Faith Read Online Free Page B

unappetising meal of reheated pizza, and I’m wondering whether to swill it down with the bottle of wine I brought home with me. I shouldn’t; the solitary drinking is becoming too much of a habit recently. I never used to drink alone, but these days, what choice do I have? I do everything alone.
    I sigh as I head over to my cupboard for a wineglass.
    The knock at my kitchen door startles me. It’s not loud, more a light tap. I halt, stand stock-still in my kitchen, staring at the door. I must have been mistaken, dreaming. I don’t have a visitor, no one ever visits, not since Helen left.
    It sounds again, louder now, slightly more insistent. Someone’s there. Definitely. It must be trick or treaters. Hallowe’en is just a couple of days away. Pity I don’t have any sweets to offer them.
    “Faith, I know you’re in. Open the door.”
    I know that voice, I’ve heard it before. But it can’t be, surely not. Why? Why would…?
    “Faith, it’s Ewan. Ewan Lord. I want to talk to you. Let me in, please.”
    Oh, God! Oh, God, he’s realised. He knows. He’s come to tell me what he thinks of me.
    I knew this confrontation was coming, it had to be. Eventually I’d have to face this. But I hadn’t expected it to be now. I’m not ready, not prepared.
    Except I am, as much as I’ll ever be. If he’s come to tell me what a stupid, destructive little coward I am, to have it out with me because I got his beloved Caroline killed with my idiotic behaviour, I might as well get it over with. There’s nowhere to hide, and at the back on my mind I’ve been expecting this. Waiting for this. For him.
    I step over to the door and turn the key to unlock it. I open it and step back.
    “Good evening, Ewan.”
    He comes inside and closes the door behind him. Despite my nervousness I go through the ingrained motions of hospitality. I pick up my kettle from the worktop and head for the sink. “Would you like a drink? Tea, was it?” I recall that was what he drank at the café in Hawes, though there’s no reason I should have retained such a trivial detail.
    “If you’re having one. Faith, you look like shit.”
    Charming . I turn to him in surprise. This is not the opening I’d expected from him. “I beg your pardon?”
    “You’ve lost weight. Your hair needs a wash. Were you about to drink that?” He eyes the bottle of wine, opened on my kitchen table. “Alone?”
    I don’t answer, preferring to concentrate on filling my kettle and plugging it in. When I turn to face him at last, he’s hitched one hip on my table, watching me. He’s waiting for a response.
    “Why are you here, Ewan?” Not the most polite welcome, but the best my fuddled brain can manage. I’m not at my best these days, with or without wine.
    “I wanted to see how you are. How you’re doing.”
    “No, I mean what brings you here? To Oakworth? It’s hardly somewhere you’d be passing. Are you here to collect your things from Caroline’s?” Maybe the place is about to go on the market.
    “No. I live here.”
    I gaze at him, stunned. “You… How do you…? I mean… Isn’t Caroline’s house going to be sold?”
    He shakes his head. “No. It’s not Caroline’s house, it never was. It’s mine, and I intend to carry on living here, at least for the time being. Which makes you my next-door neighbour.”
    “I…Oh.” I sit down at my table, my head reeling with all the awful ramifications of this news. He lives next door, this man with every reason to hate me, to resent me and the disaster I brought down on him, on both of us. He’ll be here, accusing, blaming, a constant reminder of what happened, of the tragedy I caused.
    “But, I don’t understand. I mean, it was Caroline who lived here. I know you visited a lot, but…”
    “She did live here, and so did I when I was in the country. I still do. I have to travel a lot for my work so I’ve never been around that much. I’ve been away for the last four months solid, just got back