"This is a lovely little place, eh?" Robbie said, looking around as he took his coat off. His shirt was still a little damp and he shivered slightly. Laura had already taken her coat and boots off and Robbie hung his coat next to hers on the pegs in the small front porch of the cottage.
"You need to get warm and dry Robbie, all that snow" Laura said
"So do you" he said with a smile and the briefest of winks. Laura felt herself blush a little as she always did when he allowed himself to share such mannerisms with her. She turned from him, hoping he'd not seen her blush and to distract herself she marched through from the porch to investigate the downstairs rooms of the cottage. It was a very small but very charming cottage with just a front room and a kitchen downstairs, separated by a hallway that led upstairs to a bedroom and bathroom. The rooms were small but of ample size and completely perfect for just two people.
"There's a wood burner in here with plenty of logs" she shouted through from the room back into the little hallway between the kitchen and the front room
"Oh! And a signal on my phone" she said
"Ah" said Robbie with relief and then a look of surprise. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone which was buzzing
"it's our Lyn, she must be worried sick" he said before taking the call.
Laura also took the opportunity to call her brother. The plan had been for her to go to Liverpool where he was working, stay at his apartment there for the night before they both went on to Manchester airport the following day to catch their flight to New York. Explaining the situation, it was decided that she would now meet him at the airport and get straight on the flight. As she discussed the new arrangements with her brother, Laura walked round the cottage.
It was, as Robbie had said a lovely little place. Despite its size, the small stone-built cottage had been renovated to perfection. The furniture in the little living room looked comfy and inviting; there was a small sofa with plump cushions and lambswool throws that faced the little wood-burning stove that was set into a deep fireplace that, Laura suspected, had once housed a cooking range. There were large logs stacked on either side of the stove and a wicker basket next to the fire was full of kindling and smaller logs. In addition to the little sofa, there was also a small futon, next to which was a blanket box which Laura discovered was full of linen and a duvet. There was a TV and a few books on the shelves under which was a small cupboard built into the alcove next to the chimney breast. Opening the cupboard door, she discovered a selection of board games and some more books. The walls of the cottage were painted a soft calming pale sage and breaking up the space on the walls were some atmospheric black and white pictures of the local Peakland landscape. There were windows on opposite sides of the room, one looking out onto the front of the cottage and the other onto the back.
"I know. . . well hopefully I can get a later flight in the event that I miss the one we're booked on" Laura posed to her brother who was already looking up flights for her.
Laura frowned. Suddenly Manchester Airport and then the streets of New York City seemed a lifetime away. As her brother told her the possible other flights she could get if she was delayed further, Laura found herself looking at one of the pictures on the wall, it was a dramatic photograph of a rugged limestone cliff, a sheer face of ancient grey and white stone weathered and bare, at the top of which were some trees and at the foot of which was a river. Underneath the print there was a print number and the signature of the photographer as well as the location of the photograph. It read Darkdale Cliff / Lover's Leap.
Something about the picture made Laura shiver briefly; she felt an odd feeling, as if someone was watching her, from outside of the window. She looked into the window and saw only her own reflection looking back at her. It was a fleeting feeling and she ignored it as her brother continued to list the times of flights. She forgot about the feeling completely when her brother told her that it wasn't snowing in Liverpool and that he was confident that surely she would make her flight on time. Laura wasn't so sure; it had still been snowing hard when Dan had let them into the little cottage and alerted them again to the snow shovel in the porch, telling them that drifts of several feet were commonplace in the winters when it did snow. The signal on her phone kept cutting out so Laura finished the call to her brother telling him that she would keep in touch about her travel arrangements.
Returning her phone to her skirt pocket, Laura could hear Robbie still talking to Lyn. She smiled at the familiar way he was chatting to her; he was trying his best to allay any fears that she might have had on hearing that her father had been caught in a blizzard in the middle of the Peak District. Robbie had made his way into the kitchen and while he finished his call, Laura went up the stairs of the cottage to explore the upper floor. Off the narrow landing there was a bathroom. It was small with only room for a shower cubicle, toilet and sink but it had been renovated with a beautiful marble topped washstand and pristine looking porcelain tiles. Fluffy white luxurious looking towels and bathrobes hung over a chrome wall heater. Laura pushed the other door on the landing open and discovered the bedroom, finding the light switch on the wall as she did so. The room, like downstairs, was furnished with a modern rustic style. There was a beautiful oak framed king-size bed with a voluminous duvet covered in an unbleached cotton cover. There were cushions of tweed fabric that added colour along with a beautiful lamb's wood blanket of kingfisher blue. Next to each side of the bed was a small table and a lamp. There was a large framed black and white landscape photograph on the wall, similar to the ones downstairs which Laura assumed was of the local landscape. By the window there was a blanket chest and a chair.
Laura crossed the waxed floorboards to the window and looked out. Although draped in a covering of snow she could see there was a little garden belonging to the cottage, bounded by a wooden paling and wire fence, that backed directly onto some fields. Further on, in the distance, at the end of the fields there were trees and what looked like a footpath running alongside a wall. Looking down into the garden Laura saw a signpost that suggested that the footpath appeared to pass by the cottage garden and then out across the fields which Laura could just make out were, under the blanket of snow, crossed with stone walls and styles. The snow was deep but the blizzard seemed to have calmed a little and after a few moments the air became clear. The trees looked inky black against what Laura realised was the skyline and she suddenly became aware of how high up they were in the peaks. Although cloaked in the evening dark, the landscape seemed illuminated in silver from what little light there was from the moon which was occluded behind clouds.
Laura thought again about her flight the next day and wondered if she would make it in time. She could always get a later flight but at some point the service would stop for the Christmas break and she wondered what might happen if she couldn't get to New York with her family. . .
Her thoughts were suddenly halted. Something caught her eye. Out beyond the fields and towards the line of trees she saw a figure. This wasn't in itself odd and had things been different Laura might have thought that perhaps a farmer was out checking livestock or leaving feed out. But this clearly wasn't the case. The figure was a woman, and from what Laura could just make out in the gloom of the dark and snowy night, was wearing what looked like a thick grey woollen shawl over what Laura assumed was a long skirt which clearly must be dragging in the snow. The woman's head was covered with a red coloured scarf. It was an odd set of clothes, Laura thought to herself. The woman wasn't walking, she was just standing, looking towards the cottage and as Laura watched her, she felt an odd apprehension and felt herself shiver.
Outside a few flakes of snow had started to fall again and in the distance an owl called. Laura glanced away from the woman for a second, looking towards the sound of the owl. She couldn't see anything save for the pristine expanse of snow on the fields.
When she looked back towards the trees, the woman had vanished.