Excerpt from Dancing with the Ferryman

Chapter 9 - Stormy weather

As Friday evening approached Jo had yet to get out on to the beach that lay tantalisingly just a few yards away from her front door. It had been such a busy week already. She promised herself that she would get out and go for a walk to explore her new surroundings. She didn’t really need a dog to take for a walk; she just needed a fine day and some willpower. She would do it tomorrow.

She switched on her computer and logged on to her email account. It was difficult using the computer without a desk to put it on so she sat on the floor and rested the keyboard on her lap. There were a few emails from ex-colleagues, asking how she was getting on and all of them asking about the weather. She sighed to herself; what was the obsession with the weather? She decided to reply to them later, and to concentrate for the time being on writing to David.

Dear David,

I think that it’s time that I explained why I moved away. You have probably worked out by now that I found out about your gambling addiction, although this wasn’t the main reason I left. Even though I was shocked and hurt that you had kept this from me, and you had led me to believe that your job was not quite so well paid as it obviously is, the reason I left was because I found the rental contract for the house that I thought we were going to buy. I could not believe that you had no intention of buying that house with me, but were going to rent it instead. How on earth did you think you would be able to keep that a secret from me?
It was the combination of these two things that made me leave, but there was something else too. I had been trying to ring you in Germany and you weren’t there, I knew you were somewhere in Britain because of the ringing tone, and when I called the hotel they had said you had checked out. So I waited for you to come home and you didn’t. I tried lots of times to ring you but your phone was switched off, which it never normally is, so I panicked. I imagined that you had met someone else. I would never have tried to open your briefcase otherwise. It was the early hours of the morning and I was going nuts with worry.
I want to give you a chance to explain yourself. I have moved out of London and for the time being I would rather not say where I am, so please reply by email.
Regards Jo

She sent it off to David’s work address. It was only just after five so there was every chance he would see it this evening. Jo leant back against the wall and stared at the screen, almost anticipating an immediate response. But this was unlikely. David, even if he had seen it already, would doubtless take his time to compose a reply. She left the computer on, and headed off to the kitchen to make dinner. But in between putting on the pasta and chopping up vegetables she couldn’t help walking back frequently to see if David had replied. He hadn’t, and even her mobile phone remained silent on the windowsill. Jo felt slighted; in her imagination David had been sitting by his computer just waiting for her to contact him.

Jo ate her dinner in front of the television. She remembered her promise to ring Megan, and looked at her watch to see what time it was. She was bored, but it was just a bit too early to ring any of her friends, as they would only just be getting home from work. She watched the local news and the weather forecast. A severe weather warning was given for Orkney and Shetland. Jo didn’t take too much notice of this, as Ruby had already mentioned the storm that was due to arrive later and she hadn’t seemed unduly concerned about it.

An hour later Jo had to turn up the volume on the television to compete against the roaring sound outside. She hadn’t got around to ringing anyone as she had started to watch a film, but halfway through, the picture began breaking up, accompanied by annoying static crackles. She gave up and turned it off when it became apparent the reception was not going to improve.

Without the noise of the television, she could hear the house creaking and groaning under the force of the wind. She walked around the downstairs and discovered it was worse at the back where it faced south. In the spare bedroom the noise was truly awful; like the roar of a jumbo jet taking off in the back garden. She touched the window pane and was shocked by the vibration she felt through her fingertips. As she peered out into the darkness she could just see the edge of the satellite dish juddering on the wall outside, which did at least explain the poor television reception.

It was now too noisy to ring Megan but she checked her emails instead. There was nothing from David so she switched off the computer as it was getting too late to expect a reply from his office email address. Just as she reached down to the plug socket the entire room went dark. She stood up carefully, and waited for her eyes to adjust to the almost pitch-black darkness, then felt her way back to the kitchen. The whole house had lost its power. She looked across at Ruby’s; her house was also in darkness and the lights she could normally see a mile or so away were out.

She made her way over to the window seat and sat down, considering the logic of going to bed early and waiting until the morning when the storm would have passed. There was nothing she could do now, but she was afraid of the darkness in the still unfamiliar house. The deafening noise added a curious claustrophobic feeling to the darkness, as there was no escaping from the sound. She remembered there were candles under the sink and scrabbled around blindly for them. But although she found a bag of tea-lights, she could not find any matches. In fact she couldn’t even recall having seen a box in the house. There was nothing she could light a candle with. Even the gas hob was useless, as it needed the electric ignition to light it.

She was about to give up and go to bed in the dark, when she remembered the torch in the glove compartment of her car, and possibly a small souvenir matchbook from a restaurant she had been to with David. She recalled seeing it on the floor of the backseat. With the dim light from her mobile phone she found her way out to the front door and put on her coat. As she opened the door she was pleasantly surprised to discover it didn’t seem too bad outside. It certainly wasn’t cold; just extremely loud. As she stepped outside she noticed a car driving slowly along the road towards her.

A moment later she gasped with surprise as the full force of the wind hit her as she moved away from the shelter of the house. She was propelled down the drive, her long coat lifting up in the wind and acting like a sail, and she stopped only because her car was in the way. She caught hold of the bonnet in relief and kept a hold of the car as she moved round to the passenger door.

She opened the door, yanking it with all of her strength against the wind, and jumped into the seat, yelping with fright as the door slammed shut. Her hands shook as she opened up the glove compartment and located the torch. ‘Thank God!’ she said aloud as the light came on, at least it was worth it. She felt around on the floor for the matchbook and found it. Inside were ten fragile looking matches. She shoved the torch and matchbook deep into her coat pocket, and sat for a moment preparing to go back outside. She watched as the moon appeared from behind the clouds, momentarily shining down on her house, before more clouds raced across the sky and obscured it again and she was once more in darkness. She looked round to see where the other car had gone, just making out the dark shape of a pickup truck parked on Ruby’s drive, and she figured it would be someone who had come along to check on her. Her own car was trembling violently, and Jo knew she would have to get out soon and back inside the house where it would be safer.

She fumbled for the door release and leant all her weight against the door. She cautiously put her feet down on the ground, pushing the door away with her arms, nervous about it slamming against her shins. With a determined shove she stood up, facing the direction of the wind. As she turned to move away the squally wind raged harder, and she yelped as the door jolted into her. Jo spun out of its way, instinctively snatching her hands free, but the door caught her left shoulder and the side of her head, before it finally slammed shut. She screamed out in pain and leant against the car holding her head feeling dizzy and disoriented.

Jo was about to make a run for the house when she became aware of headlights shining on her. She hadn’t heard the pickup moving but it had suddenly appeared on the driveway behind her car and as she looked up she saw a man get out and hurry towards her.

‘Are you hurt?’ He yelled above the noise. He caught hold of her shoulders, keeping her steady against the onslaught of another gust of wind. She nodded, still clutching her head. He gently pulled her hand away from her head, and peered closely, frowning at the sight of blood trickling down the side of her face.

‘You’re bleeding! I’ll take you to my sister’s house; she’s a nurse. You need that looked at.’

He steered her firmly to the pickup and opened the passenger door and leant back against the door to keep it open, then he grasped Jo’s elbow and bundled her up into the cabin. Jo waited while he ran round to his side and got in. Despite the pain radiating from her head she was slightly anxious about being in a stranger’s car and was running through every possible scenario of danger in her mind. It was hard to shake off the years of ingrained caution, despite her calculated guess that this man was probably Ruby’s son Magnus.

Jo fumbled with the seatbelt, her hands still trembling with shock. ‘I’ll get it,’ he said kindly, as he leaned across her and pulled the seat belt and fastened it. She glanced at his face as he did, making eye contact briefly just before the pickup’s internal light went off. He smelled vaguely of diesel oil.