Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Sitting up, she patted the duvet. ‘Come on, Alfie, please? I’ve got thirty children to teach in the morning and, at this rate, I’m not going to be able to ingest enough coffee to get me through to breaktime, let alone the end of the day.’
Pausing in his barking, Alfie turned and looked at her, his beady little eyes narrowing as if he was trying to tell her he was only doing his job and protecting her, and this was the thanks he was getting.
Maybe she should just give up, get up and get on with some planning or something.
It might be better than being dragged from her sleep every fifteen minutes.
Throwing the duvet off, she patted the sheet next to her.
‘Come on, Alfie. I let you out for a toilet break the last time you woke me up, so I know it’s not that. ’
Reluctantly, Alfie sauntered towards the bed, jumped up, and, after walking around in a billion circles cat-style, finally settled next to her.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Gemma flopped back against the pillow and stroked Alfie’s head. ‘What’s wrong? You’re not used to me, is that it? Or my home? Or are you missing Hannah and Josh?’
Alfie began to snore, his small body rattling with the sound.
‘That’s it, you go straight back to sleep, just as though you’ve not been barking twenty billion times tonight.
I, on the other hand, know I won’t find it that easy and will probably be staring at the ceiling for the next two hours.
’ Gemma pulled the duvet back over her and created a little cove for the small dog.
She couldn’t be cross with him. She had no idea what his past was before Hannah had given him a home after he’d been rescued by the dogs’ home down in Cornwall.
Wagging Tails Dogs’ Home, if she remembered Hannah telling her correctly.
And since then, he’d been stuck to Hannah’s side.
Hannah had been living out of her camper van at the time and working on the road too, so he’d always had her beside him.
Even now Hannah had moved back into the home she’d inherited from her grandad here in Nettleford-on-the-Wold, she’d continued working from home, so it was a real adjustment for him to suddenly come here, be left alone whilst she was at work, albeit a couple of visits from the local dog walker, as well as settle into a new home with strange sounds.
Looking down at him, Gemma fussed him behind the ears.
She’d set up a little camera for during the day to keep an eye on him and see if having the dog walker visit twice a day was enough, and all he’d done was sleep, so, in truth, he was doing really well, and hopefully it wouldn’t take him long to settle at night, too.
She glanced across at the clock again - 4am - and closed her eyes. Sleep couldn’t be far away.
Blinking into the darkness, Gemma listened. Alfie was still sleeping beside her, nestled beneath the duvet, but something had woken her.
There it was again. The repetitive banging, as though someone was rapping their knuckles against the front door. She looked across at the clock. It was only just gone five in the morning. She must be hearing things, surely? Besides, Alfie hadn’t woken up, and he would have done if he’d heard.
Nope, there it was again. Louder this time, more incessant.
Someone was definitely at the door. Slipping out from beneath the duvet, careful not to disturb the small dog beside her, she slipped out of bed, wincing at the cold floorboards against the soles of her feet.
She should really get another rug for this side of the bed but being as she normally slept on the other side, she’d never felt the need.
‘Okay, okay, I’m coming.’ She muttered as she pulled her dressing gown on.
Whoever it was obviously thought they owned the damn neighbourhood, they were that oblivious to worrying about waking the whole street.
She closed the bedroom door, so if Alfie did decide to wake up and do his job of protecting her, he wouldn’t just fly out and bite whoever was on the other side of the front door.
Even if they did deserve at least a little puncture wound for waking her at this time.
Reaching the door, she pulled it open with force. Her tiredness had now mixed with irritation at the audacity of whoever she was about to come face-to-face with and she wasn’t sure how ‘cool’ she could remain. ‘Who the hell do you think you are knocking at this ungodly time?’
‘Miss Murray?’
She recognised that voice. Blinking against the darkness, Jonathan Higgs’ profile came into view as her eyes adjusted.
What the ...? Why on earth did she have her newly appointed headteacher on her doorstep?
Surely, he couldn’t think this was normal?
Or legal? Because it wasn’t. It wasn’t the done thing to have a boss wake a staff member.
As for the legal bit, well, she didn’t have a clue, but if it wasn’t illegal, then it should be.
She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought, but he spoke before she could get a single word out.
‘Miss Murray.’ He widened his stance and crossed his arms, his expression quickly turning from one of surprise to irritation. ‘I would appreciate it if you didn’t let your dog bark at all hours of the night.’
She widened her eyes. It was Mr Higgs. Her boss.
Living next to her. It was the only explanation.
Well, she wasn’t going to let him speak to her like that.
She wasn’t in school now, and after the way he’d torn her apart in the staff meeting over her assembly, he certainly didn’t deserve her empathy.
She knew she should be polite. She knew she should keep her thoughts to herself, but she just didn’t have the energy to censor her words, much less the incentive.
‘He’s not my dog, he’s my friend’s rescue who is staying with me, and I’d appreciate you having a little more compassion. ’
She watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed. ‘With all due respect, the dog’s circumstances have nothing to do with me. Whereas being woken up five times throughout the night has.’
Narrowing her eyes, she took a deep breath. If that was the way he wanted to play it... ‘With all due respect too, you’ve only just moved into the street and already you’re waking your neighbours at this hour, so I really don’t think you have a leg to stand on when it comes to being neighbourly.’
‘Miss Murray, your dog has woken me up, and now I’ve got to go and run a school on little to no sleep.’ He lowered his voice as though aware for the first time of the fact that it was only 5am, and he was berating her in the middle of his new neighbourhood.
Tightening her grip around the door handle, a fierce anger flashed through her.
How could he be so self-righteous? Yes, she knew Alfie had woken her up, but she hadn’t realised his bark would wake her new neighbour, and for that, she was sorry.
Or she would be if he hadn’t turned up on her doorstep, waking her in return.
‘I apologise for the barking. I’m sorry he woke you up, but I have explained my situation and would appreciate you speaking to me during the daylight hours in the future.
’ Stepping back, she firmly closed the front door before giving him a chance to reply.
Standing still, she listened to his footsteps as he walked down the garden path before the creak of the gate sounded.
Great. If she wasn’t in the bad books at work because of yesterday’s assembly, then she sure was firmly stapled to the page now because Alfie had kept barking and her reaction had been to have a go at him.
Why hadn’t she apologised first off? Why had she got all defensive?
Yes, because he’d knocked on her door at five in the morning and scared her half to death, but also because that was her go-to now.
Ever since Reece had royally let her down by having an affair with her boss’ daughter of all people, she’d come to realise she was the only person she could count on.
Yes, she had her friends, her colleagues and her close friends, but when she was at home, she was alone.
When the builder she’d hired to repair the step in the cottage garden blindsided her and then tried to charge her two hundred pounds more than he’d quoted, despite taking less time than he’d estimated, she’d realized she couldn’t count on him.
The mechanic had also blatantly lied to her, telling her she needed her cam belt replaced despite her vividly remembering it being done the previous year.
All of those times she’d been alone, and if she’d had a partner with her who could have stuck up for her, told them not to take advantage of her, then life would have been easier.
But she hadn’t. It had just been her. And so she’d come to realise that in situations where she was alone, she had to be the one to defend herself. Yes, she’d always been a little feisty, as her mum would say, but since Reece’s departure, she knew she’d got more defensive.
Which wasn’t a bad thing, was it?
Turning back to go upstairs, she caught sight of her reflection in the hallway mirror and grimaced.
Yuck. Not only had she been rude to him - the new headteacher - but she looked as though she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards, too.
Raking her fingers through her hair, she shrugged.
What was done was done. Besides, it wasn’t as though she cared what he thought of her.