The Forgotten Cottage (7 page)

‘Oh, she said she was meeting me here; never mind, I’ll give her a ring. I’m the interior designer; we were going to talk curtains and cushions.’

The older of the men nodded. ‘She might be held up; why don’t you take a look around while you’re waiting?’

‘Thanks, I’ll do that.’

She turned and made her way to the stairs. She wanted a house like this. When she got her money off Daddy, that was what she was going to buy. She looked in all the bedrooms, saving the master bedroom until last.

***

Annie drove through the narrow country lanes with Jake and Alex following closely behind. Finally reaching the gates to the cottage, which were open, she drove straight through and stopped her car near to the builders’ van and got out. What a difference since last week! The house had been painted white, making the windows, which had all been replaced with newer oak versions of the originals, stand out. It looked just like it had on the painting in the bedroom. They got out of their cars and stared.

‘What do you think?’

‘Oh, Annie, it’s gorgeous! I can’t believe what a difference from the last time I was here, when it was a peeling, dirty hovel.’

Alex frowned at Jake but she laughed.

‘Say it as it is, Jake, but it was pretty grim. Wait until you see the inside; you would never believe it was the same house. Alex and the builders have done a pretty amazing job.’

She looked up and saw a woman in the upstairs bedroom window. Her heart almost exploded out of her chest but then she recognised the blonde hair and felt her fear replaced with anger. What on earth was Amelia doing in her bedroom?

Before she could go inside to find out, two men came flying through the door as if they were being chased. Annie looked at their pale faces, concerned.

‘Hiya, is everything okay?’

They both nodded at her. ‘Brew time.’

They walked to their van, throwing open the doors and climbing inside, one of them pulling out his phone. The other waved at them and pointed to the flask on the dashboard. Jake muttered under his breath, ‘Typical bloody builders and they wonder why they have such a reputation.’

Annie smiled. ‘Don’t be mean. They’ve worked really hard the last few weeks; they are entitled to a break.’

But something had made them run out of the house. You didn’t look like they did because it was time for a cup of tea; they both looked petrified. She walked under the newly rebuilt porch, which had the original wooden structure, and shivered. She did it every single time without fail. She needed to man up; it was time to face facts—whoever or whatever it was that was still attached to this house needed speaking to and told to leave. This was her home now. There was no way after spending all this money on it that she was moving into it feeling uneasy all the time.

A sheepish-looking Amelia came down the stairs and smiled at Annie. ‘Sorry, you caught me. I was just passing and realised that this must be the house you and Will were renovating. Tom does nothing but talk about it and I thought I’d pop in to see if you were around and if you fancied a coffee. I realise how busy you are so I’ll get going now; maybe we can have a coffee some other time.’

‘Oh, okay… Yes, that would be nice. How did you get in?’

‘The front door was open; the builders said it was okay to look around and wait for you.’

‘Ah, I thought so. Sorry, Amelia, but maybe some other time.’

Jake watched the strained exchange with interest but kept his mouth shut. Annie walked Amelia to the door.

‘Bye, Annie. It’s a beautiful house, by the way.’

‘Thank you, it is. Bye.’

Annie shut the door behind her, puzzled as to why the woman even thought that Annie would want to show her around her new house, but then she shrugged it off. Maybe she was just being friendly.

‘Who was that?’

‘Will’s dad’s new housekeeper. Did you find her a bit odd?’

Jake shook his head. He was still muttering about the builders, who were sitting in the van, but he stopped as soon as he walked into the completely rearranged open-plan kitchen-diner and lounge.

‘Wow, what a difference! I can’t believe it. It looks so modern, yet still fits in really well. I love the bare stonework.’

Annie squeezed her arms around Alex’s waist, forgetting about her strange visitor.

‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’

It was Alex’s turn to grin. ‘It looks fabulous, Annie. I bet you can’t wait to get the kitchen units and cooker in.’

‘I can’t and I’ve seen the most perfect Aga but it’s so expensive. I don’t know if we can justify spending that much money on a cooker for me just to burn food on and dry Will’s socks.’

‘I agree with you there, Annie, we all know what a crap cook you are, but surely you can’t really put anything else in a kitchen this size except a range cooker. If you’re going all country you need the right equipment, even if it is just to burn pizzas in.’

She shoved Jake, who was laughing.

‘Anyway, I bet Will would buy you anything you want if you ask. I don’t know what hold you have over him but he’s like a changed man, and if Will won’t buy one I bet if you told Lily what you want it would be here the next week, regardless of how much it was.’

‘You know I’m not like that, Jake. I don’t care about the money and I wouldn’t dream of expecting Lily or Tom to provide me with an over-expensive cooker. But the one I’ve seen in a magazine is pale pink and it’s to die for. With those off-white kitchen cupboards it would look amazing, but I’ll wait and see if there’s enough money left over before I order it.’

Jake walked over and lifted his hand to her forehead, pressing it against her skin to feel if she was warm or cold.

‘Just checking you’re not coming down with something. Since when did you like pink, my little wannabe Goth who lives in black clothes and has tattoos in places no one can see?’

‘Cheeky! I like black because it’s slimming, the tattoos were when I lived with Mike and had to keep them hidden. I saw the cooker in a magazine and it looked so nice—I designed my whole kitchen around that cooker.’

‘You designed your kitchen around a cooker that you’re too scared to ask for? I’ll tell Will about it and if you feel so bad about the cost it can be his wedding present to you instead of some soppy diamond bracelet he’s been dithering about that you’ll only lose anyway. At least you can’t lose a whopping great cooker.’

Alex gently shoved Jake. ‘Can you not keep your whopping great mouth shut for five minutes? I have no idea why anyone would tell you anything confidential because you can’t keep that extra-large mouth shut long enough for your brain to store it.’

Alex took hold of Annie’s hand and got her to lead him around the rest of the house while Jake stood by the kitchen window watching the builders, who were now in a deep discussion and kept pointing at the house. He took out his phone and typed a message to Will:
Don’t bother with the diamonds. Annie wants a pale pink range cooker but is too scared to ask.
He might be unable to stop himself from saying what he was thinking but at least it got him what he wanted most of the time, and he knew that Will would order some brochures and then be the one to approach Annie about it so she wouldn’t feel bad. After everything his friend had been through she deserved to be happy and so did Will.

Jake was mid-text when he stopped as a high-pitched scraping sound sent a shiver down his spine. It came from directly behind him. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and he flinched when an icy-cold blast of air caressed the back of his neck, bringing him out in goose bumps and making him shudder. Afraid to turn around and look but even more scared not to, he slowly began to turn, his legs feeling as if they were too wobbly to hold his own weight. He hadn’t heard Annie or Alex come back down the stairs and if he strained he could hear their muffled voices somewhere above him. It took a lot to make Jake scared but the fear which gripped his heart was suffocating. He could hear someone breathing and he knew it wasn’t him. He turned the last bit and was so relieved there was no one standing in front of him that he laughed, but then directly behind him he heard the sound of long nails being drawn across the glass window pane and another blast of cold air on the back of his neck. He forced himself to move forward and ran to the stairs to find Alex and Annie, who were just about to come down. Annie took one look at his face and knew something was wrong.

‘What’s the matter, Jake—why do you look as if you’ve seen a ghost?’

He shook his head, not quite knowing whether to tell her or not. She was supposed to be the psychic one, not him. Should he tell there was something scary in the house, or let her go on unaware? He didn’t want to be the one to break it to her that her dream house was haunted.

‘Nothing—I just scared myself and thought I’d come and see what you two are doing.’

Alex walked forward and grabbed his arm. ‘Is there something we should know, Jake, because right now you look like you’re about to pass out from fright? I think Annie has a right to know if you’ve seen something that most of us can’t.’

‘No, honestly, I heard a scratching sound and then I got a cold shiver and scared myself. I hate to be the one to break it to you, Annie, but this house might have mice.’

She laughed. ‘Mice I can live with, ghosts I’d rather not. Are you sure you don’t want to tell me anything?’

He shook his head once more, feeling like a total wimp for not being his usual self and blurting it right out but if he spoke about it that might mean it was true.

He led Alex towards the front door. ‘Come on, let’s go to the pub for a drink and something to eat, my treat.’

Annie watched her friend, who was acting very strange—much stranger than usual.

‘I’m okay, thanks; I’ll wait here. I want to finish painting the master bedroom. Will said if he gets finished early enough he’ll drive up and help.’

Jake nodded and stepped out of the front door and into the garden to feel the warmth of the sun on his face and he immediately felt better as it didn’t feel so oppressive outside. The builders were now standing outside the van and they nodded at Annie. Jake didn’t know if he should leave her alone but the builders were still here and surely they would be finishing their tea break any minute and going back to work. He leant down, kissing her on the cheek.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?’

‘No, thank you; I’ve got too much to do here.’

Alex kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, ‘I think he’s finally freaked. I’ll ring you later if I need to get him sectioned.’

***

She watched them get into Alex’s car and waved then turned to face the builders, who were still hovering by their van.

‘Is everything okay, guys?’

The older of the two of them looked at her. ‘Erm…sort of. We’ve only a bit of plastering to do around the patio doors and the new electrics so we should be finished in the kitchen by tonight. Are you stopping here on your own, Annie?’

‘I am for a bit; I wanted to finish painting the bedroom. Is there something wrong?’

For a minute it looked as if Callum, the younger of the two, was going to say something but then he thought better of it. She shrugged her shoulders, wondering why all the men were turning into total freaks, and walked back into the house, leaving the front door open so they might get the hint and follow her back in.

The air was much cooler inside, which was a welcome relief. She went upstairs to what was going to be her and Will’s bedroom and began to take the lid off the paint. Before she could dip the paintbrush into the tin, the picture that she’d taken off the wall and placed on the chair toppled over with a loud bang, making her drop her paintbrush. She turned to look at it and wondered how on earth it had fallen. She walked across to pick it up and lifted it to see if it was damaged. She almost dropped it again, seeing the woman who had been barely visible a few weeks ago now in the centre of the painting, hanging from the front porch of the house, her head bent forward and hands dangling loosely at her sides.

Annie blinked and lifted it nearer. How had that happened? Could a painting move of its own accord? She knew that in reality it couldn’t but still it chilled her to the bone because this one had and the woman was all too familiar: she looked like the one from her dream. She studied it. The paint didn’t look as if it had just been done; in fact it looked the same age as the rest of the painting. Annie put the picture down on the chair, puzzled as to how the woman had appeared and why she had been hanged from the front porch.

She walked back to pick up the paintbrush she’d dropped. Annie needed to find out the history of this house and pretty quick, before they moved in, so she could make sense of it all. She pulled her headphones from her pocket and plugged them into her phone, scrolling through until she found her favourite playlist. Soon she was painting away, her head nodding in time to the music. She couldn’t hear the breathing that filled the room or the sound of long fingernails on the small panes of glass in the window.

The builders, who were downstairs, on the other hand, were working faster than ever to finish the plastering because they could hear the breathing. Neither of them spoke until the older one, Eric, let out a grunt as an invisible pair of hands curled themselves around his neck and began pressing hard onto his windpipe. He stumbled backwards and ran towards the front door, his face pale and gasping for breath.

Callum quickly followed. ‘What’s the matter—why are you choking?’

Eric threw his head from side to side and ran out into the front garden. Suddenly able to breathe once more, he bent double, taking in huge gulps of air. ‘I’m not going back in there—something just tried to bloody choke me to death!’

Callum, who was watching his friend, shook his head. ‘You’re having me on; it’s not even funny now.’

They had left Annie alone in the house, oblivious to whatever was going on.

‘What are we going to do, Callum? We can’t just leave that woman alone upstairs in that house. What the fuck is going on? Someone was choking me! I couldn’t breathe… I swear I could feel bony fingers wrapped around my throat.’