Holly guessed that the woman standing in front of her was in her early sixties. She had mid-brown hair that was shot through with grey at her temples, and her entire outfit also consisted of varying shades of brown.
‘This is Holly, my visitor,’ Cora said without hesitation. ‘She’s staying with me for a while. Holly, this is Pat. She lives next door.’
‘Hello.’ Holly stood up.
Pat reached cautiously for her outstretched hand as though she was about to pet a dog whose intentions were ambiguous.
‘Hello… Holly,’ she said softly. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you. My son – David – he’s spotted you in the yard once or twice, so I thought I’d pop round and introduce myself.’
‘Oh, I haven’t seen anyone else in the other gardens,’ Holly remarked.
‘No, he saw you from upstairs.’ Pat’s cheeks flushed a little. ‘He… spends a lot of time working in his bedroom.’
There was a beat of silence until Cora jumped straight into her tea duties.
‘No, no, I’ll make the tea,’ Holly insisted, glad to get out of the room. ‘Give you two a chance to catch up.’
She stepped outside the door and pulled it to, but not fully closed, behind her.
The two women’s voices dropped lower, but she was able to catch certain phrases, like ‘poor girl’ and ‘lovely to have some company’. Then she heard Pat’s concerned voice: ‘We’re going to have to watch David.’
Holly forced herself to loosen her jaw and walked into the kitchen.
She wasn’t quite sure whether she wanted to meet this David person or not.
It reminded her of the day she’d left Nottingham with Markus. She hadn’t got a clue what kind of people they’d meet in Manchester; it was a leap of faith. Markus had already spent some time there, but he’d only been there long enough to make tentative contacts.
It had been a milestone because it was the moment all her plans and intentions had finally turned into hard action. Both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
Chapter Eleven
Holly
The coach journey to Manchester had been something of a nightmare. It had taken four long hours in total, as they’d had to make a change at Leeds.
The second they boarded and found their seats, Holly’s heart sank. She’d imagined a pleasant, rather exciting trip, but already seated behind them was a young family with a screaming baby and a boy of about six years old who Markus insisted was the image of the child, Damien, from the horror movie The Omen.
The boy did indeed prove to be a little demon, persisting in kicking Holly’s seat for what felt like the entire duration of the journey.
‘Sorry, love,’ his ineffective, harassed mother kept leaning forward and saying to Holly in between half-hearted attempts to chastise the little monster.
In front of them sat two teenagers who’d brought two enormous bags of McDonald’s takeaway onto the coach with them. Holly could almost feel the saturated fat settling into the pores of her skin as the entire oxygen supply seemed to quickly convert to burger and chips fumes.
Infuriatingly, virtually as soon as they’d finished the vodka and the coach had pulled away, Markus promptly fell fast asleep despite the commotion that surrounded them.
On reflection, Holly realised, too late, that his suggestion that she travel to Manchester with him had come so quickly that she hadn’t stopped to properly consider the implications.
She had precisely fifty pounds folded away in the pocket of her rucksack, and another thirty-five pounds in the bank. That amounted to all her worldly goods and available funds.
‘Don’t worry.’ Markus had shrugged when she’d confided in him. ‘You’ll get a job in no time. My friend, he has many contacts.’
She wondered afterwards why she’d allowed him to be so vague about the ‘wonderful opportunity’ he’d talked about when they’d initially gone for coffee. He’d told her all sorts of stories about the money he’d made working for ‘the boss’, as he liked to call his mystery contact in Manchester.
‘He’s a very private man,’ he had explained, wiping frothed milk from his top lip with the back of his hand. ‘And he likes to explain opportunities to people himself, rather than you taking my word for it.’
His word for what, exactly? Holly had wondered.
‘It’s nothing dodgy, is it?’ Eventually she’d sought reassurance. ‘I’m not interested in getting involved in anything illegal or—’
Markus had held his hands up.
‘It’s nothing like that. The boss has had me travelling around the north-east, learning the trade in his clubs and pubs. It’ll probably be something different for you… if he thinks you’ve got potential, that is.’
‘Potential for what?’
‘Stop reading things into what I’m saying.’ He’d laughed and waved her away. ‘I’ve told you, it’s nothing dodgy.’
She’d felt a curl of discomfort in her gut, but ignored it. Things had got much worse at home lately, and this opening had come at just the right time.
Aunt Susan seemed to be working longer hours, which left Holly stuck in the house alone with creepy Keith. At college, she’d fallen into the same pattern she’d previously had at school, going straight to the library at the end of each day. But Aunt Susan didn’t get home from her cleaning job now until nine, and the college library closed at six.
It was a constant dilemma, and that was why, when Markus had invited her to go to Manchester, she’d found herself accepting, even though the arrangements were vague. It also meant leaving her college course halfway through.
Still, the pull to get away had been stronger than the sum amount of her concerns.
As they’d sat waiting for the coach to depart, she’d continued to press Markus for more details about his boss and the amazing opportunity he’d found himself chasing.
He’d relayed tales of hopping from club to club, gaining hospitality managerial experience, mixing with VIP customers, with champagne on tap.
He’d looked at her earnestly. ‘My opportunity is probably different to what yours will turn out to be. I don’t have many details, Holly, but you know, you only get places in life by taking risks. So you should think of it as an adventure.’
They’d sat in silence for a short time before he turned to her again.
‘I’ve never asked you about your past. I know we were on friendly terms at school, but we don’t really know each other, and now… here we are leaving town together.’
‘What do you want to know?’ Holly had shrugged, thinking she didn’t know anything about his background either but wasn’t that curious. As far as she was concerned, she was more than happy to leave the past behind.
‘I don’t know. I suppose… did your parents have any diseases?’
Holly burst out laughing, and Markus joined in.
‘What kind of a question is that?’
‘OK, don’t answer that,’ he grinned. ‘I do not ask the best questions, for sure.’
He’d said she would only get places in life by taking risks, but she wanted to ask him what kind of risks he was referring to. Yet he already looked half asleep, so in the end, she didn’t bother trying to reason with him.
She remembered thinking that she couldn’t summon a word in the English language for the way she was feeling right at that moment. It was a sensation that hovered ominously between fear and excitement, dread and anticipation.
Once the coach had begun to move and her aunt and uncle’s two-bed terrace was a good few miles behind her, another feeling began to brew in her stomach. But there were fewer feel-good vibes attached to this one.
She was unable to kick the feeling that risky was how all this suddenly felt. A young woman like herself, venturing into the unknown with no guarantees and no safety net.
As Markus snored softly beside her, all the cautionary tales that had been recounted in her old school assemblies began to emerge from a dark, dusty place in her mind.