Mike called me during my lunch break. I had managed to give Nasreen the slip and taken myself off to the park by the river to eat my sandwich on a bench overlooking the rose garden.
“Kate, um, thank you for a lovely evening yesterday. I, um, wondered if you might be free on Saturday sometime?”
“I’m not sure. We have to do some major work at the cottage over the weekend and Steve will need a hand. We’re winching the new bath into the bathroom and it’ll literally be all hands on deck.” I tried to sound regretful. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Mike, I just didn’t want to build his hopes up when I didn’t experience any romantic vibes when we were together.
“Perhaps Saturday evening then when you’ve finished working on the house?
A quiet drink to help you relax?”
I had to give him points for persistence and I did like him as a friend. Maybe once my course was finished and the cottage had been sold then things might change.
“Okay, that would be nice, thank you.”
We agreed that he'd pick me up on Saturday at eight. Hopefully the bath would be safely in its rightful place by then and I would certainly be glad of a drink after helping Steve haul the cast iron monster up the scaffolding. I finished my sandwich and brushed the crumbs from my skirt onto the grass for the pigeons. I’d barely had the chance to pop the tab on my Diet Coke before my mobile rang again.
It was Lou.
“Well? How did it go?” she demanded.
“The dinner with Mike, you mean?”
“Well duh, what else exciting is happening in your life?”
Apart from the ghost, having no bathroom, my mother remarrying, and my sister being pregnant by some mystery man? Nothing.
“We had a nice dinner, I drank way too much Chianti and I got home to find I had a bath in my kitchen.” I kept my tone deadpan and pictured my sister rolling her eyes in despair.
“Yes, but did he light any fires this time? You know, give you that buzz?”
My gusty sigh probably deafened my sister.
“I’ll take that as a 'no', then. Are you going to see him again?” Lou persisted.
“Yes, he’s taking me for a drink on Saturday night, Miss Nosey. Anyway enough of my love life, have you come any closer to finding your mystery man?”
Now it was her turn to sigh. “Nothing, I’m going to stake out Benny’s for a few nights to see if he shows up. If he doesn’t then I’ll have to wait till Sophie is back from Cyprus to ask her if she knows who he might be. I don’t suppose you’d fancy coming out for a drink one night to keep me company?”
The idea of spending my evenings sitting in Benny’s bar with Lou didn’t fill me with joy. “I have to start pulling my weight with the cottage renovations. We need to get the cottage on the market in the Autumn and there’s tons to do.”
“Oh.”
Now I felt guilty. “I’ll try and come with you one night next week. Mum called this morning by the way. She’s looking at houses by the sea in Devon this weekend with Chuck.”
Lou gave a snort of derision. “At least it must be his money he’s spending.
Mum hasn’t got any so I suppose it must be love.”
“I suppose so.” Love; it made everything so complicated.
“So long as Mum doesn’t get hurt. I still wish we knew more about him.”
I knew what she meant. “I know, it’s all happening so fast.” Too fast.
“Listen, I’d better go. My lunch break is nearly over. Are you still up for a takeaway tonight?”
“Sure.” I’d forgotten it was Friday. “Are you up for it though? Not still feeling queasy?”
“I’m fine by tea-time. It’s the mornings that are a bit ropey. I’ll get a Chinese.”
After she’d rung off I strolled back to work enjoying the sunshine and feeling a little better for my hour in the fresh air. I was in such a good mood I even managed to put up with Nasreen for the rest of the afternoon.
I arrived back at the cottage to find that Steve had moved a couple of my chairs into the lounge now that he’d replaced the rotten floorboards in there. He’d even rigged up a temporary table using his work bench so I’d have somewhere to rest a plate while I ate.
“What do you think? The bath should be upstairs by Sunday and you’ll be able to eat in the kitchen for a week or so till the units arrive. By then we should be able to start emptying the dining room.” He stood back admiring his handiwork, a satisfied expression on his face.
“Great. Thank you. Lou’s coming tonight with a Chinese takeaway if you want some.” I don’t know what made me offer. I suppose it was that he’d taken the trouble to try and make the cottage a bit more liveable for me while we moved things around. I wished we could have emptied the planks and tiles from the dining room so I could have sat in there instead of the lounge though. There was something about this room with it’s huge open fireplace that sent shivers up my spine.
He picked up the broom from the side of the fireplace and began to sweep some of the sawdust from the floor. “Sorry Kate, I need to pop out.” He swept the mess into a dustpan and glanced at his watch. “Actually, I’d better get going. I need to go and grab a shower first.”
“Shower where?” He couldn’t possibly have finished tiling and grouting the shiny new shower upstairs and surely he couldn’t have one in the tiny confines of his caravan?
He looked a little uncomfortable and I guessed the answer. Of course, he would be going to meet Chloe at the pub. He’d shower there.
“Never mind. I won’t hold you up.” I knelt down to pick up the dustpan so he wouldn’t see my face.
I heard him clear his throat. “Thanks Kate. You’ll be around tomorrow, won’t you? I’ll need all the help I can get with the lifting.”
“Sure. I’ll be here.” I busied myself with the pile of sawdust, only straightening up when I heard the lounge door close and I knew for certain he’d gone.
My hands shook as I carried the dustpan to the window to empty the contents into the garden. Much to my disgust a large tear plopped onto the empty pan and I dashed a hand across my eyes to prevent any more from falling.
“This is ridiculous. I dumped him. He is the dumped and I am the dumper, why should I care if he has someone else?” Now I really had gone crazy, talking to myself in an empty house.
Even as the thought crossed my mind the skin on my arms prickled into goose flesh and the lounge door which Steve had latched behind him drifted open. I waited, half expecting Steve to pop his head round and say he’d forgotten something or for Mr Flibble to come strolling in.
Nothing.
The door stayed half open. I crossed the room to look at the catch. All the internal doors in the house were made of painted vertical wood panels and fastened with heavy iron latches. I had heard Steve latch the door shut behind him. It couldn’t have come open by itself.
“Oh, this is ridiculous! If there’s someone here I wish you’d stop messing about and show yourself.” I wished the words unsaid as soon as they’d left my mouth.
I’d watched enough episodes of Most Haunted to know that calling out to a spirit was a stupid thing to do. Especially as I was alone.
* * *
The strange young woman was in the house again. She had to be a spirit, her form appearing swirly and translucent next to the heavy oak settle, yet curiously I did not sense that she meant me any harm or that she was malicious. I froze in the place where I stood wondering if she could see me.
While I watched, I heard her call out, commanding me to show myself as if I were the spirit and she the one who was flesh and blood. The unexpected clarity of her voice startled me and I jerked, dropping the plate I had in my hand so that it crashed to the floor to land on the boards. It was the first time I’d actually been able to hear her voice clearly. I wished I knew who she was and what she wanted.
* * *
The crash of china breaking resonated behind me and I turned around to see Steve’s mug, which he’d left on the end of the make-shift table, lying smashed on the newly fitted floorboards with the dregs of his tea staining the wood.
“Oh shit.” I ran out of the cottage, my legs shaking and my heart banging against my chest.
I headed straight for Steve’s caravan and pounded on the door with my fist. I didn’t dare look around in case it – whatever it might be - had followed me. Tears streamed down my face.
There was no reply. He must have collected his things and gone straight to the pub. I swallowed a gulp. Now what? My bag was inside the house with my car keys and my phone and there was no way I was prepared to go back inside there on my own.
I looked around the street to see if there were any signs of life in the other houses nearby but everywhere was silent with not a soul to be seen.
“Kate? What’s wrong?” Lou came hurrying towards me from the direction of the cottage. “The door was open and there was no one there. Oh, you’re crying? Kate what is it?” She rushed towards me, a frown creasing her forehead.
“Oh Lou, I can’t go back inside there. There’s something wrong with that house.”
She wrapped her arms around me and I sobbed onto her shoulder trying to explain what had happened in between the tears. I don’t know how long it took before I finally shuddered to a halt. Lou patted my back and handed me tissues from her pocket.
“Kate, I’m sure there’s a perfectly rational explanation for what happened.
You said yourself you’ve watched a lot of those spook programmes on TV. Maybe it’s messing with your mind a bit, you know all this research into the history of the house and stuff?” She peered anxiously into my eyes.
“There is a ghost in that house.” I knew I was right.
“Look, our takeaway is going cold. I dumped it in the bath that you seem to have filling your kitchen. Let’s go and get our supper. We can sit on the patio to eat if you like, under the scaffolding. You’ll feel better once you’ve eaten.” She tucked her arm through mine and drew me back along the garden path to the back door of the cottage.
I gave my eyes a final dab and sucked in a breath. “Okay.”
Lou left me sitting on the patio next to a scaffolding pole while she went inside to collect our supper and some cutlery. I wasn’t great with chopsticks at the best of times and with the way my hands were shaking now it would take me all my concentration just to manage a fork.
“Here we go.” Lou stepped back out bearing a white carrier bag full of takeaway cartons, a couple of forks and a bottle of cola. She plonked the lot down on the table in front of me. “Everything is fine, there’s nothing in there, honestly.”
She took a seat and cracked open the cartons. The aroma of egg fried rice and crispy Bombay duck reached me. “Here, grab a fork and dig in.”
Shakily I did as I was told. “What am I going to do about tonight? I can’t stay there on my own, I just can’t.” I bit down on my lower lip to keep it from trembling.
“You could come to mine, or you’ve got Mum’s spare key, so you could stay there.” Lou munched away on her noodles. “I think it’s a little bit like getting back on a horse once you’ve fallen off, though. If you stay away then you’ll build this up bigger in your mind.”
I stared at her, convinced that being pregnant had addled her brain. “Lou, I can’t stay here on my own.”
“I’ll stay with you then, just for tonight. I’m not scared of a mug throwing phantom.” She put down the noodles and picked up the cola bottle.
Relief flooded through me before uncertainty took hold. “Are you sure?”
I wasn’t sure. I was scared about staying in the cottage and worried in case anything happened that might hurt Lou.
“Course.” She took a swig of pop from the bottle. “When we’ve eaten we’ll go inside together and you can show me what happened. I bet we’ll have a laugh over this tomorrow.”
I wasn’t so sure but sitting outside in the quiet peace of the garden, eating Chinese food and chatting with Lou did begin to make what had happened in the lounge seem rather silly.
After we’d munched our way through the food and opened the fortune cookies she jumped to her feet and began to clear away the debris.
“Come on then. Let’s go and see if your ghosty is still playing.”
She marched off into the house. I followed, a little more cautiously, in her wake. Lou dumped the rubbish in the bin.
“Ready?” She waited for me at the door leading into the hall.
I swallowed hard and nodded an assent. My hands were clammy with sweat and my chest tightened with panic. I followed her into the hall and then into the lounge.
The fragments of Steve’s mug still lay on the floor where it had fallen, with only a faint stain on the floorboard. The room was exactly as I’d left it. I’m not sure what I expected to see. Ectoplasm dripping from the light fitting maybe? I don’t know.
“Show me what happened,” Lou commanded.
I explained about the catch and showed her what I meant. Keeping my voice low I repeated what I said before the mug fell onto the floor.
“Hmm, the door might not have latched properly. You could have heard it bang against the frame and thought it had shut. Then, if there was a sudden bit of breeze it would make you feel cold and blow the door open.”
“Then explain the mug falling as well, Miss Marple.” I felt rather silly listening to Lou’s rational take on my paranormal experience.
“It was probably on the edge of the board and it might have toppled over with the draught. It does look wobbly.” Lou shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, I still think it was freaky and it scared the wits out of me.” I folded my arms and vowed to spend as little time as possible in that room.
“Look if it bothers you so much then why don’t you ring that bloke? The one who does the paranormal investigations.”
“Brian the bin man?” I looked at my sister.
“What have you got to lose?”