Page 19 of The Key to the Last House Before the Sea

GABRIEL

‘Hello. Do you like living in my room?’

Gabrieljumped as he pulled a towel from the airing cupboard. Nessa’s daughter had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and was leaning against the wall on the landing, watching him.

‘I’m helping myself to a new towel because I dropped mine in the shower and it got soaked. I saw the lady who runs this place putting towels in here yesterday and didn’t want to bother her.’

Why was he explaining himself to a child? he wondered, willing himself to shut up. For some reason, he felt vaguely guilty, as though he’d been caught pilfering.

The girl folded her arms and nodded. Her jeans were a bit too short, he noticed, and there were ketchup stains on her T-shirt, which sported the slogan: I’m a little angel.

She did look like an angel, with her pink cheeks and huge brown eyes. She looked a lot like her mother, thought Gabriel, though he certainly wouldn’t describe her as angelic. She’d been horrified yesterday by his plans for Sorrel Cove and, if looks could kill, he’d be six feet under right now. He should never have told her about the development, and he still wasn’t quite sure why he had.

‘So do you like living in my room?’ asked the girl again, still staring. What was her name? Lola? Layla? ‘I could see the sea from our big bed, but Mummy said we had to move.’

‘Is that right?’ asked Gabriel, feeling a flicker of unease. ‘So where did you move to?’

‘Right here,’ said the girl, pointing at the closed door behind her. ‘Do you want to have a look?’

‘I was just going down to breakfast,’ said Gabriel. The smell of fried bacon was wafting up the stairs and teasing his taste buds. But the girl was having none of it.

‘Mummy says it’s our den,’ she told him, flinging the door open. ‘Look,’ she called, disappearing inside. ‘Elsa’s on my duvet.’

Elsa? Did that Nessa woman have another child she hadn’t mentioned?

Gabriel walked to the door and poked his head into what appeared to be a box room. The girl had jumped onto one of two camp beds set up in the middle, and the rest of the space was filled with boxes and piles of books. Pale sunlight was peeping in through a tiny window.

There was no sign of Nessa, which was just as well. Gabriel didn’t fancy round two with her this early in the morning.

‘Did you and your mum move here?’ he asked, noticing a large spider scuttle behind a box in a corner. He shivered. It was pathetic but he’d never been great with them.

When Lola – Layla? – nodded, Gabriel briefly closed his eyes. Had she and her mother moved into this gloomy, spidery room because of him? He’d spent last night stretched out comfortably across a double bed while they were squashed in here.

The guilt flooding through him was swiftly followed by irritation. He was a paying guest, and no one had told him what was going on when they’d said there was a room here for him. No one had mentioned that he’d be displacing a mother and her child. Trust that annoying woman to make an altruistic gesture that put him on the back foot.

He rubbed a hand across his eyes, still feeling guilty at the thought of a child sleeping in here. More than one child, perhaps.

‘Where does Elsa sleep?’ he asked.

The girl opened her eyes wide and giggled. ‘On my bed, silly.’ She pointed at the picture of a girl with a long white plait which was printed on her duvet cover. ‘Princess Elsa.’

‘Ah, I see.’ Gabriel smiled in spite of his bad mood. ‘So, this is your den, is it?’

The girl nodded. ‘I didn’t like it at first. It’s scary in the dark, but Mummy lets me get in bed with her.’

‘That’s good.’

Gabriel eyed Nessa’s bed, which was hardly wide enough for one person, let alone two. Annoying guilt began to prickle again.

The girl picked up a comic on her pillow and started to leaf through the pages. Then she paused, her fingers ready to turn another page. ‘Who are you again?’

She was direct, just like her mother.

‘I’m Mr Gantwich, but you can call me Gabriel,’ he said, deciding now wasn’t a time for formality. ‘What’s your name again?’

‘I’m Lily.’ That was it! ‘I’m five, and my daddy doesn’t live here,’ she added.

Gabriel was wrong-footed by the conversation’s shift in direction. He wasn’t used to children.

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