The Guesthouse

by Abbie Frost

  As they trudged onwards it was impossible not to think about Ben. He would have loved this. To take her mind off him, she forced herself to focus on the mystery of her father. The fact that his email address – it had to be his – was in a diary at the house proved that he lived locally. He had been an architect, so maybe he did some work for the Fallons or met them socially. She hadn’t got anything useful from Sandeep, but it might be worth asking Liam about Jack and his friend, Declan. A doctor in the area – even if he hadn’t worked that close to Fallon – would come across a lot of people. This afternoon, she would go into the village to ask around, and tomorrow she would head back to London.

  Chloe came running over and grabbed her arm. ‘Can I walk with you for a bit?’

  Hannah smiled and they walked on in companionable silence. After a while Hannah broke it. ‘Are you having a good holiday?’

  A sigh. ‘It’s not really a holiday, just somewhere to stay until we can move to our new house.’

  ‘You’re not looking forward to it then?’

  Chloe glanced at her parents up ahead. Their intense discussion seemed to be on the verge of becoming an argument. ‘It’s tiny, and I don’t want to live in Scotland.’

  ‘Have you told your mum and dad?’

  ‘They won’t listen. And anyway, we have to get away from Ireland and we can’t afford anything else.’ She fell silent, looking down and kicking a stone into a ditch full of water at the side of the path.

  Up ahead Liam stopped to consult his map and Hannah wondered if he was lost. Iron grey clouds piled up over the strip of sea on the horizon, a storm rolling in from the Atlantic.

  They walked on for a bit without speaking, before Hannah decided this was too good an opportunity to miss. ‘You know, I thought I’d sleep better in the country, but I keep waking up in the night. Haven’t been able to sleep properly at all since I arrived.’

  Chloe looked away but didn’t speak.

  ‘What about you?’ Hannah pushed. ‘Only I noticed you seemed tired yesterday. And the weird thing is.’ She lowered her voice. ‘In the middle of the night, I swear I keep hearing a child crying.’

  Chloe stopped walking and glanced at her parents. Her voice was so quiet that Hannah had to lean in to hear her over the wind.

  ‘I’ve heard it too. Mum and Dad said I was dreaming, told me to stop being silly, not to mention it or everyone would get into a panic.’ She was speaking quickly now. ‘Dad said telling stories like that would ruin the holiday and scare you and Lucy, because you were just girls on your own. And I mustn’t tell Sandeep either, because he’s ill.’

  Hannah bit her lip and leaned closer. ‘Well, I heard the noise and I wasn’t frightened. If you hear it again, come and find me and we can investigate together.’

  Chloe nodded and they carried on walking, beginning to catch up with the others.

  Rosa’s loud voice cut through the wind. ‘Darling, walk with me for a bit.’ Chloe grimaced and shrugged, nodded to Hannah, then ran to join her mother.

  Hannah fell into step with Mo and Lucy. Mo zipped up his coat. ‘Looks like there’s a storm coming in.’ Heavy black clouds gathered over the sea, closer to land now. ‘Hannah,’ Mo continued. ‘I’ve bored Lucy with my life story and my job at the university library – in return she’s impressed me with her amazing adventures – so now it’s your turn.’

  As they walked along the ridge, Hannah told them about her university days and about the kind of architecture she loved. As she spoke, she watched Chloe run on ahead and reach a grove of trees, their branches bent almost horizontal by the sea wind.

  Lucy looked at her watch. ‘Shit, it’s getting late. I need to head back, get some work done.’ She sighed and gave them both a smile. ‘See you guys back at the house. Enjoy the rest of the walk.’

  ‘I’ll come with you.’ Mo dug his hands in his pockets. ‘Can’t leave Dad on his own for too long.’

  Hannah said goodbye and watched Lucy take Mo’s arm as they walked off over the hill and down towards The Guesthouse. When they had disappeared from view, she turned and ran to catch up with the others.

  Rosa waited for her and the two of them trudged up the final slope towards the cluster of trees in silence.

  Halfway up, they heard a shout. A sudden cry from the top of the hill that carried down to them in the wind. It was Liam. Hannah ran forward, scrambling up the slope, and saw Chloe emerge from the trees, waving her arms in the air, screaming.

  Then she dived back into the woods and Hannah and Rosa sprinted up the final ridge, slipping on wet stones, almost falling over on the boggy grass. As they got to the trees, Hannah saw Chloe standing in the gloom of a clearing, a blank look of terror on her face. Hannah felt a sick lurch of fear and ran faster, thundering through twisted branches to join her.

  Chloe stood there, a hand to her mouth, staring towards a deep ditch just a few yards away. Liam’s voice shouted up to them from the trench. ‘All right, I’m all right. Just stay back everyone.’

  Rosa pulled Chloe into her arms. She sobbed and struggled to reach her dad, but Rosa dragged her away from the ditch and into the trees. Hannah stepped cautiously to the edge and looked down. At the bottom of the sheer drop, she could see Liam, unharmed, crouching down. She squinted to see through the gloom as fat raindrops began to fall, bouncing on the grass around them.

  Her stomach clenched and she felt suddenly very cold.

  Liam hunkered down next to a dark shape, a black crumpled heap of soaking wet clothes. The rain fell faster, hammering into the undergrowth.

  But it wasn’t just a pile of clothes; it was a man. Face down, arms splayed out, one hand stretched in front of him, as if reaching for someone. Grey hair splattered in mud.

  It was Rob.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Liam stared up at Hannah, his breath clouding around him. ‘He must have been here since yesterday,’ he shouted. ‘Got lost in that damn fog and fell.’

  Her mouth was so dry she could only stammer. ‘Is, is he dead?’

  ‘No, but we need to get him to hospital.’

  She pulled out her phone and stared at the screen, heart racing. ‘I’ve got no signal. Hang on, put this over him … keep him warm.’ Pulling off her parka, she passed it down to him, letting cold rain trickle along her neck.

  Liam’s own phone was in his hand. ‘It’s faint, but I have a signal.’ He wiped the rain off his screen. ‘You need to get back. It’s too cold out here without a coat. And make sure Chloe and Rosa get home too, will you? I’ll stay here with him until help comes.’

  Rosa and Chloe argued but, as the wind and the rain intensified, they finally agreed. Chloe clutched her mother’s arm, crying softly. Hannah shook uncontrollably as they walked fast through the dark, slithering down the hills. All she could think about was the last time she had seen Rob. How she had chatted to him for too long, kept him from going home as the fog descended. How it was her fault if he died.

  She imagined him stumbling through the mist. Missing his footing on the edge of that ridge and slipping down into the void, tumbling to the bottom. He probably hit his head and lay there all night, eventually succumbing to hypothermia. Hannah thought of a child crying, of a fox screaming into the night. Of a gardener lying there with his twisted hand stretched out across the ground.

  As they approached the house, they could see the kitchen lights glowing. Hannah’s soaked clothes clung to her skin and her teeth chattered.

  She stumbled into the kitchen, ignored Mo and went straight for the Aga, stretching out her hands for warmth. Their wet clothes dripped onto the tiled floor, as Rosa explained what had happened. Hannah felt herself sway and Mo caught her, held her close, rubbed life back into her arms. She stayed still for a few moments, remembering how Ben used to hold her like this, then she stepped away.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’m all right. Had to leave my parka to cover him.’

  Rosa held up her phone. ‘A message from Liam. Help is on its way.’ She stopped
and looked at Chloe. ‘Go and change your muddy shoes.’

  But Chloe stared at her. ‘I’m not going until you read the rest. I’m not a baby.’

  Rosa sighed, then read on. Her voice sounded unnaturally loud.

  ‘The ambulance is going to be too late, though.’ She paused and glanced up at them. ‘Rob didn’t make it and Liam’s staying with the … with him. The police are on their way, and we all need to wait here in case they want to speak to us.’

  Chloe began to sob and Mo started to say something, but then stopped. Hannah had to turn away, feeling suddenly very tired. She muttered something about a sweater and went to her room.

  Closing the door, she lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

  It was her fault.

  Another man was dead, and it was her fault.

  She was woken by the windows rattling and the sound of rain beating down outside. She opened her eyes and saw water streaming across the glass, heard the whole house creaking under the strain. She grabbed her phone to check the time. She’d been asleep for about an hour. Crawling out of bed, she washed her face and got dressed, tried not to think about the way Rob had looked, sprawled across the mud in the dark.

  Heading for the stairs, she noticed a light shining underneath Lucy’s door. Maybe she would be up for a smoke. A talk, it would be good to talk.

  She paused to listen and from inside Lucy’s room came a muffled groan and then a sob.

  Hannah went up to her door and stopped. Silence, then another sob.

  She knocked lightly. ‘Lucy, are you all right?’ Nothing. ‘It’s Hannah.’ Another, louder knock. The silence seemed to grow, but she stood waiting, almost sure she could hear Lucy breathing on the other side of the door.

  It opened a crack and Lucy peered out. She wore headphones and looked surprisingly young. Her voice sounded rough. ‘Hi, what is it?’

  ‘I was worried, thought I heard you crying.’

  A headshake. ‘I’m working, trying to finish something off.’

  Lucy opened the door wider and pointed to her laptop and a keyboard by the window, pieces of paper scattered around them. ‘You must have heard me singing.’ She pulled off the headphones and smiled briskly. ‘Sorry if it was loud. I get a bit snappy when I’m writing.’

  Hannah tried to smile back. ‘No, it’s fine. And I’m sorry too.’

  When Lucy closed the door, Hannah headed for the kitchen. Lucy’s eyes had been red, as if she’d been crying and had removed black tracks of mascara in a hurry – Hannah knew all about that.

  It was difficult to understand why Lucy would be crying, but the longer Hannah spent with her, the stranger she became. Surely Rob’s death couldn’t be the cause, because she didn’t know him, hadn’t even seen his body. But maybe it had brought back memories of a recent family death.

  Downstairs in the kitchen, Rosa stood violently stirring something on the Aga, while Mo and Chloe played a board game at the table, their faces pale and strained.

  Rosa spun round when Hannah entered and brandished her phone. ‘Can you believe it? Liam just messaged me again. The ambulance has arrived, but he couldn’t leave them to get on with their job. Oh, no. He’s following them to the hospital.’ She waved the phone again. ‘In case they need to speak to him. And he’s taken the car, so Chloe and I are trapped here.’

  ‘We weren’t going out anyway.’ Chloe’s voice shook and Hannah wanted to cheer her on.

  ‘The police will have to check what happened,’ Mo said. ‘They generally interview whoever discovers a body. Maybe Liam has gone to sort it all out, so they won’t have to come here and talk to us. If anyone needs to go anywhere, I can drive them.’

  Rosa scrubbed at the stove with a damp cloth.

  Hannah sat down opposite Mo. ‘How’s Sandeep?’

  He took off his glasses and rubbed the lenses on his shirt. ‘Not good, I’m afraid. He knew the guy, not well, but they met a few times. He’s in the drawing room, but I think he wants to be alone.’

  ‘I hope he’s OK.’ Her questions for him would have to wait. But there was still Lucy and she couldn’t leave that alone. ‘Lucy seems upset. Did she say anything to you about it?’

  Rosa let out a laugh. ‘A bit of a drama queen, if you ask me, making it all about her. For attention, of course, as if the rest of us aren’t shocked too.’

  Chloe stood up, her eyes flashing. ‘And it’s not all about you, either.’ She marched from the room and they listened to her footsteps on the stairs.

  Rosa dropped her wooden spoon onto the Aga, and Hannah and Mo shared a look. Rosa picked it up again, gave the pan one more stir, turned down the heat and faced them with her arms folded tight across her chest.

  ‘You think it’s funny, don’t you? You have no idea what it’s like, what I have to put up with.’ And before either of them could speak she stomped from the room.

  Hannah collected Chloe’s scattered counters and dropped them into a little plastic pot. ‘I don’t reckon Lucy wants attention.’

  ‘No.’ Mo frowned. ‘She gets enough of that already.’ Hannah ran her finger over the grain of the wooden table as Mo went on. ‘It was really weird, though. When Rosa told her what happened, Lucy looked as if she’d seen a ghost. She practically ran out of the room.’

  They sat for a few seconds, then Mo stood. ‘Better go and check on the old man.’ He made a mug of tea and headed for the drawing room, with Hannah following him.

  Sandeep was lying back in the leather chair by the fire with his eyes closed and a blanket over his knees. As they entered, he sat up and smiled. ‘A nice hot cuppa, just what I need.’ Hannah could see the veins standing out on his shaking hand as he took the mug.

  She sat in the leather armchair opposite him. ‘How are you feeling? How’s the cough?’ she asked.

  ‘Fine, fine. Don’t worry about me.’

  Mo hovered by the door. ‘We’ll leave you in peace then, shall we?’

  Sandeep frowned and waved a hand at them. ‘Stay, please. I’d rather have company if you can bear it.’

  Mo turned away. ‘I’ll just check on Rosa’s soup.’

  Hannah waited, sensing Sandeep was in a mood to talk.

  He rubbed a hand over his face and stared into the fire. ‘I’ve been thinking about poor Robert, you know.’ A log shifted in the grate. ‘He’d been with the Fallon family all his life and his father was head gardener before him. Rob was born in that cottage when it was still within the grounds of the estate. He would have been with the last Lady Fallon all her life.’

  ‘Did you ever meet her?’

  His hand shook as he put down his mug and stared into the fire. ‘Just the once, but I’ll never forget it. It’s what finished my career.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  Eleven years ago

  The Policeman

  It’s been a couple of years since the last call-out to Fallon House, but Sandeep has never entirely forgotten it. Some days at work he finds himself staring out of the window at the distant hills and thinking about Rob – about how he looked when he found him – about him curled up outside the back door in the wind, like a dog that had crawled home to die beside his master. When Sandeep last tried to persuade his boss to investigate the gardener’s accident, he had been laughed out of the room, the Ghostbusters theme tune ringing in his ears.

  Unable to leave it alone, he had gone back to the doctor who had treated Rob’s injuries and who had initially agreed with him – that the wounds were no accident. But he now seemed to have changed his mind. The police had done a cursory check to confirm that the Fallons had been out that day and that nobody else had been seen in the house or the grounds. They had ticked the boxes and closed the case.

  But here he is once more, standing by his parked car looking along the muddy track over the green fields towards the hills. A new phone call had come in and apparently no one else had been free, so the buck had been passed down the line to his desk. Some jokes never get old.

  This time Sandeep
had heard the recording himself, listened through static and patchy signal to the tone of panic in the caller’s voice:

  Help! … crrrrrrr … someone’s hurt … crrrrrrr … they’re bleeding.

  And then the line had gone dead.

  He locks his car door and starts the long walk up the hill. It’s a lovely spring day, the first time he’s ever been warm on this walk. When he reaches the ridge he gets his first glimpse of the building, its windows open, lights shining out. At least he might get some answers this time. He walks past the blooming magnolias and knocks on the door.

  It’s opened by a very thin lady, her blonde hair caught up at one side. She gives him a pinched smile, but he knows immediately that something’s wrong. ‘Could I speak to Lady Fallon please?’

  She glances back into the house. ‘I’m Lady Fallon.’ Her voice is frail, her shoulders hunched; she’s nothing like the glamorous lady of the manor he has always imagined.

  The door is still barely open, and her eyes keep flitting back and forth. He tries a smile. ‘I wonder if I could step inside for a moment?’

  She moves back carefully, making sure he can’t get far into the grand hallway. He smiles again. ‘I had the pleasure of meeting your husband a few years ago. Is he home today?’

  A headshake. ‘No, he’s in Dublin on business.’

  He feels a prickle down his spine, the sense of being watched, that someone else is here.

  ‘The thing is.’ He coughs. ‘We’ve had a report that someone has been hurt at this property. Do you know anything about that?’

  She blinks. ‘Sorry, I’ve no idea what that could be. I’m here on my own.’ A tight-lipped smile. ‘And I’m not hurt, as you can see.’

  She certainly doesn’t look well, but he has no choice but to take her word for it.

  ‘Perhaps I could have a quick look around, just so I can keep my boss happy?’ It’s worth a try, and she might loosen up after a while.