The Irish Boarding House by Sandy Taylor

Author:Sandy Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803140827
Published: 2022-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

Claire Devlin had been watching the house for weeks. She’d chosen a bench where she could see the front door, but no one inside could see her. It had become her routine, it gave her something to look forward to, it gave her a reason to get out of bed. She watched the comings and goings of her friends, for since that day, when she had been welcomed by them all and made such a fuss of, that’s what they had become – her friends, the only friends she had. She couldn’t remember their names, or even what they looked like, but none of that mattered. She remembered how they had made her feel and if she wanted to, she could walk across the green and knock on the door. So why didn’t she? Why didn’t she do just that? She frowned; had she been invited back? She couldn’t remember and, until she could, it would be rude to assume that she would be welcomed back.

She’d watched the tall woman and a little girl going for their daily walk, always accompanied by a black-and-white dog racing around them. She’d seen an older woman and a young girl hurrying down the steps. She’d followed them one day, as they went into the butcher’s and the grocer’s – she’d enjoyed that day. They all looked so familiar to her but she didn’t know where she could have known them from. Sometimes images would come into her head, little snatches of something, never the whole picture. Somewhere dark, somewhere cold and damp. She tried so hard to hang on to these images but just as they started to make sense, they were gone. The only thing that was real to her was the house and something else… something she had to do, something that would make everything better, something behind the red door.

Claire watched as a young girl raced across the square and into the boarding house. She didn’t have to wait long before the door opened and the girl and a woman ran down the steps and headed towards town. Claire decided to follow them, keeping out of sight as much as she could.

Claire felt excited – it was like being in a movie. She hadn’t enjoyed herself so much in ages. She suddenly had a memory of running away from something, maybe a place, a place where she didn’t want to be. She hadn’t been excited that day. She pushed it from her mind, but the memory had made her uneasy, it was as if a dark cloud had settled on her shoulders like a heavy blanket, making her doubt why she was here, running after these strangers. But she kept following them as they ran past the big stores and in and out of the crowds that filled the sidewalks. They didn’t stop to look in the shop windows, even though they looked very pretty. They were in a hurry to get somewhere. They were definitely on a mission and she was determined to find out what it was.

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