She picked up all her tools and pushed the door, but it didn’t budge. Confused, she tried the door again and it still didn’t move. She put the tools down and tried again. It didn’t shift an inch. Shit. She threw her weight against the door in a panic, it still didn’t move. The handle wasn’t turning properly from the inside, partly frozen from the intense cold and her hands were too numb to apply any real pressure to it.

Leaning onto one of the shelves, she tried to kick the door handle with her feet, but that didn’t work either.

She banged on the door and shouted as loud as she could, but there was no noise from the room outside and no one came to rescue her.

She banged again, shouting, yelling, throwing her weight against it time and time again but she was trapped.

She quickly dug her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through her contacts. Who could she call? Henry or Daisy were the obvious choices; if they were next door they could come and let her out but Henry wasn’t speaking to her and she didn’t have Daisy’s number.

Maggie was twenty minutes away, Jill would be about half hour and her brother was a good fifty minutes from her house.

The phone beeped feebly to say she was running out of battery. Shit, could anything else go wrong?

She quickly dialled Henry’s number. He would be angry but he wouldn’t leave her in here to freeze to death.

It rang a few times and to her surprise he answered straight away.

‘Hello?’

She tried to judge his tone – was he still angry, upset, regretful? Now was not the time to get into any of that.

‘Henry, are you in your house? I need your help.’

‘No.’

One-word answers weren’t good, he clearly hadn’t forgiven her yet. She was so mad at him, she didn’t even want to speak to him right now. And if he was out then he couldn’t even help her.

The phone beeped, indicating that it was about to die any second.

‘How far away are you?’

His voice softened slightly with concern as he sensed the panic.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Is Daisy at home?’

‘No she’s at Anna’s, what’s wrong?’

‘I’m trapped in the freezer.’

‘How are you trapped?’

‘The door is stuck. After the power cut the freezer reset itself and it’s colder in here than it should be. I had to carve in here and I’ve been in here for nearly two hours and now I can’t get out.’

Henry was silent for a moment and then the phone rang off.

She stared at the phone in horror. Was he coming, was he not coming?

She tried to phone him again but before the phone even rang her phone died.

Crap.

She had to get out of here. She threw herself at the door a few more times but it just didn’t move at all.

OK, so she had to remember how to survive extreme temperatures. She had looked into it once when she had been trying to find out how long it was safe for her to work in the freezer. She didn’t think moving around was a good idea because that kept blood pumping around the extremities but away from the vital organs, so she just had to stay still. She sat down in the corner of the room and curled herself up into a tight ball, knees up to her chest, her arms wrapped round them.

Henry had to be coming. No matter how angry he was, he wouldn’t leave her to freeze to death. He would come and save her. It just depended on whether he could get to her in time.

Chapter Twenty-three

Henry skidded to a halt outside the house. It had taken him nearly half an hour to get home. He should have called the fire brigade or the police or someone, anyone would have got there quicker than he could have done, but he knew the satnav didn’t actually take anyone directly to the house and, remembering what a pain in the arse it had been for him to find the place on his first day, he didn’t want to waste time explaining where the property was. He had phoned Daisy to get her to cycle home, but neither she nor Anna had answered the phone and Anna didn’t have a car as Steve had taken theirs to come and meet him.

He raced around the back of the house and barged through the back door and into the cool room. He yanked at the freezer door. It was stuck but he pulled at it hard and it eventually opened. Penny was sitting in the corner of the room, huddled up into a ball. She wasn’t moving. The bottom dropped out of his world.

He ran to her side and shook her but there was no response. He quickly scooped her up and carried her out as she flopped uselessly against his arms. Should he call an ambulance? Should he just drive her to a hospital himself? It was over a forty-five-minute drive from here to the nearest hospital, probably closer to an hour. He knew phone reception was sporadic and he didn’t want to leave her while he ran down to the shed to make the call.

The most important thing was to get her warm. He laid her in front of the fireplace and quickly built a fire in the grate. As it flickered and roared into life he covered her with a blanket and ran upstairs and grabbed the thick duvet off her bed.

Her clothes were icy cold and he knew he had to get her out of them if she was going to warm up. She was so still and it scared the crap out of him to see her like a frozen Sleeping Beauty. He yanked the zip down on her jacket and dragged it off her body. The long-sleeved t-shirt she was wearing underneath was also cold so that came off too. He yanked her boots off and pulled her waterproof trousers and her leggings off so she was just left in her underwear. Ripping his shirt off, he lay on top of her, covering them both with the duvet.

‘Penny, can you hear me?’

She didn’t move; he wasn’t even sure if she was breathing. He put his face next to hers and could feel tiny shallow breaths on his cheek. He rubbed her arms, desperately, she was so cold and she didn’t seem to be getting any warmer.

‘Penny come on, open your eyes and look at me,’ he begged.

The fire was roaring hugely now and he could feel the heat through the duvet and on his face. She had to feel it too.

‘Penny, if you don’t open your eyes now, I’ll never speak to you again. Do you hear me. Open your fucking eyes.’

To his surprise she did and he nearly wept with relief. She stared past him, her gaze not focussing on him at all, and he grabbed her face hard. ‘Look at me.’

She blinked blearily a few times and then her eyes locked with his.

‘You came,’ she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. ‘I thought you didn’t care.’

‘Of course I fucking care. You know how much you mean to me.’

She shook her head as he carried on gently rubbing her arms. ‘Not really. You said you never wanted to see me again.’

‘I was angry. I didn’t mean it. Jesus, Penny, how could you believe that I didn’t care?’

‘You were quite adamant. And I hated you a little bit for it too. You said we were finished.’

‘No, we’re not,’ he snapped before realising his concern for her and relief that she was OK were now quickly turning into anger too. ‘Christ, you scared the crap out of me.’

He found himself burying his face in her neck, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tightly against him. He had nearly lost her. He closed his eyes and breathed her in, relishing the feel of her pulse hammering against his lips, proving she was very much alive.

‘Am I naked?’

He looked up. ‘I was trying to keep you warm.’

‘By undressing me?’

‘Body heat is supposed to be the best way to combat hypothermia.’

‘Are you naked too?’

‘I have my jeans on.’

‘Did you just strip me naked so you could perv over me?’

‘It didn’t cross my mind.’

‘Really? So if I was a man, the first thing you would have done would be to strip me naked and lie on top of me?’