Chapter 5
The universe must have heard Eiley’s earlier complaints, because she didn’t even get an hour of uninterrupted sleep, let alone a night.
Her head, foggy from too much cheese and gin, hit the plush feather pillow at midnight and rose again forty minutes later to the sound of her repetitive alarm jingle.
No , she realised when, with her eyes still shut, she fumbled for the snooze option only for the sound to continue. Not an alarm. A phone call.
Panic spiralled through her. The kids. Mum. Had something happened? Nobody would call her at this time just because.
In the bed next to her, Cam grumbled something about shutting the fluff up and yanked her duvet over her head. Eiley scrambled for the phone, left charging on the nightstand. The screen light seared her retina when she opened one eye.
The caller ID didn’t provide any comfort. Maggie. What could her landlady want to chat about at this time? Had Eiley fumbled a delivery? Miscalculated the cash flow? Was she going to be evicted?
She tapped the answer button and choked out a high-pitched, “Hi, Maggie!”
On the other end, the signal crackled until Maggie’s friendly voice broke through. “Hi, dear.” Eiley released a breath. She wasn’t in trouble, thank heavens. “I’m so sorry to be calling so late, and on your weekend away, but we’ve got a wee problem.”
Shoving the heavy duvet off her belly, Eiley sprang into a seat. “What’s wrong?”
“Shut … up …” Cam groaned, and Eiley shushed her sharply.
“I had a call from the fire station. Apparently, the neighbours reported a huge flood coming from the shop, so the firefighters have had to go in to get a handle on it.” Oh, god.
A flood. “I’m away in the Lake District with my fella for the weekend, you see, and I was wondering if you’d mind seeing to it? ”
“I’m so sorry – I’m not home, but I’m not far.
I’ll head straight there.” Eiley kicked herself out of bed in a daze, searching for something to put on her feet.
She couldn’t remember where she’d kicked off her slippers, or stored her suitcase, and the darkness was impossible to wade through in her groggy, frantic state. “Do you know how bad it is?”
“Well, it’s come from an old water tank in the attic, so I’m afraid your poor flat is suffering. I’m so, terribly sorry, dear. I’ve never even looked in the loft.”
Eiley’s fingers clenched harder around her phone.
The flat. God, she didn’t even want to think about how bad it might be.
All of the children’s belongings, their new beds and duvets and furniture she’d spent days assembling, albeit badly …
They’d only just settled. How could things already be going wrong?
“Eiley, are you still there?” Panic laced Maggie’s question.
“Yes, sorry. I’m here.” She gulped. “I’m …
I’m sorry I wasn’t there to catch it sooner.
” Maggie’s only other employee, a middle-aged bloke named Fergus who, much to her annoyance, liked to rearrange Eiley’s displays had closed up today, which meant the flood must have happened after.
She should have been there. She could have caught it.
If the neighbours had been the ones to spot it, how terrible was it?
Would her belongings be floating halfway down Main Street?
“These things can’t be helped, love,” Maggie reassured gently. “Could you give me a text with any updates? I’ll try to get back first thing tomorrow.”
“Of course. See you soon, Maggie.” Eiley flicked on the bedside lamp, leading to another string of curses from Cam. Harper joined in from the bed adjacent, sprawled like a starfish across the double mattress with dribble trickling from her mouth and dampening her pillow.
“I need to go home,” Eiley told them.
“Oh, for fuck’s sakes. This is just like you,” Cam uttered, rubbing her eyes until they were watering. “Every sleepover you ever went to, you ended up calling Mum to come and pick you up—”
“My flat’s flooded!”
At Eiley’s untamed screech, Harper slid off her pink silk sleep mask with an, “Oh, bollocks.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it? You can’t stop water from pouring!” Cam’s words were slurred. Still drunk. Which meant the weekend’s designated driver wasn’t fit to take her home, and Eiley wasn’t much better off.
“I’m going to have to get a taxi.”
“Hang on.” Harper rose onto all fours, scanning the luxurious ivory-painted room. Eiley thought she was trying to pass gas until she said, “Do we have time to pack up?”
“No. No.” Eiley shook her head. “You two should just stay. Checkout’s tomorrow afternoon anyway, and there’s no point faffing.”
“We can’t just have a nice continental breakfast while you’re dealing with this!”
“I feel like we can. Possibly,” Cam said, still not having opened her eyes. “I really want a pistachio croissant.”
“What if I call Fraser?” Harper was already reaching for the phone under her pillow.
“Absolutely not!” Finally, Eiley found blurry white things that resembled shoes and slid them on her feet, then grabbed her purse from the couch.
Outside, the loch was unfairly still, reflected moonlight providing a jagged strip of silver.
The view she’d been looking forward to soaking in more of in tomorrow.
She hadn’t even read a full bloody book.
But it was fine. She’d handle it. Cam and Harper still deserved their weekend. “I can sort this on my own. It’s my flat and my responsibility.”
And she was tired of bothering everyone else with her problems. Fraser, who was taking care of the kids this weekend, had spent a lifetime trying to shield her from anything bad, stepping in as the role of their father despite only being a young teen when he’d left.
It wasn’t fair, and Eiley couldn’t keep relying on him.
Besides, the children would be fast asleep.
If she could wait until morning to tell them that something was wrong with their new home, she would.
“Eiley—”
“Go back to sleep!” she ordered, surprised to find that the authority in her voice only wobbled a little.
“You heard the woman,” said Cam into her duvet, hair strewn over her face so she was nothing more than a blob of orange poking out of the sheets.
When Harper hesitated, Eiley met her eye, begging: “Please. I’ve got this. You stay. I go.”
“Don’t Iron Giant me!”
“No following,” Eiley finished, indeed Iron Giant ing Harper. They’d watched the animated movie with the kids three months ago, and then every weekend after because she – not Brook, Sky, or Saffron – was obsessed and always ended up in tears.
“ Fine .” Harper sank back into the mattress. “Just text us when you get there so we know you’re safe. We’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”
“Aye.” Eiley cast her a final, appreciative glance and then swept up as many of her belongings as she could find, leaving the lovely, lavender-scented safety of the room and heading downstairs towards the front desk.
Towards just another disaster on her long, long list of them.
As the cab pulled up outside Thorn on the other side of that plaster was her living room.
With every step forward, her heart sank, feet sloshing through icy water and hair sticking to her dampening cheeks.
The fabric of her odd shoes chafed her skin.
In no time, she was soaked up to her ankles, the bottom of her pyjamas disappearing into the murkiness.
And then her slipper disappeared, too, and never came back, leaving one foot bare.
Without warning, the world flashed white. She closed her eyes against the bright torch, now seared onto her retinas.
“You must be the property owner,” a voice from the darkness said, deep and sticky as treacle. “Would you mind stepping outside for me, ma’am?”
“Would you mind not blinding me, first?”