When they’d finished their tea, Bert walked them to the front door. The sunshine had gone, to be replaced with a blanket of thick clouds, dark with potential rain.

The old man peered up at the sky, smiling faintly. ‘Well, it looks like the sun is over for you.’ He turned back to look at Heather. ‘Take care, won’t you?’

36

They made it through the first stretch of woods and then it began to rain heavily, in the steady sort of way that suggests it is planning to hang around all day. Deciding to try a short cut, umbrellas brandished above them, they walked through another, sparser set of trees, and came across an ancient-looking caravan. Once it had been white with a red and a brown stripe along the side, but now it was camouflaged with patches of rust and a thick covering of dead leaves and forest debris. At some point someone had attempted to fence the thing off with wire panels, but those had mostly fallen down, and thick tangled bushes had grown up around its wheels.

‘Hey, that’s got to be from the commune. Do you want to have a look inside?’

Nikki grimaced. The rain was getting stronger all the time, the ground under their boots rapidly turning into mud. ‘Can we come back later? We should go and get the car.’

‘You go. I’ll join you in a bit.’

‘Are you sure?’

Heather nodded. ‘Go on. I just want to have a quick poke around, and then I’ll head back to the cottage. I think our exploring is done for the day.’

When Nikki had trudged away towards the clearing, Heather picked her way across the wild undergrowth until she reached the flimsy-looking door. It came open with one fairly solid kick, and, collapsing her umbrella, she stepped inside.