Distracted by the question of how I’d cope, I was slow to realise that at my side Fletcher was emitting a low, threatening growl. His attention was firmly fixed on an area of the communal front gardens that fell outside of the pool of the security light.
Instinctively I tightened my hold on my handbag and fumbled for the Yale key on the overcrowded fob in my hand. Fletcher’s gums were now exposed in an unfamiliar menacing snarl. I glanced over my shoulder towards the pavement, but the street was unusually deserted.
Relief flooded through me as I finally found the key to the main door, but before I could slide it into the lock, a tall shadow detached itself from the others beneath the trees. Fletcher yanked on his lead with a ferocity that took me by surprise, making me drop the keys. They fell with a clatter into the overgrown bush beside the doorway. I dropped to a crouch, groping among the sodden leaves and soil as the figure Fletcher was growling at took another step towards us.
My searching fingers brushed against something cold and metallic, and with a cry of triumph I scooped up my keys. There wasn’t time to open the door and get inside before whoever had been skulking in the trees reached us, so I adjusted my hold on the longest, sharpest key and gripped it the way we’d been shown at the university self-defence class Andie had made us attend.
I was breathing hard and fast as I turned to face the ominous shadowy figure. Beside me, Fletcher was poised to pounce, his hackles all the way up.
I readied myself to release my first-ever scream, when the breath was stolen from me by a single word. My name.
I gasped, instantly recognising the voice. The shadows morphed into a shape, as into the light stepped the one person who was even less welcome on my doorstep than a mugger.
Claire.
‘I thought you’dneverget home.’
Most people would have led with ‘Hello’, but then Claire wasn’t most people. My heart was still hammering like a wild thing in my chest, which may or may not have been responsible for the sharpness of my response.
‘What the hell are you doing creeping up on people in the shadows? You scared me half to death.’
‘Did I?’ she asked, and although it was hard to tell in the half light, I thought I saw a glimmer of a smile.
‘What on earth were you doing lurking there under the trees anyway?’
She shook her head as though it was her lot to have to deal with the most stupid people on the planet.
‘I wasn’tlurking. I was waiting, or rather sheltering. It’s raining, in case you hadn’t noticed.’ She pointed to the sky as though I might not understand the concept of precipitation. ‘I was trying to stay dry until you got home.’
‘So, youwerewaiting for me?’
I probably deserved that withering look.Of courseshe’d been waiting for me. That wasn’t really the question to be asked here. The one I should have gone with waswhy.
‘Look, can we go inside, Lily? I’d really like to get this over and done with as quickly as possible.’
I had no idea what ‘this’ was, but if it had been instigated by Claire, there was a good chance I wouldn’t like it.
I reached across and opened the double doors that led into the black and white tiled hallway of the converted mansion house. Fletcher was still making a low, ominous-sounding throaty rumble, and was staring with distrustful eyes at the unknown woman who followed us into the building.Good dog.
I closed the doors behind us and turned to Claire. I had no intention of inviting her into the flat I’d shared with Adam. Whatever she had to say to me could surely be said right here, out in the hallway.
Only it turned out that it couldn’t.
‘Not here,’ Claire said, her eyes flicking towards the door of the downstairs flat which had just swung open. ‘You’re going to want somewhere more private to hear this.’
She followed me in silence as we mounted the three flights of stairs to my flat, my agitation growing with each storey. But as soon as I unlocked the front door and stepped over the threshold, I instantly felt better. I turned to my uninvited guest, who was looking around the hallway with undisguised curiosity.
‘Nice place,’ she said, and it was telling that that was possibly one of the most amiable things she’d ever said to me. It made me remember my own manners and try harder not to go into teenage animosity mode, something I had a habit of doing around her.
Contrite, I extended my hand in a belated greeting. Claire and I had never been the type who’d hug or air-kiss. Just the thought would have had both of us grimacing in distaste.
She looked down at my hand, admittedly the one that had been scrabbling about in the earth beneath the bush. Unsurprisingly, she chose not to shake it. I didn’t blame her.
‘Sorry, I should wash the front garden off.’
I headed for the kitchen, expecting she’d remain in the hallway, but she followed me. Uninvited, she removed her coat and threw it over the back of a chair.
At the sink I gave a small, resigned sigh. It looked as though she was settling in for more than just a flying visit on her broomstick. My lips twitched at this, and for a moment I imagined I could hear Josh, telling me to give her a break, the way he’d done a hundred times before in our teenage years. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was being inhospitable, and that really wasn’t me.
