Both Jasper and Jemima shook their heads. ‘No.’
‘We couldn’t wake them up,’ said Jemima. ‘We had to work round them to do the boxes. That was very weird.’
Sara frowned. ‘What did Sir Jonas say about it? He must have been worried. Didn’t he ask Maddie to call the vet?’
‘Any other time he would have done,’ said Jasper. ‘He’d have had her on the phone day and night, driving everyone nuts until it got sorted out.’
‘But not this time,’ said Jemima. ‘He said they must have been stressed when Bryn died and that they would be fine when they woke up.’
‘And were they?’
‘Kyri was okay, but Freyja was totally changed. She attacked Ma the morning after the party when she went into her box with her breakfast. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her, except Caz, and Ma’s never been able to ride her since.’
‘But Sir Jonas rides her.’
‘Only if Caz tacks her up and he and Kyri are with them, and then you can tell she still hates it. Caz is the only one she lets ride her out alone. She’s always good for him. She was good for me too, right up until the end when something spooked her and I fell off.’
‘Do you know what spooked her?’ asked Jasper.
‘No. Caz says he’ll have me banned from the yard for life if I go anywhere near her again.’
Jasper raised both eyebrows. ‘That’s pretty strong! What say you, Stat?’
‘I say let’s look at what we’ve got so far,’ suggested Sara. ‘You said it was the night before the party. What date was that?’
‘It was December 21st,’ said Jemima. ‘Caz was staying up there to watch the eclipse with Sir Jonas. It was the first time there had been a total eclipse of the moon on winter solstice night for nearly four hundred years.’
Jasper whistled. ‘Really? I didn’t know that.’
Sara continued. ‘So we have Caz and Sir Jonas and the horses together in the yard. Where were the others?’
Jasper answered. ‘All at home as usual, I suppose. There was no sign of Al at the pub when I looked in on my way through.’
‘I knew you weren’t just going to see Tris!’ Jemima said indignantly.
Jasper shrugged. ‘So? Ma didn’t see me and I knew you were okay. What’s the problem?’
‘You left me alone to be scared out of my face for nothing!’
Sara called them back to order. ‘Hey, you two! Let’s keep to the relevant facts! So far we’ve got a rare lunar eclipse on winter solstice night when Jem sees something that appears to make the yard and house vanish for approximately ten minutes during totality. The next morning Bryn is found dead, Kyri and Freyja are abnormally deeply asleep, and Rúna and Nanna are fine. When Freyja wakes up, her temperament has permanently changed. She’s impossible to handle and ride except by Caz, or by someone else only when he’s around. Doesn’t that suggest that both she and Bryn could have been subjected to some kind of trauma and Caz blames himself for not being able to save them from it?’
‘That’s about it,’ agreed Jasper.
Sara continued. ‘At this point, Caz and Sir Jonas both appear unharmed. Sir Jonas loses his eye later that evening but in an entirely separate event. Caz is naturally heartbroken over Bryn, as he would have been at any other time. What’s immediately different about Sir Jonas is his calm acceptance of the apparently unwitnessed death of his prized broodmare, plus the fact that two of the others are as good as comatose in their boxes. He won’t have the vet out to examine them and Bryn is buried without a post mortem that same morning at Thunderslea, with Caz, Alan and you two in attendance.’ She relished the moment of astonished silence.
‘How do you know about Thunderslea?’ asked Jasper.
‘Jas, I can read and I’m not stupid. It’s marked on the old map in the hall. I asked Sir Jonas if the old oak tree was there and he said yes. Then he asked me to keep it as a little secret just between him and me. Obviously he had said the same to the rest of you. Why should I do any different?’
Jasper crushed her in a big bear hug. ‘You did good, Stat! Proven trustworthy under fire.’
‘Thank you, although I must say I’d love to go up there and see it.’
‘That’s strictly up to the old boss, I’m afraid. I’ve only been there a couple of times myself, always with Al, and once when we buried Bryn. How about you, Sibyl?’
Jemima swallowed. ‘I went up there once with Caz. Then again when we buried Bryn and a couple of times since by myself.’
Jasper looked sceptical. ‘How did you do that then? The place is like a fortress. No one can get in there unless they know what they’re doing.’
‘Sir Jonas said I could. I wanted to say hello to Bryn. The horses know their way in. They never get lost in the labyrinth.’
Sara’s eyes widened. ‘You mean you have to go underground to get to it?’
‘Not really,’ said Jasper. ‘There’s only a short tunnel at the end. The rest of it’s more like a big maze made out of holly hedges. Sir Saxon put it together as the classic ‘once you’re in you’ll never get out alive’ job.’
‘Unless you’re Caz,’ said Jemima. ‘He told me he’s climbed the tree hundreds of times, even at night.’
‘Presumably when he’s working off what he’s just eaten,’ said Sara. ‘Which brings us back to Caz and why we decided to talk about all this in the first place. Are we agreed that Caz started on these huge, once-a-day meals from the time Bryn died?’
‘Yes,’ said Jasper.
‘It began that night at the party,’ said Jemima. ‘He had stayed up at the house all day and when we got there he was acting really weirdly. He ate nearly all the nibbles while we were waiting for dinner, just cramming them into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten for weeks.’
‘And when we got to the table, it was something else,’ said Jasper. ‘I reckon he must have put away enough food for at least four of Al or me.’
‘Didn’t anyone say anything?’ asked Sara.
Jemima shook her head. ‘Ma was worried but no one else said a word. John and Daisy kept bringing out the food like it was normal. Alan was telling funny stories about the pub and Sir Jonas was acting the perfect host. Caz didn’t come home with us that night and he stayed up at the house for most of the Christmas holidays. When he started back at school he’d already stopped bothering with breakfast, and he gave up the canteen at lunchtime. He just drank coffee like he does now and came home for supper. He always went back to the yard to check the horses before we went to bed, but once Kyri got big enough to ride he stayed out all night as well.’
‘But he’d started on the coffee years before that,’ said Jasper. ‘What was different was that he drank a lot more of it and gave up eating – as whoever put up the crone website pointed out.’
‘We never did find out who did that site,’ Jemima reminded him. ‘I’m sure we could have done if we’d really tried.’
‘For all we know, he could have done it himself. He had the software. I gave it to him for his birthday. And it got him out of school, just as he always wanted.’
Jemima wasn’t convinced. ‘Caz would never be so mean about his best mates, especially online. And how would he have got that picture of himself with that weird woman? Even if it wasn’t Bindweed, I think it was definitely a girl who did it because boys don’t notice whether someone’s eating or not.’
‘I did.’
‘Only because it was Caz and right in your face all the time.’
Sara was puzzled. ‘But weren’t you worried about him? Didn’t any of you ever say anything to him about it.’
Jasper shrugged. ‘He was fourteen when it started. Kids go through some odd stuff at that age. He was already into working out. I thought it was some crazy fad he’d got into and would grow out of, like we all do. Bro’s always been his own man. Getting anything out of him is like getting blood out of a stone, unless he’s willing to tell you. Like a lot of things, it started and carried on until we forgot about it. Normal family life, Stat, until someon
e new joins in and asks why.’
‘Did anything happen at the same time last year?’
‘Not as far as I know,’ said Jasper. ‘We played a great gig, the old boss was chortling and everybody was happy.’
‘Yes, it was okay,’ agreed Jemima. ‘I was worried because it was the first anniversary after Bryn died and I thought Caz might do something weird, but he didn’t. We had the party and everything was just like usual.’
‘Is there any reason to think something will happen this year?’
‘Not so far,’ said Jasper. ‘Al looks out for him up the woods and he doesn’t seem bothered about anything.’
‘We won’t know until it happens,’ said Jemima.
‘And if it does?’
‘We’ll take it from there,’ said Jasper. ‘We won’t mention anything to Ma or any of the others. We’ll keep it all strictly between ourselves but with our eyes open and our ears to the ground. Whatever it takes, when bro needs us we’ll be there for him. Agreed?’
The girls nodded. ‘Agreed.’
‘Whatever it takes,’ repeated Jemima. ‘But we must write down everything we see.’
‘I could buy a diary when I’m in London next week,’ proposed Sara.
‘Good idea, Stat.’ Jasper checked his watch. ‘Now I suggest we get down the pub double quick. There’s still a lot I’ve got to sort out with Si for tomorrow.’
CHAPTER 80
Jasper’s birthday plans changed continually as the day went on. His morning in bed had to be cancelled at nine o’clock when a message came down from the manor to say that Daisy was being sent home that afternoon and that all hands were needed at the house. Tristan and Laurence were on their way and Melanie had volunteered her services, when Tristan called to say that the Beast had broken down in the middle of the village and was being towed to the garage. There was no hope of it being ready for the parade that evening.
‘We’ll just have to make do with the Cadi and the Landrover,’ said Jasper mournfully.
To add insult to injury, he was obliged to give up the idea of wearing a toga for the party after several attempts with a variety of different sized sheets defied both Sara’s and Maddie’s ingenuity with safety pins to keep them in place. Sara lent him a pair of fishnet stockings and a red lace suspender belt, and he wore them under his jeans with a pair of gold lamé boxer shorts, to be displayed much later on when he had attained the required level of inebriation at the pub.
Anxious that the progress of the return of Guardian Keeper of Hearth and Keys should be as smooth as possible, Sir Jonas laid aside his sword in favour of the less cumbersome seaxe that Mister Alan had recently presented him with, and took his place amidst the bustle and youthful enthusiasm that pervaded the old house during the course of the morning.
Most surprisingly, he found himself increasingly inclined to admire Mister Jasper’s fortitude in the bearing of his several disappointments as he roared through the house with the vacuum cleaner. His own concerns for the festivities had been greatly mitigated by the prompt appearance of the courier with a special delivery just before breakfast. When the Lady Sara relieved him of his duster in the library and gave him the dismal news of the failure of the toga, he decided he should, and indeed must, act.
The house was almost ready for Daisy’s arrival. Mouth-watering smells drifted along the passageway from the kitchen and mingled with the lavender and beeswax aroma of meticulous cleaning and polishing. The fires were burning brightly in the hall and the library. The floors shone. The silver gleamed. Laurence brought in bunches of late chrysanthemums from the greenhouses to fill every available vase.
Jasper was directing the arrangements for the hall decorations from the vantage point of the gallery, when Sir Jonas appeared at the foot of the stairs bearing a large white envelope. Looking up, he said with great dignity, ‘My dear Mister Jasper, please accept my heartfelt congratulations on your coming of age.’
Work stopped. The girls left off blowing up balloons. Caz and Laurence dropped the banner. Tristan turned around precariously on top of the ladder to watch Jasper slide down the banister and shake the old man’s free hand.
‘Thank you very much, boss!’ he said heartily. ‘It’s very kind of you to say so.’
Sir Jonas prided himself on having the knack of creating an occasion in the most humble of circumstances, and a gentleman’s attainment of his majority represented an opportunity that could hardly be overlooked. Mister Jasper must be actively encouraged to take his place in society and, as the most senior figure available, Sir Jonas considered himself a sound source of all the necessary advice.
‘Of course, in my time, one celebrated one’s coming of age at twenty-one,’ he said conversationally. ‘It was a tiresomely formal affair. You know, the obligatory dinners, the notice in the Times, the mandatory applications to the most respectable clubs.’ He waved the envelope to emphasise each dreadful point. ‘It was all rather tedious, as you can imagine.’
Jasper’s eyes followed the passage of the envelope, while the vague recollection of having his dreams disturbed by what must have been a sizeable motorbike going up and down the drive that same morning took on a new and decidedly interesting significance.
‘I can indeed, boss,’ he agreed. ‘It must have been very difficult for you.’
‘Oh, it was, but it had to be done, you see. A gentleman simply cannot afford to neglect his duties, particularly when he is the first son of a respectable house, as I am sure you can readily appreciate, being in a similar situation yourself.’
‘But of course,’ concurred Jasper, watching the envelope.
‘I would suppose that it is a dreadfully expensive procedure these days.’
‘Dreadfully, boss, as you can barely begin to imagine.’
Sir Jonas was almost undone with remorse. ‘My dear Mister Jasper!’ he cried, the envelope quivering alarmingly in his shaking hand. ‘I must confess I quite forgot to make the necessary enquiries on your behalf. How dreadfully remiss of me! Has Madame Madeleine remembered to contact the Times? Have you enquired about clubs?’
Jasper opened his arms in what he hoped would appear as a selfless gesture of forgiveness, that would also serve to place a probing finger as close as possible to the tantalising envelope. ‘We’re working on it, boss, never fear.’
Sir Jonas took the hint. Clearing his throat, he said, ‘Then please do accept this little gift as a token of my great appreciation of both yours and the Lady Sara’s efforts on my behalf,’ and thrust the envelope into Jasper’s eager hand.
Jasper tore it open. A breathless silence filled the hall.
Sir Jonas adjusted the eyepatch, stammering nervously, ‘I-I’m afraid I have presumed to take the liberty of upgrading the previous arrangements for your forthcoming voyage to Australasia. I am assured that the hotels en route are of the very finest and that you will both be suitably taken care of. After all, one should always consider one’s Grand Tour to be the uplifting, cultural culmination of one’s education. I trust that you are not offended.’
‘I’m not offended in the least, boss! I’m merely gob-smacked!’ Jasper held up the tickets, shouting triumphantly, ‘First-class all the way to Oz! How’s that for travelling, boys?’
There was a burst of applause and extended whooping. Maddie, John and Alan came hotfoot down the passage to find out what was going on.
‘Good one, bro!’ laughed Caz.
Laurence punched air. ‘The best!’
Jemima and Melanie danced around the hall.
Tristan cheered. ‘Hot blood, Jas!’ The ladder wobbled dangerously.
Sara planted an ecstatic kiss on the old man’s cheek, crying, ‘Thank you so much, sir! Thank you, thank you, thank you!’
Intensely relieved and greatly encouraged by his success, Sir Jonas gave his customary little bow. ‘Then, with your permission my dear Lady Sara, if Mister Jasper can be spared from his work, I have a particularly fine whisky currently decanted in the study, if he would care t
o accompany me.’
Jasper grinned. ‘Now you’re talking, boss.’
John brought Daisy home in Mr. Lawson’s especially commissioned Rolls Royce later that afternoon. Caz and Alan were at the door as the car came up the drive. Alan had waited in vain for Caz to appear at Thunderslea the night before, and all his attempts at conversation during the morning had been cut short. No one else noticed any sign of the tension between them and he pretended a heartiness he did not feel when the car drew up. Daisy waved her plaster cast in greeting while Caz lifted her up and carried her into the house. Alan tipped the chauffeur on Sir Jonas’s behalf and helped John with the bags.
Seeing Daisy cradled in her brother’s arms reminded Jemima sharply that this woman must have known for a long time that there was something very different – and maybe very wrong – about Caz. Something she had never once even hinted at in all the hours, the days and the months she and Jemima had worked together and laughed together, sharing so many secrets.
Or was it just me doing all the talking? thought Jemima miserably. Maybe she was only listening and not saying anything of any importance at all?
‘This is a lot of fuss about nothing, young Caz,’ Daisy grumbled as he put her down in the hall.
‘It’s love, Daisy,’ he whispered. ‘Just you remember that.’
Jemima wanted very badly to cry. Instead she made herself laugh with the others, as he turned Daisy around to gasp with astonishment at the coloured balloons and streamers, and the gigantic welcome banner draped over the gallery rail. Sir Jonas called for three cheers for Madame Marguerite and she was led to the place of honour in Sir Saxon’s chair in the library, where she was obliged to have the cast autographed and drawn on, even though, as she pointed out, it would be coming off in another week in favour of a more serviceable resin replacement.
‘And then I’ll be getting myself cracking and back to work,’ she said, with a meaningful nod. ‘Although it seems you’ve been getting on very well without me.’
The table was loaded with the results of the production of an immense celebration high tea.
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