Lou shrugged. “I have no idea who the father is.”
Silence stretched out between us for what felt like an eternity while I tried to get my head around what she’d just said.
“Look, Kate, please leave it for now. Take me home, please.”
“Leave it? How the hell can I leave something like this?” Anger mixed with irritation started to build deep inside. I couldn’t believe she’d managed to get herself into such a mess. “How could you get pregnant and not know who it might be?”
My sister might like to drink and flirt but she wasn’t a slapper who always put out on the first date. Apart from Gary she hadn’t had that many boyfriends, had she?
It looked as if there was a whole side of Lou’s character that I knew nothing about.
We were sisters, we were close. At least I’d thought we were close.
“It was a one-night-stand, or yes, it might be Gary’s. I’m not sure, not yet. I have to go for a dating scan.” She glared at me. “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t plan this you know.”
Her bottom lip rolled up like when we were little and I’d taken her favourite doll. For all her bravado tears were shining in her eyes and I knew she was scared stiff.
“Oh, Lou, what are you going to do?”
She stared straight ahead through the windscreen and I could see her blinking in the dim light from the street lamp. She licked her lips. “I dunno, it’s all a bit unreal right now.”
“How pregnant are you?”
Her head drooped and she studied the handbag which rested on her lap. “Eight weeks, twelve weeks. I’m not sure.”
I struggled to hear her reply as her voice was muffled.
Somehow I’d always thought I’d be the one to get pregnant first. I was seven years older than Lou, Steve and I had been together for years. It should have been me.
God, it should have been me.
“Take me home, please.”
Quite how I managed to complete the drive to Lou’s flat I really don’t know.
My mind buzzed with questions all the way there and it took me all my focus not to drive us under a bus. Did she want the baby? Would she tell the father? How would she manage?
I stopped the car outside Lou’s flat.
“I’d rather you didn’t come in tonight, Kate. I know there’s a lot to think about but I’m not up to discussing it at the moment.” Her lips quivered as she spoke.
“Lou, I’m not sure you should be on your own right now.”
“It’s what I need.” There was a slightly desperate edge to her voice.
“Just remember I’m here for you.” I wanted to go inside and ask lots of questions. I wanted to hug her and shake her at the same time. Most of all I wanted to make everything go back to normal again.
She gave a brief nod of her head and blinked before quickly climbing out of the car. She managed a fleeting wave of her hand to indicate she was all right and hurried inside the entrance of the flats. I waited at the kerb until I saw the light from her lamp in the lounge come on, and then headed back to the cottage feeling profoundly dissatisfied and emotional.
The sounds of hammering and rock music met me as I walked through the door. Steve was still at work in the lounge. It should have cheered me that he had continued carrying on working so late but Lou’s pregnancy revelation was playing on my mind.
I pushed open the lounge door to see Steve lovingly cleaning up the brickwork of the newly exposed inglenook with a soft hand brush.
“What do you think?” he asked as I turned the volume down on the battered old CD player.
“Great; it certainly adds character.” I stared at the open fireplace and an unexplained chill ran up my spine.
* * *
I am as nervous as one of the kittens in the barn. My own shadow makes me jump and every slight sound jars my mind. It is as if there are other people dwelling in the house that only I can see, strange shadow people that emerge from time to time then fade away when I turn my gaze upon them. Even mother has noticed how pale and out of humour I have become and is making me drink concoctions of honey and herbs.
* * *
Steve put down his tools. His dark hair was speckled with brick dust and he had a grey streak across his cheek. A few months ago I would have been rubbing it off with my finger and telling him all about Lou. He would have been holding me tight and reassuring me that everything would work out.
He rubbed his hand across his head dislodging some of the dust. “I was about to quit for the night. How did it go at Claire’s?”
“Okay, I suppose. Chuck certainly seems all right. I’m not sure, there’s just something a bit off about him.” I picked at a small piece of peeling paint on the edge of the doorframe. Chuck had certainly appeared to be pleasant enough, so it felt a little disloyal to be talking about my new stepfather like this.
“Did you find out much about him? His family and where he’s from?” Steve picked up the brush again and cleaned out some loose bits of mortar from the fireplace brickwork, flicking the bits into the hearth.
“No family, lives in a rented place, doesn’t seem to have any friends. He claims he’s got some money and he and Mum are going to be looking for a home in the States and a seaside place here.”
Steve raised an eyebrow. “Wow, talk about your man of mystery. He hasn’t suggested Claire put money into these new places though, has he?”
“I don’t think so, at least I hope not. He said he had his own money to invest, Lou and I suggested he talk to you about property. He sounded keen to see the cottage.” Though looking around at my bare and dust-coated lounge I couldn’t see the attraction myself.
Steve tapped the brush clean against a brick sending a plume of dust into the air. “They don’t have anything this kind of age over there, remember. It’ll be interesting to meet him.”
The dust made me cough and my eyes started to water. I waved my hand to waft the dust away. “I might be misjudging him. Mum obviously liked him enough to fall in love and marry him.”
“What does Lou think of him?”
I tried to clear my blurred vision by wiping my fingers across my eyes. “The same as me. The jury is still out I think.” I wanted to tell him Lou’s news, to throw myself into his arms and have him tell me everything would be okay.
The hairs on my arms suddenly became gooseflesh and a cool breeze stirred around my ankles. I rubbed at my arms trying to dispel the chill that had enveloped my skin.
“Can you feel a draught?”
Steve stared at me as if checking to see if I were joking. “Draught? You have to be kidding. I’ve been dripping with sweat working on these bricks.”
I held out my arm to show him. “Look, I’ve suddenly gone cold.”
Of course, because I’d been rubbing my arms to get the warmth back, there wasn’t anything to see.
“Is this more of your ‘haunted house’ stuff?” Steve asked.
“I only said I’d suddenly gone cold and there was a draught, that’s all.”
“It’s probably from the chimney now it’s been opened up.” He crouched down and manoeuvred himself inside the inglenook so he could peer into the chimney.
Since it was still warm outside with no hint of breeze, I didn’t think that whatever I’d felt could have come from the fireplace.
“Hey, Kate, can you get me the torch from the kitchen?” Steve’s voice was muffled but excited.
I went and collected the torch from the junk drawer and passed it to him.
“What have you found?”
He’d pulled a crate into the fireplace and balanced on it, shining the torch into the flue. Knowing my luck he’d happened on some protected species of bat and we’d have to abandon the whole project or live in the Hammer house of horrors for evermore. I could hear him scrabbling around.
“This is so great.”
“What?” My curiosity was piqued in spite of myself. Maybe he’d found treasure – some previous owners nest egg of sovereigns perhaps?
Decorated with yet more dust and soot, he emerged from the fireplace clasping a small dirty brown object in his hand.
“I never thought we’d be lucky enough to find one of these. I’ve heard about them but never, ever thought I’d find one.” An excited grin split his face and he looked like a small boy who had just been given the world’s biggest treat.
He held the object out towards me almost reverently. “It was on a ledge, quite high up inside the chimney.”
As I looked more closely I could see that what he’d found appeared to be a child’s shoe, much worn and filthy dirty from its time in the chimney. I failed to see why Steve was so excited.
“You do know what this is, don’t you Kate?” Steve touched it carefully with the forefinger of his other hand. Again a cool movement of air swirled around my feet and ankles.
“It’s a shoe.”
“It’s a spirit trap.”
My arms turned to gooseflesh once more. “A what?”
“A spirit trap. In past times they believed evil spirits or witches could get into houses through the doors and down the chimneys. So they would put a shoe or a bottle in the chimney to trap them or put them off attacking people in the house.”
All the air felt as if it had been sucked out of my lungs. Steve continued to stand there with the damned shoe in his hand and a big smile on his face, oblivious to the effect his words were having on me.
“Put it back. Or throw it out.”
“What?” He stared at me in bewilderment.
“That thing. Put it back or throw it out. It’s evil. No wonder this house is so creepy.”
“Kate, it’s only a shoe. There is nothing creepy or evil about it. If you take it out of the house it’s supposed to bring you bad luck.” He gave it another loving stroke with his forefinger.
“Then stuff it back up the chimney. Maybe the previous owners knew what they were doing when they shut the flue off.” I knew it wasn’t logical but finding the shoe had freaked me out. I’m not a superstitious person. I don’t follow my horoscope or subscribe to theories about UFOs or worry about going under ladders but I didn’t like the tattered scrap of leather that Steve was cradling so tenderly in his hands.
“Don’t be stupid. This is a rare find. It needs to be dated and photographed. I saw a programme on this kind of thing once. Years ago when I was with the band our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere and we ended up staying the night in this little B and B. The only channel that worked on the TV in my room was BBC2 and there was a whole programme on this sort of thing. It’s a really interesting superstition.”
I sucked in a breath. The air in the room had grown colder the whole time he’d been speaking. Over Steve’s shoulder I could have sworn I saw two tiny dancing balls of light swirling towards the fireplace.
“There is something strange about this cottage. I don’t care what you say and that thing is creepy. Who knows what you might have disturbed by moving it. Put it back, Steve, I’m begging you.” My voice wobbled up a notch.
“Okay, keep your hair on. I’ve never known you get so freaked out about something.” Steve shook his head and gave me a puzzled look.
“I can’t help it. It’s this bloody house. I mean, can’t you feel how cold it’s become in here?”
“It’s getting on for midnight and we’ve got a newly opened chimney bringing in different air currents.”
I watched as he carried the manky old shoe reverently back towards the fireplace. “It’s more than that,” I insisted. “There’s an atmosphere here and it’s got something to do with the history of this house.”
“Crap.” Steve disappeared inside the inglenook and stepped up onto the crate.
His voice became muffled once more. “This is a beautiful house that will be beautiful again when we’ve finished with it.”
I waited until he re-emerged. He rubbed the dirt from the palms of his hands onto the legs of his jeans.
“I’ll prove it to you. I’m going to start the research at the records centre this week and then we’ll see.” I glared at him, waiting for his response.
“Whatever. You’re just determined to hate this house because it wasn’t that cruddy barn you were so hung up about.” Steve picked up a rag and scrubbed at his palms to try and remove the soot.
My chest contracted in pain, his words stuck sharp like a blade in my heart.
“That’s a horrible thing to say. You knew what that barn meant to me.”
He flung the rag down onto the floor. “No, I don’t think I got that message until you’d screamed it at me several times over. This cottage has a million times more potential than that over-priced cowshed and if you weren’t so pigheaded you would have seen it.”
“At least my cowshed wouldn’t have creepy artefacts stuck in its chimney or strange noises and draughts.”
Steve’s eyes narrowed and I could see the pulse ticking in his cheek the way it always did when he was really angry. “Well when we sell this place you can go and buy yourself an old cowshed and I hope you’ll be very happy.” He pushed past me, his shoulder almost brushing against mine on his way out. A few seconds later I heard his feet on the stairs followed by the bang of the bathroom door.
* * *
On my mother’s life, I swear to you the strange maid was there by the fireplace once again as life-like as I am now. I was sure she was a maid despite the peculiar breeches she wore. Her dark hair rested on her shoulders and I could see she was trying not to cry. Indeed there is something very strange happening in the house although no one else seems to have noticed. The maid looked right at me and I waited for her to say something although I suppose if I heard voices as well seeing spirits then they would say I was mad. I held my breath as she started to move and I wondered if she could see me the same way I could see her.
Instead she reached across and touched something on the wall and my breath escaped in a sigh of relief.
* * *
I waited for a moment to gather myself and went to turn off the light, my heart still pounding from our argument. As I reached for the switch a soft sigh sounded just by my left ear.