The House Sitter Read Free Page A

stay so long in the sea. She’d put Haley completely out of her mind while she and Mike enjoyed that stupid romp in the waves.
    “Isn’t that your little girl?”
    “What?” She snapped out of her stupor.
    The teenage girl who had brought her the towel was still beside her. “With the man in the red shorts on the bit above the beach.”
    “Oh, my God!” Haley, for sure. She was holding the hand of a strange man, the pair of them standing quite still. Olga screamed Haley’s name and started running up the beach towards them. “She’s mine! That’s my child! Haley!”
    Haley shouted, “Mummy!” and waved her free hand. The other was still gripped by the man, a shaven-headed, muscled figure in tight-fitting red shorts that reached to his knees. He didn’t attempt to leave.
    Continuing to shriek, “He’s got my child! That’s my child!” Olga scrambled up the steep bank of pebbles, nightmarishly slipping back with each step, yet oblivious of the pain to her bare feet.
    As soon as she was close enough she shouted, “What are you doing with my child?”
    He called something back. It sounded like, “Easy, lady.”
    “Let go of her!”
    She stumbled the last steps towards them and heard him say, “I just found her. I’m the lifeguard.”
    She had to play over in her brain what he had said because it was so clear in her mind that he was evil, a child-snatcher.
    But when she reached the stone embankment above the pebbles, the man released Haley, who flung herself at her mother with arms outstretched.
    “Oh, Mummy—I was lost.”
    “What happened? Are you all right, darling?”
    “This man found me.”
    He said, “Did you hear me, Mrs? I’m the lifeguard. She was in our hut. One of her friends went there for first aid.”
    “One of those girls I was playing with was hit in the face by the Frisbee,” Haley said. “It wasn’t me that threw it. Her eye was hurt, so we all went up to get some help. She’s all right now. Her mummy came and took her and her sister away. I was left. I couldn’t see you anywhere.”
    Olga felt tears streaming from her eyes. She apologised to the lifeguard, and thanked him all in the same sentence. Haley was still in her arms, gripping her possessively. She’d had a big fright. Olga carried her back to their spot on the beach. Mike hadn’t returned, but the people around smiled and asked if Haley was all right.
    Olga explained what had happened. She looked in the picnic bag and found a can of drink for Haley. “We’ll be leaving as soon as Daddy gets back,” she said. “The tide’s coming in, anyway.”
    People were packing up all around them. The French family dismantled their windbreak and folded their towels. The teenagers said goodbye and carried the loungers back to the store. Of those around them, only the copper-haired woman appeared intent on staying until the tide forced her to move. It was practically at her heels.
    “Where’s Daddy?”
    “He went looking for you. He’ll be back soon.”
    “We’ll have to get up soon, or we’ll get wet.”
    “I know. We can give him a few minutes more. We might have to meet him at the car.”
    “Is he cross with me?”
    “I’m sure he isn’t. We’ll tell him what happened.”
    Olga used the time to fold the towels and fill the bags.
    Presently Haley asked, “Why isn’t that lady packing up? Her feet must be getting wet.”
    The child was right. The woman hadn’t made any attempt to move yet.
    Olga couldn’t see her properly. The windbreak was around her head and shoulders. Probably if Olga hadn’t already made such an exhibition of herself she would have popped her head over the canvas and said, You’d better move now, sweetie, or you’ll get a wave over you any minute. The experience with Haley had temporarily taken away her confidence.
    A little further along, the lager lads with their empties heaped in front of them were watching with obvious amusement the progress of the tide towards the woman’s