a house, then I won’t be party to that, no matter how desperate for a wash I am. In all the time I’ve been living rough, I’ve never resorted to stealing in any shape or form and I won’t start now.’
Jan was insulted. ‘I’m not about to break in anywhere. I know where there’s a key. In the shock of what happened to me, I’d forgotten about it until we were talking last night about the lack of somewhere to spruce ourselves up. She tapped the wall to the right of her. ‘This is my house. Well, it was until my husband accused me of having a torrid affair and consequently threw me out. The law would probably be on his side and say he’d every right to throw me out in the circumstances, but he’s no right to keep my private possessions from me and I can’t be accused of breaking and entering if I have a key to let myself in, can I? And if I happen to invite in a friend and they choose to bathe while they’re there . . . well, I’d like to see my husband get me slung in jail for that.’
A worried expression crossed her face then. ‘Just pray Harry’s not remembered about the spare key and moved it or that’s us snookered good and proper. Anyway, I wanted to get here before it’s light so that none of the neighbours spots us and tells him. We’ll need to hide in the back yard and be ready to go in as soon as Harry’s gone to work. That gives us a good four hours before he’s due home for his dinner at one. Oh, come on, time’s getting short and we need to hide ourselves before he and the neighbours are up and about.’
The prospect of having soap and water for the first time in an age was hard to resist. Glen followed Jan down the entry as far as the gate. Deftly lifting the latch, she opened the gate just wide enough to slip through, Glen following close behind. Jan hurried across a small slabbed area and on down a short path, one side of which was lawned, the other a vegetable patch, towards a small brick-built shed which stood against the garden wall. The old door was stiff, its wood having swollen in the wet wintry weather, and Jan had to push hard against it, praying that the noise it made didn’t alert anyone. She didn’t wait around to find out but gave Glen a shove on his back to urge him inside then quickly followed behind, shutting the door after them.
She breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, ‘Well, hopefully we managed that without anyone seeing us. Now we just have to wait until we hear Harry setting off for work.’
The shed was full of gardening equipment and discarded house hold items, along with the usual assortment of creepy crawlies and evidence of rodents. None of this bothered Glen as he was used to sharing whatever sleeping quarters he could find with such creatures. Jan, though, wasn’t so thrilled to be in the dark, dank shed, imagining herself covered in spiders and she constantly gave herself a pat down to remove them, whether they were there or not. The time seemed to pass very slowly. Eventually they heard the welcome noise of the back door opening and closing, then the clomp of hob-nailed boots across the slabs heading for the gate, the latch being lifted then shot back into place moments later.
Jan let several minutes pass to be on the safe side, just in case Harry had forgotten something and returned, before she crept her way over to the shed door. She ran her fingers above the lintel until she felt what she’d hoped to find. ‘I’ve got it!’ she whispered triumphantly. She peeped out to check all was clear. ‘Come on,’ she urged Glen.
Jan took him into a small kitchen, relocking the door after them then drawing the curtains shut before she put on the light. She looked around critically. The kitchen looked immaculate, not a thing out of place. ‘Well, for someone who’s done the washing up barely a dozen times in all the years we’ve been married, Harry seems to be managing well enough without me,’ she observed.
Meanwhile Glen was feeling awkward to be inside a house for the first time in over fifteen years. It felt a mite claustrophobic to be enclosed once more by