her cottage.
‘Do you leave a light on when you’re out?’
Through the front window she could see a light, glimmering unsteadily inside the house. As she strained to see where it was coming from the porch light flickered on and back off again as if it was trying to signal something. Her hand flew to her mouth as she caught her breath.
‘Obviously not. Give me your keys, I’ll go and take a look. It’s probably an electrical fault of some sort.’
‘Thanks, but I think I can manage to avoid sticking my fingers into any dodgy light sockets. I can handle it.’
‘I dare say you can. But if someone’s broken in and they’re still there you’re not handling that alone. I’ll just go and make sure.’
‘Perhaps—’
He gave a little huff of impatience. ‘Perhaps nothing. Here.’ He grabbed her hand and put his keys into it. ‘Stay in the car and if I’m not back in five, you drive to the nearest police station. Please—someone needs to look after Jack.’
His final words were tacked on almost as an afterthought, but the command in his tone had slipped away. Beth followed his gaze to the back seat of the car where Jack was twisting around fretfully, trying to get out of his seat belt.
She pulled her keys out of her bag and pushed them into his hand, before getting into the driver’s seat of the car. Matt shut the door behind her, indicating with his thumb that she should lock the doors, before turning and heading up her front path.
CHAPTER THREE
SHE shouldn’t have let him go. Now that she was alone here in the car with Jack, there wasn’t much she could do about it, though. She kept up a steady stream of conversation with Jack, at the same time straining to see as Matt swept the beam of the torch over the front door and the windows, looking for signs of forced entry before letting himself in. The torch beam flicked back and forth in the hallway, then in her tiny front room and then disappeared.
What if there was someone in there? What if they hurt him? Matt was tall and imposing but if there was more than one intruder they might get the better of him. She squinted at her watch in the darkness. Had he really only been gone for three minutes?
Tears of relief pricked at the side of her eyes as she saw him hurry down the front path. Motioning to her to unlock the car doors, he slid into the passenger seat. ‘Looks as if you have a burst pipe. Do you know where the stopcock is? And the fusebox?’ He gestured back at the porch, where the light was still flickering on and off. ‘If that light is anything to go by, the water’s got into the electrics.’
Of course she knew where they were—what did he take her for? Beth bit back her annoyance and remembered that just a few seconds ago she had been glad to see him emerge from the cottage in one piece. ‘Under the stairs, in a little cupboard. Both the stopcock and the fusebox.’
He got out of the car without a word and was on his way back up the front path before she had the opportunity to tell him that she was perfectly capable of turning the water off and mopping up a few spills.
Matt let himself back into the cottage and dodged the curtain of water falling down the stairwell. His feet squelched on the hall carpet and by the light of the torch he could see that the wallpaper was beginning to peel. Finding the hall cupboard, he twisted the stopcock and flipped the mains electrical switch to off. Then he opened a door at the end of the hallway, figuring correctly that it led to the kitchen, and made for the sink. Turning both taps on, he let the water run, hoping that the water tank in the loft would drain quickly.
He knew that the longer he stayed there, the more Beth would be worrying and that he should get back to her. He didn’t want her to have to see the cascade of water that had greeted him when he first entered, though. The place was enough of a mess, without that. Matt heard a gurgle as the tank finally drained and turned off the kitchen taps as the water coming through the ceiling slowed to a steady dribble.
He trudged back to the car and knocked on the window. She turned, a brittle smile on her face, and the electric window whirred downwards. ‘Can I help you?’
She was tough. Not many people would have even attempted a joke in this situation. The reassuring smile that Matt had pasted onto his face warmed as respect washed through him. ‘Yeah. I was wondering if you might like to swap that six-year-old you have there for a cottage. It’s a little wet at the moment, but it’s basically sound.’
She pretended to think about it for a moment. ‘Okay, you’ve got a deal.’ The central locking on the car sounded and she climbed out, waiting while Matt unbuckled Jack’s seat belt and chivvied him out of his booster seat.
He had half expected her to run straight into the house, but she was standing stock still, searching his face in the dim light. ‘It’s not …’ Matt shrugged and handed her the flashlight. ‘You’ll be wanting to see for yourself, won’t you?’
‘Yes. Thanks.’ Her smile was beginning to wear a little thin at the edges, and he caught her cold hand in his and led her up the front path.
Beth stood in the hallway, cold water creeping into her shoes, and watched as a piece of the wallpaper she had hung so carefully just a few weeks ago peeled slowly off the wall and landed on the carpet in a sodden mass. Smile. The words of the old song that her grandmother used to sign with her echoed in her head and she gave it her best shot.
‘Perhaps that wallpaper was a bit much for a small hallway.’
Matt tilted his head to one side thoughtfully. ‘Yeah. Perhaps.’ He’d picked Jack up so that his feet didn’t get wet, and had him safe and secure in his arms.
‘At least I’ve got the hang of it now. Putting something else up will be easy. And the insurance will cover it.’ She was babbling, trying to make out that everything was okay when it wasn’t. She went to sit down on the stairs, and then jumped back to her feet as she realised the stair carpet was as wet as everything else.
‘It’s more than just the money, though, isn’t it?’ His quiet comment cut through all her pretence of being able to cope with this.
‘Yes. I’ve only been here for eight months. It was … it is the first time I’ve had a place of my own. I did everything myself.’ It had almost been a point of honour. Beth had wanted to show everyone, herself included, that she could manage her life on her own terms after Pete had left her.
‘Then I’ll bet you’ve already done plenty of things that seemed impossible at first. The initial shock is always the worst.’
Was he really so sure about that? ‘I could kick myself. You know, I’ve never even been up in the loft to look at the water tank or the pipes. The surveyor said they were okay and I just took his word for it. Maybe if I’d ….’ She tailed off before her tears choked her. It was already too late to mend the damage that had been done to her dream. Everyone who had ever said that she couldn’t fend for herself had just been proved right. And she’d proved it with her own stupid negligence.
‘It’s not your fault.’ His tone was gentle but firm. How did someone get to be that sure about life?
The belief that she could cope with whatever life threw at her had just been unceremoniously ripped away, leaving her naked and shivery. And even though he was saying all the right things, Matt’s solid dependability
