The Guesthouse

by Abbie Frost

  After Rosa made her tea, without bothering to offer Hannah a cup, she stood near the Aga to drink it.

  ‘I know you don’t like me,’ Hannah said, ignoring Rosa’s little gesture of denial. ‘But honestly I’m worried about Chloe. She seemed unstable, sleepwalking up there in the middle of the night. If she had gone outside or fallen on the stairs …’

  Rosa swallowed, her face pale. ‘I won’t take a sleeping pill tonight,’ she said. ‘That’s why I didn’t wake up. I’m a very light sleeper, you see, without something to knock me out. She won’t bother you again, if that’s what’s worrying you.’

  ‘It isn’t that at all.’

  Pulling up a chair with a shaking hand, Rosa sat next to the Aga, her arms clutched tightly around her. ‘I’m sorry. I really am. I should be thanking you for looking after her. It’s just that I hate being here, especially now Liam’s away.’

  Before Hannah could think of anything to say, Lucy came through the door, fully dressed, her eyes made-up beautifully again, hair back to its stylish best. She was like a different person.

  Rosa got to her feet, her voice brisk. ‘Right, I’ll get Chloe up or she’ll sleep all day.’

  Lucy yawned, went to the fridge for some juice and poured herself a bowl of granola. Slicing a banana into it she said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to leave.’ She looked out the window at the dark clouds and the trees bending in the wind. ‘The guards better turn up soon.’

  Rosa folded her arms. ‘It’s all right for you, but we can’t leave. My husband won’t be back till goodness knows when. And even the new house won’t be ready for another week.’

  Lucy said nothing for a while and to Hannah it looked as if she was annoyed.

  The windows rattled louder as a gust of rain beat the glass. ‘I don’t think anyone will want to tackle that footpath in this weather,’ Hannah said. ‘And without phone signal we’ll struggle to get a taxi.’

  ‘Mo says he’s happy to give everyone a lift,’ said Lucy, rinsing her bowl in the sink, ‘when the weather eases, so that won’t be a problem. He and Sandeep are definitely leaving soon.’

  Hannah decided to ask Mo to drop her in the village. After that she could head back to London. With a pang she thought about her life at home, thought about saying goodbye to Mo. But there was no way she was staying here, not after everything that had happened.

  There was a thump from upstairs and a door slammed. Footsteps thudded on the stairs, the sound of male voices shouting. Rosa opened the door wider so they could peer out into the hall.

  ‘People can’t be trusted! I told you.’ Sandeep stood bellowing on the stairs, red-faced, stabbing a finger at Mo. ‘You’re so gullible.’ He coughed. ‘We’re in a house in the middle of nowhere with complete strangers and you can’t even take care of your stuff. Now, thanks to you, we’re completely screwed. There’s no way out of here. We’re trapped!’

  Chapter Thirty

  They all stared into the hall. Sandeep and Mo were standing halfway down the stairs shouting so loudly the whole house could hear.

  Sandeep almost stumbled, his hand on the rail. ‘God only knows how we’ll get out of here.’

  Mo took his arm to help him, his voice quieter. ‘Listen, keep your voice down. I’ve just put them somewhere, that’s all. Or maybe they fell out of my pocket.’

  Sandeep headed for the drawing room. ‘Well you’d better find them.’

  ‘Sit and relax for a bit,’ Mo said. ‘I’ll bring you some tea.’

  ‘And don’t go putting any of those bloody sleeping pills in it,’ Sandeep shouted, then slammed the door behind him.

  Mo slouched back into the kitchen. Hannah and Lucy turned away as he went to put the kettle on, but Rosa stood with her arms folded, watching him.

  ‘Sorry, everyone,’ he said. ‘He’s not doing well this morning. Had a rough night, I think. He complains he’s still groggy from that sleeping pill and, in the next breath, says he was awake most of the night.’

  Mo dropped a teabag into a cup. ‘Anyone seen a set of car keys?’ he asked, his voice a little too casual. ‘I can’t seem to find mine.’

  Hannah shook her head, and the kitchen was silent.

  ‘I’ll have a look for them,’ Lucy eventually said.

  Rosa raised a hand to her mouth and let out a small sob. ‘Great, just great. Your car keys missing. Our car’s gone. No wifi or a signal, and there’s a fucking gale-force storm on the way.’

  ‘I’m sure my keys will turn up,’ said Mo with a forced smile. ‘I had them yesterday. They couldn’t have walked away on their own.’

  Hannah tried to give him an encouraging smile in return, but she knew this wasn’t the first thing that had disappeared. Mo could have dropped them somewhere, or left them in a pocket, but still she felt a knot of anxiety twisting in her stomach.

  And then Rosa, dramatic as usual, but this time quite accurate, voiced what they had all been thinking. ‘So basically, we’re all trapped here.’

  No one spoke as the rain and wind thundered across the hills and the house seemed to hold its breath. Then Lucy broke the spell. ‘Well, if people want to leave, we better look for those keys. Mo, why don’t you go and double-check your room – and Sandeep’s – and we’ll try everywhere else.’

  He picked up the cup of tea he’d made. ‘OK, thanks, everyone. They can’t have gone far.’ His tone was flat. ‘I’ll just give this to my dad.’

  Lucy turned to Hannah. ‘Before the weather gets any worse, let’s check outside. Mo’s been collecting logs, so he could have dropped his keys there. And I thought I saw him wandering around in the rose garden yesterday.’

  ‘What about us?’ Rosa asked.

  ‘If you want to stay inside with Chloe, you can search in here and the drawing room.’ Lucy was organizing everyone as usual, Hannah noticed, but it was good to see her so confident again.

  She must have guessed what Hannah was thinking, because she turned to her as they walked through the hall. ‘Haven’t had a cigarette for a whole day now,’ she said with a grimace. ‘I’m fucking dying.’ When Lucy laid a hand on Hannah’s arm, her skin prickled with a strange tingle, almost pleasant but not quite.

  They reached the main door and Lucy stretched up to pull back the bolts. The door creaked open, letting in a huge gust of wind, and they both had to throw their weight against it. Lucy’s white-blonde hair flipped and whirled around her face.

  ‘You know, I’m getting seriously creeped out. This place is just so strange, I’m beginning to think it might actually be haunted.’

  Hannah wanted to ask more, but Lucy was already through the door and heading around towards the back of the house, bent double against the wind.

  Fighting her way outside, Hannah watched as Lucy managed to walk quickly out of sight.

  They searched the wood pile, shifted logs and peered into every corner, but didn’t find the keys. After that they separated: Lucy went to the gates and the gardens; Hannah to check around the edge of the house. The wind pressed her against the wall, whipping her hair across her eyes until she could hardly see. By the time she had finished – her hands numb with cold, her clothes soaked – she knew the keys could have been metres away and she wouldn’t have seen them.

  At the front door, she met Lucy and they sheltered together under the porch.

  ‘No luck,’ Lucy shouted over the noise of the storm.

  Hannah shook her head and they went back inside, kicking off their shoes by the door.

  ‘Maybe they’ve already found them?’ Lucy said as they looked into the empty kitchen. No sign of anyone in the drawing room either.

  ‘Hello!’ Lucy’s voice echoed in the silence. She headed for the corridor that led to the padlocked area. ‘You check the other rooms.’ Her voice had lost some of its confidence.

  Wandering around the library and double-checking the kitchen and drawing room, Hannah found no sign of the keys, or of Rosa and Chloe. They must have given up and gone to their room
.

  When she came back out into the hall, she saw Lucy sitting on the stairs, her head in her hands. She looked up and gave Hannah a bright smile. But just for a moment Hannah glimpsed real unhappiness on her face, even something close to despair, as if a mask had slipped.

  Hannah sat beside her. ‘It’s all right. I bet the keys are in a pocket somewhere.’ She was about to say that Ben was always mislaying his keys but stopped herself. These were the worst moments, the ones she hated most of all. When she somehow let herself forget that he was gone.

  ‘Don’t suppose you have any fags left?’ she asked, for something else to say.

  Lucy smiled and stood up. ‘I do – but it’s my last one. We could share it? I’ve been saving it for a rainy day, and it’s definitely raining. Let’s go to my room – there’s no smoke alarms or anything.’

  Upstairs, they both sprawled on Lucy’s bed, their hair still wet from the rain. Lucy fumbled out the last cigarette and struck a match, the glow flickering in her eyes. Eyes that for a moment seemed so familiar, as if they had been friends for years.

  They passed the cigarette back and forth, then Hannah took a deep drag and choked on the smoke. ‘Sorry,’ she coughed again, her eyes streaming. ‘I think I’ve become a non-smoker.’

  Lucy laughed. ‘Good for you. It’ll take me a while, but I’m determined.’ She took a drag. ‘Haven’t had a drink since I got here either. And I used to love getting pissed. Bloody love it.’ She grinned and passed the fag back to Hannah. ‘Do you know there are whole months that I can’t even remember? I was just plastered the whole time, completely out of my mind.’

  Hannah took another, more careful, drag. ‘Yeah, I was the same. This holiday is probably the first time I’ve been sober in months.’ She chewed her lip. ‘It was pretty rough to be honest. I was like a proper drunk, basically a pisshead, and I hated myself for it.’ It was the first time she’d admitted this even to herself.

  Lucy nodded. ‘Well, after what happened to your boyfriend, it sounds like you needed it. Don’t beat yourself up—’

  ‘But it wasn’t just what happened with Ben.’ The words came tumbling out now. ‘It was before that. I fucked it all up, ruined our relationship by drinking and flirting, because I didn’t think I was good enough for him. Never have done.’ Hannah swallowed, as if surprised at what she had just said.

  ‘I guess it all starts right at the beginning,’ Lucy said, squeezing her shoulder. A long stream of smoke spiralled out of her perfect lips. ‘What did that poem say about mums and dads? How they fuck up their kids? Larkin, was it? One of my songs is about that.’ She finished the cigarette with a few quick angry sucks and stubbed it out in the saucer.

  Hannah leaned up on her elbow. ‘You had problems with your parents?’

  Lucy laughed. ‘Fuck yeah. We didn’t get on.’ When she didn’t elaborate, Hannah lay back on the bed. She could understand why she didn’t want to talk about it.

  After a moment, Lucy heaved herself up and leaned against the padded bedhead with a sigh. ‘All right, here we go, but you asked for it. Well, my mother was all right, pretty nice really. But then she … she died and I …’ A pause. ‘I couldn’t stand living with my father, couldn’t bear it, so I just left.’

  ‘How old were you?’

  ‘Fifteen.’

  ‘What?’

  A funny little laugh. ‘That’s right. And do you know you’re the only person apart from my boyfriend, Damian, that I’ve told. Luckily I was already tall so I looked older.’

  Hannah shook her head, tried to take it in, but didn’t know what to say. No wonder Lucy was such a strange mix of maturity and child-like fears and emotions. Hannah couldn’t begin to imagine what it was like to manage on your own at fifteen, to have no home and no family. She thought about her own mother, about how she had always been there, whatever happened, whatever stupid mistakes Hannah made.

  Finally she said, ‘So you’ve been on your own for ten years. How did you manage?’

  Lucy didn’t speak for a few minutes and when she began talking again, her voice was flat and controlled. ‘I went to Dublin and lived rough. Couldn’t get a job of course, it was like I didn’t even exist. I was a non-person, had to build my life from scratch.’

  ‘Surely your dad searched for you, told the police you’d gone—’

  Lucy cut her off. ‘They don’t look too hard for teenagers. Just assume they wanted to disappear. Which in my case was true.’ A sigh. ‘Then I met up with Damian. He’s a musician, you know – a violinist. Just a busker to start with, but I could sing and he taught me the keyboard. We made a bit of money, did gigs in pubs and bars, met some others and started a band.’

  ‘That’s amazing, you really made it. Wow, you should be proud,’ Hannah said.

  ‘It’s no good though.’ Lucy shook her head. ‘I’m still a mess, still had to leave Damian. Could never really open up to him, you know?’

  Hannah wanted to tell her that she did know, that she had felt the same way her whole life, but she stayed silent. Eventually, Lucy looked so unhappy that Hannah tried to lighten the tone.

  ‘And you do wild swimming,’ she said. ‘That must be cool.’

  Lucy stared into space for a moment and then seemed to relax. ‘Yeah, I love it. Love swimming. My mother taught me and we used to go together.’ She smiled. ‘Not outdoors, in a pool, but I just love the feel of swimming, it’s like freedom, like a kind of escape.’ She looked at Hannah. ‘Do you swim?’

  Hannah laughed but it sounded forced. ‘No, I can’t. Never learned and never will. It freaks me out.’

  ‘Your parents didn’t try to teach you?’

  And suddenly a stab of memory, a crystal-clear image of herself as a child in a swimming pool with her mum. Her chubby limbs moving frantically through the warm water, her legs bobbing up and down. Her mother smiling down at her, as she spluttered water and squealed with laughter.

  ‘Hannah? Are you all right?’ Lucy leaned forward.

  Hannah blinked. ‘Sorry, I was miles away. Yes, I’m fine. I just remembered the only time I ever went to a swimming pool.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I don’t know. It was a good memory, I wanted to go back again.’

  ‘So how come you never did?’

  ‘It’s … I’ve just always had a phobia. Something about being underwater, about the feeling of sinking and choking. My mum accepted it and got the doctor to write me a note, so I always missed swimming lessons.’

  It was only now she realized how strange this seemed. Her mother had always encouraged Hannah to be brave and to try new things. Apart from swimming.

  She closed her eyes and had the sudden sense that at the back of her mind, another memory threatened to surface. She forced it away and stood up.

  ‘I’d better go down and carry on searching,’ she said.

  But as she hurried from the room, she knew that other memory would not be a good one. And there was only so long she could keep it buried.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  In the kitchen Chloe was slumped at the table eating an orange. She turned to Hannah and her mouth wobbled. ‘Mum doesn’t believe I saw Dad outside, but you do, don’t you?’

  Hannah poured herself a glass of water, downed it and sat beside her. She took Chloe’s hand, remembering how cold and strange it had felt last night. ‘What exactly do you remember?’

  Chloe’s jaw clenched and she seemed to be on the verge of tears. ‘I saw him, I really did. I knew it was him.’

  ‘From your bedroom window?’

  ‘I can’t remember.’ She shook her head, her eyes frightened. ‘It’s just … I don’t know … Is something wrong with me? Did I imagine it all?’

  Pulling her close, Hannah felt a wave of pity for her. ‘It’s all right, you were just sleepwalking,’ she whispered. ‘It’s completely normal. There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just upset. When your dad gets back you’ll feel better.’

  Chloe shook her head. ‘But he�
�s not going to come back. He’s never coming back.’

  Before Hannah could reply, Rosa bustled into the room and they moved apart.

  Hannah chewed her lip, thinking about Liam, as Rosa made tea. He would come back – he’d have to. All the same, there had been no contact from him today. Perhaps he’d been trying to ring Rosa, but his messages weren’t getting through because of the lack of wifi or signal.

  Rosa took a sip of her tea and stared out the window into the rain. ‘I’ve checked everywhere and there’s no sign of those keys.’ She looked pointedly at Hannah. ‘I think there’s a thief.’

  ‘Well, it must be one of us, but nobody has left. If they wanted to steal the actual car, they would be gone by now.’ She tried to keep her voice level. ‘And me and Lucy are the only people without transport, so are you blaming this on us?’

  But Rosa wasn’t listening, she was staring into one of the cupboards. ‘Look.’ She pointed. ‘Look at this, just three tins. Do you remember how many there were when we first arrived? Don’t tell me we’ve eaten everything.’

  She swung back the fridge door, and they all stared at the empty shelves. ‘Oh great. Where’s the food gone?’ She pulled open the freezer, her movements frantic now. ‘Look, a couple of pizzas and nothing else. It’s all gone.’

  Chloe went pale and Hannah tried to stay calm, but a ripple of fear crept along her own spine. She opened a cupboard and stared at the empty shelves. ‘I don’t understand. Who could have taken it?’

  Rosa smiled grimly. ‘If it happened a day or so ago, my money would be on that gardener.’

  Hannah shook her head. ‘Someone would have noticed before now. Mo’s been doing a lot of cooking and he would have said something.’

  Rosa paced up and down in front of the Aga, pulling her stylish white cardigan tight around her. ‘Unless …’ She turned to stare at Hannah. ‘Unless it’s him, of course.’

  Chloe’s voice was sharp. ‘Mum! Stealing his own car keys?’