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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

Chloe climbs into bed around ten. The journey back from Low Drove was quicker than she had anticipated. It’s always the same on the way back from somewhere – the city seemed to arrive too quickly. She missed the openness of the countryside then, the stillness of the landscape, the big sky. Perhaps that’s what had attracted the Kyles to the Fens. What had felt isolated and exposing when she’d arrived now seemed in hindsight the ideal place for a new start.

She’d called the care home to check on Nan when she got home. When they told her she was sleeping, she felt relieved. She’d made herself a salad with pilchards for dinner. Nan used to eat them on toast for breakfast; she couldn’t stomach the smell in the morning, but you get used to the different habits of people when you live with them. She wondered what irritating habits Maureen and Patrick might have? She hadn’t noticed anything while she was there, in their home.

She pushes herself deeper down under her duvet, turning this way and that, the mattress feeling too soft now compared to the one she’d briefly sat on at Elm House. She screws her face up, turns over on her pillow, again, and again, imagining how much more comfortable she’d be in the Kyles’ spare room.

She closes her eyes and tries to picture herself there, and she can, she can see herself sleeping in that room, eating breakfast with the Kyles each morning round that small pine table, calling goodnight to them as she got ready for bed. She opens her eyes, reminding herself it’s nothing more than a silly fantasy. Isn’t it?

She can’t sleep, though. Not with all this going through her mind. Instead she sits up and turns on the light. She takes her pale blue notebook and finds a pen beside her bed, and sits there, deep into the night, writing down everything she can remember from Elm House – even down to the little wooden hope sign in the kitchen window.

TWENTY-ONE

‘Packing to go where?’

Chloe cradles the phone in the crook of her neck, trying to zip up an overstuffed weekend bag with one hand, then two. The phone slips. She scoops it up from the peach eiderdown.

‘Hollie? You still there?’ she says, slumping down on the bed.

‘Yes, I was just asking you where you’re going? I mean, what you’re packing for.’

‘Well, I didn’t mean packing . . . more just having a sort-out . . . I was thinking of going away for a few days, well, weeks . . . well, I haven’t really decided. I . . .’