‘What?’ Felix slowed his pace, pulling headphones from his ears and jogging on the spot.
‘I said, are you following me?’
Felix chuckled. ‘No, I have better things to do with my time than follow grumpy women around the woods. This is my warm-up.’
‘Warm up for what?’
‘My warm-up lap. I run this kiddie route before tackling the harder trails.’
God, could this man be any more annoying? ‘And how often do you do this run?’
‘Every day. Helps with this,’ said Felix, tapping a finger against his head. ‘You should try it sometime. The endorphins help lift your mood.’
Before Sarah could answer, Felix replaced his headphones and sprinted off.What an irritating man, she thought, picking up speed to burn off some of her frustration. It was going to be a long summer with Felix for a neighbour.
Chapter 19
‘Felix?Isthatyou?’Sarah reached for the paraffin lamp as a shadow passed beside her tipi. ‘Felix? This isn’t funny. Stop messing around.’
No reply came from outside. Sarah pulled her blankets up higher to stop the shivering. What was he doing creeping around outside her tipi? The shadow passed by again.
‘Please, you’re scaring me.’ Shaking beneath her bedding, Sarah reached to the ground, scrabbling around for anything weapon-like. If the shadow belonged to Felix, wouldn’t he have said something by now?
An unearthly scream tore through the air. Blood drained from Sarah’s face, her lips quivering in a whimper. She buried deep beneath her blankets, covering her ears to block out the sound, wondering what she’d done wrong in a past life. She didn’t want to die in a tent. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.
The screaming outside the tipi continued. ‘Please go away. Please leave me alone,’ whispered Sarah through chattering teeth. Certain no human could have made the sound, Sarah ran through all the wild beasts that might lurk beyond the canvas walls. How was Felix sleeping through the racket?
As quickly as it started, the screaming stopped. Sarah took her hands from her ears and pulled her blankets down. All was quiet. Too quiet. She lay still as a statue, listening for any sound, the pad of footsteps, the crunch of leaves, the snapping of a twig. Nothing.
Sarah told herself that if the intruder was coming for her, it would have acted by now. Instead, the tipi remained intact, she still had all her limbs, and the moment seemed to have passed.But they might come back. The thought caused Sarah’s legs to renew their shake. There was only one thing for it.
Sarah slipped on her borrowed boots and opened the tipi’s door an inch. She poked her head out into the night air. In the distance she heard an owl call, but around the tipi, all was still.One, two, three, GO!
Sarah sprinted across the field to where Felix’s tipi lay in darkness. Her fingers fumbled with the door clasps, her head snapping back and forth in case whatever had been lurking reappeared.
Sarah pulled back the door to Felix’s tipi and stepped inside.
‘Felix? Felix? Wake up.’ She walked to the bed and patted her hand against it. The bed was empty. Sarah felt around on the bedside table until her fingers settled on a box of matches. She struck one, holding it to the paraffin lamp and flooding the tipi with a warm, orange glow.
Despite the fear flowing through her, Sarah was impressed by what she saw. The inside of Felix’s tipi wasn’t just spotless, but welcoming and homely. A little bigger than her own, a wood burner sat at the end of the bed, logs and kindling stored in a basket beside it. Colourful rugs covered the floor, a dreamcatcher danced at the door. Beside the bed, a guitar sat on a stand, but most surprising to Sarah was the stack of books on the bedside table.
Sarah picked up the dog-eared book sitting on top of the pile.The poems of John Betjeman. Did Felix read these poems or was the book there for show? And who was John Betjeman, anyway? Curiosity got the better of Sarah and she sat down on Felix’s bed, opening the book and flicking through. A bookmark fell to the ground and Sarah picked it up. She held it by the lamp to get a better look. The neat letters had faded but she could make outI love you, in feminine curls and loops. Around the lettering, someone had stuck flowers and leaves, all now brown from age.
So Felix had a mystery woman. Perhaps she was the reason he read poetry, so he could impress her with his cultured mind? Was it this mystery woman who had given him the book in the first place?
A noise outside reminded Sarah why she’d come to Felix’s tipi. Her muscles tensed, the hairs on her arms standing on end. She sat statue-like on the bed, listening as footsteps crept around the tipi, muffled by the grass, but drawing near.
Sarah let out a scream as the doors flung back. The screams turned to relieved laughter as she saw Felix standing in the doorway carrying a thick tree branch.
‘Thank God it’s you,’ he said, flinging the branch to the ground and stepping inside. ‘I knew I’d blown out the lamp before I left, so though there was an intruder. What are you doing here?’
‘There was someone outside my tent. Was it you? Was that your idea of a joke?’
‘Me? No, I’ve been… I’ve been… out.’
‘Out?’
‘Yes, out.’
