The Woman in the Woods Read online

  the

  woman

  in the

  woods

  je rowney

  Other works by this author:

  Charcoal

  The Derelict Life of Evangeline Dawson

  Ghosted

  I Can’t Sleep

  The Lessons of a Student Midwife Series

  Life Lessons

  Love Lessons

  Lessons Learned

  The On Call Midwife at Christmas

  ©2021 All rights reserved

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A man and a woman. A cabin in the woods. A ghost story.

  You think you’ve heard all this before.

  You think you know what I’m going to tell you.

  This is not what you think it is.

  This is not the same old story.

  I know, because this happened to me.

  - Seb Archer

  Chapter One

  “You’re a fucking asshole.”

  There she is, the love of my life.

  “Sebastian Archer, you are a fucking asshole.”

  I don’t even bother looking up.

  I’m not an asshole. Not really. Then again, sometimes I am.

  “What this time?” I ask, even though I already know.

  I’m Seb Archer. You might have heard of me, but only if you are interested in poker. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. I would love to tell you that I’m a man of many talents, but poker is all I have ever been good at.

  I had a “proper job” once. I was in sales. I was That Guy. The one who cold calls you at three on a Saturday afternoon when you’re settling down to watch television. It sucked the life out of me. I volunteered in a soup kitchen for a while, I thought that giving something back to the community would make me feel better, but it got me down. That’s the kind of selfish prick I am. I couldn’t commit to helping people because it made me feel bad.

  Katie is, of course, an angel. She’s a care assistant, so she spends most of her time doing things for other people that they can’t do for themselves. She works in an old folks’ home about a half hour from Harborough where we live. It’s a sweet little village and I’m sure they are sweet little ladies and gentlemen, but her job is my worst nightmare.

  “You were meant to be home early last night so we could spend some time together today.”

  I was. I said that. When I said it, I probably meant it, but I was running bad, I was deep in the hole, and I had to play my way out of it. I was at the poker table, and I had to stay there. When you’re down a couple of bags, and a massive whale rocks up, there’s only one thing to do: put your hand in your pocket, pull out your wallet, and get your money on the table.

  Don’t worry about the jargon, it doesn’t matter. I was losing. That’s all you need to know. I was losing and then a terribly rich terrible player showed up to bail me out. My hero. Thank you.

  Katie doesn’t care about that though. She cares that I came home at seven, slept until three and missed our wonderful morning of quality time together.

  Dexter comes bounding in, straight up onto the bed, all paws and fur and tongue, making sure I’m not going to be getting back to sleep. He’s not allowed up here, but he doesn’t give a toss about that, and today neither do I.

  “Down. Get down,” Katie whines. “Seb get him down.” She’s doing nothing useful, standing there at the foot of the bed, pouting.

  Dexter is nuzzling into me, paws outstretched, lying alongside me, his body pressed against mine. He’s nearly as tall as me, stretched out like this. Katie wanted a little dog, something like a Yorkie or a Chihuahua that she could put stupid clothes on and carry in her handbag. She wanted an accessory rather than a pet. I didn’t want a dog at all, which put me in the driving seat.

  Obviously, we got Dexter, but as I would only agree to it if we got a Lab, in a way I won. I’d love to tell you that Katie gave up on her dreams of dressing up her doggo when we bought him, but no. She tried to get him into a sweater, and he destroyed it in about five minutes. Strangely when she tried him with a jaunty bandana, he tipped his head to the side and let it be. I managed to get it off him and lose it on our next walk.

  ‘No dogs on the bed’ was my rule. I wanted to keep this place exclusively for sleep. Okay, and the other thing we do here, sometimes, but mostly just for sleep. Dexter has his own bed down in the kitchen. He spends most of his day down in front of the Aga, so it makes sense to leave his bed there at night.

  At this moment, I couldn’t care less.

  “Seb!” I get the blame, of course. Katie could have shut the door, she could shout at Dexter rather than at me, but somehow it’s my fault.

  I roll onto my belly and bury my face into the pillow. I’ve had, what, well okay, I’ve probably had my eight hours of sleep now. I guess it’s time I got up. I exhale, long and hard. Perhaps if I pushed my face in further, I could suffocate myself and not have to deal with Katie anymore. Dexter pokes his muzzle into my side and licks just below my ribs. He probably read my mind.

  “Good boy,” I say, my voice muffled into the soft cotton.

  I push up and roll back over, ruffling his fur before sitting up to look at Katie.

  “Yeah,” I say. “Sorry about today.”

  “Sorry? You’re sorry? How many times, exactly, are you going to be sorry?”

  It’s a reasonable enough question, but the way that she squeals the words doesn’t make it sound particularly reasonable.

  “Katie. Poker isn’t just my hobby, it’s my job. It’s my life. I have to stay late sometimes.” Her expression is becoming increasingly irritated. “Even when I don’t want to,” I add, reaching out to her. “Come here,” I say. “Come on.”

  “You could leave at any time. You don’t get in trouble from your boss if you clock out early. I thought that’s why you wanted to play in the first place. You didn’t want to be told what to do. You said it would be easier, that you would have more freedom. Is this freedom? Is this a better life?”

  For the most part, yes, my life does give me a lot more freedom than I had when I worked in sales. There is the odd time, like this, when my life is far more complicated than it would be with a nine-to-five.

  “I’ve had enough of it, Seb. Enough. You promised me that today was our time. You promised that we could do something together. I don’t ask a lot of you…” She does. “…but if we don’t ever see each other then what are we doing here? Why are we wasting our time?”

  Dexter is as close to me as he can get. Like a child whose parents are fighting, he nuzzles into me, looking for comfort and reassurance.

  “It’s okay,” I say. “Everything’s going to be okay.” I’m using my softest, most gentle voice, and Katie thinks I am speaking to her.

  “It’s not going to be okay unless you start to make an effort. You need to do what you say you will do. Start keeping your promises. Think about someone else other than yourself for once. Just for once. Can you do that? Can you even do that?”

  She’s crying now, and trembling, her voice shaking, her shoulders rising and falling with her rapid, light breaths.

  “Shit. Katie. Come on, please. Come and sit down. Let’s talk about it.”

  “I’m done with talking. All you ever do is talk. All you ever giv
e me are words. I’ve had enough.”

  I run my hand along Dexter’s back, his fur comforting me as much as I am comforting him.

  “Katie…”

  “Don’t you ‘Katie’ me.” Maybe this is it. Maybe this is the end. “I’ve had it.”

  “Katie.” I don’t know what else to say, and repeating her name really isn’t helping. “What do you want me to do? What do I need to say? What is it that you want?”

  “I want us to be happy. I want things to be like they used to be.”

  That. Well, that sounds so easy, doesn’t it?

  “I want to be happy too,” I say. It’s the most obvious thing in the world, but maybe sometimes we forget.

  “I want us to be happy together.” She moves closer and settles on the end of the bed. “Do you think we can be?”

  “Sure. Of course we can.”

  “Not if we never see each other. Not if you keep letting me down like this.”

  We could carry on for hours, going around in circles, or I could surrender now. I’ve only been awake for ten minutes and I really don’t have the energy to fight with her. As always, I take the easy option. “Tell me what I can do to make it better, and I will do it.”

  She is still glowering at me, so I put on my best smile, all teeth and sparkly eyes, the kind of smile that always gets her. I’m not the most handsome man, but I’m fairly attractive when I work my best assets. I know how to get to her, so I put on my best show. “Hey, babe. Really. Come on. I’m sorry. Whatever you want, say it. I’ll do better from now on, I promise.”

  Her frosty glare starts to melt. “I don’t…I mean I shouldn’t trust you. Not after all the times you let me down…”

  Before she can slip back into that loop again, I shuffle across the bed towards her, gently hutching Dexter out of the way. I sidle up to her, wrap my arms around her, and pull her close. I know from experience that this is one of the other things that she particularly likes: being caught up in a big bear hug. At first, she remains tense, but I start to stroke her hair and she softens against me. Dexter has moved to take his place beside me, and he’s trying to get in on the action, rubbing against us. I keep my arms around Katie.

  “Anything you want, Pie. Anything.”

  “Oh Bun Bun.”

  There. She’s reverted to the pet name that I despise, so everything is obviously going to be alright.

  I kiss the top of her head. I think that we are done and back on track, but no, there is more.

  “I want to go away somewhere,” she says.

  I wasn’t prepared for this. I didn’t think there would actually be conditions to the surrender.

  “Away?” I stutter the word.

  “Yeah, away.” She pulls back from me and takes hold of my hands in hers. Her expression has changed from abject misery and disappointment in me to one of…what…triumph? I’m starting to feel like I have been had.

  I gulp in a breath.

  “Anywhere in particular?”

  “Somewhere that we can be alone together. Somewhere we can spend time together, just the two of us, with no distractions.”

  No poker. That’s what she means. No casino. Nothing to keep me from spending time with her.

  “But…”

  “When you had a regular job, we used to go away all of the time.”

  “You had a regular job too then. You didn’t work shifts like you do now. It was easier then.”

  “Easier, sure. But it’s not impossible now. You’re kind of self-employed, right?”

  I guess you could see it that way, but when I am not playing, I am not making money. Apart from my bankroll, the amount of cash I have set aside for poker, I don’t really have an awful lot.

  I nod and shrug in one movement.

  “So, take some time off. If this relationship is important to you.”

  There’s the ultimatum. I knew it would come. Poker or Katie.

  It’s just a few days. She’s not asking me to give up forever, and I appreciate that, but…

  She tilts her head to the side, in much the same way that Dexter does when waiting for me to do something. Then she gives me that huge beaming Katie-smile that always gets me. Her face lights up, her eyes are so beautiful. She’s the kind of perfect that I don’t deserve, and here I am not even willing to give up a few days to make her happy. To make us happy.

  I realise that I am being a selfish dick.

  “I’ve been a selfish dick,” I say. “Sure. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s work things out. We can be happy, Pie.” I bend forwards to kiss her, but she reaches out and places her finger onto my lips.

  “This is our last chance, Sebastian. If we can’t get it together, I think we should give up.”

  “I…” I try to talk but she shakes her head.

  “All the girls think that I should have already left you a long time ago, so…” She shrugs. “We make it work or we let it go.”

  I instinctively look at Dexter and he looks back at me with his huge chocolate brown eyes.

  I nod. “Okay.”

  Chapter Two

  Katie found this place. It’s billed as a romantic getaway, but to me it looks like a cabin in the middle of nowhere. I left all the planning to her. Once she gets an idea in her head, she’s like a dog with a bone. As soon as I agreed to it, she was on the internet, searching for her ideal mini-break location. Whether or not it was somewhere that I would like to spend a week of my life really doesn’t matter. She doesn’t wear the pants in our relationship, don’t get me wrong. We have always been a democratic couple, or at least I like to kid myself that this is true.

  The nearest casino to the village is seventy miles away. Yes, I checked. You can bet that Katie checked too. If I can’t get to a casino then I have to spend my evenings with her. Just because I checked doesn’t mean that I would have tried to skip out on her. I agreed to this break. I’ve put five years into this, nearly six, and I’m not a quitter. When the cards run against you, you don’t stand up, leave the table and quit. No. You keep playing. You know that it is going to get better. If you keep making the right moves at the right time, then it’s going to get better. I’m committed to this relationship in the poker sense of the word just as much as the emotional sense. I’m not giving up.

  The road to the cabin takes us through Culloton. It’s one of those nowhere places. A name on a map. A village you’d only be aware of if you were a local. The village is not on any route to anywhere. The curtains are closed in the tiny windows of the tiny terraced cottages that line the narrow road. The streetlights seem dimmer here than they do back home. I’d like to say that it’s atmospheric, but really it feels plain eerie, like any minute a fog is going to descend and zombies are going to come thundering down the road. The image isn’t helped by the creepy ass sign that hangs outside the only building with a light on.

  Something about it catches my attention.

  “Watch the road!” Katie says, nudging me unnecessarily as I turn my head to do a double take.

  “Weird name for a pub.” I nod my head towards the rear-view mirror.

  She shuffles around in her chair to look over her shoulder.

  “Not really,” she says, sounding disappointed. Disappointed in me, not disappointed by the pub. Disappointed that I raised her expectations. You’d think she would be used to it.

  ‘The Woman in the Woods’. Maybe it’s not such a weird name, but something about it gave me a chill. Must have been my melodramatic, zombie-creating brain at work. If you have a dull life and dull thoughts, you have to start making things up.

  “Maybe we can come down for drinks one night?” I take a shot at turning things around.

  Katie grunts a response that could mean yes or no. I give up.

  She’s got her feet up on the dashboard now. I’ve told her, more than once, not to do that, but she doesn’t listen. That’s a lie. She clearly did listen, because she’s taken her shoes off. Instead of her dirty Birkenstocks, she’s resting her bare soles on the das
h. She’s got the seat pushed back as far as it will go, but she’s still scrunch-folded, trying to fit into position in the tiny space.

  I can’t let myself get too pissed off about it; I’m concentrating on the road, trying to work out where the turning is. My satnav has already given up trying to guide me. The satellite connection is almost non-existent out here.

  “Hey,” Katie says. She jabs a finger into my arm like a small blunt dagger. “Hey,” she repeats as she prods.

  I take a hand off the wheel and bat at her as if she were a mosquito.

  “Quit it.” I glance at her quickly, looking for long enough to catch her expression. That miserable sulky look I’ve come to know and hate. That look is one of the reasons we are here.

  “Answer me then,” she buzzes.

  I take a deep breath and try to remember what it was that she asked me.

  “Katie, I didn’t hear you. I’m sorry. I’m just trying to work out where the fuck we are going.” I sound even more irritated than I am, and I am pretty fucking irritated right now.

  Another deep breath. This is meant to be our Last Chance Holiday. I don’t want to start it like this.

  “Honey, I’m sorry. Just getting a bit stressed by these directions. I’m sorry, babe.” I reach over to put my hand onto her leg.

  This time she’s the one to push me away. We do this. Play this game of who’s on top, who’s in control, who has the power in this ridiculous thing that we call a relationship.

  I suck it up.

  “I’ll make it up to you when we get there. Whatever you like. You name it.”

  Give her some more power. She can’t fight against that. Clever little move, isn’t it?

  It works. She pulls her feet down, tucks her legs back into the footwell and sits up straight as a rod.

  “Anything?”

  “Anything, Pie.”

  Pie. I hate that nickname. I hate that I ever created it.

  I can tell that she’s smiling but I don’t bother looking over to see. I know how this all works.