by R. M. Walker
“For how long? We’re always leaving it! We can’t leave it forever!”
She heard the worry in his raised voice. He was concerned for her because he cared, but if she backed down on this, it would open a door she knew she’d never be able to close again.
She heard movement behind her, and she braced herself for Nate to try again. His hands slid around her waist, and she was pulled back into his chest. She relaxed, melting into him. Her eyes closed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m not what you want me to be, Nate.”
“You are who you are,” he murmured into her hair. “You’re everything I need.”
April, May, June
Matt’s parents were sitting in armchairs either side of the ornate fireplace when they got back. Harold held a folded newspaper on his lap, and June was knitting. She put it down when they came in.
“What did you do today?” Harold asked as the twins dropped onto the floor in front of the fire.
“Mucked about in the woods,” Matt answered, and drew Lily to sit between him and Nate on the sofa.
“Didn’t see any point in going into college, and Lily was exhausted anyway. We all were.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that last night, Lily,” Harold said to her. “It must have been really frightening.”
“It was a bit,” she admitted. “I’m sorry they ruined your room.”
“Frightened ten years off us when she came bursting into the room scared out of her skull,” Josh said, leaning his elbows on his knees and resting his chin in his hands.
“Was anything taken?” Jake asked.
“No. No other room was disturbed,” Harold said, running a hand over his hair. “We think that whoever it was didn’t expect that room to be occupied. After they chased Lily off, they trashed it in anger when they realised they weren’t going to be able to get anything here.”
“Will they try again?” Matt asked the question Lily was thinking.
“Highly unlikely, unless they’re complete morons. A patrol car will be around the area. But we’ve had the security firm in, and they’ve completely changed the alarm system. I was lax in thinking the last one was good enough in a tiny village, but greed has no borders, I’m afraid. They won’t get past this new system.”
“We can’t put you back in there though,” June said. “I doubt greatly you’d want to go in there anyway. We’ve put you in the back bedroom instead.”
“No. That’s the other side of the manor,” Matt said, shaking his head.
“And why would that bother you? Not planning on any after-hours visits, are you?” Harold asked with a grin that made Lily blush and wish the ground would swallow her whole.
“Harold! That was distasteful; you’ve embarrassed Lily!” June said. “That’s quite enough. Lily will be in the back room for the next two nights.”
Lily murmured her thanks, not happy she was so far away from them but glad she wasn’t in the Blue Room again.
“We’ve put your bags in there,” Harold said then rubbed a hand down his face. “I’m just damnable sorry that you had to go through that last night.”
The doorbell rang before anyone could say any more, and June checked her watch and jumped up.
“Don’t go anywhere, boys, Lily,” she called out as she left the room.
“Who is it?” Matt asked his father.
“It’s your aunts,” he said with a shake of his head. “You know how women gossip; those three haven’t stopped twittering together since you first mentioned Lily’s name.”
Nerves shot through Lily, and she looked up at Matt.
“Dad, cover for us,” Matt said and started to get up. But the door was already opening, and the level of noise coming through was something Lily hadn’t heard outside of a school playground. June and two other women came in, all talking at the same time. Lily’s mouth dropped open in total surprise when she saw the three women.
“Is this her, June?”
“Of course it’s her, May, how silly of you; Matthew has his arm around her. Who else would it be?”
“Oh, but she’s beautiful.”
The nerves grew. She struggled to her feet to face them, aware of the manners her mother had instilled in her.
“Lily, these are my sisters; April, the twins’ mother, and May, Nate’s mother.” June pointed to each woman in turn, and Lily tried hard not to stare. They were obviously triplets. They all had the same dark hair, the same features, and the same watchful eyes trained on her. They were smiling, but she had the feeling she was being weighed up carefully.
“Matthew has never brought a girlfriend home before,” April said. “The twins told us he had a girlfriend. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be Lynda’s daughter.”
Matt caught her hand as he stood up beside her. Nate and the twins joined her, but didn’t stand too close.
“You know my mother?” she asked her.
“Only through June. We’ve seen her work, of course. She has remarkable talent. Do you paint?”
Lily was a little overwhelmed with them. Her grip tightened on Matt’s hand as she shook her head.
“No, I don’t paint,” she replied.
“So, what do you have planned for when you finish your A levels?” April asked. “Will you be going to university?”
“April! It’s like the Spanish Inquisition, poor girl,” May said and stepped forward, lifting her hand to Lily. “I’m May, and it’s lovely to meet you. Ignore my sister.”
Lily lifted her hand to take May’s. The moment her fingers touched May’s palm, her breath was sucked right out of her. She buckled downwards. Her head filled with screaming, the scent of burning flesh strong in her nose. Unbearable heat seared through her as her vision danced and went dark. She wasn’t in the manor anymore; she didn’t know where she was. Rain was pounding down on her, doing nothing to put out the flames she could feel licking at her skin. The wind howled in the trees, joined by the chanting of an enraged crowd. Agony filled every pore as if her skin was peeled from her bones. She couldn’t stand it, not again! It was too much. She sank gratefully into a dark, pain-free void.
~*~*~*~
“Oh, bloody hell!” Matt wasn’t quick enough to grab her when her hand wrenched from his, but Nate caught her before she went down. She jerked and twisted in his hold, a low noise of agony coming from her.
“Oh no! Is she fitting?” May cried out.
“Stay back, Mum. We’ve got this,” Nate ordered. He held her tightly, cradled in his arms on his lap as she jerked. Matt put his hands on her face but he could feel no pain. He could feel nothing at all.
She jerked one last time then went still in Nate’s arms. Her eyes fluttered open.
“Okay, onto her side,” Nate commanded, and they got her into the recovery position. Matt scraped his fingers through her hair, taking it away from her face.
“Hurt,” she mumbled. “It hurts.”
“What can we do, Matt? Do you need an ambulance?” Harold demanded from where he’d jumped up from his seat.
“No. It’s fine, she’s fine,” Nate answered for Matt, his hands on her back as he peered down at her face. She was sweating, and he could see her eyes weren’t focused yet.
“We’ve been too much,” May said. “Maybe we shouldn’t have all descended on her at the same time.”
“It’s not you, Mum,” Nate said, looking up at her, his hands still on her back. “She didn’t sleep well last night, she got the third degree this morning, and then we’ve been all over the place today. She’s probably exhausted. That can do it, we’ve seen it before.”
“Matthew, take her up to her room,” June said.
Matt swapped out places with Nate and scooted his hands under her before lifting her easily into his arms. He carried her out as his father told the others to give her some space, and then the door was shut. He followed his mother upstairs, cradling Lily close to him, his lips on her forehead.
June held the door
open to the room they had given her, and he carried her across to the bed and set her down gently. He sat beside her, aware of his mother moving out of the room again.
“I’ll take away your pain,” he whispered and lifted his hand to her forehead, but she gripped his wrist to stop him.
“No, if you get a nosebleed...” She faded out, unable to say anything else as the pain in her head made her wince.
“Lily, I can—”
“Here, Matthew. A cool cloth helps with the pain,” June said. Her voice was tight. Her eyes were guarded as she looked down at Lily.
He placed the cloth over her forehead and slid his finger across her skin, pushing her into sleep. If she wouldn’t let him take the pain, he could at least help her sleep it off.
“Is she asleep already?” June asked, her voice lowering slightly.
Matt nodded. Her face was still lined with pain. He wanted to take it from her, but he knew that if he did that, his mother was going to want answers to something that so far, he’d managed to hide from her.
“Leave her to sleep.” She touched his shoulder. “Come with me.”
He looked up at her in surprise, but she was already heading to the door. He got up and followed, checking Lily to make sure she was still all right before he closed the door behind him.
“So, that’s her seizures.” She sighed.
“She can’t help it.”
“I know that, Matthew! I feel sorry for the poor girl if she has to put up with that.” She turned to face him. “I’m going to speak plainly.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“She’s your girlfriend. You like her a lot, I can see that.”
“Are you worried about her fits?” he asked.
“No, I’m worried about your heart,” she replied. “You’re not the only one who likes her.”
“What?”
“Your cousins,” she said. “They feel more than friendship for her. They watch her, all the time. You all do. None of you can take your eyes off her. April said that the twins talk about her all the time. May said the same about Nate. It’s why they came over tonight, to get a lay of the land. You’ve caught her eye, but the others are falling as hard as you are. If she likes them as well, it’s going to get messy. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, least of all you.”
“It’s fine,” he said, not sure what else to say. He didn’t like keeping secrets from her. Some he had to for her safety as much as his own, but this was one secret he didn’t think she was ready to hear yet.
“None of you needed any other friends. Whether they like her like that or not, things are going to change from now on.”
“We knew it was bound to happen one day. That we’d all get girlfriends. The worse thing would be if they didn’t like her,” he told her, laying his hands on her shoulders. “It’ll be fine, Mum.” He pulled her into a quick hug.
“Is everything okay?” Harold came towards them from the stairs. “Do we need an ambulance?”
“She’s asleep, but she’ll be fine tomorrow. I’ve seen it before. She bounces back,” Matt told him.
“Well, that was a shock,” Harold said. “I haven’t seen anything like that before.”
“It was a shock the first time we saw it too,” Matt acknowledge. “Are the aunts still downstairs?”
“Yes. I’m going to finish off some paperwork in my study,” he said. And with a twist of his lips, he headed on down the hallway to the back staircase.
“I think we’ll head to my room,” Matt said, knowing when the three sisters got together, they wouldn’t stop talking until the early hours of the morning. It was why his dad had found paperwork to do.
“I think we’ll take it into the kitchen,” June said as they went down the stairs together. “Quieter out there.”
“For who? You or us?” Matt teased her, and she swatted his shoulder.
“Cheeky brat,” she said, and stopped him at the door with a hand on his wrist. He looked down at her. “Be careful. If you’re serious about her, let them know, especially Nate. I know he orders you all around; he takes after his mother. But if you want to stay close to them, this is one time you’re going to have to stand up to him.”
“It’s going to be fine, trust me,” he said.
“I hope so. I like her, Matthew. But she watches them too.”
The witching hours
“What are we going to do?” Josh asked, as he watched Nate pace the room. Lily was asleep, and they were all gathered in Matt’s bedroom.
“We’re going to have to force her hand,” Nate answered, and stuck his hands into his pockets as he went back towards the door. “She’s so fucking stubborn I want to shake her.”
“What I want to know is why touching your mum set her off,” Matt said. “What could she possibly have got from her? Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.”
“You think she’s seen something that might happen to Mum?” Nate demanded, looking at Matt.
“It’s something we have to consider,” Jake said. “She was making a noise like a kicked animal. It was horrible.”
“Right, that’s it. No more fucking around her like she’s going to break. Tomorrow we’re taking her back to Jonas and making her listen, even if I have to sit on her to keep her there.”
“She can listen to everything he says, but if she still denies it?” Josh shook his head. “You said it yourself—she’s stubborn. She doesn’t want to know.”
“So we make her know.” Nate threw his arms out in exasperation.
A cackling laugh drifted up from the floor below, and Nate shook his head. “They’re like a bunch of witches when they get together. I keep expecting to go down there and find them putting mandrake and eye of newt into a cauldron.”
“More like gin and tonic,” Jake snorted and lay back on Matt’s bed, putting his arm over his eyes.
“The other thing bothering me is that teacher, Drew.” Nate pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up his forehead.
“He’s odd,” Matt agreed.
“Maybe he’s just being a teacher,” Josh said. “She had a point about what he said.”
“That’s the point; he’s a teacher, even less reason to sniff around a prospective student. She thinks it’s only common interest and friendliness, but there’s something in his eyes I don’t like.” Nate straightened his glasses.
“Well, I’m with her in history. She sits next to me,” Matt said. “I’ll watch him. Warn him off her. I’ll report him if he even looks at her inappropriately.”
“Good. I don’t like that he lives opposite her though,” Nate said. “Should we say something to Lynda?”
“Like what? We think your neighbour is a creep and after your daughter?” Josh demanded. “We have to be careful here. If Lily is right, we could ruin him for nothing more than us being jealous fuckers. And we have to face the fact that he was legally able to make a play for her in the opticians as he wasn’t her teacher then. It may be dodgy, but he hasn’t done anything wrong, even now. He’s just lent her some dusty history books and given her a lift home when she needed it.”
“He’s her teacher! He cannot express an interest in her while she’s his student,” Nate shot out. “That is illegal!”
“Now it would be,” Josh agreed. “But not in the opticians. According to her, he hasn’t tried again.”
“I don’t fucking trust him!” Nate snapped.
“No, neither do we.” Josh placated him. “We’re just saying that we have to be very careful we don’t hang an innocent man.”
“Hang on.” Matt lifted his hands. “We’re thinking that Lily’s going to let him turn her head. She’s told us he doesn’t interest her, that she wants to be our girlfriend. We have to trust her. He can look all he likes, but she doesn’t want him—she wants us.”
“You’re right,” Nate allowed. “But there’s something I can’t put my finger on with him. He’s not what he seems.”
“Maybe not, and maybe he is a lecherous bastard,” Jake said. “We should still watch him.”
“He’s a tenured professor,” Matt said, leaning back on his arms. “He’s on a sabbatical, which means he’s been a professor for at least four years already. I don’t think he’s going to throw away his career over her. Maybe before he got called to work at the college and he was safe to hit on her, but not now. And let’s face it, she’s never given him reason to think she’s interested in him. He’s probably dry as dust and just sees an interested kid. You know what O’Connor gets like when he finds someone willing to listen to his theories.”
“Yeah.” Nate nodded then sighed heavily.
“There’s something else. Mum’s picked up on you lot,” Matt said suddenly. They all turned to him. “She told me she’s seen us all watching her. If we were trying to hide it, we’ve fucked up on that. The aunts have told her that Lily is all you lot can talk about. She said that if I want Lily, I have to warn you away from her.”
“What did you tell her?” Nate asked.
“Nothing. Just that it would be fine. I’m not ready to tell her,” Matt said.
“No, it’s too soon,” Josh agreed. “You’re going to argue over this, and we don’t want interference.”
Jake looked startled. “Argue?”
“Not us, idiot.” Josh rolled his eyes. “Them!” He pointed at Matt and Nate. “We know what we’re doing, but they don’t.”
“We fucking do! What are we going to argue about?” Nate demanded.
“There’s nothing to argue about now. The hardest part was knowing what Lily wanted and that went fine,” Matt insisted.
“You’ve already had a go at us this morning about kissing her, and then you’re throwing her against a wall, trying to suck her face off!” Jake glared at him.
“It was gross, Matt,” Nate said, with a shudder.
“I didn’t think!” Matt snapped. “She was running off again, thinking we didn’t like her. I just reacted, and when I was kissing her... well, she’s easy to kiss. Addictive even.”
“Yeah, we know.” Josh deflated slightly.
“Let’s forget it. It’s not a big deal, we agreed this morning. It’s going to be fine,” Nate said. “Besides we have bigger problems. We need to convince Lily to pull her head out of the sand before she suffocates.”