by HANNA, H. Y.
Then something swooped clumsily out of the forest and hurtled towards them, squeaking and flapping.
The South African looked up, his face draining of all colour.
“Aaaaaah!” he screamed, flailing his hands around his head. “Get away! Get away from me!” Turning, he bolted down the hill and disappeared.
Next to Caitlyn, there was a loud THUMP and something smacked into the stone beside her, making her flinch backwards. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her pounding heart, then peered cautiously around the large boulder. To her shock, she saw an old man in a black suit lying on the grass, out cold.
“Viktor!” she gasped, running around to kneel beside him.
He opened his eyes slowly and groaned. Caitlyn looked at him in confusion. Where had he come from? She definitely hadn’t seen him loitering about when she arrived at the stone circle. Surely he couldn’t have been hiding behind this rock the whole time, and both she and van Driesen had missed it?
“Ohh…” he groaned again, reaching up to rub his bald head.
“Viktor… Are you all right?” Caitlyn asked.
He moved his hands and legs gingerly whilst Caitlyn watched anxiously. With the frail body and brittle bones of someone his age, she was sure he had broken something in his fall. But to her surprise, he seemed all right.
“I am fine. I was just a bit stunned,” he said testily. “A slight miscalculation in my flight trajectory.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I have been following you through the forest,” said the old man, giving her a dark look. “Not that you made it easy for me…”
“Following me? But… I didn’t see anything except that fruit ba—No! You couldn’t have been…” Caitlyn stared at him, her mind not wanting to join the dots.
No. No, it couldn’t be! It had been hard enough believing that magic was real and she was a witch… now she had to believe that Viktor was a shape-shifter?
“You… you were that bat?”
Viktor sat up, still rubbing his head, and gave her an impatient look. “Of course that was me! Who else did you think it was? I told you—I am a vampire. We can take on other forms, most commonly Chiroptera. That’s the order of bats,” he added as he saw Caitlyn’s blank look.
“You’re a bat. A fuzzy fruit bat.” A slightly hysterical laugh escaped Caitlyn’s lips. She caught herself, burst out laughing again, clamped her lips shut, trying to hold it in, then lost the fight at last and dissolved into giggles.
Viktor bristled. “Young lady, I realise that young people nowadays are sadly lacking in manners but really, I find your attitude deplorably rude and ungrateful! I have been trailing all over, trying to protect you, and have suffered the most ignominious bump to the head in the process—and now you have the audacity to laugh at me?”
“Sorry, Viktor…” Caitlyn gasped and wiped tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you. I’m just… it’s a bit of a shock…” She took a shuddering breath, trying to stop laughing. “I am grateful—honestly. It was awesome what you did, scaring Hans van Driesen off like that. I don’t know what he was going to do… maybe nothing… but you really did protect me this time.”
“Humph!” said Viktor as he got slowly to his feet and dusted himself off with great dignity.
Caitlyn tried to help him but he bristled again and she backed off. He reminded her a bit of the Widow Mags. What was it with all these old people and their fierce pride and independence?
“Now, I would be obliged if you would inform me of your next destination so I can make my own way there directly, instead of trying to follow your meandering route,” Viktor said.
“Oh, don’t feel you have to hang around with me,” said Caitlyn quickly. “I’m just heading back to the chocolate shop now, anyway, so I’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Hmm… Very well. If you should need me, I will not be far away.”
Turning, he hunched over and the shoulders of his black jacket seemed to fold in on themselves. His body blurred, seemed to shrivel and shrink, then suddenly the tall stoop-shouldered old man was gone and in his place was a large fruit bat, with long leathery wings and a fuzzy brown body. It looked back at Caitlyn, gave a grumpy squeak, then took off, flapping clumsily, and disappeared into the forest.
Caitlyn blinked, not quite believing what she had seen. But unless she was having hallucinations, it seemed that old Viktor had been telling the truth all along: he was a vampire. A vampire who could change into a bat.
Right. And the scariest thing of all? The fact that that sentence didn’t even freak her out anymore. That she accepted it, like it was perfectly normal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Caitlyn began to make her way down the hill, back towards the chocolate shop. Then she paused. Slowly, she turned, climbed back to the crest of the hill and looked down the other side. In the distance, she could see the familiar majestic outline of Huntingdon Manor.
Well, why not? She had been told that she was welcome anytime and she did want to check on the kitten. Nothing else, of course. It wasn’t like she was hoping to see James Fitzroy or anything… no, no, of course not. She just wanted to make sure that the kitten was all right.
Quickly, before she could change her mind, Caitlyn began walking down the hill towards the manor house. She passed through the formal landscaped gardens and arrived at the rear of the property, near the stables. She hesitated just inside the arch leading into the stable courtyard. No matter what James had said, now that she was here, she felt a bit uncertain about just marching up to the house and asking to see the kitten.
“Can I help you, miss?” asked a stable boy walking past.
“Oh… um… is Lord Fitzroy around?”
The boy shook his head. “He’s out riding.”
“Ah, right. I… uh… I came to see the kitten,” said Caitlyn, feeling a bit stupid. “I mean… we rescued a kitten, me and Lord Fitzroy, and he took it back—”
“Oh, the kitten!” A wide grin split the stable boy’s face. “Yeah, you’ll find him in the old coach house.” He pointed to a building to one side of the stable yard. “Just go on through.”
Caitlyn walked across the courtyard and entered the large stone building. It must have once housed the beautiful old carriages that were used when the Manor was first built, but now it seemed to be mostly used for storage, with several pieces of farm equipment in one corner, and piles of feed and large stacks of straw bales in the other. And just by the large wooden doors, lying on a pile of burlap sacks, was an enormous English mastiff. He looked up as she came in and thumped his tail, his wrinkled face creasing into a wide doggie smile.
“Hi Bran,” said Caitlyn in surprise. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be lying in front of some grand fireplace in the main house.”
Crouching down, Caitlyn reached out to pat the dog, then she realised that he wasn’t looking at her anymore. His attention was fixed on something a few feet away. She turned to follow his gaze and saw a tiny ball of black fur scampering around, playing with wisps of straw.
It was the kitten. She was surprised to see how different it looked. Instead of the shivering, bedraggled little creature she remembered, this kitten looked the picture of health. It was still very skinny but its black fur was fluffy and shining, and its big yellow eyes were bright with mischief. It saw her and scooted over, instantly trying to climb up into her lap.
“Ouch!” Caitlyn laughed as she felt its tiny claws dig in through her jeans. She reached down and lifted the kitten up, holding it at face level.
“Meew!” said the kitten, squirming. “Meew!”
Caitlyn laughed again. Feisty little thing! She put it back down gently, next to Bran, and the big dog looked down at it with a confused expression. It was almost as if the mastiff couldn’t quite work out what this little ball of fur was.
“Meew!” The kitten shook itself, then reached out a playful paw and swiped the mastiff on the nose.
The giant do
g flinched, looked even more bewildered, and then gave an enormous sneeze. The rush of air sent the little kitten rolling backwards towards the straw bales.
“Meew!” cried the kitten. Its fur puffed up in alarm and its little black tail stood up straight like a bottlebrush.
Turning, it darted up the nearest thing it could find, which happened to be the stack of straw bales. Caitlyn was amazed at how quickly the little kitten could climb. It didn’t stop until it reached the top, then it turned and peered cautiously back down. Caitlyn got up and held her hand out reassuringly.
“It’s all right,” she said gently. “Bran sneezed, that’s all. You must have tickled his nose. He’s not going to hurt you. Come on, little one—come down…”
She stretched up towards the kitten but found that she couldn’t quite reach the top of the stack.
“Meew!” cried the kitten, hesitating at the edge of the top bale.
Caitlyn wondered if it was going to jump. She knew that cats were supposed to have nine lives and that they could jump from great heights with no problems. Still, the kitten was just a baby and it was a pretty long way down to the ground. Could she catch it if it decided to launch itself off the straw bale? She wasn’t sure.
“Hey! Don’t jump,” she said quickly, waving her hand in front of it. “Wait there—I’ll come and get you.”
Carefully, she put her foot on the edge of the bottom bale, testing her weight on it. The stack teetered alarmingly.
“Whoa!” she said, quickly getting off.
Okay, she couldn’t climb up. Her weight would force the entire stack to topple over and the kitten might get crushed under the bales of straw. She would have to find another way. Caitlyn looked around, then her face brightened. There was a ladder propped next to the coach house door. She dragged it over and leaned it carefully on the wall next to the stack of straw bales, then climbed up until she was level with the kitten.
“Come on, sweetie…” Caitlyn reached out to grab the kitten. “I’ll carry you down.”
“Meew!” said the kitten, squirming in her grasp.
“It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you… Stop wriggling! Just let me—”
“What on earth are you doing?”
The sound of the deep male voice almost startled Caitlyn off her perch and she had to clutch wildly to regain her balance. She looked down and, to her chagrin, saw James Fitzroy standing at the bottom of the ladder, looking up at her quizzically. He was dressed in riding clothes, like the first day she’d met him, and her breath caught slightly at how handsome he looked.
Then she felt her cheeks grow hot as she realised that he was standing right beneath her, with a full view of her backside. Oh help. She was wearing her old jeans again, with the seat worn and faded, and the fabric sagging slightly. She cringed to think what she must have looked like from below. Her bottom must be the size of Botswana. Why did James always have to catch her in the most embarrassing positions?
Her face red, she mumbled, “I’m… I’m just trying to rescue the kitten. It got stuck up here and couldn’t get down.”
As if mocking her words, the kitten suddenly took a flying leap from the top of the stack. It landed lightly on the ground, rolled over a few times, then got up, shook itself and trotted back to the mastiff, completely unharmed.
Caitlyn flushed even deeper. Great. So the kitten hadn’t even needed rescuing. She had humiliated herself for nothing. Slowly, she climbed back down the ladder. James reached out a hand to help her down the last few rungs and she made a great show of dusting herself off, unable to meet his eyes.
“Would you like my housekeeper to come and give you a going-over with the vacuum?” asked James at last.
Caitlyn paused in the middle of dusting her legs for the fourth time and sneaked a peek at him. His grey eyes were full of laughter.
“I got up early and decided to go for a walk, so I just threw on any old clothes I could find,” she babbled. “I didn’t even really brush my hair properly. I—”
“You look fine,” he said gently, his eyes warm and smiling.
Caitlyn blushed and looked away. “Um… the kitten has recovered really well, hasn’t he?”
“Yes, that little hairball is turning into quite a handful,” said James with a chuckle. “Half my household staff always seem to be busy chasing him around.”
“I’m sorry,” said Caitlyn. “I didn’t realise how much trouble the kitten would give you.”
“No, no, they’re enjoying it,” said James, laughing and waving a hand. “I think everyone’s fallen in love with the little monkey. Although he seems to have taken a shine to you,” he added, watching as the kitten scampered back to Caitlyn and began climbing up her leg, making her wince as its tiny claws dug into the denim fabric. She bent and detached the little baby cat from her thigh, then held it against her chest. The kitten nuzzled her neck and purred like a little engine.
“You’re adorable,” said Caitlyn, tickling the kitten under the chin. She sighed. “I’d love to adopt you but I’m not living in my own place. And I don’t even know how much longer I’ll be staying in Tillyhenge.”
“You’re not leaving us already?” asked James.
Did she imagine it or was there a look of disappointment in his grey eyes?
“I’m not sure what my plans are yet,” she hedged. “I was only supposed to stay for a couple of nights at most. I’ve still got most of my things stored at the hotel in London. And… I guess I should be deciding what to do with Barbara’s estate back in the States.” She gave him a wan smile. “Things got a bit side-tracked with the murders…”
James nodded. “I’m hoping that will be resolved soon.”
“Oh? Are the police planning to arrest someone?” She gasped and said urgently, “Not the Widow Mags?”
James smiled at her. “You care a lot for that old woman, don’t you?”
Caitlyn shrugged and looked down, feeling slightly embarrassed. “Well, I… She seems a bit lonely in that chocolate shop… I mean, she has her daughter, Bertha, and her granddaughter, Evie, of course, and she’s more than capable of looking after herself—” she added quickly.
He laughed. “Yes, the Widow Mags is very determined to look after herself. But I know what you mean. There’s something about her, in spite of her sharp tongue and grouchy manner… that makes you want to help the old girl and take care of her.”
“Have you known her long?” Caitlyn looked at him curiously.
“No, to be honest, I hardly knew her at all when I was a little boy. Of course, I didn’t spend a lot of time here at the Manor. My mother preferred our townhouse in London. And then I was away at boarding school a lot of the year,” he explained. “And after that, Oxford, then… I was out of the country for a while.”
“Yes, I was chatting to Amy Matthews the other day. She said that you were a foreign correspondent for the BBC…?”
“Yes, I was.”
She hoped that he would elaborate but he didn’t. There was an awkward pause. Then Caitlyn cleared her throat and said, “So… um… the police aren’t going to arrest the Widow Mags?”
“She’s still a suspect,” James said. “But fresh evidence has been uncovered which is leading the investigation in other directions.”
“What other directions?”
“Inspector Walsh hasn’t shared the details with me, but from what I can gather, the police are now focusing on strangers who arrived in the village around the time of the murders. Including yourself, of course. But don’t worry, you’re not a suspect,” he said with a smile.
Strangers who arrived in the village around the time of the murders… That would definitely include Hans van Driesen. Caitlyn hesitated, then said:
“I don’t know if this is relevant but I met Hans van Driesen at the stone circle this morning.”
“You went back there alone?” asked James.
Caitlyn saw his brows drawing together and, to forestall him giving her another lecture, she said quickly,
“I wasn’t really alone. Viktor was with me. He’s a… a friend. He was protecting me.”
James went very still. “I see. I hadn’t realised that another visitor had arrived in the village. Did he come with your cousin from the States?”
“Oh no, he’s someone I sort of met here in the Cotswolds…” Caitlyn trailed off, suddenly realising how suggestive that sounded. She saw from James’s expression that he had caught the wrong meaning.
“I hadn’t realised that you had a friend locally.”
“Oh, no! He’s not… I didn’t mean—”
“You’re under no obligation to explain anything to me,” said James stiffly. “It’s certainly none of my business who you choose to spend your time with or what friends you make.” He cleared his throat. “So you saw van Driesen at the stone circle?”
Caitlyn drew back, stung by his cool tone. “Yes,” she said in a voice to match his. “And he dropped something while he was there. I picked it up. It was a cylinder of heart pills.”
“Oh? Do you remember the name?”
“Cardio-something… Cardiodine? Or Cardiorone? Something like that. Anyway, I was thinking… it could be a source of atropine, couldn’t it?”
James frowned. “Perhaps. I think the atropine cardiac treatments are hospital-based, rather than in pill form, but the police would have to confirm that. Thank you for reporting this information,” he said formally. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must contact Inspector Walsh and pass the information on.”
He turned and strode out of the coach house. Caitlyn stared after him. What on earth had got into him? One minute he was all warm laughter and friendly banter, and the next, he was like a cold, distant stranger!
She thought back: it was only after she’d mentioned Viktor, she realised. He had misunderstood and thought that she was talking about some guy she had picked up. Could it be that James Fitzroy was… jealous?
Caitlyn blushed at her own presumption. No, that would mean that he liked her and, in spite of what Pomona had said, there was no way a man like James Fitzroy could fall for a girl like her…