Chapter 6
I do the first thing I can think of and give it a really big kick so that it slams shut.
‘Awwwwwh!’ I hear a pained cry.
My heart is thundering and my hands are shaking. I’m too terrified to move.
As the trapdoor opens, I see a large hand push it all the way back so it falls flat on the floorboards with a bang. The hand moves around as if checking it’s safe for the rest of its body to come out. And it’s taking its time.
‘What the …?’ I’m being stupid. Of course it’s not a ghost. Ghosts aren’t real! But someone is under the floorboards of the mill. My mill.
‘Hello? Who’s there?’ I demand.
A figure starts to climb the steps from the cellar below.
‘Who are you? And what are you doing in the cellar?’ I say, as a head and shoulders turn to face me. I immediately recognise who they belong to. ‘You?’
‘You!’
We say it together.
He’s still rubbing the back of his head. ‘What did you do that for?’ He frowns, pushing back his hair with silver-ringed fingers.
‘What are you doing down there?’ And then, crosser, ‘And how did you get in?’
‘How did I get in?’ asks Laurent, the tabac owner from my earlier encounter with the bread-vending machine. ‘How did you get in? What are you doing here?’
‘I came in through the front door! With the key!’ I say. ‘You?”
‘Through the cellar door. It’s never locked.’
I make a mental note to remedy that situation. ‘Well, if you could shut it on your way out …’ I say boldly.
He rubs his head again, ruffling his hair, where the trapdoor clearly hit him fair and square. ‘How come you have a key?’
‘Because I’ve bought this place.’ I walk over to the kitchen counter, put my hand into my bag and pull out the key. ‘I own it.’
For a moment he doesn’t say anything. He stops rubbing his head and glances around as if the bang has made him see things strangely.
‘Look, if you’ve come for the euro you lent me, for the bread …’
He shakes his head. ‘No, I am not here for the euro. I’m here to—’ He stops mid-sentence, then says, ‘You bought the place? You’ve bought le moulin ,’ he repeats, as if trying to comprehend it.
‘Yes. As of today, this place is mine.’
For a moment he says nothing, then, ‘ Merde .’
I let my hand, still holding the phone, drop to my side. ‘I was telling the baker – Claude, is it? I’m going to make it into a—’
Before I have a chance to tell him about my new business and plans for the place, he reaches for the rope handle on the trapdoor, pulls it towards him, and disappears down the steps.
The trapdoor slams, making me jump again, and I listen to the sound of heavy boots on wooden steps and a door banging in the cellar.
‘ Au revoir! ’ I call crossly after him.
Everything goes silent, apart from the birdsong outside.
I look at the trapdoor to the cellar, then at a dark wooden sideboard in the kitchen area, clearly for crockery.
I grab one end and pull. It barely shifts.
I pull harder and it moves. I go to the other side and push, so it’s right on top of the trapdoor, to make sure there are no more visitors, unless they’re invited and come through the front door.
I certainly won’t be inviting Laurent, that’s for sure.
I straighten. I’m going to have to get used to dirty hands, I think, and dust them off.
I open the sideboard I’ve just pulled over the trapdoor and find a small glass inside.
In the kitchen, in the sparsely furnished cupboards, I find a wooden board and a sharp knife.
It’s all I need. My spirits pick up. I grab my basket and go out to the front lawn with my bread, cheese, tomatoes and the bottle of fizz.
I’m not going to let Laurent spoil this moment.
Turning up here and letting himself in, then taking off like that.
Clearly a troublemaker. I’ll just have to avoid him.
I head for a fallen tree trunk beside the lake and sit on it.
I hold my face up to the sunshine. But my thoughts return to the tabac owner.
I must return that euro to him. I don’t want to owe him anything.
I certainly don’t want him turning up unannounced through the mill floor again.
But I can’t help wondering what he was doing here.
He didn’t expect me to be at the mill. And why was he so quick to leave when I said I’d bought the place?