You can tell your man that you are persuading me to leave.
‘He’s not…’ I began, but the bird stretched its wings at that point, flapping and treadling its way along the window with its whole body rocking as it balanced in a horribly imperative kind of way. I turned tail and ran out of the room.
10
I ran all the way to the road, leaping over bramble snares and tearing through branch fingers so that all I could hear was my own breathing and the noise of ripping and snapping as I went. As soon as I reached my car I collapsed half across the bonnet, gasping in air that sounded like sobs. This was ridiculous! What the hell was I even doing, putting myself through this?
When something brushed against my shoulder and then moved to my arm all I could think was that the big black bird had followed me and was going to take my eyes out. I jerked my arm backwards, felt my elbow connect with something and then turned, flailing as I went, to keep anything with untoward intent away from my face.
It was Ross. He’d been standing just behind me and now had one hand over his nose with blood dripping between his fingers. We stared at one another. Then we both said sorry, although mine came breathless and panicked and his was nasal and thick.
‘Don’t… ever… touch a woman… who’s frightened,’ I said, having another ‘teaching moment’ although I didn’t know why I was wasting it on Ross.
‘Getting that message now,’ he intoned. ‘I thought you knew I was here. My car is right over there.’
‘I did not.’ Slowly I slid myself away from my car and tried to look calm and in control. ‘I was thinking about other things not monitoring the parking situation. Keep your head forward and pinch your nose.’
I was good at stopping nosebleeds, random first aid was my ‘thing’. Ross leaned one arm against the car and tried to look nonchalant, while obviously shaken. ‘Ow,’ he said.
‘I thought you were a bird.’ I unlocked the car and pushed him down towards the passenger seat. If he was going to pass out I’d rather he didn’t drop onto the tyre-tracked mud at the side of the road, someone might come by and assume I’d murdered him. Although, if he was going to do things like tap a terrified woman on the shoulder, murder was probably too good for him.
I was trying very hard to ignore the warmth that seeing him had brought, a feeling as though I’d eaten a very large, toasted marshmallow and it had settled just above my stomach.
‘You’ve been to the house?’ Ross asked, leaning forward across his knees and obviously trying not to get blood on my upholstery, his shirt, his jeans or the ground. ‘Did you find your boots?’
Oh yes, the boots. I’d nearly forgotten about those. I patted my pockets, which bulged reassuringly full of yellow rubber. ‘Yes, I did. I had tea with Isobel,’ I added. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I own this place?’ Two dark eyes raised to my face now and reminded me of that bird and its sinister intent. ‘As soon as Isobel is out I need to move the construction crew in, so I’m keeping an eye on it.’
I looked up and down the silent road. A few leaves blew across its width but nothing else moved. ‘Are they invisible?’ I asked.
He snorted. ‘Ow. No. I’ve bought another couple of acres across the other side of the wood. I’m using it for storage for most of the stuff I need to get started, to save transport time.’
I looked down again at the huge tyre marks in the mud. ‘And they’re there now? Just waiting?’ I had a mental image of a group of men clustered in the forest, like Robin Hood’s Merry Men in hard hats and fluorescent jackets, hiding behind trees and discussing their boss.
Ross snorted again. ‘Just the equipment. The guys I call in when I need them; I can’t afford to pay them to wait. I’ve got an old container with bits and pieces in and there’s pipes and other hardware stacked and ready to go. I’m mostly going to reuse building material from Elm Cottage.’ He sniffed. ‘It’s going to be ecologically sound and a carbon neutral home,’ he said, almost sadly. ‘If I ever build it. Ihaveto get started by next month because the TV crew are coming to film.’
‘So you’ll be on TV?’ The reality of his situation was starting to sink in now. I’d been thinking of Ross as just rather overstretched, the sort of person who lives on his nerves and cheap supermarket food, not unlike myself although for different reasons. But he reallywasworking to a tight timeframe, and if this was make or break for his business it was no wonder he was chewing his nails to the quick.
‘That’s the general idea.’ He dropped his head again and mopped at his nose with a scrunched-up bit of tissue.
TV. Part of me was racing through the memories. David had always wanted to be on TV. Oh, he’d had a few minor parts, been the sidekick to a villain inDoctors, had shouted, ‘Look out!’ to Inspector Barnaby in an episode ofMidsomer Murders, but nothing big. Not the lead role, front cover of theRadio Times, large amounts of on-screen time that he thought he deserved. I, on the other hand, had to remain hidden. If so much as one camera shot showed half of my shoulder I ran the risk that David might see, might recognise me. Might come looking.
Then I shuddered. I couldn’t run that risk. I shuddered again and Ross looked up, his face streaked with blood.
‘What? You’re not involved in some ongoing vendetta with a TV producer are you?’
‘Not… exactly.’
He stared at me for a moment longer. His expression was strangely opaque – at least, it seemed strange on him, when his normal expression seemed to be lodged somewhere between ‘obsessive worry’ and ‘total breakdown’. That look worried me.
‘It’s fine,’ I said hurriedly. ‘I’m only here to get Isobel to move out, I won’t be anywhere near by the time you start building.’
The look continued. It was accompanied by half a tissue dabbed against his nose and then examined for fresh bleeding, although that seemed to have stopped now. A sycamore leaf rattled down between us and landed on his shoulder where it hung for a second, burnished and bright against the otherwise shaded day.
‘So you’re a single mum in hiding?’ he asked, sounding neutral, no undertones of condemnation or curiosity.
‘Look, it’s not as simple as that. You make it sound as though I’m doing something wrong. We’ve just moved away from where we come from to try to start a new life.’
