He’d been right enough about the stiff neck. Boy, oh boy, had he been right. While the tub had been rendered quite snug by the spare pillows from the wardrobe and the bed, my neck had, during the night, slipped between two of them. It was indeed feeling very sorry for itself and making sure that the rest of me knew about it. I was gingerly rubbing it, trying to alleviate some of the stiffness, when I heard Marvin scrabble gently at the door – well, at least I hoped it was Marvin. I found myself doing a very poor impression of Quasimodo as I tiptoed over to open it.
‘Thank God,’ Marvin rushed in past me. ‘I’m absolutely busting for a …’
I closed the door with myself on the bedroom side of it before I could hear the rest of that sentence. Looking at the little alarm clock on the bedside table, I saw that it was five to seven. I’d have to get a move on. All I needed was for Henry Halliday to go to work and leave the coast clear for me to get down the stairs and out of the house.
A worrying thought suddenly struck me. What if, after his troubleshooting trip, he decided to take the day off and give himself a long weekend? If he’d had a stressful time over the last few days, it was possible. Marvin must have clocked the look on my face when he came back out.
‘What’s up?’ He looked from me to the door and back to me again.
‘He is definitely going to go to work today, isn’t he?’
‘My brother, the workaholic? What do you think? Now you go and have a shower. He’ll think it’s me in there and I can have one after he’s gone. Unless …’ He raised an eyebrow at me.
‘What? I refuse to share a bed with you, but you think I’m going to share a shower with you?’ I folded my arms across my chest and put on my best battle-axe face.
‘Can’t blame a fella for trying,’ he chuckled, stepping out of the way for me to go back in.
I was dressed and almost ready to make my escape as soon as it became possible, when we heard the front door bang shut. We looked at each other.
‘Coast’s clear,’ he said at normal volume. ‘Have you got everything?’
‘Almost.’ I picked up my toothbrush and toothpaste and slipped them into my spongebag before zipping it up and pushing it into my bag. Laying my book on top of it, I had a quick look round the bathroom and bedroom. ‘Right, well … thanks for … everything … and taking me to the Isle of Wight …’
‘My pleasure. It’s certainly been different,’ he grinned and we went down the stairs. ‘Where will you stay tonight?’
‘Don’t worry about me. The first thing I’m going to do when I get in to the office is to hand in my notice. I’ll also tell Davina I have nowhere to stay while I work it. She doesn’t want me to leave, so she’ll think of somewhere.’ She’d probably order one of the others to put me up, but I didn’t have much choice now Henry Halliday had come back.
Talisker was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I picked him up and gave him a cuddle, kissing the top of his head for what was probably going to be the last time. The thought brought a lump to my throat and a prickle behind my eyes.
‘You know, Tal, out of all the pets I’ve looked after at Sitting Pretty, you’ve always been my very favourite.’ He head butted my chin, loudly purring as if to say, ‘Of course I have – who could be better than me? No one, that’s who!’
It was hard to put him down but I had to get to the office and say my piece to Davina. I rubbed my cheek against his one last time and put him on the floor. He wandered off towards the utility room, his tail in the air and not a care in the world.
‘I’d better be off,’ I said, wanting to get out of there before that prickly feeling behind my eyes turned into actual tears. Then I stuck out my hand to shake Marvin’s at the same time as he went to hug me.
‘What? Not even a hug for the fella who saved your bacon?’ He hammed up the disappointed act.
‘You know, you really should take up amateur dramatics,’ I chided. He wasn’t going to give up, was he? And he had been very kind to me.
I put my bag down on the bottom step and opened my arms to give him a quick hug but he enveloped me in his, saying over my head, ‘You’re one crazy girl, Beth Dixon. That husband of yours has to be the biggest muppet on the planet.’
He was just letting go of me when the front door opened and in, carrying a small loaf of bread and a newspaper, walked Henry Halliday.