“What? Are you kidding me? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because even I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Andrew’s plan was very vague and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what I was going to do until now so just go over there. Quickly!”
Anais jumped up and ran over to the woman wondering what on earth she was supposed to say. She wished Aethelu had given her a heads up.
“Hi, Hallo. Can you help me pliz?” She had put on a silly foreign accent in a fit of panic. In a split second, she had decided to pretend to be a foreign visitor. She then remembered she already had a foreign accent here and could have played the part just as well being the American she was. Still it was too late to go back now.
The woman smiled. “Of course, what can I help you with?”
“Erm…” Anais thought quickly searching her brain for a topic of conversation. She spotted a poster of a rare orchid on the wall. “I’d like see orchid pliz. Is there orchid here?”
“Actually, Kew Gardens has a wide range of orchids on display. We have one of the widest ranges of orchids on display in the world. Many are on display to the public.”
Anais could see Aethelu flapping her arms behind the woman. She was trying to signal to her, but Anais didn’t understand what she was trying to communicate. It was only when Aethelu held up her own carrier bag and pointed at it that she realised that she needed Anais to get the guard to drop her identical carrier.
“She thrust the museum map at the woman and pointed at the orchid poster.”
“Can you pliz direct me to zis orchid?”
The woman put down her bag and took the map.
“Actually, the one in the poster isn’t on show yet. The orchids we do have can be found here.” She pointed at the map.
In a split second, Anais saw Aethelu, still with her hood up, run toward herself and the guard and bump into both of them.
“So sorry!” she said and then ran into the ladies’ room.
“How rude!” the guard exclaimed.
Anais wasn’t sure what to do now. She’d been told to keep the guard talking.
“Why cannot I see zis orchid?” she said, once again pointing to the poster.
“The guard smiled. Actually, that particular orchid is one of the rarest in the world. Only three of its kind are known to exist in the world. They are all owned by private collectors. Next week, we will be lent the orchid for a short while. You could come back then.”
“Ah, I fly home tomorrow. I am so disappointed.” She feigned a sad look.
It was then that she saw Aethelu emerge from the ladies’ toilet wearing a Kew Gardens guard uniform. The trousers were at least two inches too short for her tall body and long legs, and the jacket hung off her slim frame. Anais looked down. Aethelu had switched the bags when she had bumped into them. As she watched, Anais used a key card and entered a door marked Staff Only.
“Oh, I am sorry. It would have been the pride of our orchid collection. It is a shame you won’t be around to see it,” the guard replied. Anais smiled and brought her attention back to the woman.
“You keep saying ‘we’. Do you work here?” Anais was struggling to keep the conversation going.
“Actually, I do. I’m a guard. Funnily enough, my job is going to get much harder next week, thanks to that orchid.”
“Really? Why iz zat?”
“It’s worth millions. Security will be increased tenfold next week. At least I’ll have lots of help, I usually do this part of the Gardens alone.”
The fact that there was usually only one guard comforted Anais somewhat.
A man wearing an identical uniform to the one Aethelu was now wearing walked over to the pair.
“Hey, Mel, sorry for interrupting.” He smiled and nodded at Anais before turning back to his colleague. “Your shift starts in a few minutes. I was hoping to be off early today.”
“Sorry, Don, I was just helping this lady. I’ll be right there.”
He walked away, leaving Anais once again alone with the dowdy guard.
“Sorry, I’ve got to go.” She picked up Aethelu’s carrier bag.
Anais panicked. Aethelu had only been gone a few minutes and still hadn’t emerged from the Staff Only door.
“But you ‘aven’t shown me where I can find zeh orchids yet.”
The woman handed the tourist guide back to Anais and checked her watch.
“Our collection of orchids are kept through those double doors, through the main greenhouse and then to the left. It’s the third greenhouse along. You can’t miss it. It’s got a big sign on the door.”
Anais was out of time. Aethelu had still not appeared and she didn’t think she’d get away with asking about any other type of plant.
She stamped her foot, annoyed with herself and a pain shot up her leg. That was it!
She let out a blood curdling yell and fell to the ground. It was cheesy as all hell, but she didn’t know what else to do. She had never been so grateful for the seven inch scar that ran up her leg from the surgery to insert the metal rod that held her bone together.
The guard dropped to her side.
“Are you ok? What’s the matter?”
Anais pulled up her trouser leg revealing the scar. It had faded a lot in the past few weeks, but it still looked sore.
“It’s my leg. I broke it badly a few veeks ago. I zink zeh bone has given avay a bit.” She prayed that the guard didn’t know a lot about anatomy. A woman wearing a Kew Gardens uniform and a badge that read ‘Gift Shop’ and then ‘Linda’ underneath ran up to them.
“I’ve just called first aid,” she addressed both Anais and the guard. They should be here in a moment. Do you need an ambulance?”
Anais shook her head firmly. She was making such a mess of this. She had been trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, but here she was with two members of staff, soon to be joined by a third, standing around her, with half the tourists staring at the scene with looks of curiosity.
She looked over toward the staff doors and was immensely relieved to see Aethelu come out and run into the ladies’ room.
“Thank you,” said Anais, “but zat von’t be necessary.” She wondered how long it would take for Aethelu to change back into her normal clothes. “I zink I may haf been wrong about zeh bone. Perhaps it is just cramp.”
The gift shop worker looked concerned. “Are you sure? Can you stand?”
“I zink maybe…”
The guard and Linda each grabbed an arm and pulled her to an upright position. She dusted herself off and thanked them.
“You ok?” Linda spoke. “I’ll go and cancel the first aid if you are sure.”
“Yah,” said Anais, nervously looking at the ladies’ door. “I zink I am being ok now, just a twinge after all.”
“Good, now if you’ll excuse me, I really have to get to work. I’m going to be late for my shift,” Mel smiled and picked up her bag once again.
“’Scuse me,” a beautiful blonde with porcelain skin addressed the guard, “but I think you have my bag.”
The guard looked at the bag in her hand and then noticed an identical one on the floor beside her.
“Oh, sorry,” she smiled. “They all look the same, don’t they?” She handed Aethelu’s bag back to her and picked up her own. She fished out a key card, smiled at Anais and disappeared through the Staff Only door.
“You got them?”
“Of course!” She showed Anais a small packet in her pocket and grinned. “Come on let’s go.”
Chapter Thirteen
That night, Aethelu treated Anais to a meal at the poshest restaurant she could find. She ordered lobster for both of them and a huge bottle of champagne.
Anais was still a little mad with Aethelu for throwing her in at the deep end earlier but she had to admit that the plan had worked.
They had gone there straight from Kew Gardens and Anais felt a little out of place in her jeans. The waiters didn’t seem to mind, though, so she turned her focus back
to the reason they were celebrating.
“What happened? I want to know everything.” Anais took a sip of her champagne.
“It was simple. That’s why it was so effective. You know that Andrew had been watching the security cameras and tracking everyone’s movements? He noticed that the security during the day was actually much lighter than at night where we would have at least double the security men and their dogs. Plus, if we broke in after it closed, we would both be on the CCTV cameras. We would have had to figure out a way to get rid of the security guards, then wipe the CCTV cameras. Andrew could have done that, but it was easier to do it this way. The only person they would have seen on the cameras entering the seed bank would be Melanie Broadhirst.”
“Who?”
“The guard you were speaking to. Her key card was in her bag with the uniform, so it would have been her that registered on the security system when the seed bank door was opened. If anyone cared to look, they would have seen Melanie, aka me, entering there with her key card, as she is supposed to be coming on duty at that time anyway, no one would be suspicious.
“But if someone saw you disguised as Melanie entering the seed bank on one camera and then the real Melanie talking to me in the foyer, surely they would get suspicious.”
“Do you know how big Kew is? There are hundreds of cameras and only one person to watch them all. Andrew picked a very busy area where you and Melanie would blend in and look like any other tourists. Melanie wasn’t dressed for her shift yet, so she would have looked like anyone else in the throng of people. The guard would probably have seen me enter the seed bank, but the chances of him spotting the real Melanie in all the other people were infinitesimal. Do you know what the best part of all this is?”
“That I get to spend the evening alone with you in a hotel room away from your family?” Anais grinned, caught up in Aethelu’s exuberance.
“Obviously, that, but I meant the fact that Kew Gardens doesn’t even know anything has been stolen. I only took half their sample of Heatherwort. Actually, I like your thought better.”
Anais grinned again. Things were getting better and better. They had collected all but two of the pendants, plus the seeds that would grow into another ingredient for The Light Elixir. They also had a lead for the final two pendants. Egypt!
Anais told Aethelu all about the letter that Audsley had destroyed all that time ago.
“Egypt, huh? I’m not so surprised. Amber was obsessed with the place. You’ve got to remember that Egyptology was a huge thing back then. The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb was massive news at the time. Everyone was into Egyptian artefacts. Amber collected quite a few replicas herself. It was a long time ago, though. Things change. What is the likelihood that they would still be there?”
Anais took her last bite of lobster and put down her fork.
“I don’t know. Probably very slim, but it’s all we have got to go on. Plus, we still don’t know what happened to Sabine and are no closer to finding her. Did you and Andrew come up with anything?”
“No, we didn’t look, to be honest. We were concentrating all our efforts on getting the seeds.” She pulled them out of her pocket and put them on the table. There were five of them sealed in a small see-through plastic bag, small, round, black, unassuming little seeds. They didn’t look like one-sixteenth of the ingredients for everlasting life.
“All that effort for these.” Anais picked the bag up and shook it. The seeds jumped up and down in the confines of the bag.
“Actually, once I got the uniform and key card it was pretty easy. I barely saw anyone once I was inside the staff area. The couple of people I did see, ignored me. These seeds were in the minimum security part. Once I used the key card to get into the seed bank, it was easy.”
“Weren’t they all kept in separate boxes with keys?”
“You are thinking of safety deposit boxes. Actually, the room they are in is more like a giant fridge. It’s too cold to work in, so there was no one in there. All the seeds were lined up in glass jars on shelves. It looked a bit like father’s surgery.”
“They were just in jars?”
“I wasn’t stealing the crown jewels! Each jar was labelled so it was just a matter of finding the right jar. They were alphabetical so it wasn’t that much of a problem. I made sure not to take all of them. I’m sure that when the next inventory is taken, someone will notice five seeds missing, but by then we will be long gone. Besides, I don’t think anyone will care too much as long as the important seeds and plants aren’t taken.”
Anais was amazed at the simplicity of the plan and how easily it had worked. She couldn’t fault Andrews’s idea or Aethelu’s execution of it.
She filled both their glasses with the rest of the champagne and raised a glass.
“To Andrew and the most wonderful, gorgeous girl on the planet.”
“Who’s that then?” Aethelu asked in a mock innocent voice.
“Who do you think?” She leaned across the table and kissed Aethelu on the lips, not caring that people were watching.
“I’ll drink to that!” Aethelu raised her own glass and clinked it against Anais’ with a smile on her face.
After the meal was paid for, they headed out into the bright lights of London. Night had fallen, but that hadn’t stopped the tourists. They were everywhere. London seemed even busier at night than it did in the day. Clubbers lined up waiting for a bouncer to let them into the hottest clubs, people filled the restaurants and theatres and still the tourists took photos of everything.
The atmosphere was electric and Anais felt a real buzz. It was a chilly March night, and everyone was wrapped up warm except the bravest of the clubbers who deemed themselves too cool for the cold and instead stood shivering in short skirts and flimsy tops.
Anais held Aethelu’s hand. The Light’s energy pulsed up her arm and through her body, but she was used to it and held on tight. It was actually keeping her warm against the cold night air. A shudder ran through her, and she grinned.
“Let’s go back to the hotel.”
Aethelu looked at her. “I was going to suggest going to see a play or a musical, but I think I’d rather be with just you.”
She put her hands on each side of Anais face and kissed her deeply. The lights of Leicester square twinkled all around them, but Anais didn’t notice. The sound of the tourists and other pedestrians melted away into the night, as did the hum of the traffic. There was just Anais and Aethelu and the kiss. It was a promise of things to come. Someone wolf whistled, which made Aethelu break away. She grinned and Anais reciprocated.
The tube ride back to the hotel was quieter due to the time of night and this time they both got a seat. She jokingly sat on Aethelu’s knee and kissed her again. An old man gave a cough, and when she looked around she saw him give her a disapproving look. She quickly stifled a giggle and sat on her own seat. It wasn’t long before their stop. They got off and made their way to the hotel. As they walked through the lobby, the night receptionist stopped them.
“Ms Dean, Ms Shipley?”
It was a moment before Anais realised the receptionist was talking to them. She’d forgotten that they’d booked in under false names.
“Yes,” replied Aethelu.
“I have a number of urgent messages for you. The caller was very insistent that they should be passed to you straight away.”
With an intrigued look toward Anais, Aethelu took the notes from the receptionist and unfolded them. They all had the same message.
A worried look appeared on her face immediately.
“Shit! We’ve got to go home.”
Anais had never heard her use language like that before. “What’s happened?”
“Jago’s back!”
Chapter Fourteen
On the journey home, Aethelu filled Anais in as much as she knew. The notes had said very little. Only that Jago was back and Rafe was in a bad way in the surgery.
When Anais checked Aethelu’s phone she found
a list of missed calls, all from the house and various mobile phones of The Manor’s occupants. It looked like they had been trying to contact the pair for the last few hours.
“I had my phone on silent,” explained Aethelu as she sped down the motorway.
Anais called the first number on the list. It was Winnie’s phone. She answered on the first ring.
“Aethelu?”
“Hi Winnie, It’s Anais. Aethelu’s driving. We are on our way home.”
“You are both ok? Thank goodness. I was so worried when you didn’t answer the phone.”
“It was on silent. What’s happened to Rafe? I thought he was in Kenya?”
“Mmm, so you knew about that, too? Alex told me today. I must say, I’m very disappointed that no one thought to share that particular piece of information with me. I did wonder why you both had to go to Las Vegas to help him get the pendant.”
“Winnie!” said Anais, trying to get her back to the point.
“What? Oh, yes, August was out walking Baker in the grounds when he found Rafe unconscious in the driveway. There was no sign of any injury, but we found the name Jago pinned to his jacket. Aldrich is at a loss. There seems to be physically nothing wrong with him.”
“But he’s got The Light in him! Surely nothing can keep him unconscious.”
“That’s what we thought. Aldrich has never seen anything like it before. He’s performing all kinds of tests on him. Oh, Anais, what are we going to do?”
Anais didn’t have any words of comfort. If Aldrich didn’t know what to do, then she was at a loss as to what to say.
“I have faith in Aldrich. Just sit tight. We’ll be home soon.”
“Ok, love, keep safe and for goodness sake, be careful!”
“We will, Winnie, bye.”
She hung up and turned to Aethelu. She’d had the phone on speaker, so Aethelu had heard every word.
Aethelu had tears in her eyes.
“Poor Mama.” She put her foot down on the accelerator and pushed way past the speed limit.
Infinite Spring Page 13