Freya North

Love Rules

HarperCollins, 2005.

Overhead, a scruff of crows littered the sky, like flits of charcoal coughed up by a bonfire. Thea found herself wondering if the crows were somehow goading the birds caged in the London Zoo aviary, just down the hill and over the road

Thea is waiting for her lover on Primrose Hill, scene of their first chance encounter and their second, planned, one. Another visit on the first anniversary of their meeting, and a final one when it's all over:

At the top of Primrose Hill, in the dawn of August bank holiday Monday, Thea and Alice take a seat on one of the benches with a view. Alice gazes at the ghostly panorama of London. The design of the rubbish bins on Primrose Hill echo [sic] the shape of Canary Wharf. Everything seems a little unreal, distorted.

They have come to dispose of the ring he gave her.

Thea stands and then, with a competent throw, launches the ring as high as she can...She's pleased that she's released it to a place, a time, sacred to when she and Saul were very very happy. Now she's spread their dreams under other people's feet. She hopes they'll tread softly