"No! Come on, we've been planning this for months."

Anna pulled herself up to full consciousness. Why could she hear Kristoff's voice? Had she fallen asleep in the staffroom again?

"You're sure? It's not that bad, it's just a bit wet - well, okay, very wet…"

No, she was in a bed. In a room. Kristoff was on the phone. Oh, yes, right, that was it.

"I'll go over there today and look at it….oh, well, if you're sure. I don't know, go home I guess. Yeah, well. Wait, you're breaking up -"

Anna rolled onto her back and stretched. Kristoff looked over at her. "Lost signal," he said, putting down his phone, "And Sven's not coming. Says the weather's too bad."

"I can see his point," Anna said. "Especially camping, I bet the campsite is one big muddy puddle right about now."

"I've been looking forward to this for ages," Kristoff said.

He sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I'm sorry," Anna said, pushing herself up on one elbow. "Will you go home?"

"Then I'll have to come back on Friday for you."

Anna shrugged. "I can get the train, someone'll give me a lift to the station."

"Surely you'll have to change at least twice. It'll take all day."

"It'll take you all day to drive up here and get me."

"Well," he said, "I'll get dressed and think about it over breakfast."

"Of course you must stay here!" Caroline said, looking round the breakfast table for agreement. "Mustn't he?"

"Oh, I couldn't -"

"Don't be silly. We thought you were coming originally, anyway. And you can still go out and do some walks if the weather stays clear, we won't be offended!"

"I -"

"There's some grand walks out of here," Anna's grandad said. "Footpath at the bottom of the lane, goes right up into the hills. Do you have an Ordnance Survey map?"

"Yes, of course -"

"And I'm sure Anna will be happy to have you here," Stephanie said. She raised her eyebrows. Kristoff looked at Anna. She did not look happy, but quickly changed her expression when she realised everyone was looking at her.

"Absolutely," she said. "That would be - awesome."

Stephanie was looking from Anna to Kristoff and back again.

He coughed. "I expect I'll go out for a walk today," he said. "While it's dry. Forecast for the rest of the week is pretty dreadful."

"Well," said Anna, "Let's go upstairs and - unpack your bag again. Okay?"

"Okay," said Kristoff, and let Anna take his hand and pull him up the stairs.

"OK," she said, once the bedroom door was closed behind them. "If you're staying, you can kiss me, but no tongues. You may put your hand on my arm, my waist or my shoulder, but not - anywhere else. And, and I told my aunt we'd been together about six months, and we met at work, and…"

Kristoff leant on the closed door and folded his arms. "I'm not planning to be here most of the time," he said. "Tell your aunt what you like."

"Okay. Okay, that's probably easiest, if you go out on some long walks…"

"You really think you can pull this off? Four more days?"

"Of course. Yes. Why not?"

"Your cousin doesn't believe it."

"Which cousin?"

"The bitchy one, not the nice one. Stephanie."

"She's not...okay, whatever. Well, we'll have to make her believe it."

"Oh, lord. You know, the longer you let it play out, the worse it'll be when they work it out."

"They won't. Why would they?"

Kristoff knelt next to his rucksack and started taking things out, neatly piling clothes and his washbag at the side of the room, finding his maps and compass. "I'll get out of your way today, anyway."

"Okay. So you are staying?"

He looked at her. She was wringing her hands.

"Well, I guess I either stay here or I go home," he said.

"Well, yes."

"And I don't want to go home and spend all week with nothing to do except be annoyed that I'm not in the Lakes."

"Free room and board," Anna said.

"In exchange for taking part in your daft plan." He smiled.

Anna shrugged, but now she was smiling too. "It's not really a plan. It's more of a - ruse."

"A scheme."

"A game."

"Well, my next move is that I'm going to go downstairs, fill my water bottle, put on my boots and take to the hills," Kristoff said. "I'll see you later."

"Okay. Have a good time."

Kristoff left the room. He was at the top of the stairs when he heard Caroline say "I'll just go and see what Kristoff wants in his sandwiches, I think he's upstairs," from the hall.

He turned quickly, and walked back to his and Anna's bedroom. Opening the door, he found Anna rummaging in her suitcase. The pillow and sleeping bag he'd used the night before were still on the floor; quickly, he gathered them up and threw them on the bed, but it still looked suspicious and he didn't have time to make it properly. "What's up?" Anna said. The footsteps were nearly at the door now.

He had an idea. Later, he wondered what on earth had possessed him, but at the time it seemed perfectly reasonable to pick Anna up bodily, drop her on the bed - on top of the incriminating pile of pillow and sleeping bag - throw himself down next to her and kiss her firmly on the lips.

Anna made a sort of yelp when he dropped her, but the kiss shut her up quite effectively. She put a hand up onto his shoulder but didn't push him away; he wrapped an arm round her waist to hold her in place as he kissed her, and found to his shock that after her initial surprise had passed she was kissing him back.

There was an "Oh!" from the doorway. Kristoff pulled back, and Anna leapt away and sat up, blushing and looking slightly rumpled. "Aunt Caroline," she said. Caroline coughed. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said in a slightly strangled voice, "I was just packing Kristoff a lunch and I wondered if he wanted ham or cheese in his sandwiches…"

"You don't have to make me lunch, Mrs Re- Caroline," Kristoff said, standing and finding his bag again.

"Oh, it's no trouble - ham or cheese?"

"If you're sure - ham is fine, thank you."

"I'm sorry," Kristoff said as soon as Caroline was gone. "I wanted to hide the stuff on the bed and that seemed the quickest way -"

"Oh. Yes. Of course," Anna said, running her hands through her hair to tidy it. "Um. You could have thrown everything behind the bed, though."

"...oh."

"I mean, it's okay - um. I was just unpacking..." Anna got up and went back over to her case, her back to Kristoff.

"OK. I'll - I'll go then. See you later."

"Okay."

Well, that had been - interesting, Anna thought once she was alone in the room again. He was committed, anyway. Or taking advantage? No, she didn't think so - he'd just put his arm round her waist, after all, and there were other places he could have put his hand. She trusted him.

Maybe that was why she'd asked him to do this. Not because she, you know, liked him, she didn't, but because she trusted him. She'd worked alongside him for nearly three years now and she knew she could count on his word, and that he was a gentleman, in the best sense of the word. She felt a bit bad that he was now stuck with her for the week. But he hadn't seemed to mind.

Well, that had been - interesting, Kristoff thought as he set off down the footpath. Not how he'd expected this week to go, at all.

Was he really prepared to spend the rest of the week pretending to be Anna's boyfriend? Four days could be a long time. Even if he stayed out of the house as much as possible, that was still three more breakfasts, three more evening meals, plenty of other incidental conversations with her relatives. Sleeping in the same room as her every night.

And there was also the fact, there, that he wasn't being entirely honest with her. If she knew how he really felt - would she have been so keen?

Kristoff managed to stay out of the house for most of the day. It was wet underfoot but the weather itself stayed dry, and it was no hardship to spend the time enjoying the gorgeous scenery. He couldn't do any of the walks he'd planned with Sven, but he found another that was just as good, and he finally returned to the house about seven.

To find the place full, but quiet. Some sort of huge casserole was cooking in the oven, making the whole house smell delicious; Anna's grandparents and aunt and uncle were dozing in armchairs in front of a fire in the living room, and the three younger women were chatting and giggling about something upstairs. Kristoff banged as much mud as he could off his boots and put them to dry by the back door, then hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't want to interrupt, but he also really wanted some dry socks. In the end his feet won.

Anna was in the bedroom Chloe and Stephanie were sharing. The three of them were lounging on the rug on the floor, with a tin of biscuits and some empty mugs of tea.

"Kristoff!" Anna said when she saw him. "Did you have a good walk?"

"Yes, thank you," he said. "Did you girls have a nice day?"

"Anna ate all the chocolate biscuits," Chloe said sadly.

"I did not. Steph did."

"Grandma did," Stephanie said, rolling onto her back. "Sneakily. While the tin was downstairs."

"Blaming old ladies, that's a new low," Anna said.

"Shush," Stephanie said. "Or I will tell him who ate my Easter egg that time."

"No, no, no - I was five, anyway, it's not like it was last month -"

"I'll leave you all to it," Kristoff said, backing out of the door. "I just came upstairs for some dry socks."

At bedtime Kristoff waited until the bedroom door was firmly shut, then unrolled his sleeping bag again. Anna watched him, biting her lip.

"Look, this is silly," she said. "You don't have to sleep on the floor. We're both adults, we can share."

Kristoff said nothing, just looked at her.

"Of course, if you tell anyone at school about any of this, I'll have to murder you," Anna continued. "I think that's fair."

Kristoff nodded. "That floor is pretty hard," he said. He hesitated, then sighed. "It's up to you."

"Okay, then. Okay. I'll sleep on this side, and you can sleep there." She pointed to the left side of the bed. "Neutral zone down the middle."

"I'm not going to - encroach."

"I hope not."

Kristoff rolled up his sleeping bag and stuffed it back into its bag. He took his pillow from the floor and put it on the bed, then lay down. "Yes, definitely better than the floor."

"Um. Good."

Anna hesitated a second, then climbed into the bed. "I really am very sorry about all this," she said.

"I know. You keep saying."

"I didn't think we'd end up actually, you know. Sharing the bed and everything."

"And all because I'm the one who drove you up here."

"Well - not exactly. I mean - do you think I'd have asked Simon or someone to pretend to be my boyfriend?"

They both grimaced at the thought of the teaching assistant. "I would not kiss Simon for a ruse," Anna said. "I would not kiss him for a bet. I would not kiss him for a million pounds."

"I thought you all swooned over Navid," Kristoff said.

"Navid? No! He likes to think we do. But, no. No. Actually, a lot of the women quite like you," Anna said.

"Me?"

"Yes. Ever since you jumped Julie's car that time. She said you were ever so sweet."

"Huh."

"Considering your options now, are you."

"Little bit."

He stretched, and put his arms behind his head. "Any plans for tomorrow?" he said.

"Not really. It's supposed to rain, I'm afraid."

"Yes, I saw.."

"If they're forecasting rain it's usually correct."

Anna went quiet for a while, then she said "There's a cupboard full of board games in the living room."

"Oh, lord alive."

"You know you want to play Ludo with a random co-worker's grandfather. It's all you ever wanted from the half-term holiday."

"It would be creepily specific if it was."

Anna laughed. "I suppose so."

"I'm more of a snakes and ladders man, anyway."

"I'll bear that in mind." She snuggled down under the covers. "Goodnight, anyway."

"Goodnight."

She was lying on the bed, and Kristoff was kissing her, but there was no interruption this time. He was kissing her, and his hands were wandering - he was rolling her over onto her back, and pulling off her clothes -

Anna woke up, her heart beating hard in her chest. "Kristoff," she gasped, without even meaning to.

"Mm? W'issit?" He had rolled over and was blinking at her.

"You were snoring," she said quickly.

"Oh, sorry. I'll sleep on my side, sorry," he said and turned away again.

Anna turned her back to him. She was sure her cheeks were bright red. She couldn't believe she'd had a dirty dream about Kristoff - why were brains so weird? It was probably just because she'd spent so much time with him recently, as well as that kiss - what had he been thinking? Panicking, she supposed.

She just needed to calm herself down until she could get back to sleep; her heart was still racing. Why did he have to be lying so close? She didn't have any room to move over. There were barely two inches between them and she could feel the heat from his body. This was all your idea, she reminded herself. He doesn't want to be here at all.