Sam adored Lauren and from a relatively young (too young?) age he’d wanted to settle down. In fact, he proposed twice, which was all a bit traumatic. Eventually, Lauren said yes, and they often joked about it – even at the wedding, he referred to her in his speech as, ‘The one that almost got away.’ But deep down, I think we all knew those two were meant to be, and one way or the other they’d wind up together.
But still, it didn’t seem like smooth sailing in those early days. I remember a few weeks after they’d returned from honeymoon, showing Lauren photos of her crazy dancing at the wedding.
‘OMG, Georgie, I was so pissed. Do you think that’s bad, a bride drunk at her own wedding?’
‘I think it’s perfectly acceptable.’ I scrolled through more photos on my phone, holding one up to her.
‘Oh God! I just hope none of my patients ever see these,’ she said with a laugh.
‘I won’t share them… For a price,’ I joked. ‘Besides, I think your patients would be impressed – being a good dancer doesn’t make you a bad doctor.’
‘No, but apparently it makes you a bad ecological officer if you dance or do anything social for that matter,’ she said with a sigh, changing the mood completely.
My heart sank, so there was some friction between the newly-weds. ‘Honestly, Georgie, I sometimes think Sam loves his job more than me. He works such long hours and I end up on my own most nights. I love the cottage when Sam’s there, but on my own, it’s a bit… creepy.’
‘Oh, love, I’m sorry you feel like that,’ I said, hoping that perhaps Lauren’s comment to Sam about him being boring was more about her being left alone some nights. Before the wedding, they’d moved out of their rented flat and into a little cottage on the edge of Dartmoor. I hadn’t visited the place yet but what she said about being alone there made me question the wisdom of them being so far away from civilisation. ‘You’ve only been there a short time, once you’ve settled in, hopefully you’ll feel differently,’ I offered. ‘You’ll feel more at home and won’t mind being on your own.’
‘I know,’ she sighed, ‘and you’re right, but we rarely have any time off together,’ she looked at me, hesitated, then said, ‘I’ve started to stay late at work, even when I’m on an early shift, because I don’t want to go back there alone.’
‘But you love the cottage?’ I reminded her, feeling slightly defensive of Sam. He did work long hours, but I never realised he had to work so late, which was unfortunate, especially as they were only just married.
‘I know, I didn’t think it would bother me being out there, but it gets dark early, it’s cold, and you hear things outside and get paranoid. A prisoner escaped from Dartmoor prison recently, you must have read about it?’
I nodded. The imposing 200-year-old Victorian prison, that had housed some of the country’s most notorious killers, stood just a stone’s throw from the cottage. ‘Perhaps you should get some cameras installed – just for your peace of mind,’ I said, trying to offer a solution and not dwell on the escaped prisoner story and scare her further.
‘Yeah, perhaps. It might make me feel better. I’m probably just being silly, but I feel like…’ She looked away.
‘What?’
She turned to look at me. ‘Like someone’s out there, watching.’
Chapter Two
Sam and Lauren had been married and in their cottage a few weeks when we all finally got to see it. They’d moved in just before the wedding, but it was very basic and they hadn’t had time to make it a home. We were all keen to see it, but driving up through the moors, I could understand her feeling a bit isolated and a little scared on her own at night, but on a summer’s day, it was idyllic. Tim drove, and I sat in the back of the car with Kate, their younger daughter, who, at eighteen, clearly had better things to do than spend the evening with ‘old people’ in her newly married sister’s garden.
‘I hate family get-togethers,’ she’d complained, as she plonked herself on the back seat of the car.
‘I know it’s not exactly cool,’ I’d said, ‘but Lauren’s making veggie curry, and you can watch me and your mum drink too much; that might be fun?’ I added, with a wink.
I saw a smile flicker across her face, soon replaced with an eye-roll and a shrug. ‘As hilarious as that would be, Georgie, it’ll still be boring. No offence,’ she’d added as an afterthought.
‘None taken,’ I’d said with a smile.
Once we’d set off and Tim and Helen chatted in the front, I did make a second attempt at conversation with Kate, but she seemed more interested in what her parents were saying and just gave me a sideways glance. I saw this as an indication to shut up, and the rest of the journey was endured in silence as I gazed out of the window.
Pulling up outside the cottage, I took in Sam and Lauren’s new home. Built from local stone, it sat high on the exposed moorland peaks, all big blue skies meeting swirling purple heather over endless moorland. Just the house and the countryside; there was no one for miles.
As soon as we parked up, Sam rushed out to meet us. ‘What do you think?’ he called, standing on the doorstep, arms open wide.
‘It’s lovely darling,’ I enthused, while climbing out of the car, gazing at the cottage. It could be pretty, with some tree clearing and work on the outside, which looked bruised and unloved and needed freshening up with a coat of white paint.
‘It needs work out here, but inside it’s been totally renovated,’ Sam said proudly, helping with the cool boxes, ushering us into the cottage.
He was right; on the outside, it looked quite traditional, but inside it was very different.
‘Ooh, you’ve got a trendy hallway,’ Helen enthused as we took it all in. ‘I know we’ve seen it online, but it doesn’t do it justice, it’s fab,’ she said, as we all gazed at the surprising white spiral staircase twisting up from the black and white tiled floor. Kate scowled, and scuttled on past us into the living room, where she could crack on with vital matters on her phone.
‘Love this,’ I said, caressing the wrought-iron of the stair handrail. It was painted brilliant white, and looked like lace.
‘Lauren and I fell for that as soon as we walked in,’ Sam said. ‘It swung it for us really, the game changer – it’s great, isn’t it?’
‘Are these steps real marble?’ Tim asked, bending down to touch them.
‘Yeah, solid marble,’ he said, proudly.
I made approving noises, but I guessed Tim was asking for safety reasons rather than aesthetic. Meanwhile, the mother in me was also wondering at the slipperiness of marble for little feet, should they one day have children, but I brushed it away and looked upwards at the circular stairs snaking up through the house. ‘It’s like looking up into infinity,’ I said, suddenly feeling light-headed. I grabbed onto Helen’s arm. ‘Oh, I feel quite dizzy… I shouldn’t have looked up like that,’ I groaned with an embarrassed laugh.
‘Are you okay?’ she said, alarmed at my slight wobble.