Page 21 of Daydreams & Doughnut Cake

A familiar feeling of dread settled inside me. She couldn’t possibly have found outwhyI left.Could she?

But I wasn’t going to think about Clare.

Back downstairs, I made a mug of tea and sat for a moment at the table, looking around the cosy kitchen, my eye drawn as always at night to the lamp on the worktop in the corner, which cast a mellow glow on the pretty vase nearby. Mum and Malcolm knew I loved the art deco style of pottery designer Clarice Cliff and they’d bought the boldly colourful vase at auction and given it to me as a house-warming gift when I moved in here. Splashedwith crocuses in shades of red and blue, it was my most precious possession.

Thinking of Mum and Malcolm, my eyes filled with happy tears.

Soon, they’d be back living close by. I couldn’t wait for them to sell their business and return to the UK, and I knew Amelie was equally excited at the prospect of seeing her granny and grandad much more often.

They were planning to buy a house in the area and I was already peering eagerly into estate agent’s windows looking for suitable properties, even though I knew it would be some time before the business was sold and their cash unlocked...

Something rattled at the window and I got up to close the blind.

It was raining now, the dwarf apple tree in the small front garden swaying about in the wind, and I thought how good it felt to be cosy indoors – knowing Amelie was tucked up, safe and warm in bed – as the storm that had been forecast for tonight brewed outside.

It was really the only time you could properly relax when you had small children... when they were asleep. I thought of Ellie and how amazingly she was coping with their new baby. Hopefully she’d catch up on sleep tonight and be raring to go in the morning with little Isla!

I was just pulling down the blind when something sharp –a stone?– hit the window.

Moving closer, I peered out.

It was dark out there, the nearest streetlight some distance away. But through the gloom, something odd caught my eye. A black shape just beyond the garden hedge.

But the rain was blurring my view. Surely it was my imagination? It was easy in the dark at night to imagine all sortsof weird things. It was probably just a shadow. It didn’t seem to be moving...

But then suddenly, it did, and my heart gave a great lurch of shock.

Frozen to the spot, I felt the fear clutch at my insides.

Someone had been standing there in the shadows, looking in at me. I could see them now, a hunched figure in a dark hoodie, walking swiftly away along the street.

A shiver ran through me.

Had they thrown the stone at the window to attract my attention? And why were they lurking there like that, just staring in? Was it to scare me?

I glanced anxiously upwards, picturing Amelie asleep.

Should I call the police?

But if I did, what would I say? That I’d seen someone loitering in the street outside my house but that they’d gone now?

I stood watching as the figure crossed the road diagonally.

And then a horrible thought occurred to me. Were they heading for my van that was parked on the opposite side, a little way along the street? It had been the only parking space left when I’d got back earlier.

Sure enough, the sinister figure was stopping right beside it, and to my horror, it looked as if they were trying the handle... attempting to break in and steal it...

The police!

I searched for my phone, finding it at last in my handbag on the worktop.

Then I realised it was no use phoning the emergency services because whoever it was out there would be long gone by the time they arrived.

I flung open the front door and peered into the night, along the street. It was raining harder now, the wind blowing a gale.

Hearing Amelie call out to me, I stopped. She must have heard me open the front door. So I dashed upstairs to reassure her I wasn’t going anywhere – only to find that she was still out for the count. She must have called out in her sleep. She’d turned over in bed and her bear was now lying on the floor.

I listened to her steady breathing for a second, then I crept out of the room and closed the door. Running back downstairs, I rushed out into the night, praying the van would still be there.

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