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Authors: Catherine Cavendish
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practically shoved him out as I closed the door, locked and bolted it behind him.
In the downstairs bathroom, I put the seat down, switched off the light, and closed the door.
I made for the kitchen to clear up the mess and retrieve my glass. After that experience, I needed another drink. I switched on the light, stopped and stared.
The cellar door stood open. I knew it had been closed. I’d only been in a few minutes earlier and would have noticed it. I peered around the door and flicked the switch. With the extra lighting Charlie had fitted, the place wasn’t nearly so dark and daunting. I still didn’t feel like going down there though. Not when I was alone in the house.
“Hello.” My voice echoed off the walls. Then silence. I listened for a few seconds. Nothing. I pulled the door shut. Just before it closed, I thought I heard a sound. As if someone was dragging something heavy across the floor. I shut the door with a bang and locked it.
I stood for a few moments, catching my breath, while my mind raced. Neil. I had to admit he had put the wind up me with his stories of something in the bathroom. There was a perfectly logical explanation for this. I had left the door open and, preoccupied with my unwelcome visitor, simply not noticed it earlier. The sound I had heard was probably the door dragging as I pulled it shut. Maybe it needed a bit of sanding down, although it had seemed to close easily enough.
The theory sounded good. If only it could have been true. Because, at three in the morning, when I still couldn’t get to sleep, I remembered. Charlie had locked that door when he left. I’d seen him do it. And no one had opened it since.
Chapter Five
I lay there, listening to the stillness, alert for any slight sound, and jumped when the wind sent a shower rattling against the window.
Surely I had to be wrong. Neil couldn’t have unlocked that door himself…or maybe I had missed him sneaking into the kitchen and opening it, to unnerve me. Try as I might, I couldn’t see how he’d done it though. I had been with him the whole time, except when I went to the kitchen to make him coffee. And when he went to the bathroom, I followed him into the hall.
I fell asleep sometime in the early hours. When I awoke, the clock showed nine thirty. I yawned, stretched and the night’s events flooded back. Strange, certainly, but somehow, with the sun shining once more, my fears had been pretty much washed away as if by the night’s rain.
Today, I would busy myself by visiting the local shops and, unlike the previous occasions when I had bought what I needed and left with barely an exchange of words, I would make a concerted effort to talk to people. If you don’t feel confident, act as though you are. I’d read that in a self-help book years earlier. It worked too, except that to do that, I needed to imagine myself as the adult version of the girl I had created for myself. Kelly. Unlike me, she would have grown up confident and self-assured. She would have had a career—maybe as a lawyer or doctor. As a child, I had always projected everything I wanted to be on to her. I hadn’t called on her for years, but, with a little updating, she would carry me through.
Until I had grown in confidence enough to relax and be myself, Kelly would be the public face of Maddie—the one with the outgoing personality, able to strike up friendly conversations with total strangers.
I dressed carefully for my outing in navy blue boot-cut trousers, low-heeled black shoes, lightweight navy jacket, and white open-necked shirt. With my leather purse slung over my shoulder, I looked like a professional woman on my way to an important appointment. Kelly would approve, although she would have opted for a pencil skirt to emphasize her perfectly shaped legs. I tucked my hair behind my ears, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
I made my way up the steep hill of the High Street, aiming for the convenience store at the top. Along the
In the downstairs bathroom, I put the seat down, switched off the light, and closed the door.
I made for the kitchen to clear up the mess and retrieve my glass. After that experience, I needed another drink. I switched on the light, stopped and stared.
The cellar door stood open. I knew it had been closed. I’d only been in a few minutes earlier and would have noticed it. I peered around the door and flicked the switch. With the extra lighting Charlie had fitted, the place wasn’t nearly so dark and daunting. I still didn’t feel like going down there though. Not when I was alone in the house.
“Hello.” My voice echoed off the walls. Then silence. I listened for a few seconds. Nothing. I pulled the door shut. Just before it closed, I thought I heard a sound. As if someone was dragging something heavy across the floor. I shut the door with a bang and locked it.
I stood for a few moments, catching my breath, while my mind raced. Neil. I had to admit he had put the wind up me with his stories of something in the bathroom. There was a perfectly logical explanation for this. I had left the door open and, preoccupied with my unwelcome visitor, simply not noticed it earlier. The sound I had heard was probably the door dragging as I pulled it shut. Maybe it needed a bit of sanding down, although it had seemed to close easily enough.
The theory sounded good. If only it could have been true. Because, at three in the morning, when I still couldn’t get to sleep, I remembered. Charlie had locked that door when he left. I’d seen him do it. And no one had opened it since.
Chapter Five
I lay there, listening to the stillness, alert for any slight sound, and jumped when the wind sent a shower rattling against the window.
Surely I had to be wrong. Neil couldn’t have unlocked that door himself…or maybe I had missed him sneaking into the kitchen and opening it, to unnerve me. Try as I might, I couldn’t see how he’d done it though. I had been with him the whole time, except when I went to the kitchen to make him coffee. And when he went to the bathroom, I followed him into the hall.
I fell asleep sometime in the early hours. When I awoke, the clock showed nine thirty. I yawned, stretched and the night’s events flooded back. Strange, certainly, but somehow, with the sun shining once more, my fears had been pretty much washed away as if by the night’s rain.
Today, I would busy myself by visiting the local shops and, unlike the previous occasions when I had bought what I needed and left with barely an exchange of words, I would make a concerted effort to talk to people. If you don’t feel confident, act as though you are. I’d read that in a self-help book years earlier. It worked too, except that to do that, I needed to imagine myself as the adult version of the girl I had created for myself. Kelly. Unlike me, she would have grown up confident and self-assured. She would have had a career—maybe as a lawyer or doctor. As a child, I had always projected everything I wanted to be on to her. I hadn’t called on her for years, but, with a little updating, she would carry me through.
Until I had grown in confidence enough to relax and be myself, Kelly would be the public face of Maddie—the one with the outgoing personality, able to strike up friendly conversations with total strangers.
I dressed carefully for my outing in navy blue boot-cut trousers, low-heeled black shoes, lightweight navy jacket, and white open-necked shirt. With my leather purse slung over my shoulder, I looked like a professional woman on my way to an important appointment. Kelly would approve, although she would have opted for a pencil skirt to emphasize her perfectly shaped legs. I tucked my hair behind my ears, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
I made my way up the steep hill of the High Street, aiming for the convenience store at the top. Along the
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