‘I lost my wedding ring yesterday,’ the woman confided.

Luckily not all at the same time,’ Bea said. ‘I’m just so stupid,’ she said, her voice full of self-loathing. You’re doing my head in.’ She reached down to the bottom of the trolley for a tin of sweetcorn, squashing her son against the wire edge. The woman’s hands were shaking as she loaded them onto the belt. There were still a few items in the trolley. ‘I’ll get someone to fetch you a new bottle of sauce. The sauce on his joggers made brown smears on her cream-coloured mac as she hitched him up. The woman stood up, settling her son onto her hip. His nasal voice rang out through the tannoy system. As soon as he saw what the trouble was he swivelled on his heel and retreated to the customer service console. The deputy manager, Neville, walked briskly towards them along the back of the tills, clutching a clipboard. ‘It’s just an accident.’ She pressed a button on her desk, lighting up the cube that identified her till.

The woman was scrubbing at her son’s legs with a used tissue. There was sauce splattered on the thick fleece of his jogging bottoms, but nothing worse. ‘Mason, are you hurt? Let me look at your legs.’ ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ The woman crouched down by her son. The girl in the trolley seat clapped her hands and crowed with delight. It hit the floor, glass and brown sauce exploding horizontally over a surprisingly wide area. ‘You’d be better off lying that down,’ Bea said at the exact moment that the wobble turned into a nosedive.

The bottle wobbled with every movement of the conveyor belt. The publisher acknowledges subsidy from Creative Scotland towards publication of this volume.Ĭover design by David Wardle at Bold and NobleĮBook compilation by Iolaire Typography Ltd, Newtonmore The moral right of Rachel Ward to be recognised as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

Rachel is married, with two grown-up children, and lives in Bath.Īll rights reserved. An avid reader of detective fiction, The Cost of Living is her first book for adults. Her first book, Numbers, was published in 2009 and shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Rachel Ward is a best-selling writer for young adults.

The cost of living rachel ward