And if Elliot wasn’t ruining her concentration enough, Judith also couldn’t stop thinking about poor old Stefan. She found herself remembering the only face-to-face conversation they’d ever had. It had been a few winters ago, when the country had been blanketed in snow and Stefan had appeared at Judith’s door to check that she was okay. Stefan hadn’t known that the whole drama of getting in supplies and making sure she had enough wood for her fire had been galvanising Judith for days. What’s more, he’d not been nosy or judgemental about Judith’s solitary life, the way most people seemed to be. And he’d not tried to get inside to see what her mansion looked like. Most casual callers were desperate to see if the interior of her house matched the grand exterior. But not Stefan. He’d been respectful, polite, and as soon as he’d seen that Judith was well-prepared for the coming snow, he had bidden her good day and left.

A good man, that’s what he was, Judith thought to herself, and, for the hundredth time that morning, she found herself idly looking out of her window towards her neighbour’s empty house.

There was a woman standing in Stefan’s garden.

It took Judith a few moments to process what she was seeing.

There was a woman standing in Stefan’s garden!

Judith jumped up, pencils clattering to the floor, strode over to her front door, threw her cape around her shoulders and dashed outside. Who was she? What was she doing at Stefan’s house?

Marching through the thick grass of her garden, Judith stopped at the river’s edge. The woman was standing on Stefan’s lawn, turning slowly on the spot. It was as if she was trying to get a sense of where she was. She wore jeans and a dark T-shirt, and had a thick head of auburn hair. It was wild-looking and a bright copper colour. Like a pre-Raphaelite painting, Judith found herself thinking.

‘Hello!’ Judith called out from her garden.

The woman turned at the sound of Judith’s voice.

‘Hello!’ Judith called out again. ‘I’m Judith Potts, Stefan’s neighbour. Can I help you?’

Judith’s eyes weren’t quite what they’d once been, so it was hard for her to make out the woman’s features clearly, but she was pretty sure the woman looked panicked by her sudden appearance. And then all doubt was removed as the auburn-haired woman turned and all but ran away.

‘I only wanted to say hello!’ Judith called after her, but it was too late. The woman had vanished around the side of Stefan’s house.

Chapter 8