Promises After Dark (After Dark Book 3) by Sadie Matthews

I mutter, trying not to shout. ‘Come on . . . please!’
    And then the transaction goes through. The machine starts to whirr as it prints my ticket and spits it out into the dispenser. I scrabble for it and then race over to the ticket barrier. I don’t bother with the ticket reader but hand my ticket straight to the inspector standing there so he can open the gate for me to race through. I can see there’s a queue at the baggage inspection ahead – will I still be in time to make the train? After all, I don’t have any luggage except for my handbag. The inspector takes my ticket, looks at it and then at the screen. He silently gestures to it and I look up. The screen for the two o’clock train reads ‘Check-in closed’.
    ‘You’re too late,’ he says mournfully.
    ‘Please, please let me through!’ I beg. ‘Please, it’s only one minute!’
    He shakes his head. ‘I can’t. Against the rules. Let in one, you have to let in them all. If one minute, why not two or three? Nope. Sorry.’
    I stare aghast at the ticket in my hand. It’s useless. I’ve just spent three hundred pounds on this bit of cardboard.
    The inspector looks at me sympathetically. ‘Listen, I saw you buy the ticket. You take it to the main office around the corner there, and tell them I sent you. You missed the train by one minute. Ask them to change the ticket to the next train. You can still get to Paris.’
    But will I have come to my senses by three o’clock?
    I look at the ticket again. One way to the Gare du Nord. It’s eating me up that the train hasn’t departed yet, that Dominic is still in the station but I can’t get near him.
    What the hell? What have I got to lose?
    I look up at the inspector. ‘Where did you say I can find the main ticket office?’
     
    Once on the Eurostar with my newly changed ticket, I settle into my seat and look about me. The train is filling up quickly. It’s that time of year, I suppose. Christmas seems to be a good excuse for people to nip over to a foreign city for shopping or a treat. I can see couples, some of them older, perhaps celebrating an anniversary or going for a special jaunt to Paris, the city of romance. People in suits, clearly travelling for work, are already opening up laptops or looking at their tablets. There are plenty of French people returning home and others who will be going onwards into Europe. A young family sits near me, the mother taking out plastic tubs filled with grapes and rice cakes for her small children.
    I take out my mobile and call Caroline. She doesn’t answer, so I leave a message explaining that I’m going to be away from the office this afternoon and I’ll call later to see how Mark is. Then I call Laura at her office.
    ‘You’re where ?’ she says disbelievingly when I tell her what I’m doing.
    ‘On the Eurostar at St Pancras, about to leave for Paris.’
    ‘Are you totally insane? Why?’
    ‘Because Dominic is in Paris. He left on the train before this one. He’s probably under the Channel right about now.’
    ‘And you think you’re going to find him?’ Laura’s voice is completely incredulous. ‘Just stumble across him? In the whole of Paris, you’re going to go straight to him? Beth, get off the train now and chalk it down to a moment of madness.’
    ‘No,’ I say. ‘I can find him. I’m sure of it.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘I’ll think of something.’
    ‘But when will you come back?’
    ‘The last train goes around nine, I think,’ I say vaguely. I haven’t researched this yet. ‘I can probably get on that.’
    ‘Good God, Beth, you got back from St Petersburg in the early hours of this morning! Now you might be home from Paris at some ungodly hour tonight!’ Then she sounds wistful. ‘It sounds kind of fun, though. I wish I could come with you.’
    ‘Me too! But listen, I’ll keep you informed, okay? Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.’
    ‘Beth, I wish I could be so sure. Just be careful.’
    ‘I’ll be fine,’