The Soft Whisper of Dreams

by Christina Courtenay

  She set up her easel in a promising spot close to the edge of the cliffs, and arranged her painting materials on the ground next to her. A small folding stool served as a chair, and as always she soon lost herself in the joys of creativity. There was immense satisfaction for her in watching the scene in front of her take shape on her paper and she delighted in choosing the right colour combinations for each particular subject. Time stood still up here on the cliffs, where sounds seemed muted by the wind and the sea.

  The painting session was finally brought to a halt by the fading light, late in the afternoon, and Maddie stood up to stretch and relieve the kink in her back. The painting was finished, and she gazed at it with pride. It may not be the best watercolour ever done, but I like it. She smiled to herself. It had turned out exactly the way she wanted it to and she was pleased to discover she hadn’t lost the knack.

  Slowly, she gathered up her belongings and stuffed everything into the bag, ready to take home, but she was reluctant to go back to the Hall just yet and decided to take a longer route back. The path forked not far from where she’d been sitting and she chose the left hand one instead of the usual. This took her up a small hill and into a forested area carpeted with leaves. As she headed in among the trees, the sounds of the wind and sea faded into the background and were replaced by birdsong instead. She took a deep breath and savoured the peace.

  Maddie was in no hurry and followed the meandering track deep in thought. She stopped several times to look at flowers that grew along the way, planning further paintings as these would make lovely subjects. She spotted something out of the corner of her eye, but it turned out to be a rabbit scurrying for cover. The sight made her smile.

  She looked down and noticed that one of her Roman style sandals was coming undone. As she bent down to retie the fastening, she heard a slight crunching noise behind her and then a whoosh.

  Before she had time to turn around, something hit the back of her head very hard and everything turned black.

  Maddie woke with a splitting headache and hesitated to open her eyes. She knew the light would be painful, but on the other hand, she needed to know what had happened. Steeling herself, she lifted her eyelids up a fraction, then blinked them open wide. To her surprise, she was in semi-darkness.

  ‘What the …?’ she muttered and tried to sit up. Is it night time already?

  Her hands gripped the ground around her, expecting the dry leaves of the woodland path, but instead they encountered cold, hard stone. Maddie blinked again and looked more closely at her surroundings. She was surrounded by stone on all sides and when she raised her head she spotted fading daylight high above her head. A hole? No, a mine shaft!

  She remembered Kayla mentioning that there had once been tin mines nearby but the shafts were now mostly covered up. If that was where she was, this one didn’t seem to be. But neither did it have a ladder or any other means of scaling the walls. How the hell did I get here?

  Taking a deep breath, she managed to get to her feet and searched all around for some kind of footholds, but there was nothing. Her head and one wrist hurt, so had she been thrown into this pit? Or perhaps someone had deliberately put her down here and then removed the ladder or whatever they’d used to get down to the bottom.

  Had she been left here to die? The thought made her shudder.

  Panic surged through her and for a moment she struggled for breath. No, this can’t be happening. Trying to get a grip on her emotions, she looked around her one more time. Nothing.

  Who would do this to me?

  Darting another look upwards, ice cold fingers gripped her stomach and squeezed as her brain grappled with the thought that someone had deliberately done this. Someone who wanted her to die. And that person hadn’t even given her a chance to fight back, which she could have done. She’d been doing kick-boxing in London, mostly for fitness reasons, but also with a view to learning some self-defence. When someone just hit you over the head though, what chance did you stand?

  ‘Hey! Is there anyone there? Hello!’ She tried shouting for a bit, but there was no reply.

  Whoever it was had obviously left. And why not? No one would ever find her here. Wherever here was. She sat down and huddled close to the rock wall. A pain shot up her arm, and she lifted her hand to inspect the wrist. It didn’t appear to be broken, but she thought it might be sprained. Perhaps she’d landed on it when she was hit on the head? It hurt like hell and she swore out loud, just because it made her feel better. The cursing ended on a sob, and she burst into tears of relief that she was still alive, although for how long? How on earth was she going to get out of here? And even if she did, would it be safe or was someone waiting to finish her off? A violent shudder racked her body.

  ‘Oh my God! What am I going to do?’

  Sitting with her back towards the wall, she hugged her knees and tried to think. But there was no answer and she would just have to hope that someone realised she hadn’t returned and came looking for her. With a sinking feeling, she knew that might be too late. No, that’s defeatist thinking. Get a grip! She prayed that Alex would miss her at dinner time, although with his new friend there perhaps he wouldn’t notice. He might not even be at home for dinner. Or he might think she was sulking. Shit! Her only hope was Annie.

  ‘Oh, please, God, let someone come looking for me. Please?’ she prayed.

  But she didn’t know if He was listening.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jane looked up as her father came into the dining room. He was twenty minutes late and the two women had been sitting in silence waiting for his arrival while the food rapidly congealed in the serving dishes. Jane had heard him on the phone about an hour earlier and whatever information he was given had made him leave immediately, taking the car and heading off at great speed. She felt uneasy, her nerve endings on full alert. Where had he been?

  The Reverend Blake-Jones seated himself at the head of the table as usual, looking pleased with himself, and bent his head to say grace. The others joined in the ‘Amen’ at the end, before passing him the dishes one by one. He helped himself without a word, and Jane braced herself for the inevitable outburst which was sure to come when he discovered the food had gone cold. Nothing happened.

  Jane stared at her father and watched him eat with every sign of enjoyment. She glanced at her mother, but Ruth was too sunk in misery to notice anything around her. For the last few days she had uttered nothing but monosyllables to her daughter and her husband, and appeared to have retreated into a world of her own. Jane had given up trying to communicate with her and had begun to fear for her sanity.

  Just as Jane raised the first forkful of food to her mouth, her father’s voice boomed out across the table.

  ‘It’s over, Ruth. The problem is solved.’ Jane jumped and dropped the food back onto her plate. Her mother’s eyes turned slowly towards her husband and widened in horror. Then she too dropped her fork and it clattered to the floor. She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle the scream which came out and fled from the table, upsetting her chair in her haste to leave the room. Jane stared after her with a sensation of dread building in the pit of her stomach.

  ‘What did you say, Father?’ she ventured finally.

  ‘Nothing you need concern yourself about,’ he replied through a mouthful of food. ‘Your mother is having one of her fits, that’s all. She’ll be fine by tomorrow.’

  ‘But ―’

  He banged his fist on the table with such force that all the china jumped, and Jane gasped. ‘Are you questioning my word?’ he bawled, fixing her with his dark eyes.

  Jane shook her head and picked up her fork. Slowly she started to eat, although the food might as well have been sand. She knew that if she didn’t eat, however, he would take exception to that as well, and worse would follow. She’d rather eat dirt.

  ‘Good,’ she heard him mutter and prayed that he wouldn't take any further notice of her. As soon as she could, she would flee to the sanctuary of her room.


  ‘Maddie! Maddiiieee!’

  Maddie woke up with a start and rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. She thought she’d heard her name, but perhaps it had only been a dream.

  ‘Maddie!’

  No, there it was again. Standing up, she swayed slightly and shivered in the darkness. ‘Here! I’m down here!’ she hollered for all she was worth. The sound echoed round the mine shaft and she wondered if it could be heard up above. She almost wept with frustration when there was no reply. How was she going to make herself heard?

  She shouted again but nothing happened. The other voice seemed to have gone. In despair she slumped down again. Hunger gnawed at her insides, and she was terribly thirsty. Her wrist was throbbing and her head hurt. This is just hopeless …

  ‘Maddie!’ The voice startled her and she looked up towards the edge of the shaft. The sky was a lighter patch in the darkness and she saw torchlight flashing above. Soon after, she could just about make out a person leaning over precariously.

  ‘Here,’ she yelled. ‘I’m down here!’

  ‘Bloody hell! Are you hurt?’ It was Alex, and Maddie thought she had never heard anything more wonderful than his voice in her entire life.

  ‘Not much, just a sprained wrist, but I can’t get out.’

  ‘Hold on, I’ll get help. Will you be okay for just a bit longer? I have to find a rope.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, I’ll be fine. Please hurry.’

  ‘I will. Hang in there.’

  He disappeared, and the waiting started again. Now, however, she had hope and the time seemed to pass much faster. Before she knew it, Alex’s face appeared at the top again, and a rope was lowered down.

  ‘Can you put that around your waist and try to put your feet against the rock?’ he shouted. ‘We’ll pull from up here at the same time.’

  ‘All right.’ With shaking fingers she picked up the rope and tied it round her waist, pulling the knot as tight as she could with one hand. Then she braced her feet against the mine shaft wall and grabbed the rope with both hands, wincing as pain sliced through her left arm. ‘I’m ready,’ she called. The rope tightened, and she felt herself being slowly hauled upwards.

  To help her rescuers she walked her feet up the rock face. She stared into the darkness of the stone in front of her, determined not to look up or down. After what felt like eons, she reached the top, where strong hands helped her over the edge. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

  ‘Maddie, are you okay?’ She was turned over onto her back by Alex, and someone else shone a light over her. She brought up one hand to shield her eyes and saw that the torch was held by Foster, Alex’s strange friend.

  ‘Y-yes. I am now,’ she stammered through teeth that were chattering with delayed shock.

  ‘We must get you to a doctor. Here, let me carry you.’ Alex bent to pick her up, but she held up a hand in protest.

  ‘No, no, you’ll break your back. I’m too heavy. Just hang on a minute and I’ll be able to walk. My legs feel like jellyfish at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll be fine soon.’

  Alex grinned at her and put out a hand to stroke her cheek. ‘I’m glad you’re okay,’ he said. ‘You had us really worried there for a while. What on earth possessed you to go wandering round these woods? Don’t you know it’s dangerous? There are mine shafts everywhere and although they’re supposed to be signposted, you can’t see that in the dark.’

  ‘Of course I know that and I didn’t come here on purpose. Plus it wasn’t dark at that time.’

  ‘Then how did you fall? Weren’t you looking where you were going?’

  ‘Yes, but I was nowhere near this hold. I was walking along the forest track and someone hit me over the head from behind with something. Next thing I knew, I was lying at the bottom of that pit.’

  ‘What?’ Alex and Foster exclaimed in unison and stared at her in dawning horror.

  ‘You’re not serious? Who?’ Alex clenched his fists.

  ‘Yeah, who’d want to go and bash a nice lady like you over the head?’ Foster looked completely baffled before scanning the surrounding area as if he expected the attacker to try his luck with him next. ‘Did he attack you first, like, you know …?’ He trailed off, obviously embarrassed at the direction of his thoughts.

  Maddie shook her head. ‘No, no one attacked me. One minute I was bending down to fix my shoe and the next minute everything went black. I didn’t even see whoever it was.’

  Alex scowled. ‘We’ll have to tell the police.’ It was Foster’s turn to shiver, then he appeared to remember that he hadn’t done anything wrong and relaxed.

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ he said. ‘Can’t have mad people like that running about the countryside.’

  ‘How did you know where to find me?’ Maddie asked. ‘Did Annie miss me at dinner?’

  Alex looked slightly abashed. ‘No, actually, no one missed you. I ... er, was with Foster down the pub and Annie had gone home early. She left us a cold dinner. It must have been a couple of hours later when a friend of yours rang. Someone called Jane.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes, she asked if you were at home and when I said I hadn’t seen you since lunchtime she got very agitated. She told me to go out and look for you and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

  ‘I see.’ Maddie sat up and brushed some grass off her shorts. ‘Did she say why?’’

  ‘No, she just said it was urgent. Is she psychic or something?’

  Maddie smiled. ‘No, I don’t think so. I, um, guess she was just concerned about me. I forgot she was going to call tonight.’

  Alex gave her a strange look, but said nothing more, and soon after they began the walk home. Maddie leaned on Alex and Foster brought up the rear carrying her belongings.

  ‘We found these over near the edge of the forest.’

  ‘Well, that’s not where I left them, but I’m glad my stuff wasn’t stolen at least.’

  Alex insisted on taking her to the nearest emergency room for a check-up, but there was nothing wrong with her apart from the sprained wrist, which was quickly bandaged, and a lump on the back of her head.

  ‘You should probably rest for a couple of days and if you feel any nausea at all, let us know. It could be you have a slight concussion,’ the doctor told them.

  ‘Thanks, I’ll take it easy.’ The painkillers they gave her helped and Maddie didn’t feel sick so she thought a good night’s sleep might be enough.

  ‘Can you face dealing with the police tonight, or shall we wait until tomorrow?’ Alex asked as they reached the car.

  ‘No, please, let’s not say anything, Alex.’

  ‘Why? There’s a potential murderer on the loose out there and you don’t want to tell the police? Are you crazy?’

  ‘It’s complicated, Alex, but I need to speak to Jane first. Please, trust me on this.’

  ‘What’s this Jane got to do with anything?’

  ‘I can’t tell you right now. Please, Alex, let me handle this my own way.’ Maddie felt very strongly that this was all connected to her adoption somehow, and she wanted to get to the bottom of that before she took any action. She knew it was illogical, but she’d feel embarrassed voicing suspicions that might be completely wrong, especially if they involved her new-found sister. And she wanted to know what Jane had to say first. It could be important.

  ‘Very well, but I don’t like it. Will you at least tell one of us where you’re going if you go out?’

  ‘Yes, I promise.’

  The rest of the journey was completed in silence.

  Early the next morning Alex went to find Foster, who was temporarily camping out in another of the holiday cottages Alex had bought. He’d asked his friend to help him with the work and Foster had been only too pleased to agree.

  ‘You don’t mind painting and decorating?’ Alex had asked, and Foster laughed.

  ‘Nah, at least it’s honest money, even if it’s not the most exciting job in the world.’

 
; This morning, however, he had another job for the young man.

  ‘Foster, I’d like you to follow Maddie around, but without her seeing you. Could you do that, do you think?’

  ‘Sure. Easiest thing in the world. Why? You think that psycho’s gonna try and kill her again?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I would feel safer if I knew you were keeping an eye on her. I haven’t got time to do it myself and besides, she’d be sure to see me and get angry.’

  ‘No problem, you leave it to me.’ Foster grinned. ‘You like her a lot, huh?’

  Alex smiled sheepishly. ‘It shows, does it?’

  ‘Yeah, a mile off.’

  ‘Yes, well, unfortunately for me, she doesn’t feel the same way.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s life, eh?’

  ‘She probably just wants to play hard to get for a while,’ Foster said. ‘Women are like that. Weird creatures.’

  Alex laughed. If only it were that easy. ‘Hard to get’ he could overcome. Blatant contempt, no. ‘We’ll see,’ was all he replied. ‘Start this morning, would you please?’

  ‘Sure thing.’

  ‘Maddie, are you all right?’ Jane sounded tearful on the other end of the phone, and Maddie felt her throat constrict. Someone really cared. My little sister.

  ‘Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for making Alex go out looking for me yesterday. If you hadn’t told him to, I would still be stuck down a mine shaft.’

  ‘A mine shaft? Oh no ... What happened?’

  Maddie told her and when she had finished there was complete silence. ‘Jane? Are you still there?’

  ‘Yes, I’m here.’ The voice was nothing more than a whisper.

  ‘How did you know I was in trouble?’

  ‘Oh, it was just a hunch.’ Jane gave a brittle little laugh. ‘Sisterly intuition perhaps?’

  ‘Really? It wasn’t something, er … more concrete?’

  ‘No, no.’ Jane sounded suspiciously airy and Maddie could tell she was holding something back.