Page 28 of The Trouble With Love

I drove very carefully back to my house, where the heating was battling to keep the draughts at bay, drew the curtains and cried for a bit. I couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t bear the thought of Nicholas somewhere out in the cold, alone and confused. Or the awful sorrow that I’d seen on Kai’s face at the idea of his birth mother trying to find him after thirty-something years. And a little bit of introspective horror at the realisation that what I’d really and truly felt on hearing Nicholas had disappeared, was relief.

I rang Megan on the house phone, leaving my mobile where I’d see its flashing Incoming Call light.

‘Hey, Holl. Isn’t it a filthy night? The snow is nearly over the top of my window ledge. I’ve got the phone in bed, it’s the warmest place.’

A little bit of tension went out of me at the normality of her chat. She might not be the most practical person on the planet, but Meg was always there for me. ‘Yeah, it’s disgusting. I’ve got the heating going full blast and it’s still chilly in here.’

‘You remember that dog from the yard? It’s so cold, and I didn’t like the thought of him being out there with no shelter, so I let him into the passageway.’ She spoke quickly, and I knew she was lying.

‘He’s on your bed, isn’t he?’

‘Well . . . Holl, he’s so thin and so sweet, and I offered him a tin of stewing steak and he ate it so fast, I’m sure he’s been starved, and I gave him a bath and he looked so grateful,’ she said in a rush. ‘I’ll find out who he belongs to when the storm dies down.’

‘Right now I’d settle for a mangy dog,’ I muttered.

‘Sorry?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Oh, and Vivienne wants us all over at hers tomorrow morning at nine, if the roads are clear enough. She said that it’s time for us to perform some devotions, or something like that. To get the spell to start working.’

‘Do you think the spell knows that there’s two feet of snow lying? Don’t you think it might cut us some slack?’ I looked out into the darkness. The main road, which lay outside the front of my house, was empty. Every so often an enormous truck or snowplough would barge its way through the deepening snow, but there was no regular traffic and cars were parked up where my neighbours had got home early. I felt a lurch in my stomach. ‘Anyway. I might see you there, if I can dig my way through.’

‘The ploughs are out. Roads will be clear by morning.’

‘Okay. Look, I’d better go.’ Nicholas might be trying to get through on the landline. Or Kai. ‘Stay safe.’

‘You too, Holl. Oh, look what he’s done! Get down! Or sit, or something . . .’

I checked the phone. No one had tried to ring. I went to the front window and stared out at the misleadingly soft whiteness. People died in this stuff. They lay down and they froze, or their cars went off the road, or they . . .

My mobile rang. Kai didn’t waste time on pleasantries. ‘I’ve got him.’

‘Oh thank God.’ I was afraid I might cry again. ‘Where are you?’

‘Back at mine. I picked Nick up, then went on to his doctor’s, got him some emergency meds. By then we were nearer here than your place, and the roads are getting so bad I thought I’d better come back. You know, with Cerys and everything.’

‘No, that’s . . . it’s fine. Is he . . . ? Can I speak to him? I ought to come and get him.’

‘Don’t worry about coming. He was pretty strung out when I got to him, but the doc gave him something and he’s asleep now.’

‘Oh, Kai.’ I swallowed. I wanted to say something else but my throat seemed to have swollen. ‘Kai.’

‘Hey,’ and his voice was soft. ‘Everything’s okay. Go to bed Holly. You can fetch Nicholas tomorrow, but don’t hurry, wait until the roads are clear. He’s fine here.’

My heart was calming down now. ‘You are brilliant, Kai Rhys.’

A smile in his words. ‘Yeah, yeah. See you.’ And he put the phone down.

I had too much of the adrenaline of relief to want to sleep. I decided to watch TV for a bit, so I wrapped myself in a fleecy blanket and snuggled down on the sofa. There, life wasn’t so bad, was it? My brother was safe, I had a plate of toast, warm toes and some trashy programmes, it was going to . . .

What was that?

It came again, an insistent kind of tap-tapping. I looked around the room. Was the snow leaking in through the roof? But I was downstairs. And besides, it was a harder, more brittle sound. I tweaked the curtains open to look out onto the road again. ‘Holy shit!’

Outside my window was a dark shape, arm raised, making scratchy little noises against my front window. It was hideously misshapen, hunched and deformed, with a hooded head that looked far too big for the body. I stood, frozen, looking out at it as, very black against the white snow, it raised the arm again.

And this time it pushed back the hood and showed me its face.

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