Ben is welcoming them to Wake Hall, and there is also someone else, a guest from the US, who has arrived on Saturday. Faith and Nicholas talk to him immediately after their arrival. His name is Maxwell, sent by the American lawyer to deliver the divorce papers to Kenny. Kenny has barely entered the house when he asks for a car. He wants to see the landscape, he claims, and he needs some air.
It is a good thing that Maxwell is at hand. The delivery of the papers happens promptly, in a way Faith had thought happened only in movies.
“Mr Kenny Payne?”
“Yes?”
Maxwell hands him the envelope without further ado. “You have now been handed your divorce papers. You have one hundred and twenty days to respond and make a legal claim, otherwise the divorce becomes legal without your consent, due to the marriage having been in effect for less than three months.”
Kenny looks at Maxwell and then at Faith, dumbfounded at first, but then his stupid grin becomes evil. Faith is just glad that Nicholas is beside her, and Ben is standing by the door.
“So this is why you dragged me up here? For this?”, Kenny says, and she can hear the suppressed rage in his voice.
“You cannot tell me that you were not expecting it”, she says calmly.
Kenny just scoffs. “And now can I have a car or not?”
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Faith shrugs. “There is a Civic in the yard. Ben will give you the keys.” It is her old car. She almost hopes that he is going to kill himself in it on the small and treacherously winding Scottish roads.
She sleeps like a baby all through the night. She has taken her grandfathers room; it has been slightly remodelled for her. Kenny has been put in her old room. She sleeps through a very bad thunderstorm.
In the morning Ben informs her that Kenny has not come back. She could not care less. The papers had been delivered. Let him get drunk somewhere, do drugs, fuck someone, it does not concern her any more. She is glad that she does not have to deal with him. Tom will be arriving in the afternoon, that is much more important. Until then, she will take a horse and go down to the beach, letting the sea breeze blow her mind clear.
She is in no hurry, and down at the beach she releases the horse, sits down on a rock in the sunshine and listens to the rhythm of the sea. It blanks out everything else, and after a while it puts her to sleep.
When she wakes up, it is mid afternoon. Her horse is not far away and comes when she whistles, good girl. The animal knows where they are going, and Faith lets the reins almost drop. When they reach the road, a slow drizzle starts. She picks up the reins and speeds up a little. Her thoughts move ahead; Tom will be here shortly. They can talk at last.
Just before she passes through the gate into the grounds of Wake Hall, her horse shies and almost throws her off. Faith regains control and looks around, trying to figure out what could have frightened the animal.
At first, she cannot detect anything unusual, but the horse keeps throwing back her head and dancing around nervously, so Faith stands up in the stirrups, and yes, there is something, lying beneath some shrubs on the other side of the ditch that runs along the road. Whatever. If it is trash, she will tell the gardener to have it removed, but since the horse is so upset she decides to investigate.
