Vision in Trust (Legends of the North #2) (5 page)

Matt shook his head but took a sip of his beer before answering. "I don't think they can be taken literally. Jess saw James alive and chasing her, so ..."

Rob couldn't argue with that, but it was so confusing and—although he'd never admit it out loud—a bit scary. He didn't want to think about himself dying, especially not by a spear, or a bloody wolf. "I keep thinking about James. Both Emma and Jess saw him, and now he's missing. Emma saw him at the hall, and Jess saw him at his cottage. Has anyone looked for him there?"

"Believe me, if he were at Altenbury Hall, my parents would have told me or Jess by now. No one has access to James's place, so how could he be there?"

"People have been known to break into houses. Whoever killed James knows the family history, the family places. Emma's visions led you to him, so why couldn't Jess's?"

"It's worth a try," Matt said, standing as he finished his pint.

***

Jess slammed the front door behind her and threw her bag on the floor. The smell of cooking meat took her straight into the kitchen. "God, that smells amazing. What are you doing here?"

Emma scooped the meat out of the pan and set it to one side with a laugh. "I do still live here, you know."

Jess pulled out a chair and sat at the table, leaning her head on her hand. "I know. It's just that you spend most of your time at Matt's now. I did wonder if you'd officially moved in with him and just not told me."

Emma threw a towel in Jess's direction. "Trust me, when ... if he asks, you'll be the first to know."

Jess picked up the towel and started twisting it around her hand. "Oh, he'll ask. I'm just not sure which question he'll ask first."

Emma spun around to face her. "Do you know something?"

Jess smiled but shook her head. "Only that my brother is crazy about you, so he's bound to ask those questions sooner or later. Both of them."

Emma spooned the meat back into the casserole dish, placed it in the oven, and then sat down opposite Jess. "You okay? You look tired."

Jess untwisted the towel, folded it, and placed it on the table. She glanced at Emma, who was still watching her. "I'm fine. I mean, I'm not sleeping too well. I guess I'm worried I'll have another dream. I'm cranky because I'm tired, and I'm so sick of my job.
 

“All the fights I had with my parents so I could study, so I had a chance of helping others, and I end up working in a bloody sandwich shop. I'd laugh if I thought it wouldn't end up with me crying. It's just ... nothing is going the way I planned. You know?"

Emma nodded, squeezing Jess's hand before she stood. She rooted around in her handbag, bringing a piece of paper back to Jess, who read the advert, then slowly read it again. She could see Emma twisting her ring around and around.
 

Before she finished the second read of it, Emma spoke. "I know it's not what you're really looking for. I just thought it was a start. Maybe it could lead to other opportunities, and at least you'd have some experience."

Jess set the advert down, placing her hand over Emma's to stop her twisting her finger off. "It sounds great. I hadn't really thought about working with kids, but anything has to be better than making sandwiches. I just want to help people, you know, to make a difference in their lives. Someone they can talk to, who will protect them. I know what needing someone like that feels like." Jess stopped as she felt her eyes fill up.
 

Emma frowned at her, and Jess knew she wanted to ask what she meant, but she kept talking. "I could do this on weekends and after work, hopefully, make it full time at some point, and then ditch the deli." She smiled at Emma as she finished speaking. Emma didn't look too convinced but before she could ask any questions, they heard the front door open.

Rob and Matt walked into the kitchen, and Jess suddenly felt like she was burning up. She knew her cheeks were flushed, but she couldn't help it; she thought of Rob, and he materialised like magic. She shook her head. Rob wasn't someone she could talk to. With that body, he could protect her, but that wasn't his style. You couldn't protect someone if you never saw them again.

"Hey," Matt said, getting her attention.
 

He walked over to Emma and kissed her like he hadn't seen her for months, rather than hours. Not what she particularly wanted to see her brother doing. But it was Emma's face that stopped Jess from turning away. That look of pure happiness. Jess let out a quiet sigh, knowing she shouldn't begrudge Emma, but why couldn't she find someone who felt like that about her? She couldn't watch as Matt kissed Emma again, but she saw Rob watching her as she turned her back on the couple. "Get a room, you two. I don't need to see my brother in a PDA in my own house." She heard Matt's laugh and the note of bitterness in her own voice and hated it.

"Calm down, Jess. It’s still Emma’s house too and we actually came to speak to you," Matt said as he pulled out the chair beside her and took a seat. "Your last vision. You said you were in a field. Was it the field behind Altenbury Hall or the one in front of James's cottage?"

Jess thought about it but knew where she had been. "I was outside James's cottage. Why?"

"But you never saw James?" Matt continued, ignoring her question.

Jess shook her head. "No, there was no one around until ... until ..." She nodded in Rob's direction, but couldn't look at him.
 

"What are you thinking, Matt?" Emma asked as she turned the oven down low then sat back down in the chair opposite Jess.
 

Matt leaned back, glanced towards Rob, and shrugged. "Do you remember your vision of the rosebush, Emma? The one that led us to find James in the vault? Maybe Jess's vision is leading us to him too."

Jess looked at Matt for a long time, and the silence seemed to grow louder. She remembered telling Emma that she wasn't crazy for having visions, but Jess felt like she was then. She saw Rob dying, and that would lead her to find her dead brother? If it were happening to someone else, she'd suggest they seek medical help. She was the one who had wanted to look for James though, so why was she hesitating? Nodding, she grabbed her coat from the hook. Waiting around wasn't going to make it seem any less crazy.

***

Jess followed Rob and Matt down the lane, Emma at her side, and a feeling of déjà vu between them. As they neared the vault, her heart rate picked up and she increased her pace, moving closer behind Matt.
 

He stopped as he came level with the oak tree, the strange carved face still in place, but that wasn't what he was looking at. Jess saw Emma shudder next to her, and then place her hand on Matt's back. At her touch, he turned to look at Emma.
 

"What is it?"
 

Matt pulled Emma into his side and pointed. Jess moved closer to see what he was pointing at, and Rob moved behind her to let her see better. He was so close she could feel the heat radiating from him and had to stop herself from stepping away. She forced her attention back to the tree when Matt spoke.

"I don't remember this black ring being here before."

Jess looked closer, noticing that, on the bark of the tree, there were black lines that made a dark circle around the trunk. There was a full circle, and then, higher up, the beginning of what looked to be another. Jess reached out to brush her fingers across it, but Matt knocked her hand out of the way.

"Don't. You don't know what it is. It might be poisonous. I'll speak to the gardener about it," Matt said as he walked off.

Jess felt Rob's hand on her back, urging her after Matt, towards James's cottage. She stumbled at his touch, and he gripped her waist, pulling her back towards his chest.

"You okay?" Rob asked, his breath warm against her ear.

"Yes," she said, so quietly she wondered if she'd actually said it out loud. The feel of his hard chest against her back had her mind and body fighting. Her body was telling her to relax back into his warmth, his shelter. Yet those hard planes scared her with how easily he could overpower her, how easily he could hurt her.

"Come on," Matt called out, his voice breaking the moment. Jess stepped away from Rob and hurried to catch up with Matt and Emma.
 

The cottage, originally used by the servants of Altenbury Hall, looked quiet. There were no lights on inside but, as Jess got closer, she realised that all the curtains were closed. She reached out to grab Matt's arm. When he turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised in question, she asked, "What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"How are we going to get in?"

Matt turned to look at Rob, jerking his thumb towards him. "He said we could break in."

Rob's mouth dropped open. "I did
not
say that," he protested as he looked at Jess. "I said people
can
break in. I assumed you had a key." He glared at Matt.

Matt looked from Jess to Rob. "Why would I have a key?"

Jess groaned. "Because he's our brother and that's what families do, give keys to each other. You know, in case of emergency."

"I don't have your key."

Jess threw her hands up in the air. "You don't need one, Matt. Emma has one, and she spends more time at your place than ours."

"Enough." All three of them turned to look at Emma. "That's not helping right now. We could break a window, and Jess or I could get in that way. What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You sound like you have experience doing this," Matt said. And, if Jess wasn't mistaken, there was a hint of awe in his voice.

Emma laughed. "Not at all. Although I did climb through someone's open kitchen window when I was a kid. But that was a bit different because they asked me to do it."

"Can't one of you get a key?" Rob asked as Emma started to wander around.

"The only people who might have one are my parents, and I don't want to speak to them about James again. Ems, what are you doing?" Matt asked.

"Looking for something to smash the window with. A rock, something like that."

Jess couldn't help the laugh that escaped before clamping her hand over her mouth. Three sets of eyes turned her way, and she lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "It's just not a sentence I ever thought I'd hear Emma say while standing outside my brother's house. I don't know why. My life has become strange of late."

Rob slipped an arm around her shoulders. "I know the feeling."

"This'll work." Emma picked up a flat, pointed stone and held it out towards Rob. "Hit the window in the corner. The bottom corner."

"Why am I doing this?"

"It was your idea," Matt said.

Rob shook his head but took the stone, and then smashed it against the window in the door. Clearing the glass from the pane, he reached in and unlocked the door.

Jess couldn't remember the last time she'd been in James's house, so she didn't know if it was always this messy. But someone had definitely been there. The kitchen had dirty cups and plates, left in the sink and stacked on the worktop. There was a pile of clothes in the downstairs bathroom that led to a trail of more clothes up the stairs. Jess followed Matt upstairs, one hand on his shoulder. They found an empty spare bedroom, and then what must have been James's bedroom. The covers were rumpled, and the sound of heavy breathing gave away someone's presence. Matt flipped on the light.
 

Whoever it was jolted upright, obviously a light sleeper, and said, "What the hell?" He brandished a poker in defence as Jess screamed.

"Oh, my God. James! We thought you were dead."

James dropped the poker. "If you thought I was dead, what are you doing here?"

"We found you in the vault. But then you disappeared. We were trying to find you," Jess said, her words coming out in a rush. She moved towards him, her hand held out. Sitting on the bed next to him, she placed her hand on his chest. He felt warm, so different from the last time. She shuddered as the tears started, and James wrapped her up in his arms and pulled her against his chest.

"Shh, rabbit, I'm fine."

"Don't call me that, you know I hate it," she said, as she let out a small laugh of relief.

After the shock of finding James alive had worn off somewhat, Jess and the others sat in the living room, staring at him.

"I've not grown another head, so quit staring."

Jess smiled, thinking that he might not have grown another head, but he looked different. His normally ice-blue eyes were more like slate with the dark circles under them. He usually had such a neat appearance, but his jaw was covered in whiskers. She'd never seen it so long, and she could see some grey in there too. His hair needed cutting; it looked as bad as hers did in the morning, like it had a life of its own. It all made him seem more intimidating than normal, she thought, as he glared at Matt.

"If you thought I was dead, why did you leave me in the vault? And why did you bring a bloody search party to my house?" James nodded towards Rob and Emma.

"Maybe Rob and I should leave."

Matt's hand shot out and grabbed hold of Emma's. "No, you're as much a part of this as he is. Stay. You're my family now too."

James's bushy eyebrows pulled together, but he didn't say anything. He had to be wondering who Emma was, and how she had come to mean so much to Matt so soon.

"We ..." Matt cleared his throat and glanced at Jess. "We thought it was for the best, to leave you there."

Jess had never wanted to, and as she heard Matt's words, she could only imagine how much they would hurt James.

He pulled at the hairs on his chin and snorted a laugh. "Wow. You turned into a true Altenbury in the last few months. Mum must be real proud of you."

"Fuck you, James. You have no idea what's been going on. And I haven't spoken to our mother since she ordered me not to report you missing."

James sat back in his chair, legs spread wide, his whiskey glass resting on one thigh. "Enlighten me then, dear brother, enlighten me."

So Matt did, with the help of Emma. And Jess reluctantly described her visions as well.