Chapter 4
It stays warm, but cloud starts to build the next afternoon and the wind strengthens. During the night a storm blows in, and Simon is woken by the sound of a gate slamming. He can hear rain pounding on the yard below, wind shaking the trees. After a few minutes he gets up and crosses to the small window that looks out over the yard. There’s an outside light on the corner of the farmhouse, and through the rain he can make out a gate, loose and swinging. The large metal hinge at the top has come away. Water is running through the yard, spilling over the edge of a channel in the cobbles and out down the track beyond. A man is holding the side of the gate. Simon can’t see him clearly, but it looks as if he is trying to secure the hinge back into place before the wind can do more damage to it. But the wind is strong, and he is struggling to hold the heavy gate in the right place.
Simon watches for a minute, and notices the outline of another figure walking across the yard from the barn. He is silhouetted by the light from the farmhouse and Simon can only see the man’s back, but it looks like Ian, wearing a heavy coat.
Simon wipes the window where it has fogged up with his breath. The two men are working together on the gate now; one holding the gate while the other fixes the big hinge back into place. The wind whips past them driving rain through the yard, the floodlight creating a monochrome scene, disjointing every movement. The two men don’t look at each other, or seem to communicate, they work side by side together as if two parts of one animal, each knowing exactly what the other will do. One reaches for a screw while the other holds the hinge in place. They brace in tandem against the next gust of wind. But they are still struggling, and Simon turns and pulls on his jeans and a fleece that are on the chair next to his bed. He climbs down the stairs and picks up his waterproofs. He opens the door and peers across the yard. It is clear that the men have managed to secure the gate. One of them is still standing next to it, but as Simon watches he heads back towards the farmhouse. Simon thinks he can see the shadow of the second figure heading back to the barn, but in the rain it isn’t clear, and at that moment the outside light is switched off.
Simon stands, looking out over the yard. There’s still a glimmer of light from one of the windows in the farmhouse, but it seems to make it harder to see anything, just creating shadows and unsettling reflections off the wet farmyard. There’s a movement one side of him, but he can’t make out what it is. He is gripping the door, as if unsteady without it. Something is out of place, but he can’t work out what it is. Then he catches a shadow of the second figure again, closer to the barn. Above the sound of the storm perhaps he can hear the stable door open; the man must have gone back into the barn. He could be putting tools away? Or sheltering there? Simon waits for a few minutes, listening for any sound, his sense of unease growing. He turns back into the cottage, which feels strange; there’s a musty smell that he didn’t notice before. He shivers, and crosses to the wall that separates it from the rest of the barn, putting his palm against the wall. It feels warm to his touch, as if there are heating pipes under the plaster. He can sense that there is someone standing on the other side of the wall; he can feel their breathing, although even when he strains his ears he can not hear anything but the wind and rain outside.
He shivers again, and then crosses back to the kitchen area, switching on another light, filling the kettle, and standing with his hands on the counter. Gradually the sound of the kettle brings his breathing back to normal. Out of the window the rain is easing, there are breaks in the cloud, and moonlight now creates a different texture in the yard. The kettle hisses and boils and he takes tea over to one of the armchairs.