Vision in Trust (Legends of the North #2) (18 page)

As she turned away from James, a man blocked her from leaving the booth. "Excuse me."

"Sure. I was just on my way to the bar too."

Glancing back at everyone sitting in the booth, she turned back to the man and said, "Lead the way, lead the way."

James stared after Vicky, his mouth open in shock. He'd never heard anyone speak about his family that way before. His gaze dropped to her arse but, as fine as it was, it didn't excuse the abuse she'd just thrown at him, simply because his surname was Altenbury. Matt's opinion on being an Altenbury was well known, but even he didn't resent the family name as much as Vicky seemed to.
 

James knew his parents had some old-fashioned ideas, and even some strange ways of trying to achieve them, but underneath they were good people. Yes, perhaps Vicky was right that they thought they were living in a different era but did that make them bad people? He wondered what exactly his parents might have done to make Vicky believe those things as he rose to go after her.

"Does Vicky know John?" Jess asked Emma, and her words made James pause.

Following Jess's gaze, he sat back down, watching as John slipped an arm around her waist, and Vicky didn't try to stop him.

Matt snorted at Jess's question. "It's John. Everyone who comes in this pub knows John, even if it's only for one visit."

James glared at Matt and began to wish he'd never come out like he had originally planned. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, thoughts of being at home seemed appealing right then. He could be sitting in front of the fire, lost in a book, lost in another place and time. But he was here, so he took a long sip of his pint.
 

"I thought John was your friend," Emma stated, and James couldn't help but smile at her words.

"He is," Matt said. "Well, you know, he's a drinking friend. I see him when I come in the pub, and we chat. An 'occasionally get drunk at his place' type of friend."

Emma let out a sigh. "So not really a friend then. Do you even know anything about him? Apart from what football team he supports and what he drinks? Let me out so I can go and save her."

James stood to let Emma out of the booth and noted the glare Vicky threw in his direction. Nothing he could do about that—not there, anyway. Shoving his hands into his jeans pockets, he said, "I think I'm going to head off. That was about as much entertainment as I can handle for one night."

"Are you sure?" Jess asked.

With a small smile, he nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'll see you over the weekend though. Say bye to Emma for me, Matt."

"Will do."

With one last look in the direction of the bar, he strode out of the pub. Vicky and Emma had looked like they'd been in a heated conversation, but at least John had disappeared.

***

After James had left, the evening seemed to have hit rock bottom. Jess leaned over and whispered into Rob's ear. "Do you want to get out of here?"

"God, yes," he said, and then drained what was left in his pint glass.

 
Emma looked up from the lecture she'd been giving Vicky when Rob and Jess stood. "Are you leaving already?"

"Yeah, it's been a long week," Rob said, and Jess knew it wasn't just an excuse for him.

As they walked out into the dark night, towards Jess's cottage, images of the wolf played through her mind. A shudder ran through her as she saw Rob being attacked by the wolf and tightened her grip on his arm. Keys ready, she picked up her pace, just wanting to be safe inside her own home. Rob took the keys from her and opened the door, letting her inside before following. "That was an interesting night."
 

Jess laughed. "Yeah, never a dull moment when there's an Altenbury around."

"That is very true," he said, as he stepped towards her.

As he did, she stepped back until she was pushed against the wall, and Rob was pressed against her front. Dropping his head until his lips were just inches above hers, he stopped.
 

"Come on, let’s go to bed," he said and tugged her up the stairs.

Rob lay down on the bed then wrapped his arm around Jess. He pulled her against his chest, and she let out a sigh of contentment.
 

"Everything okay down there?"

Lifting her head, she brushed her lips against his, then smiled. "Everything's fine." Resting her head back against his chest, she focused on his steady breaths and swiftly fell asleep.

Twisting her head to the side, Jess opened her eyes at the sound of shuffling feet. Hundreds of them. Soldiers marched straight past her, their hands on the hilts of their swords. She held her breath, but none of them glanced her way. The smell of mud and burning torches had her wrinkling her nose as the last one passed her by.
 

Ahead, she saw the line of soldiers turn towards where Alt Hall should have been, watched as they dragged their prisoner towards the river. Starting after them, she kept a safe distance under the cover of darkness. Were they going to drown him? What had he done to become their prisoner, besides threatening her with words?

The soldiers stopped as they reached a small sycamore tree. Creeping around the side to where they stood to get a better view, she couldn't hold back the gasp that escaped from her lips. Beneath the tree, was a deep hole that looked like an open grave. The two soldiers who had dragged him from the fort started to tie him to the tree, the prisoner shouting at them in a language she didn't understand.
 

Pulling at their restraining grip, he tried to throw them off before they tied his hands behind him around the tree trunk. A soldier moved forward and placed the tip of his sword against the prisoner's neck, who froze.

She could make out the murmur of words, but none of them meant anything to her. The soldier leaned in close to the man, and he must have said something to him from the look on his face. Then he removed his sword from the man's neck and swung it behind him. Jess screamed at the thought of the soldier beheading him. No matter what he'd done, even if he deserved it, she didn't want to see it. Turning to run, her feet caught on something, and she screamed again, trapped.
 

Kicking her legs, she freed them from what was only the bedsheets, she realised. She sat up, panting, her forehead slicked with sweat. A hand landed on her back, and she jumped. She turned to see Rob's concerned face. He brushed his fingers across her cheek, where a strand of hair was plastered to it.

"They were going to ... to kill him, Rob." Even as she said the words, she felt the sting of tears in her eyes, which was ridiculous. She didn't even know who the man was, or why he felt the need to scream at her every time he saw her. Warm hands on her bare arms made her shiver as Rob pulled her into a hug, hard against his chest. Wrapping her arms around him, she buried her face in his shoulder, taking in deep breaths that smelled of Rob and safety. He rubbed her back in a soothing rhythm, and her breathing started to slow back to normal.

"I wish I could stop them, angel. Or be there with you, to protect you."

Not knowing what to say, she hugged him tighter. At least he was there afterwards. That's what really mattered.

The next morning, they all gathered at James's cottage. Rob sat right next to her and refused to let go of her hand. Matt and Emma stared at her while she told them all about the last vision. When she finished, Matt stood and began to pace the room.

"I've read so much, I just ... It's ..." He stopped pacing and took a deep breath. "I've never heard of anything that sounds like the prisoner you're describing. I've read lots of accounts on Roman life in the area and ... well, nothing." He threw his hands up in the air as he looked at Jess and Emma.

Biting her lip, Jess looked at James, but he just sat with his arms folded across his chest. "I'm not lying, and I'm not making it up. That's what I saw in the vision, Matt. Don't you remember saying to Emma that they weren't real? It may not have ever happened. Or it could have been someone else. It might mean something else altogether, Matt. I don't know, okay? I don't have all the answers. I can only tell you what I saw." Her voice was getting higher and higher, so she stopped talking when Rob squeezed her thigh.

James stood and moved to squat in front of her, a hand on each of her knees. "It's okay, Jess. Nobody expects you to know all the answers. None of us know, but maybe together we can try to work them out, rabbit," James said, patting her knees. "Do you think you could show us where you were? Where they tied the man to the tree?"

Slowly, Jess nodded. "I'm pretty sure I could show you. It wasn't far from Alt Hall."

"Okay, then what are we waiting for? Let's go see what we can find out," James said.

As they left James's cottage, Rob wrapped an arm around her waist and whispered in her ear. "Are you okay? Matt was pretty intense back there."

Her gaze flicked to Matt, walking hand in hand with Emma, then back to Rob. "I'm fine. He didn't mean anything by it. You know what he's like when he gets worked up. Honestly, this must be killing him. He works in the museum, he's studying history, and he teaches others for a living yet he has no answers for us about this."

Rob didn't reply, and Jess looked back over her shoulder at Matt. It must be hard for him. Rob couldn't understand since he hadn't seen what Matt and Emma had gone through last year. Hadn't seen what they'd had to fight only a month before. And now Matt had to watch while his sister and best friend went through the same thing. And he couldn't help, couldn't stop it.
 

At the squawk of a heron, Jess looked up to see it fly off, following the path of the river. The sky was a light blue, without a cloud in sight, and the sun shone with a weak heat. The season was changing, and she hoped it would bring a good change with it, besides the warmer weather. Ahead towered the sycamore tree from her vision. Even though it had been so much smaller in her vision, she was pretty sure it was the same one.
 

Slowly, she walked towards it, ran her fingers over the scaly bark. Placing her palm flat across the trunk, she gasped. Behind her closed eyelids, the images of the man tied to the tree flashed through her mind. Yanking her hand back from the bark, she stepped back, straight into Rob.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, but didn't argue when he wrapped his arms around her waist, and she leaned back against his chest. "This is the tree. My vision was here, at this tree." Glancing at Matt and James, she saw the look that passed between them. They paced around the tree, and she watched them until she couldn't wait any longer. "What?" Neither of them answered. "What was that look for, James?"

"What look?" James asked.

Jess could see the lie written across his face. They were keeping something from her. God, she felt like a kid again, when they would both keep secrets from her, trying to protect her. When would they realise she didn't need protecting? She just needed the truth.

***

Rob saw the look between Matt and James again and tightened his hold on Jess. He wasn't sure what the look meant, but he still didn't like it. The same way he hadn't liked wolves after Jess's vision included one. And he'd never been so scared of wolves since the attack, and the feeling he'd had then? He was getting it again.
 

Glancing around where they all stood, he checked for anything out of the ordinary, but there was nothing he could see. There were no wolves; in fact, there were no animal sounds at all. The field they stood in was eerily silent, just the quiet sound of the river in the distance.

"James, tell me. For crying out loud, we're in this together. It was my vision, and you can't keep it from me."

He could feel Jess shake in his arms, sensed the anger building inside her. She hated being told what to do, being controlled. But it was Matt who came to stand in front of her.

"I'm not keeping anything from you, Jess. I just want to make sure I'm right." Slowly, Matt turned in a circle, until he faced Jess again. "I'm pretty sure this is where the forge was in Roman times. Where they would have made their swords, and shields, and armour." Matt turned to stare at the sycamore tree, squinting at it as though he could see back to Roman times. "Again, I need to check, but I'm pretty sure this is where they would have killed their prisoners."

The silence seemed to get louder as Rob and the others turned their gazes to the tree. It looked so unremarkable.

James strode up to Matt and Jess, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "I think there's a local legend about a tree of death. Stories about blood and slaughter, but I'd need to check if it was that tree, that it happened there."

Matt nodded, and Emma came to take his hand. "Why don't we all go back to James's place?" she asked. "We can check if you're both right, and see what it means if you are."

Matt and Emma followed James as he turned and walked towards his house. When Jess didn't move, Rob asked, "Are you coming?"

Nodding, she stepped out of his embrace, but instead of following James, she walked towards the tree. "I'll be right behind you, just give me a minute."

Rob didn't want to leave her, but he sensed she needed to be alone. Brushing his lips across her cheek, he said, "Don't be too long."

Jess turned her head and watched them walk away. Looking back at the tree, she pressed her palm to the trunk again. That time, there was nothing but the wood beneath her hand. Gently, she dropped her forehead to the trunk and took a deep breath, tears threatening to fall. She'd come back home because her parents had forced her and, despite the current issues, she was glad that she had. Living in London, she'd felt so alone, not really living at all, just going through the motions. She'd run away, and her life in London was her way of hiding from what had happened. But coming back home had given her back her brothers, her family. And she'd met Emma, and she had Rob, sort of.
How much longer will I have to spend with them, though?