themselves. 'You haven't turned against
'Nothing wrong with your judgment when it comes to Disney Hall. I'd be happy to pitch her book myself.'
As he trundled his chair to his desk, Charlotte grabbed her handbag and made for the lift. Her determination to act efficient and professional lasted as far as the subterranean corridor. How crowded might the lift grow on its way to the top floor? Although she'd jabbed the button she hurried along the corridor, which was cramped enough. She had almost reached the door to the emergency stairs before Glen called 'Don't you want to ride with me?'
'I don't feel like riding with anyone just now.'
'We all need to be part of the team,' he said, but Charlotte pushed the door open and stepped out of the corridor without looking back.
She'd thought the concrete stairs were wider. There appeared to be just enough space for two average people to pass. That had to be enough for her, however windowless the passage was. She ran up the flight to the bend between floors, not so much accompanied as beset by the flattened echoes of her footsteps. She was turning the bend when she thought someone below her spoke her name.
She didn't recognise the voice, though it seemed somehow familiar. She took a step backwards to peer around the enclosed bend. If anyone had called her, they must have been on the other side of the door; the voice had sounded at least that muffled. She wasn't about to waste time on finding out, because the prospect of descending the stairs seemed to shrink the passage. She turned her back and made to take two stairs at once, and then she grabbed the solitary banister so hard that she felt one of its supports grind within the wall. The higher flight of stairs was narrower.
It must be an illusion. Her confrontation with Glen had left her feeling penned in, that was all. As she dashed up the stairs the light appeared to flicker, and she was afraid it was about to shut her in total darkness. However insubstantial the footsteps crowding around her might be, they felt capable of robbing her of breath. She stumbled onto the ground-floor landing and gazed upwards. Though it had to be another illusion, the next flight looked narrower still.
She dragged the door to the lobby open, to be confronted by personnel piling into a lift. Someone beckoned her and made just enough space for her, but she waved him and the lift away. She was heading for its twin when she wondered how much of her state she was causing. How could she expect to relax until she'd spoken to Ellen, if then? The editorial meeting wouldn't start for ten minutes. She hurried past the reception desk into the street, where the sunlight rendered Ellen's number on the phone almost invisible. It had barely started to ring when Ellen said 'Gosh, have you bought me already? You must start awfully early.'
Charlotte found she was nervous of being overheard, though the pavement was deserted except for a traffic warden stooping to a parked car. 'Ellen . . .'
'I'm up too, writing. I have been for hours. I keep waking up with ideas.'
'As long as you're enjoying it and you're being productive.'
'I know I haven't sent you any revisions yet. I've nearly finished the chapter where they meet the one who's a witch. Charlotte?'
Was there a hint of panic in the last word? Charlotte hoped she wouldn't aggravate it by saying 'I'm afraid we're going to need more than that.'
'Well, of course you are,' Ellen said and laughed. 'A whole book.'
'No, I mean before we can make the deal. I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have been so eager to cheer you up.'
'I can live.'
'Oh, Ellen. How are you for money?'
'I wish people wouldn't keep asking me that sort of thing. I'm fine. I'm not spending as much as I used to, and don't start worrying about that. It'll do me good.'
Charlotte thought she would have preferred to be attacked for hastiness rather than hear Ellen striving to be positive. 'When do you think you might be able to send me say half a dozen chapters?'
'I'll see if I can by the end of next week.'
'Don't rush, but once I have them –'
'You'll send me my contract.'
'I'll do everything I can.'
'I'd better get started, then.' With scarcely a pause Ellen said 'You won't want a photo, will you?'
'Of what, sorry?'
'What is right. Of your cousin. Some books don't have them.'
'I certainly hope you'd want to do publicity if we can fix it up. All our authors do.'
'Let's get the book written first. And thanks for looking after me.'
In a moment Ellen was less than invisible. Charlotte dropped the mobile in her bag and turned away from the traffic warden, whose reproving frown she could easily take to heart. An empty lift was waiting in the lobby, and she hastened herself in. As the doors took time over closing and the grey cage dawdled upwards she had to quell the notion that the space around her was no larger than the inside of her skull.
TEN
'What's that bitch think she's up to? Who does she think she is?'
'Who are you calling one of those, Rory?'
'Who do you reckon, Hugh? Who do we both know?'
'Not Ellen.'
'Not her, no. She may be stupid in some ways, but nobody's got any reason to say she's a bitch that I know of. Cares too much for her own good about some things, like what people think of her. Have another go.'
'I don't see why you'd be talking about Charlotte.'
'What are you muttering about? Don't you want me hearing?'
'I said Charlotte. I mean, not her.'
'You've not heard what she's done to Ellen, then.'
'What?'
'By gum, I heard that all right. Didn't know you cared that much.' Rory gave Hugh's face time to grow hotter than the sunlight had rendered it before he said 'She's making Ellen change her whole book.'
'She'll be helping her, won't she? That's her job.'
'Shut my gob, are you telling me? I bet she'd like that, but I didn't think you would.'
'None of us would. I said she'll be doing her best for Ellen.'
'I didn't get half of that. You aren't making any sense to me.'
'It's noisy under the bridge. Wait till I'm over,' Hugh shouted, hurrying along the pavement above the road that girdled Huddersfield. In the midst of the thunder of lorries he thought he heard a shrivelled laugh. Pedestrians weren't allowed down there, and he was glad to be well clear of any driver who sounded like that. As he reached the brink of the street that sloped into the town, the mobile enquired 'Am I allowed to speak yet?'
'You never heard me say you weren't.'
'No, I heard you going on about someone that was under somewhere.'
'I didn't say that either,' Hugh protested more nervously than he understood.
'Carry on. You'll have me senseless before you're done.' Without giving Hugh time to respond Rory said 'Let me guess, you were standing up for your favourite girl.'
'She's not my favourite,' Hugh declared too vehemently and too loud. He felt desperate to hide his face as he tramped down to the pallid sandstone buildings around the railway station, although there was nobody in sight to observe him. 'All I'm saying,' he said, 'is Charlotte must know what she's doing.'
'Why?'
'She's paid to.'
'Money makes everything right, is that right?'
