'It's all right,' Lisa repeated, giving a little yawn to demonstrate how profoundly uninterested she was now in the whole subject.
Anna gave her a little hug and took her place in the queue at the check-out. Sometimes, she thought ruefully, being a mum is like it must be chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council.
'Oh, hello!' she said, realising who the woman in front of her was.
The woman turned and stared, unsmiling, before returning her greeting.
'I live in the house next door to "Moorside",' Anna explained, thinking she might not have been recognised.
'Yes, I know,' the woman responded, before turning to face forwards again.
Stung by her indifference, Anna said, 'How is your friend?'
'What?'
'The man who lives next door to me,' Anna said with quiet determination. 'I've seen you visiting. I don't want to be intrusive but I wondered how he is – after the accident.'
'He's very well, thank you.'
Anna gave up at that point. The woman's coldness was beginning to seem so rude as to be almost comic.
After paying at the till, Anna collected Tom and Lisa and turned to leave the shop. Through the glass door, she saw the woman from the queue standing next to her car, using a mobile. Then, as she and the children left the shop, the woman called to her.
'Excuse me! Could I have a word?'
Anna turned and waited politely.
'I gather that you helped my brother last night?'
'Your brother?'
'He has the house next to you.'
'Oh?' Brother? So that was the nature of the relationship. 'He had an accident,' she added. 'Luckily, I was able to help.'
'So he said. I've just been speaking to him.' The woman waved her mobile. 'When you mentioned "the accident" in the shop I assumed you were referring to another episode in my brother's life. I didn't know about more recent events.'
Anna waited patiently.
'He wanted me to thank you, and to assure you he's fine. No lasting damage, he says.'
'That's good.'
'Except he's not fine,' the woman added suddenly. 'Not really. He's anything but fine, in fact, as you may have gathered.'
'I don't know ….'
'He's convalescing,' the woman continued. 'He was seriously injured on active service with the Army overseas, and he was invalided out – if that's the correct phrase,' she added bitterly.
'I didn't know ….' Anna began.
'Of course you didn't! No-one here knows. That's the whole point. That's why he's here, in the first place. It's what he wanted.'
Anna kept quiet.
'He wanted seclusion and anonymity. I'm not at all sure that is what's best for him, but it's what he wanted. And my brother is a strong and independent character,' she added almost with a smile. 'He won't be told anything.'
Anna smiled back and nodded. She was beginning to feel heavily overloaded with information she hadn't expected.
'Aspects of his behaviour may seem strange to you, from time to time,' the woman continued. 'I must ask you to overlook them, if you possibly can, for the time being.'
'The only thing that really bothers me,' Anna said, 'is his use of a chainsaw at night. Lately, my children and I have been desperately short of sleep because of it. It really must stop, whatever his problems. I sent him a note to that effect just the other day.'
'Yes. So I discovered.' The woman nodded. 'You don't need to worry any more on that score. There will be no more chain-sawing at night. I'll see to that. There shouldn't have been any in the first place.'
'That's good to know.'
'One problem he has is that he can't sleep at night. Another is that he doesn't like to go out in daylight. But they are no justification for disrupting your life. That will stop.'
'Thank you for that assurance, and for explaining all this to me.'
'I thought we owed you an explanation, as well as our thanks. My brother wants nothing but to be left alone. Given how well, and at what personal cost, he has served his country, I believe he deserves it.'
She glanced at her watch and added, 'Now I must go.'
'One more thing, if you don't mind,' Anna said. 'It's very awkward at times, in such a small community, not knowing who my next-door neighbour is. Can I ask you to infringe the Official Secrets Act again by at least telling me your brother's name?'
The woman frowned, as if she thought Anna's little joke was in terribly poor taste.
'Daniel Ferguson,' she said almost reluctantly. 'And I am his older sister, Miss Ferguson. Elizabeth Ferguson.'
'And I am Mrs. Anna Thompson.'
They shook hands.
'Good-day to you, Mrs. Thompson.'
'And to you, Miss Ferguson.'
Daniel, she thought. Daniel Ferguson. Well, that was something. Quite a lot, actually. A name and an explanation. It didn't make the man a good neighbour but it did make him an understandable one. Now she knew what the situation was, she was sure she would be able to cope with it a lot better.
Chapter Eight
The Shepherds came up that afternoon, as arranged. Derek disappeared into the garage for half an hour. The children disappeared into the garden. Pippa helped Anna make and enjoy a pot of tea.
And Pippa came straight to the point. 'Have you seen or heard anything more about your mysterious neighbour?' she asked.
Anna hesitated, not sure how much she could or should disclose.
'You have, haven't you?' Pippa breathed, leaning forward, eyes bright with curiosity. 'Come on! Tell Aunty.'
Anna laughed and shook her head.
'Anna!'
'Well, I do know a little more, actually. I met his sister this morning. She's the mystery woman visitor, by the way. She told me he's convalescing, after being invalided out of the Army. Daniel, he's called – Daniel Ferguson.'
'How interesting. What else?'
'Well, I have met him now, but only the once, and even then only briefly.'
'And?'
'I didn't get much of an impression. It was dark, and ….'
'Dark?'
'It was night.'
'Night?'
'We met in the garden.'
'At night. In the dark. The way you do, yes. Yours or his?'
'Oh, stop it, Pippa! Stop interrogating me.'
'Not until I know everything.'
'You know as much as me already.'
'I think not.' Pippa frowned thoughtfully. 'You're holding something back, and I shan't rest until I know what it is.'
Anna wasn't sure why she didn't just tell Pippa everything. Why not? It wasn't as if she knew very much more anyway.
Partly, she supposed, it was because she'd been impressed by what Elizabeth Ferguson had told her. If her brother, Daniel, had been badly injured in the way she had described, he deserved the peace and quiet he craved. She could respect that. And, much as she loved Pippa, she also knew that once Pippa knew what was going on, half the village would also know. Daniel, as she was beginning to think of him, wouldn't want that. So Pippa was going to have to make do with an abridged version of the story.
'What about the noise at night – the chain-sawing?' Pippa asked. 'And the rest of it?'
'It seems to have stopped, I'm happy to report.'
'Well, that's something to be thankful for. So all we have to do now is find out what else he does with his time.'
Anna laughed with her, but she was relieved when Derek returned to give Pippa something else to think about.
'How's the car?' Pippa asked.
'It's in decent enough condition.' He turned to Anna and added, 'I could change the battery for you, and the plugs and points. And do an oil change. That would get it going. But I'd recommend letting the garage in the village give it a good going-over. They're pretty good. Besides, it needs a MoT now it's more than three years' old, and it would have to go into a garage for that.'
Anna nodded.
'I could get in touch with them and sort that out for
you, if you like?'
'Would you, Derek? That would be wonderful. Will it be expensive, though?' she added with a frown.
'Shouldn't be. Not unless they find something serious wrong with it, which I don't believe they will.'
'And book yourself in for some driving lessons,' Pippa added. 'Get moving!'
Anna nodded again and smiled. But suddenly she was beginning to wonder how much all this was going to cost. She really was going to have to get a job – if only to pay for the car!
*
'We've seen the man,' Lisa said, after the Armstrongs had gone.
'Hm?' Anna responded absently. She was torn between worrying about the car and wondering what they could have for tea.
'We have!' Tom insisted.
'What?'
'The man,' Lisa insisted. 'We've seen him. In the garden.'
Anna stopped and turned to look at them. 'The man next door?'
Lisa nodded. 'He didn't look very nice,' she added.
'What was he doing?'
'Don't know.'
He was in The Secret Wood,' Tom said.
Oh! She wondered if he was still there. Maybe he shouldn't be. Surely he wasn't going to do anything more with that stupid chainsaw?
'Can you two watch TV for five minutes?' she asked. 'I've just remembered something I need to do before tea.'
She hurried, almost ran, down the garden. She just hoped he wasn't foolish enough to be thinking of operating the chainsaw again, or of felling any more trees. There would be time for that when he was well again.
'Hello? Mr. Ferguson? Are you there?'
He was. She could hear him moving in the dense undergrowth.
'Hello!' she called again.
'What do you want?'
She blinked. She hadn't really expected a reply, and certainly not one like that. He'd wrong-footed her again.
'My children said you were here, Mr. Ferguson. I just wanted to ask if you were OK after the other night.'
'My sister told you I was. At least, she said she would.'
'Yes. Yes, she did. I was pleased. But I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth.'
'Just being nosy, you mean?'
She took a deep breath and decided to ignore that comment.
'My name is Anna Thompson. We haven't met – not properly, anyway – but I wanted you to know that. I'm in the phone book, if ever you should want help or advice, or anything.'
'You mean if another tree falls on me?'
'Well, yes. Anything like that. Marauding elephants. Man-eating tigers. Anything. I'd be glad to help.'
He emerged from the bushes, the infamous chainsaw dangling from one hand. He stood some way off, turned sideways. His face didn't seem too bad. On one side, at least, the side she could see.
'If you're going to use that thing again,' she said carefully, 'we really would appreciate it if it was during the daytime. Chainsaws at night make sleeping very difficult.'
'Yes. My sister told me. The noise is nothing to what I'm used to, but I understand what you mean. I apologise for disturbing you, and I thank you again for coming to my rescue.'
'That's OK.'
'I shouldn't have needed your help but I'm not as strong yet as I thought.'
'You need to be more patient.' She shrugged. 'I hope you like it here,' she added, 'when you get settled in.'
'Perhaps I will. Thank you again.'
She gave him a little smile and turned away to head back to the house. She sensed, rather than saw, him disappearing back into the wood.
He didn't seem so bad after all, she thought, now she'd met him. Reasonably pleasant. He'd made an effort, too, appearing before her like that. Obviously he had problems but hopefully he would overcome them.
It was good, too, to know that his facial disfigurement wasn't total. Just one side. Mainly. That seemed to halve the problem.
It was also good that today he'd broken his rules and come outside in daylight, instead of confining his wanderings in the garden to the hours of darkness. Appeared before her, too. Coming out into the open like that would have taken courage.
Well, they would just have to see how they got on in future. But at least contact had been made now, and she felt reassured they didn't have a monster or a master criminal living next door to them. That was progress. Pretty good progress.
Chapter Nine
'How did it go?' Pippa asked.
'Great! Really well. Terrifying – but exciting, as well.'
'Exciting? Wait till you get on a motorway. Then you'll be able to say that.'
Anna was on a high. She'd only just had her first driving lesson, and she hadn't felt so excited for a long time.
'Kenny said I was doing really well, taking to it easily.' She stopped and peered suspiciously at Pippa. 'What? Do you think he says that to everybody? You do, don't you?'
'Not at all!' Pippa said, trying unsuccessfully to hide a grin. 'If Kenny said that, he meant it. He'll get you through the test in no time.'
'I don't care anyway,' Anna said with a scowl. 'I enjoyed it.'
'Come on – sit down! I'll make you a cup of tea. You must be worn out.'
'No.' Anna held out her quivering hands for inspection. 'Just emotionally, nervously, drained.'
Anna watched gratefully as Pippa put the kettle on and rummaged for tea bags. It was nice to be a guest in her own home. 'How have the kids been?' she asked.
'Better behaved than mine ever are. Very good, in fact. You're doing a wonderful job with them.'
Anna was pleased by the comment. Compliments didn't come her way very often these days. There was no-one to deliver them.
'Thanks for looking after them, Pippa. I'm really very grateful to you and Derek, you know – for everything.'
'Nonsense!'
'Well, I am. Even if it embarrasses you, I want you to know that. You've been wonderful friends to me.'
'Drink your tea and shut up, for goodness' sake!'
'Happily!'
'Oh, I forgot!' Pippa winced and gave an apologetic shrug. 'Derek says the garage told him they'll have the car ready for the weekend. There's not a lot wrong with it, apparently, but it's in a queue, and some of the other jobs are very urgent.'
'That's all right. It's going to be a while before I can use it anyway. I have to learn to drive and get my licence first.'
'Oh, that won't take you long. You're a very capable person, Anna. I have every confidence in you.'
'Have you really? I can't think why.'
'Well, you get on with things. You get them done. I admire you for it.'
Anna hoped some of that was true. She hoped it wasn't just flattery.
'It will make a big difference to our lives,' she said slowly, thoughtfully. 'We'll be able to get out and about more. Even just doing the shopping will be easier. I hate having to drag the children up and down the hill every time we need a loaf of bread.'
'You'll be able to buy in bulk, as well,' Pippa pointed out. 'And save some money. That's what we do. Mind you, it must be good exercise, walking up and down the hill. My two need more of that. So do I, for that matter.'
'Not Derek?'
'Oh, he stays wonderfully slim, whatever he does or doesn't do. Whatever he eats, as well. It's not fair.'
Conversation halted while they listened to a burst of laughter from the children in the other room. Anna made as if to get up, and then relaxed back into her chair again. 'I'll leave them to it a bit longer,' she decided.
Pippa smiled. 'Tell me, Anna. Are you still thinking of job hunting when you get your driving licence?'
'I am, yes. Now Tom's settled in at school, I could do something part-time.'
'What will you do? Any ideas?'
'Not really. It would have to be something local, though. I can't be driving twenty miles there and another twenty back, not for a part-time job.'
'Is it for the money or because you want to get out of the house more?'
'Both, actually. I manage fairly well financially. The insuranc
e paid off the mortgage, which was the main thing. But there isn't much for extras – like running a car. And, yes, I would like to get out and about a bit more, and spend part of my day doing things with other adults.'
'What was it you used to do, Anna?'
'Before the children were born? I worked in a bank. It was a good job, as well. I liked it.'
'Why not see if you can go back? There's lots of part-timers now in jobs like that.'
Anna frowned. 'Yes? I suppose I could contact my old boss. See what he says. Probably not much hope, though.'
'Something will turn up,' Pippa said encouragingly.
'Do you think so?'
Pippa nodded. 'It always does.'
Anna smiled gratefully. She admired her friend's confidence. She wouldn't have minded some of it herself.
She hadn't seen or heard much of Daniel Ferguson since their conversation in the garden. Just the occasional glimpse and sounds suggesting work was being done somewhere next door. At least, though, she knew he was out and about in daylight now, not shut away inside the house. That seemed a good thing for them all. Far better for him, and far better than the nocturnal activities that had been so disturbing for her and the children.
She wondered if he was sleeping any better now. She hoped so. She knew from her own experience during Bob's illness how draining insomnia could be. Persistent lack of sleep could leave you in tatters. She had begun to feel as if she was hallucinating. Nothing had seemed real after a time. Perhaps that was how it had been with Daniel. She shouldn't have been so quick to rush to judge and condemn.
As Pippa and Derek were leaving late one afternoon, Daniel's sister turned into the drive of "Moorside". Anna waved her visitors off and then hesitated, uncertain whether to acknowledge the arrival of Elizabeth.
'Good evening!' the other woman called.
'Hello!'
Anna stood by the gate, waiting awkwardly.
'Daniel's groceries,' Elizabeth said, as she pulled supermarket bags out of her car. 'I shall be glad when he can fend for himself again.'
'Oh?'
'Head injuries. He's not allowed to drive for a year – maybe longer.'
'What a nuisance for you both,' Anna said, now it was clear she wouldn't be rebuffed. 'I can't drive either. But I've decided to learn.'
The Stranger Next Door Page 4