Squeaky clean good girl Lucy Partridge.
‘I’ll do my best, Meens.’ I chew on my lip– a nervous habit. ‘On this story, I mean.’
‘You’ll smash it,’ she singsongs back. She sounds much more confident than I feel. ‘So how are you liking the digs?’
I look back up at the cottage, which belongs to Mina’s aunt and uncle. It’s in a prime location, set back just a little from the North Yorkshire coastline. She’d arranged to stay in the old annexe attached to the cottage, and when she fell ill, her Aunt Peggy offered me the room in a heartbeat.
‘That’s actually the other reason I’m calling,’ I say sheepishly, my toes kicking up wet gravel on the path. ‘I can’t bring myself to knock on the door. It’s almost midnight!’
Mina chuckles again, and I hear her grunt softly, like she’s adjusting her position. ‘Don’t worry, Lou, you don’t need to knock. The annexe has its own door, and there’s a keypad entry, so you don’t need a key. Just the code.’
Relief rattles through me like a freight train.
‘Go round the back of that god-awful statue, and you’ll see a small archway in the wall. It’s just through there.’
I gather up my bags and shuffle past the statue, making sure to avoid eye contact with him, just in case. The archway comes into view, and I duck through it, hating the cold droplets of rain that plop from the wet stone onto my face.
To the left of the cottage is a smaller, lower building, made from slightly lighter, slightly newer bricks. I see the glossy black door immediately and head towards it, hoisting my biggest bag onto my shoulder to free up my other hand.
‘Ok, I’m here,’ I say, and I hear Mina’s small hum of approval.
‘Can you see the keypad?’
Can I? It isn’t immediately obvious. The doorframe is simple stone with just a doorbell on the left side, and a curious metal shape attached to the wall on the right side. Wait, unless that’s a?—
‘It’s behind the coffin lid,’ Mina says, as if she can read my mind, and I can’t help but grin. I lift the coffin lid to find a very standard keypad beneath.
‘The code is 1897,’ Mina continues. ‘It’s the year Bram Stoker wroteDracula.’
I huff a laugh. ‘Of course it is.’
‘I told you,’ she says, and though I can’t see her, I know she’s smiling. ‘My family loves this stuff.’
‘You love it too.’
‘Yeah.’ There’s a sadness in her voice that tugs at my stomach. ‘And maybe you will too by the end of the weekend.’
I love her optimism, but that doesn’t seem likely. My style is the opposite of Mina’s in almost every way. I love pastel colours and romance novels and uplifting piano music, and even the stone vampire has sent me hurtling way out of my comfort zone. One more jump-scare will probably tip me over the edge.
I tap in the code and feel another wave of relief as the light on the keypad flashes green. When I open the door, my jaw almost hits the ground.
As it turns out, the annexe at Harker Cottage is utterly adorable. It’s all dark beams and whitewashed walls, a curious mix of vampire memorabilia and seaside charm. A deep red velvet sofa sits along one wall opposite a tiny dining set, and in the far corner a small spiral staircase has been slotted in beside the cosiest little kitchen I’ve ever seen.
It’sperfect. And, somewhat alarmingly, I can see it all.
‘Meens, all the lights are on,’ I mutter, lowering my voice as a knot of panic rises back up in my chest. But Mina just laughs.
‘Peggy does that when she’s expecting people. She’ll have popped the heating on for you too, I bet. She likes it to feel warm and welcoming.’
My anxiety drops a notch. It actuallyislovely and warm. I probably just have residual adrenaline buzzing around in me from the stone vampire incident, and I’m freaking out over every last thing. That said, I could swear I heard water running somewhere upstairs.
‘Don’t worry, it’ll be someone in the main cottage,’ Mina says with another chuckle. Maybe I said that last bit out loud. ‘The plumbing is quite elderly. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could hear it two or three houses down.’
I need to get a hold of myself. It’s not like me to get this worked up over nothing. I’m a ‘Steady Eddie’, as my nana used to say. I’m sure it’s the combination of the last-minute job, the late train and the unexpected vampire that has me feeling all turned around, but Jon asked me personally to take this job, and I’m not about to let him down. What I need is a good sleep. Everything will feel better in the morning; it always does.
‘The bedroom is up the stairs, I assume?’
‘Yep,’ Mina says. ‘It’s tiny up there, just a little bathroom and the bedroom, but you’re gonna love it. The bedroom has thebestsea view.’