Free Frisky Business by Clodagh Murphy Page B

you think—’ Before he had a chance to say any more, they were interrupted by a herd of children in Hallowe’en costumes swarming down the path and bursting between them like a loud, debris-strewn river, leaving Kit and Romy on opposite banks. Romy stepped back to her gate to letthem pass, but while the rest of them streamed away, one child stopped dead in front of Kit.
    ‘Stranger danger!’ He heard a breathy gasp and looked down to see his nemesis gazing up at him – the little witch with the spider’s web face. ‘Scream, kick, run,’ she was muttering under her breath, as if coaching herself, before doing just that. She shrieked loudly, administered a sharp kick to Kit’s shin, then sprinted off down the road like a firework rocketing into the night, emitting a high-pitched squeal the whole way.
    ‘Fu-uck!’ Kit puffed, reaching down to rub his shin. ‘Bloody hell! What do they teach kids in school these days?’ He looked up at Romy, who had backed into the gate and was opening it behind her without taking her eyes off him.
    ‘They teach them, “Scream, kick, run.” I’d say she’s a credit to her teacher,’ she said, looking after the little girl, who had now disappeared.
    ‘Jesus, Romy,’ he gasped, still winded from the pain in his shin, ‘I’m not—’
    ‘How do you know my name?’
    ‘What?’ Oh fuck! ‘Look, I’m not a perv—’
    ‘You were watching my house and you know my name. Who are you?’
    There was nothing else for it. He was just going to have to take off his mask and reveal himself as the idiot he was. He stepped out of the shadow of the tree so she could see him better.
    ‘Don’t come any closer,’ she breathed, her glance shifting nervously between the end of the road and him.
    He stood still where he was and pulled the mask off over his head.
    ‘
Kit!
’ she gasped.

 
    ‘Hi,Romy.’ He smiled at her sheepishly.
    She just stood staring at him, dumbstruck. What on earth? Kit glanced nervously to the end of the road. ‘Do you think she’s coming back?’ he asked her.
    ‘Oh, most definitely,’ she said, a smile tugging at her lips.
    ‘With townsfolk.’
    ‘Oh!’
    ‘Yeah. Pitchforks, flaming torches, the whole shebang.’
    ‘Right.’
    Still she didn’t move. She stood there watching him, just letting him sweat. They both turned when they heard voices at the end of the road and he saw the little girl coming back, thistime with a couple of adults in tow. ‘He was pretending to be someone’s dad,’ she was saying as they drew closer, ‘but I knew he wasn’t—’
    ‘Come on, you’d better come in before the lynch mob gets here,’ Romy said, grabbing Kit’s hand and pulling him through the gate and up the garden path. They jogged up the steps to the house and she opened the door quickly, hustling him inside. Bumble snaked between their legs and slid through the door at the same time and took off down the hall.
    ‘Thanks!’ Kit puffed once the door closed behind them.
    ‘No problem. Anyway, I still want to hear your explanation.’
    Kit opened his mouth to speak, but she shushed him. ‘Later,’ she said. ‘I have guests.’
    ‘Oh, sorry – I thought all the guests had gone.’ He realised his mistake as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
    ‘So you
were
watching the house.’ She gave him a stern look.
    ‘I can explain—’
    ‘Later,’ she said again, leading him through an inner door and into a large cosy living room.
    There were only a few stragglers left – a pair of crumblies were wrapped around each other on the sofa and a huge guy stood by the buffet shovelling food into his mouth. A young couple sat at the other end of the sofa, their heads bent in conversation. They all looked up at the sight of fresh meat.
    ‘Look who I found outside!’ Romy said, pulling him over to the sofa. The old pair broke out of their embrace to look up at him. ‘This is Kit,’ she told them. ‘He’s an old friend. Kit, this is May and Frank. They