Entwined (17 page)

“Grace, we’ll find a way, I promise,” I said, taking her hand and squeezing it.

“We watched her, every day for a week. She’s terrified, Corran. I’ve never seen her so afraid.”

“Then she has discovered what her father is like and will come to us willingly.”

“I’m frightened, Corran.”

“I know you are, Grace, but we’re going to put all this right, I promise you,” I said, hoping that I was going to be able to make good on the promise.

“May I spend some time alone with my son?” Grace whispered.

“Of course you can. He’s a fine boy, you should be very proud.”

“Then that would be a credit to you, Corran.”

I stopped dead and stared at the woman, her words cutting my flesh to the bone. I was taken off guard, thrown by her comment into a terrifying pain that ripped the joy from my soul. Had she meant the comment in malice? I would probably never know.

******

CHAPTER 15

Kate had returned and the men, including the infamous Robert Hamilton, to whom I had yet to be introduced, had all gathered in the taproom to discuss her purchases. I was mildly curious to know what she had bought, but my overriding emotion was the need to be alone; to get myself away from the sympathetic eyes of everyone around me. Grace had found her son, and my son had found his mother, somewhere in that equation sat me, the woman who had raised him. I considered bolting upstairs and crying into a pillow, but pride prevented it. I may have lost my son to this woman, but I had no intention of losing my dignity to her as well.

Instead, I decided to correct the catering deficit and hid in the kitchen with a cheese grater and pasta. I resented the meal for its simplicity, and dragged the process out as far as I could. Realistically, though, there really was a limit to how complicated I could make this macaroni cheese.

I toyed with the idea of creating a desert, even rummaged through the cupboards with the thought of baking a cake, but in the end I didn’t have the enthusiasm. What I really wanted was somewhere to hide, not something to do, yet pride prevented me from seeking solace in my room. The baby felt heavy and my back ached. My head throbbed where I had banged it earlier and although I didn’t much care for Grace, that didn’t change the fact that I was desperately worried about her daughter.

For all my vocal confidence, I had absolutely no idea how we were going to get her away from Angus.

Warming the heaped plates in the microwave one by one I turned to see my husband in the kitchen.

“You ready for dinner?” I asked

“Aye, lass,” he replied with a smile that only he could muster at the mention of food.

“Can I help?” Rose asked, joining us in the kitchen.

I nodded, slowly handing her a bowl of salad. “You can take this through to the taproom.”

“Anything else?”

“I’m warming the plates up now, you can give me a hand to take them through,” I replied, removing the first heated plate from the microwave.

Amber appeared beside my feet, her hazel eyes looking expectantly up at me.

“I’d not thought what you were going to eat.”

“It’s alright, Corran,” said Eilidh, running into the kitchen with a tin in her hand. “I asked Kate to get her some of these. She loves them almost as much as pudding.”

At the mention of her nickname she barked, which reduced both Eilidh and I to laughter. It felt good to laugh and I silently thanked the creature for it.

“Eilidh, Grace told me about Jenny.”

She nodded. “It’s a problem and I don’t know how to fix it, Corran.”

“I’ve got an idea, Eilidh, but I don’t know if it will work. How accurate can you be with the crystal?”

She smiled, “After today, I’d say even Marta would be impressed. I brought them all back to within hours of when we left.”

“Can you do it again?” I asked.

“I can try. Why?”

“Because I have an idea but I can’t tell you now. Meet me in the cellar after dinner and bring Grace, a pendant, and two lockets.

I noticed that two plates sat untouched. My son and Grace were absent from the party of people that crowded in front of the fire to eat. No one mentioned their absence and I pretended not to notice.

I watched Robert with his food, and concluded that he had an appetite easily as healthy as both Simon and Duncan. Harry by contrast seemed to eat little of his food and sat uncomfortably, playing with the tubes of pasta on his plate, casting an occasional glance across at Rose.

So many lives had been changed forever in this pub over the last few days. I wondered how many of us would leave here the same people we had been. Certainly Rose and Harry’s life would never be the same again. I shifted my eyes across to my husband and for the first time wondered how he had felt when he discovered that Angus was Duncan’s father. My hand instinctively went to my bulging stomach. Life had taken some unexpected turns alright.

I could hear my husband’s voice.

“I’d like to get an early start. What time do these supermarkets open?”

“Nine,” replied Rose.

“Right. Kate, I’d like you to take Grace and Robert with you tomorrow. You’ll get more done with their help,” Simon said, turning to face Robert. “Are you alright with that?”

“I welcome the chance to be of assistance,” he answered, and I realized that those were the first words I had heard the man speak.

He had a nice voice, deep and commanding; much as I had expected his voice might sound like. His features were striking, and it wasn’t difficult to see what Grace saw in him, but to my mind he wasn’t half as handsome as my husband. Simon stood a good inch taller than the man, and although they sported similar heads of black curls, Robert’s was peppered with flecks of grey.

“Corran, did you think of anything else for the list?” Kate asked.

I shook my head. “No, sweet. Sorry.”

“No worries,” Kate replied.

Everyone had eaten except for Duncan and Grace. I couldn’t wait any longer. Making an excuse that the plates needed clearing, I followed Eilidh, Kate, and Rose into the kitchen.

“I need to talk to you, Eilidh. We haven’t much time,” I whispered as she loaded the last plate into the dishwasher.

“What’s this?” asked Kate.

“Nothing, love,” I replied cursing silently.

“You’re up to something, Corran, what is it?” Rose said, joining in the conversation.

I put my finger to my lips to silence the girls. “Shh… Keep it down. Come with me?” I stuck my head around the kitchen door to check that the coast was clear. It was. I rejoined the three girls in the kitchen and lead them down into the cellar, grabbing a candle before we left.

“Right, Eilidh, I’m guessing Grace is too busy with Duncan so we’re going to have to do this ourselves. I need your help,” I said, nodding at Kate and Rose. “But you aren’t to say a word, do you hear me?”

They both nodded nervously.

“Eilidh, I need you take me to Jenny - but instead of going back in time I want you to go forwards. Take me to the twentieth of December. Harry told us that no one has ever travelled further than that date. If that is true, then I’m willing to bet that Angus is no exception. He’ll have other things on his mind that day and I’m guessing Jenny won’t be one of them. With Angus distracted we will have the best chance of getting Jenny away from the monster.”

“Corran, I don’t know. I think we should talk to Simon first,” Eilidh argued.

“No,” I said, knowing that Simon would veto the idea without thought.

“Just do it for me, Eilidh, please. I’ve never asked anything of you before. Trust me, love, please,” I begged.

“Alright, but only if we can take Kate and Rose with us,” Eilidh replied reluctantly.

“Fine,” I said without hesitation, thinking that they could actually come in useful. “Do it, Eilidh. Please, now, before we run out of time.”

We all joined hands and huddled around the lit candle. “Take us to Jenny on the evening of the twentieth, Eilidh, and set us down somewhere safe,” I said, as she opened her hand and lifted the crystal to its light.

Before I knew it the cellar spun around us until we fell into a vortex of disorientation. Eventually the spinning stopped and I steadied myself trying to work out where we were.

******

CHAPTER 16

Monnies End, Chesterfield, Derbyshire - 20th December, Modern Day

“We’re in a graveyard,” said Eilidh, reading my thoughts. “Through those trees is where Grace used to live. Look,” she said, nodding to a gap in a thick row of old trunks, “Jenny’s in the lounge.”

I stared down through the break in the trees and saw the girl. There was no disputing her father, or brother, but she was smaller; shorter than either Angus or Duncan. I guessed she must have inherited Grace’s build. Scanning my eyes along the length of the house I noticed Angus in the kitchen, two windows down from the lounge. It wasn’t going to be as simple as I had made out, but then I had always known that.

“Eilidh, can you use the crystal to get into the house?” I asked.

She nodded. “But it’s risky, Corran. I can’t control the place and time that accurately.”

“Alright, don’t worry, I didn’t expect you could, but it was worth asking,” I said, slipping my hand into the pocket of my oversized sweatshirt, and withdrawing Harry’s mobile phone.

“What are you doing?” Rose whispered.

“I’m finding out where the man’s mobile is,” I said. “Rose, can you see him in the kitchen?” I was sure she had seen him as clearly as I had, but I wanted to make sure that she was alright with the sight of him.

“I can see him,” she said with a hint of venom to her voice.

“Do you think you can watch him, whilst I ring his mobile?”

“Yeah, of course I can, but where did you get his mobile number from?”

“It was in the phone that Grace put in Kate’s desk, I’m guessing he hasn’t changed it in the last week,” I said smiling at the girl’s stunned faces.

“Well I’ll be damned,” said Kate. “That was bloody genius.”

“We’re going to ring him and see where his phone is. With any luck he’s got it on him. If he has then I’m going to phone him again and have a little chat with him, whilst you three go and get Jenny. If you’re quick and leave me with the pendant the man shouldn’t be able to trace me. If things go wrong, light the candle and take Jenny home. I’ll find my way back to York,” I said, with far more confidence than I felt.

“Corran, you are insane,” said Kate with a look of horror on her face. “Do you have any idea what that man is capable of?”

“Yes, Kate, I have a very good idea what the man is capable of, but I’ve also killed him once. I’ll do it again if I have to.”

“No, Corran, you mustn’t,” said Eilidh with a panicked shrill to her voice. “If you kill him now Duncan and Jenny may never exist. We don’t know how old this Angus is. He could still be in nappies for all we know.”

“I hear you, Eilidh, but I think we can all be sure that man is well out of nappies,” I said trying to break the tension.

“I’m serious, Corran. He came and went through time without a care for its consequences. He had more lives than we’ve had hot dinners.”

“Alright, sweet, I’m not going to kill him. I’m just telling you that Jenny is your priority. You have to get her back to her mother before this man does her some harm,” I said firmly.

“You are right, we do need to get Jenny away from him but not at your expense. Do you not understand, Corran, that child is the one who will one day save us all? I can’t risk Angus getting his hands on either you
or
the baby. By rights I should take you all back now,” Eilidh shouted in an exaggerated whisper.

Eilidh had changed so much I hardly recognized her. No more the quiet, placid child who allowed the likes of Shannon to control her. Here was a woman who knew her own mind, a strong woman who didn’t suffer fools.

“I’m not the one going into the house, Eilidh. I’m only going to use the phone. Just so long as I have the pendant he won’t be able to trace me, and if you three are quick we can all be out of here before the evil sod knows what’s hit him.”

“What if she won’t come with us?” Rose asked quietly.

“Then you grab hold of her, light the candle and take her home.”

“And you?” Kate asked.

“Eilidh can come back for me. If she doesn’t, I’ve picked up enough money to get a train back to York. I used the laptop thing to plan a route. I know there’s a station in Chesterfield and I also know it goes straight through to York. There’s even a bus from the end of this road that will take me right into the centre of town. I can probably make my own way back to York faster than you can use the crystal to find me.”

“Corran, you do realize the risk we are running by even being out here, don’t you?” Eilidh said. I caught the rise of her brows in the light of the moon.

“I do, Eilidh, but that is why I told you to bring two pendants. By your own admission three were enough to protect us all in the pub. I’m sure the four of us are safe with two.”

“And now we have left the pub vulnerable,” she replied.

“I know, and that is why we need to get this job done,” I replied, knowing full well that the fatal flaw in my argument was the simple fact that I couldn’t keep both crystals if Eilidh had to go back without me, but I didn’t intend on bringing this fact to their attention. “Now are you all ready?” I asked.

Reluctantly they all nodded. “Eilidh, may I have one of the pendants please?”

She slid it into my open hand. “Keep safe, Corran,” she whispered.

I ran my finger over the names in Harry’s address book, stopping as soon as I reached the name I had recently added. “Ready?” I asked, with my thumb hovering over the green button.

The girls nodded.

It wasn’t going to be easy to scramble through the hole in the trees and then down the bank into the garden. I only hoped Angus hadn’t locked the patio doors to the lounge. I checked the window again. I could still see Jenny. She hadn’t moved from the black sofa in front of the television since we had arrived. Grace had been right. The girl did look frightened. Her eyes stared unfocused at the screen and she was playing nervously with a thread on the end of her jumper, much like Duncan did when he was uncomfortable or cornered. I had no doubts about what we were about to do.

Taking one deep breath I pushed the button. The phone rang. Angus fumbled around the counter in the kitchen. I watched through the window as he lifted the phone to his ear. I waited for him to answer, watched confusion and then annoyance sweep over his face, and then I deliberately hung up.

“He’s got the phone in there with him,” I said, voicing what we had all just seen.

“Are you going to call him again?” Eilidh asked, clearly hoping I had changed my mind.

“I am, but I was thinking that you three should get a head start. You’ve got that bank to get down and the garden to cover before you even get to Jenny. I want to spend as little time as possible on the phone to him. The longer I’m connected to him the more chance there is that he’ll be able to trace me. You guys go on ahead, when you get to the patio door, I’ll call him. Hopefully the noise of the phone will help cover the sound of the door being opened too.”

“Corran, why don’t we all go together?” Rose asked nervously.

“Because I couldn’t get down that bank. I’d slow you up too much and we’d all end up getting caught. From up here in the graveyard I can see everything that is going on in that house. I can distract the man and give you three a fair chance of getting Jenny out.”

“Corran?” Eilidh, said, putting her hand gently on my arm. “If we have to take Jenny without you, remember that you must get back to the pub before midnight tomorrow.”

“Why, Eilidh?”

“Because I did what you asked and I’ve brought you to the twentieth.”

“What’s going to happen at midnight tomorrow?” Rose asked.

Eilidh shook her head slowly and I caught a flash of fear in her eyes.

“We don’t know for sure - but Marta thinks that all time-travelers will be thrown back to their own times,” replied Eilidh.

“What about the villagers?” I asked, growing suddenly afraid for my people.

“The Stag will see them through the change, but he won’t last much after that. He is sacrificing his life for the Highlands and its people.”

“I understand,” I said, giving the girl a gentle hug. “Go, all of you and remember that Jenny is the one you need to rescue. I’ve the means to take care of myself.”

I knew, without doubt, that the three of them weren’t going to have time to come back for me.

They were going to have to move fast. I just hoped that they could move fast enough to get Jenny safely back to her mother.

I watched as they pushed their way through the thick trunks and down the bank. Quietly, they slid into the garden and crouched behind some bushes to the side of the lounge. Jenny still hadn’t moved, and neither had Angus. I couldn’t quite make out what he was doing in the kitchen but it looked as though he was working on a laptop.

As the girls reached the patio door, and Eilidh’s hand stretched out towards the handle I pressed the button on the phone.

Angus’ mobile rang, he reached across the counter for it, I heard him answer.

“Yes,” he barked.

Jenny had seen the girls, she was standing, moving towards them. Kate lifted her finger to her lips and Eilidh fumbled in her jacket pocket. She passed the candle back to Rose.

“That’s a bit of a gruff greeting for a vicar,” I replied, in the calmest voice I could manage.

“Who is this?” he shouted.

The girls crowded in around Jenny. Eilidh reached out to grab her arm but the girl flinched and stepped backwards.

Angus turned to leave the kitchen.

“Angus,” I shouted.

He stopped and turned back to face the window, his beady eyes scanning the darkness of the garden.

“Where are you?” he growled.

A sharp pain stabbed my lower back and a tiny moan escaped my lips.

Rose lit the candle, Eilidh lunged at Jenny, Rose and Kate followed. The crystal connected with the flame, their shapes swirled and blurred.

“Nowhere you will ever find me,” I said slowly, watching as my friends disappeared in time.

I bent double trying to breathe through the pain. A voice in the back of my head screamed, but I couldn’t hear it, couldn’t understand it. I knew I had to get away from this place but I couldn’t think where to. I couldn’t remember where I was. Angus’ voice echoed through the window and then seconds later the handset. I remembered I had to hang up.

He was in the lounge, screaming for his daughter. He lifted the television set off its stand and hurled it at the sliding door. It bounced back and shattered on the pale blue carpet leaving the double-glazed sliding door in a spider’s web of cracks.

I was in the graveyard at the back of Angus’ house, I remembered, as the pain of the contraction eased. Staring through the gap in the trees I watched the man as he raised his hand and banged it on a table. He grew demented, kicking furniture, throwing anything and everything that came to hand.

A figure appeared from the shadows of the room and delivered a silencing punch to Angus’ face. He stumbled and then fell onto his back. The man reached forwards and lifted Angus’ head inches off the ground before raising his right foot and kicking him square in the face. I cringed as his head dropped backwards into an ever-growing pool of his own blood.

I couldn’t wait around in the graveyard any longer. My friends had done what I had asked and taken Jenny back to her mother. I was on my own and for the first time since hatching the ridiculous plot I realized how misguided I had been in asking Eilidh to bring me to the twentieth of the month. There was little or no chance that I would have enough time to get myself back to York before they all had to leave. My only hope was that Eilidh would find me, but I couldn’t sit around waiting for her. I had to get away from the house. I was too close to Angus, I needed to be a long way away before he came round from the beating.

There was a bus - I tried to recall the number, seventy seven, I thought, but wasn’t sure. It would take me to the town and from there I just had to find the station. I wasn’t going to make it to York on time, but I hoped to get far away enough from Angus to make my mark, at least, challenging to trace. With the pendant clutched firmly in my hand I found my way to the gates. They were locked. The only way I was going to get out was to climb my way over the gates.