quick peek.
Twenty-seven minutes past. Where's Mum?
Do you think she's lost?
No. This is the only road until we reach the village.
There aren't any turnings off. She must have kept going. She's probably at the cottage already;
I tried to sound confident but I wasn't.
At last - the village sign: LITTLE THORNTON.
It leaned over, battered and muddy, green and brown stringy stuff clinging to it.
We turned up the lane to the cottage,
Try your mobile again, Adam, I said.
But there was still no signal. I hated feeling cut off from the rest of the world.
and there was this awful stench. I'd thought it was just a country smell at first, but it had got stronger.