Page 10 of Your Carriage Awaits in Crumbleton
Silence.
Perfect.
Michelle eased the door open and peeked out onto the narrow landing. The coast was clear. Her parents’ bedroom door was still firmly closed.
Holding her breath, she tiptoed across the floorboards and down the narrow staircase, wincing every time there was a creak. She was almost at the bottom when disaster struck.
‘Morning love!’
Michelle froze, one foot hovering over the last step. Her mum’s cheerful voice had just drifted from the direction of the kitchen.
‘Bollocks,’ she breathed. There was no way she could sneak out now without being spotted.
‘Michelle? That you?’
Michelle rolled her eyes and sighed.
‘Morning, Mum!’ she called back, doing her best to sound cheerful and innocent. Not atalllike she was creeping around, desperate to escape the cottage minus a full-scale parental interrogation.
‘Come and have some breakfast. Your dad’s made scrambled eggs.’
‘I’m just popping out for a quick bit of… exercise!’ she quickly invented.
‘Exercise?’ came her dad’s incredulous voice. ‘In this weather?’
Michelle glanced towards the front door. Through the little glass panels, she could see that it was still pretty grim outside. The rain had eased off, but the sky was a threatening shade of lead.
‘I just need a bit of fresh air,’ she said brightly. ‘You know me… I love a bit of exercise in the morning!’
‘Since when?’ chuckled her dad.
Michelle rolled her eyes… though hedidhave a valid point. Her idea of exercise was the long walk from the sofa to the fridge and back again.
‘Well, at least join us for a coffee first,’ her mum insisted. ‘And you’ll need to dig out your waterproofs before you go anywhere!’
Michelle closed her eyes and counted to three. There was no getting out of this, was there? Her parents were clearly up, dressed, and in full-on “concerned parent” mode.
‘Fine,’ she sighed. ‘A quick coffee, then I’m off.’
Resigned to her fate, Michelle made her way down the hallway and into the cosy kitchen. Her parents were sitting at the table, newspapers spread out between them and matching mugs of coffee steaming gently in the morning light.
‘There she is!’ her dad beamed, glancing up from the sports pages. ‘How’d you sleep, love?’
‘Fine, thanks,’ Michelle lied, sliding into the spare chair and reaching for the coffee pot. ‘I slept like a baby.’
Her mum shot her a look that suggested she wasn’t entirely convinced. ‘You look tired, love. Are you sure you’re alright?’
‘I’m just a bit worn out from yesterday,’ said Michelle, doing her best not to grind her teeth as she added milk. ‘You know how it is.’
‘How did it go?’ said her dad, folding his newspaper and giving her his full attention. ‘Get everything sorted?’
Here it was. The moment she’d been dreading.
‘Yeah, all fine,’ she said, trying to sound breezy. ‘Got my stuff, said my goodbyes to the house. All done and dusted.’
‘And the drive home was okay?’ said her mum. ‘The weather was pretty grim… I wish you’d waited.’
Michelle did her best to hold back another eyeroll. She adored her parents, but the combined weight of their concern could be a tad smothering.
