‘Hey, look at these.’
I turn. Maddie sits on the edge of the bed, Ruth’s bedside cabinet open beside her.
‘What are you doing? You won’t find Elise in there.’ I’m cross she’s invading the dead woman’s privacy, but I admit I’m curious about the photo album she’s looking through with the aid of her phone torch. ‘And I thought you’d turned that off to save the battery.’
I sit down beside her, and look over her shoulder, as she goes back to the beginning. The photos on the first page are of a young and beautiful Ruth, holding a baby in a lemon blanket.
‘It’s Finn, I should think,’ I say.
Maddie turns the page. What follows are photos of a pretty blonde girl, a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. She grows as Maddie turns the pages. The final image in the album is of the girl at about fifteen years old.
‘A friend’s daughter, maybe?’ But a spark of memory invades of Finn mentioning last time I was here that he’d had a sister who’d died. I rise. ‘Put the album back, Maddie. This isn’t finding Elise. And please turn off your phone to conserve the battery.’
We head out into the cold once more, closing the conservatory door behind us, and make our way up towards the main gate. It feels as though we’ve been walking for miles, and I stop for a moment to catch my breath, my whole body aching.
‘Still no signal,’ I say, looking at my phone screen as she stomps on ahead of me.
The gate is still another fifty yards away, and I’m not sure I can make it.
Maddie peers at me over her shoulder. ‘You OK, Amelia?’
I’m not. My legs below the knee seem to have turned to jelly and suddenly collapse from under me. I smash knee-first into the snow, and sink into the cold.
‘Oh God!’ Maddie hurries back to me, and attempts to lift me from behind, her hands under my arms, her fingers pushing into the fabric of my jacket. ‘We’re never going to get a signal,’ she says, making little progress in hauling me up. ‘We should get back to the cottage.’
‘Hang on!’ I cry. ‘Just give me a minute.’ She releases me, and I fall back down. After several deep breaths, I attempt to rub life back into my legs.
‘Who’s that?’ There’s a tremble in Maddie’s voice, as she stares across the snow towards the forest.
I look to where she’s pointing. Someone is standing there, partly shielded by trees.
‘It could be the killer.’ She’s stepping backwards, away from me – away from the figure.
‘Maddie. Wait. Help me up.’ But she’s spun round, scrambling to turn on her phone, and switching on the torch, her boots thudding the snow as she attempts to run. ‘Maddie. Please,’ I call after her, frantically rubbing my legs, hoping to bring them back to life. ‘Christ!’ I can’t believe she’s taken off and left me – only thinking to save herself.
I look back to where we saw the figure, but can no longer see anyone. I glance about me, shivering. Whoever it was could be anywhere. There’s nothing else for it, I’ll have to crawl back to the cottage.
I realise as I crawl like a baby through the deep snow that every part of me that isn’t numb aches. If I pass out, I’ll smash face first into the snow. I’m going to die.
I hear heavy footfalls thudding on the snow behind me. Oh God, I’m seriously going to die. I keep on going, crying now, so close to sobbing – tears freezing on my cheeks.
The footfalls get closer.
And closer.
Strong hands lift me to my feet.
‘Jesus! Finn!’
He’s injured – there’s blood on his forehead. He picks me up and throws me over his shoulder, and as I moan and groan, tears plopping onto the snow below, he carries me towards the fire – a frenzy of flames whipped by the wind – outside Maddie and Thomas’s cottage.
It’s as we approach the front door a pungent smell, like burning paper, wafts in the air. I turn to see a piece of clothing in the fire, almost turned to ash.
*
‘You left me to die,’ I cry at Maddie as Finn carries me across the lounge and lays me on the sofa like a wounded soldier.
Maddie, who is standing by the wood burner, looks over at me as I shuffle from my wet jacket, then back at Finn who is taking off his coat and hanging it by the door.
‘Finn. What a relief,’ she says, ignoring me. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘You left me, Maddie,’ I say again.
Her eyes are back on me. ‘I went to get help.’
‘I don’t see any help.’
‘Well, Rosamund is upstairs asleep, so I was waiting for your dad to return from finding more wood.’
‘I could have frozen to death out there.’
‘Yes, but you didn’t. And I knew it was Finn anyway.’
‘No you didn’t. You thought it was the bloody killer.’
‘Killer?’ Finn says, puzzled. ‘What are you on about?’
Oh God.
‘Hey!’ It’s Thomas coming from his bedroom. ‘What’s the racket?’
‘Your sister thinks I abandoned her,’ Maddie says, kissing his head. ‘When I was simply going for help.’
But suddenly I’m barely listening. Finn’s eyes are wide, as he tries to follow what’s being said. He drops down in the armchair, and tugs off his soaking socks, to reveal bright red feet. He has no idea his mother is dead.
‘What happened to you, Finn?’ I say, delaying the awful news.
‘The quad bike wouldn’t start, so I set out on foot.’ He touches his head. ‘A hunk of wood hit me; trees are losing limbs out there. I was out of it for a bit. Disorientated. Then I saw the fire. Good thinking whoever started it.’
Thomas grins. ‘My idea,’ he says like a
