‘Ruth?’ I hissed as quietly as I could.
Silence, I bent down to the keyhole, ‘Ruth it’s Zoe,’ I said.
‘Zoe?’ It was Ruth’s voice; I could hear the exclamations from the others inside, before they were hushed by someone.
‘Ruth, are you all ok?’ I said
‘Yes we’re fine,’ she said, ‘what’s the plan?’
‘I’m going to try and get you out,’ I said, ‘just before dawn when it starts to get light, be ready.’
From below, I heard the sound of a door opening. I zipped back to my room and was sitting back on the bed in an instant; listening to footsteps pacing along the hallway and around the rooms. I heard a stair creak loudly as the footsteps moved closer. The creaking would give us away when we left, if we weren’t careful. The steps stopped at the top and then retreated away, stair creaking again, as whoever it was moved back down. A couple of seconds later the kitchen door opened and then closed. Had Peter heard me and come up to check? Impossible through a closed door and over normal kitchen sounds… maybe he was just doing rounds of the house. I sat there thinking. Who was in the other room that warranted such vigilance?
After a minute or two I took out my phone, but just like at the Chiltern Camp, there was no signal. I sat there mulling over the plan. I was soon bored; it would be at least an hour until dinner. I debated going back to talk to Ruth, but what more was there to say? I looked around the room, got up and walked over to the bay window. The original wooden frames were still intact and I pushed open a window. In the still evening air I could hear faint noises from the festivities down the road. Music drifted in and I debated going out; Tanya obviously expected me to be at the festival. Then I reconsidered; there might be people from the Chiltern camp who would recognise me… it was just too risky. Instead, I went downstairs and knocked twice on the kitchen door, much as Tanya had, but I waited, rather than going straight in and after a couple of seconds, the door opened. It was Peter, with an enquiring look on his face.
‘Hi,’ I said, ‘I don’t suppose I can sit in here with you?’ I asked, ‘Only it’s rather cold in the other rooms.’ it was true; there was a definite chill in the house.
‘Oh,’ said Tanya, as Peter opened the door wider, ‘as the other guests are all out, it didn’t seem worth lighting the fire in the lounge,’ she looked at Peter who nodded, ‘come in and have a seat.’
I pulled out a chair, ninety degrees to Peter and facing Tanya who was stirring the casserole and adding some extra spices. I wasn’t quite sure how to start, asking Peter straight out how often he patrolled the house and where the keys were, might not be the best idea if I was to avoid raising suspicion. ‘It’s a lovely house,’ I said, picking a neutral topic.
‘Yes,’ said Tanya, ‘I used to work here when it was a community centre, all yelling kids, fighting and graffiti.’
‘Did they do activities here?’ I asked.
‘Oh yes, they did art, and music, and that Duke of Edinburgh award, with the camping,’ she said.
‘Oh I used to do that,’ I said, ‘I ran it, I mean… at the school I worked at…’ it came out unintentionally.
‘Were you a teacher?’ asked Peter.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I taught science in secondary school, but I really liked taking the kids out camping,’ I hurriedly added, trying to head off any questions about what I did now. I hadn’t prepared a backstory at all. If they asked me what I was doing in Potters Bar, I wouldn’t have a clue how to answer. ‘Some of them were so bad at navigation, they would get hopelessly lost.’
I segued into a series of stories of the calamities we had faced over the years until, before I knew it, it was six-thirty. I had gotten lucky; Tanya was an easy conversationalist and Peter had seemed content to let me chatter away, and he hadn’t left the kitchen at all during the time I was there, so hopefully he didn’t patrol regularly.
Tanya ladled some of the casserole out of the pot into a large serving dish and placed it on a trolley that contained plates and cutlery. She added a dish of potatoes and boiled Brussel sprouts before wheeling it through to the dining room, indicating for me to follow. Once inside she indicated the dishes and said, ‘Please help yourself.’
‘Is it just me?’ I asked in surprise.
‘For the first sitting,’ she said.
I put a confused look on my face and seeing it, she continued. ‘Our other special guests eat after the regular scheduled visitors.’
I wondered whether to ask more, but decided to stay quiet and not push my luck. I seemed to have passed as a regular guest, despite not knowing anything about what was going on. I wasn’t going to risk drawing attention by asking questions. Instead, I tucked into the food, which tasted as good as it smelled. After dinner, I went up to my room but hovered near the door.
I didn’t have long to wait before I heard footsteps again; coming up the stairs was Peter. I ducked hurriedly out of sight as he came into view. I heard him step towards the locked doors and peered around, just in time to see him take a key off the top of the doorframe and open the door to the room with the kids in. I waited to see if he would replace the key in the same place, but he just pulled the door closed and left it unlocked, pocketing the key as Ruth and the others bounded down the stairs. They were obviously hungry.
I slipped down to the reading room, found some paper and wrote a quick note, explaining that Freya, Mark and Jack were in town and we would be escaping out the front door just before dawn. As an afterthought, I included the gate code 2024, just in case. I then nipped back up to their room and slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door, hoping it wouldn’t creak as much as the rest of the house. It opened without a sound, and inside I saw four bunkbeds, two against each wall. I left the note on one of the pillows and moved towards the sash window.
I waved hopefully, searching for Jack or Freya, and saw a tree branch shake. I searched the leaves but it took me a while to realise that the white patch against the bark of the trunk was Jack’s face. I took out a whiteboard pen from my pocket, thought briefly, then wrote as large as possible, on the windows:
His head nodded vigorously, he had understood. I wiped the windows clean with my sleeve and crept back out of the room.
Twenty minutes later, I heard them coming back up the steps. I stood with one eye round the edge of the doorframe, trying to see whether it was Peter coming up first or one of the kids. It was Ruth. She looked at me and opened her left hand to reveal a slip of paper. As she turned the corner, she let it slip so it fell to the side of the top step. I ducked back as Peter reached the top of the stairs and then watched as he locked them back in their room and placed the key back on top of the doorframe.
Once he had disappeared back into the kitchen I darted to the stairs and retrieved the paper. It was bulkier than I had realised, I unfolded the layers of paper and inside found a small key. I hefted it in my left hand and straightened out the paper. The message was short: ‘rucksacks in cupboard in reading room.’
I smiled, I didn’t know how she had done it, but now I had to do my part. I walked down to the reading room and started searching for a cupboard big enough for six rucksacks. The room had bookshelves around three sides but no cupboards. I was stumped for a second, then I saw that the bay window had large wood panelled box seats. I examined them more closely and saw the small keyhole in the front, near the top. Using the key, I unlocked it and pulled slightly. The whole of the front section fell open, and I only just managed to catch it before it hit the floor. Behind the panel were the rucksacks.