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Back The Imposter Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. ANNA WHARTON
  3. Dedication page
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  54. Praise
  55. THE IMPOSTER

Hollie is instantly wounded and a couple of people look round in the cafe. Why did it have to be like this? Why couldn’t she have just left it like she asked?

‘I just wanted to help,’ Hollie says.

‘Well, you’re not helping, you never help, you just go on and on and on at me every time. But you don’t understand what it’s like. You think you do, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. I know what I’m doing. I know who I am.’

‘Chloe.’ She reaches for her friend, but Chloe is already pushing past the table. She knocks the one opposite as she goes; a chair that had been balancing on it clatters to the floor. She doesn’t stop, not until she’s out of the door, not until she reaches her bus stop, not until she’s on the bus and she’s leaving the orange lights of the city and she’s heading out on the A47 into the blackness of the Fens, where she will be safe at last.

THIRTY-THREE

The moon shines brighter out here in this flat land. Chloe walks back towards Elm House under its glare. Tonight it feels like a lamp tilted directly at her, nature’s own interrogation.

Maureen told her a Fenland folklore story about the moon a few nights ago, as they both stood out in the garden in their dressing gowns, hugging mugs of warm tea and staring up at the stars before bed.

‘They say the moon couldn’t believe how wicked humans are to each other,’ Maureen had told her. ‘So one night, she came down to earth in disguise to witness all the bad that humans can do to one another. She became stuck in the marshy bog and was caught by witches, who trapped her under a huge stone. When the moon disappeared from the sky, the Fens really were filled with ghouls and ghosts and, so the story goes, it was the locals who eventually found the moon and helped her return to the sky. That’s why she shines brighter out here.’

Mostly the moon feels more like a guiding light leading Chloe home to Elm House. She feels bad about what happened with Hollie. But then why did she have to bring up all that old stuff? Why are people so determined to cling on to the past? And then she thinks of Maureen, who has no choice.

When Chloe sees the warm yellow glow of Elm House leaking out of the inky blackness, she puts the rest of the day away somewhere. Nan is back in a box, along with the woman on the bus, even Hollie. They feel somehow like another lifetime. And in some way they are, once Chloe has walked back through that willow curtain.