Free When Good Friends Go Bad by Ellie Campbell

now she'd escaped the horrors of adolescence.
    'Speaking of looking at boys, you realise we've been here hours and you haven't told us one thing about your husband?' Jen declared, just as the waiter came by with the dessert selections. There was a hiatus while they chose.
    'What's he like?' she probed as the trolley was wheeled away. She wanted to hear that the fat, lonely, unloved Georgina had found her fairy-tale ending.
    'Yeah, Georgie,' there was the faintest hint of slurring in Meg's voice. Her green eyes gleamed as she refilled her wine glass. 'What's the big mystery?'
    Georgina threw her hair back, looking distant again. 'No mystery,' she said coolly, and glanced at her watch. 'I just haven't had a chance with all your yakking. And talking of mysteries, Rowan has officially bloody well stood us up.'
    'She wouldn't,' Jen said, contradicting the obvious. 'Something must have happened.'
    'Does anyone have her cell number?' asked Meg.
    'I never thought to ask,' Jen said guiltily. 'She called me from a payphone. Maybe she doesn't have one.'
    'She cut off from me before I had the chance,' said Georgina. 'I did a 1471 but the number was withheld.'
    'Are you sure we have the right hotel?' Meg's eyelids were looking suspiciously heavy, her head propped on one elbow. 'I can just imagine ditzy old Rowan sitting a hundred miles from here, wondering what happened to the three of us.'
    'There's only one Marlow Arms in Warminster,' Georgina said sniffily. 'It was my suggestion anyway and I gave her clear directions.'
    'Should we call the hospitals?' Automatically Jen's mind went to motorway pile-ups, flashing police lights, ambulance sirens. 'We don't even know if she's married, she could have changed her name. Did she tell anyone where she was living?'
    'Not me,' Georgina said in a let's-calm-down kind of way, picking up a fork as the desserts arrived in front of them. 'But Rowan always was spacey. I love her to blithery but I can't say this is completely out of character.'
    'We did a play at the end of last term about this woman who's in a car crash,' Meg chipped in. 'She comes out of a coma and doesn't remember a thing about her life.'
    'Great. How reassuring,' Jen joked, trying to squash her worry. Anything could have happened, it didn't have to be bad. Rowan's car wouldn't start. An unexpected visitor had arrived. She had a conflict in schedules, or simply forgot. Admittedly it was odd she hadn't called the hotel, left them a message, but Rowan had always been dreamy. She'd probably turn up tomorrow night, wondering why they weren't there. There was no reason for Jen to have this uneasy feeling about it, no reason at all.
    As they traded tastes of each culinary masterpiece – roast caramel pears with mascarpone cheese for Georgina, passion-fruit mousse for Meg and vanilla soufflé for Jen, drizzled with the most delicious chocolate sauce – she still couldn't shake off this strong sense of dread. It was as if . . .
    'Oh jeepers!' Georgie squealed uncharacteristically. Her eyes were fixed on a large, imposing figure who had caught Jen's attention when she first walked in. 'I know who that woman is. It's been bothering me all night. She's Bella Stringent!'
    'Bella Stringent?' Meg's spine straightened like an interview candidate when her prospective boss arrives, and she swivelled in her chair. 'Where?'
    'Who's Bella Stringent?' Jen craned her neck.
    'Don't stare. She's just finished Lady Bracknell at the Strand. "A handbag?" ' Georgina's voice mimicked the aristocratic bellow in a muted fashion. 'They say she's up for an Oscar for that Merchant Ivory film she did.'
    'No shit!' Meg took a gulp of wine. For someone who hadn't originally wanted the Sauvignon Blanc she was doing a manly job of destroying the second bottle, especially since Georgina, true to her word, had only tasted a little. 'Should I go over and talk to her? After all we are both in the biz.'
    She rose to her feet, staggering drunkenly.
    'No!' Both Jen and Georgina