by K.N. Lee
“There is one flight that might work. They all have stops, which makes the journey longer, but taking into consideration the time difference and with all the necessary plane changes, he could theoretically have posted both letters on the same day.” He looked triumphant at finding a snag in her logic.
“What time does the flight touch down in Canberra?”
“10.45pm. Why?”
“Let’s assume that the flight arrived on time at quarter to eleven. Give it another five minutes to taxi to the airport and maybe another ten to disembark. Let’s say that it only takes ten minutes for the luggage handlers to empty the plane and put Jago’s bag on the carousel. He’s still got to go through customs and to find a post box. Even if everything goes to plan and he gets through the whole rigmarole of getting through the airport security in record time and if there is a post box at the airport. The very earliest he would have been able to post that letter would be, what? Say Eleven fifteen.”
“Ok so it’s unlikely, but you’ve just proved it’s possible.”
“Yes, it may be possible to post two letters in those two cities on the same day, but what time of day do you think Canberra postal service picks up and sorts the letters from the airport. I think we can safely say that it’s before quarter past eleven at night.”
“You are right. So what does it mean? Do you think Jago has his own private jet?”
“Possibly, but I think the more likely solution is that two different people posted those letters. One in Hawaii, and the other in Australia. I think Jago is working with a partner.”
Alex and Aethelu looked at Anais in shock. Neither of them could dispute her argument.
Chapter 22
Aethelu was the first to break the silence.
“So he’s working with a partner?”
“It certainly looks that way,” said Anais. “The question is, where do we go from here?”
Aethelu turned her attention to her brother. What happens if you do a search for him on the internet?”
“Nothing comes up for him when you type in Jago, but that’s not really a surprise.”
“What about his full name? Do you remember his last name?”
“No, do you?”
“Cooper? Cutler? Something like that.”
“Cutter, Jago Cutter. You are right. Ok, I’ll see what that comes up with.” He typed it into the search engine and read the results.
“Nothing. It was a long shot, though.”
“Try James Cutter,” Anais said. Alex and Aethelu looked at her.
“Jago is the Cornish for James. Jago is such an old fashioned name. It would stand out too much in this day and age, but who would remember someone by the name James Cutter? If he wants to stay under our radar, then James is a common enough name to choose.” Anais realised she was sweating. She felt hot and her forehead was clammy. She surreptitiously wiped it with her sleeve.
“Common is right” answered Alex. “The internet has hundreds of entries for James Cutters.”
“Well, it’s a start. Check if any of them lived in York twenty years ago. Check the other places too.” Anais was excited they’d got a lead, no matter how tenuous. She was also starting to feel dizzy, so she sat down on one of the ratty sofas.
Aethelu hadn’t noticed and was chatting excitedly to Alex.
“I bet Anais is right. He’d never expect us to remember his surname either. I bet we are on the right track! Anais!!!
Anais didn’t hear Aethelu’s shout. She’d passed out, her body slumped on the sofa.
When she awoke, she couldn’t make out her surroundings. It was dark and lifting her head made it pound with pain. She felt something on her arm and wondered if she’d been shackled up in the bedroom again. She felt down and realised it wasn’t shackles, but an IV drip. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and waited for her vision to adapt to the dark. Her headache worsened with each movement. After a few moments, her eyes got used to the dark, and the hazy shapes she could see turned out to be glass bottles lining the walls. She was in the hospital bed in Aldrich’s surgery.
Dizziness threatened to overcome her. She took a couple of deep breaths and the fogginess cleared a little. Her eyes swept the dark room again, and she made out a large shape to the side of the bed. Putting her hand out, she felt down at the shape and realised it was breathing. It was Aethelu, asleep on a chair next to the bed. Her head was lolling to the side in an uncomfortable position.
Anais pulled her hand back and as she did, the movement woke Aethelu with a start. She jumped up, coming quickly to Anais side.
“What’s wrong? Are you ok?”
Anais couldn’t make out Aethelu’s face, but she could hear the worry in her voice and could imagine the look on her face.
“I can’t see you.”
“It’s dark, do you want me to turn the light on?” She made as if to go find the light switch, but Anais grabbed her arm.”
“No, I mean I can usually see you, even when it’s pitch black, but now, in the darkness, all I can see is your outline.”
“Yeah, that can happen. In times of great stress or sadness, The Light can lose potency a bit. The first thing to go is our glow.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. If we are happy or have any kind of positive emotion, it seems to be so much more powerful.”
“I meant, why are you sad?”
Anais waited for Aethelu to answer her, but all she heard was silence. When she felt Aethelu’s hand take hers, she knew the answer.
“I lost the babies, didn’t I?”
“Father says that, technically, you just failed to get pregnant in the first place. The embryos just didn’t take.”
Anais could hear by the sound of her voice that she was holding back tears.
“Is it because of The Light?”
“Father doesn’t really know. It was just one of those things. I’m so sorry.”
Aethelu finally descended into the sobs she was trying to hold back.
Anais put her hands around her and held her until the sobs subsided.
She felt numb. She knew she should be crying along with Aethelu, but the tears wouldn’t come. She’d lost her babies. She knew that she’d never wanted to be pregnant in the first place, but despite herself she’d grown to love the little people inside her. All Alex’s talk of the children had rubbed off, and even though she’d not shared his plans for the babies, she had begun to imagine a future with them. She’d had dreams about bringing up three little white-haired children with Aethelu, of being a family. Now that would never be.
It wasn’t just her children that had been lost, though. The loss of the DNA they so vitally needed signified a loss of everybody’s children, of sons and daughters, mothers, fathers, cousins, friends. They were on a countdown to the loss of everyone and they had just lost their only weapon.
It was too late to try again.
Suddenly it hit her.
The magnitude of her loss was just too much to bear. It felt like a gaping chasm had opened up inside her and finally she caved into the grief.
As the two girls held each other, joined together in sorrow, the door opened. Winnie approached the couple and silently put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. Aethelu pulled back to let her mother in to see Anais.
Winnie switched on the bedside lamp and felt Anais' forehead. Quietly and without any fuss, she emptied a syringe in Anais’ IV line. Seconds later, Anais' eyelids began to feel heavy, and once again she succumbed to the merciful blackness.
The next morning Anais woke up to a bustle of activity. Aldrich was removing her IV lines, Winnie was waiting patiently with a tray of breakfast and Aethelu was just hovering in the background.
“How are you feeling this morning?” Aldrich quickly put a thermometer in her mouth, rendering her incapable of answering his question. She nodded and mumbled that she was ok.
When the temperature check was done, he checked her blood pressure and then pronounced her fit and well and left in a hur
ry.
Winnie placed the tray in front of Anais. It was one of her famous extra special Sunday breakfasts, unusual for a Thursday morning, but Anais wasn’t going to complain. She was hungrier than she thought she would be and the plate heaped with crisp bacon, scrambled egg, hash browns, beans, and sausages was just too mouth-watering to resist. A cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice was placed on the table next to the bed.
“Eat up, sweetheart.” Winnie kissed her cheek and gave a smile. She looked like she wanted to say something, but the smile said everything she needed to say without the need for talking. Winnie gave Anais hand a squeeze and then left as suddenly as her husband had.
“Why is everyone in such a hurry?” Anais speared a piece of bacon with her fork and placed it into her mouth.
“Eat your breakfast first. It’s good to see you eating. I thought you would refuse to eat.”
“It’s Winnie’s Sunday Breakfast!” she replied.
“I know. You were the only one who got that. The rest of us had to fend for ourselves. I’ve only had porridge.” She stole a sausage and bit into it before Anais could stop her.
Anais was so relieved that they could both be so light-hearted in the circumstances. She knew that she had a lot of sadness and grief ahead of her, but this morning she just wanted to feel normal. Having Aethelu by her side helped.
“Cheeky! And you still haven’t answered my question. Look I am eating.” She popped some beans into her mouth as if to prove her point.
Aethelu looked as if she didn’t want to answer, but she began to speak.
“Father has called a family meeting.”
“What about?”
“Well, obviously, now that making the antidote has become a lot harder, impossible maybe, we need to come up with another solution.”
Anais noticed that Aethelu had purposely worded it to avoid mentioning babies.
Suddenly breakfast had become a lot less appealing. She pushed it to one side and made to get out of bed.
Aethelu stopped her.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“The meeting, I can’t miss it.”
“Get back in bed right now. Do you think they would hold a meeting this important without us there? They are just setting up the library with enough chairs for us all and making sure everybody is up and knows what’s going on.”
“Why the library?” It was a stupid point to focus on, but it was all Anais could think to say.
“It’s the biggest room apart from the dining room, and Winnie thought it would be a bit more informal without us all sitting around a huge table. Now get back to bed. I told Winnie that I wouldn’t let you up until you’ve finished your breakfast.”
Anais got back into bed and downed her juice. Aethelu helped her with the breakfast, which Anais was grateful for. She didn’t think she’d be able to manage the mountain of food by herself.
As soon as breakfast was over, Aethelu helped Anais out of bed to get dressed. She felt fine and was quite capable of dressing herself, but it was comforting to have Aethelu so close to her and helping her with the mundane task. She also suspected it made Aethelu feel better, just doing something to help.
They made their way slowly across the courtyard, Baker yapping and running around their heels as they walked. Aethelu had a tight hold on Anais’ arm in case she fainted again. They left Baker in the kitchen and made their way to the library.
In the library, the four big leather chairs had been pulled back and were now occupied by Rafe, Ava, Arcadia and Winnie. The rest of the family were sat on a mix of chairs taken from the parlour and dining room, which were set out in a messy circle. The only noticeable absences were Audsley and Judith.
“Right, now we are all here, we should begin.” Although there was no table between them, Aldrich sat in a dining chair at what would be the head of the table if there was one.
Anais and Aethelu sat in the two empty chairs. To Anais right, was Andrew. He whispered across to her.
“Aldrich has demanded that I not tell Judith about our little problem. Audsley volunteered to take her out shopping.” He didn’t seem very happy about it.
Aldrich gave Andrew a look to quiet him, and then he began to speak.
“As you all know, our experiment has come to a premature end.”
Eyes flicked towards Anais. She was not to blame, but it was undeniable that she had failed them all. Aethelu grabbed her hand and held it tight. Not even a hint of a buzz was felt through her hand, a telling tale of how miserable Aethelu was feeling.
Aldrich continued, “I, of course, will carry on with trying to find an antidote. I’m not very hopeful due to the complexity of the virus, but I refuse to give up. I have gathered you all here in the hope that we can come up with some more ideas. We have already lost two months of our twelve-month time limit.”
“You still have an embryo left.” said Rafe “There is still time to repeat the experiment.”
Anais held her breath with shock.
“No!” shouted Aethelu next to her “I will not allow Anais to be put through that again.”
“I agree,” said Aldrich.
Anais breathed out with relief.
“It would not be wise to subject Anais to such an ordeal. She needs time to heal both emotionally and physically, and, unfortunately, it is time we do not have. We need to explore different avenues of action.”
“You could just give him what he wants,” Andrew spoke so quietly that Anais was surprised that Aldrich had heard him at all.
“That is not an option. The Elixir was complicated to the extreme, and I do not remember the recipe.”
“But you must remember some of it. Surely it would be easier to brew an Elixir you remember some of, rather than an antidote you know nothing of.”
“Possibly, you are correct, both potions would take me all of my time and effort, and neither is guaranteed to be a success. However, I have made my decision. I refuse to put the Elixir in the dangerous hands of Jago. I will work on the antidote as much as I can and hope I can find a way to crack it without Anais help.”
“We could go looking for him. If he found us, then there is a possibility we could find him,” Arcadia spoke up.
“I want you all here, safe.”
“Daddy, we are all adults. We can take care of ourselves.”
“Alistair was an adult. Jago still managed to track him down and kill him.”
“But Alistair didn’t know he was in danger. He wasn’t looking out for Jago. We all now know to be careful. I say we go out into the world and find him.”
“And then what will you do, Arcadia, once you’ve found him?” Winnie asked her daughter.
“I’ll kill him for what he did to Alistair, to Anais, to all of us. It’s the only option.”
“I agree,” Alex stood up and walked over to his eldest sister “I’ll go with you Arcadia.”
“Me too,” Anais desperately wanted to find the man who had killed her parents. It felt like something she had to do.
“I’m in!” Aethelu smiled. Anais wouldn’t have asked her, but she was glad that she had jumped in. It would have been hard to leave Aethelu.
Aldrich looked defeated.
“I do not like it, but it seems that I have few options left to me. Arcadia, Alex. You can go. Anais, I’m afraid I cannot let you go yet.”
Anais made to shout, but Aldrich cut her off.
“Your body needs time to recuperate. I must insist you stay with us and rest for just two weeks. After that, I will not stop you. You can join Arcadia and Alex then. Aethelu, you, of course, have no such restrictions, but I assume you will want to stay with Anais?”
“Yes, Father. We will wait the two weeks. I can try and find Jago through the internet and help Cadie and Alex that way. Andrew can help me.”
“Do you wish to go with your brother and sister?” Aldrich looked over at Rafe.
He looked as though he’d rather do anything, rather than travel the world looking fo
r an evil madman, but with everyone looking at him he reluctantly agreed to go.
“Ok,” said Aldrich “It looks as though that is settled. August, I would appreciate it if you would stay behind and assist me, Ava, Alfred, What are your wishes?”
Ava replied in her high pitched sing song voice.
“Well, Freddy and I have been discussing it, and, if you don’t mind, we would like to stay for a while. It’s been a long time since we have seen everybody and we have no desire to leave so quickly. Right, Freddie, love?”
“Yes, Dear.”
“Audsley said she will stay for a while, too. We can help around the house. I’m sure we will find something useful to do.”
Aldrich continued, “That is fine. We would be delighted to have you stay as long as you like. Andrew, you can help Aethelu and Anais with an internet search. It might be wise to send Judith home soon. She is not safe here and I do not wish her to know our secret, the fewer people that know, the better.”
“Yes Aldric,” Andrew looked downcast as he got up to leave the room.
One by one they followed him out, leaving August to clear the chairs away.
Anais was forbidden to do anything but rest on both Aethelu and Winnie’s orders, but after a couple of hours reading in the now empty library, she began to get restless. Aethelu had gone straight to the basement room with Andrew after the meeting. There was internet access down there, and the small kitchen was handy for making cups of coffee without them having to come up to the main house. Winnie was probably in the kitchen, so Anais decided to break her promise and go and help Arcadia pack.
In the hall, she bumped into Judith and Audsley, who had obviously just returned from their shopping expedition. They were laden down with shopping bags, dripping wet from the rain, and laughing like old friends.
Audsley dropped her bags and ran up the stairs calling, “Wait there, I’ll get you a towel to dry your hair.”
Judith removed her coat and smiled at Anais.
“How are you feeling? I heard you were unwell.”