Anais put her arms around his shoulders. “We don’t know that. Jago has no reason to kill her.”
“He has no reason to keep her alive, either.”
“Andrew and I will keep searching for her. We will not give up until she is safely back with you.”
“Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate your help.”
“It’s the least we can do.”
James pulled himself up off the sofa and headed to the door.
“I’m sure Aldrich will be needing my assistance this afternoon. It truly is a mystery what is wrong with Rafe.”
He pushed the button which released the door and left.
“Do you think we will find her?” Anais asked Andrew.
“Honestly? No, I think it’s a waste of time. I think James is right and she’s already dead. We’d be better off putting our energy into finding the last two pendants.”
“I hope you are wrong. We still have those phone records to track down and the airport CCTV to go through. I’m not giving up. We owe James. After all, it’s because of us, he got dragged into this mess in the first place!”
Chapter Sixteen
Later on, Anais found Aethelu up in her room reading.
“How is he?” She joined her on the bed.
“It’s so strange. He looks like he’s sleeping, but he just won’t wake up. I’m sorry I didn’t come down to help you with finding Sabine. Did you make any progress?” she carefully laid her book on the nightstand.
“Not so much. I’ve left Andrew looking up some leads, but none of them look very promising. What do you think happened to Rafe?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t have his passport on him according to August. Andrew is probably the best one to ask to find out when he returned from Kenya, but he still doesn’t even know that’s where Rafe was. I wish I had Judith’s email address to see if she can tell us anything. The two people who are likely to have it, Rafe and Andrew, are the only two we can’t ask for it.”
“I hope she’s safe. I’d hate to think that there was another person to find.”
“I don’t care if she is. She cheated on Andrew with my brother. That’s unforgivable in my book.”
“Rafe was hardly an innocent party in it, though.”
“No, he wasn’t. I’m not happy at all with what he’s done, but he’s my brother.”
“So he gets forgiven but Judith doesn’t?”
“He’s currently in a coma! What do you want me to do? Go and tell him what I think of his behaviour? Shout at him?” Aethelu had raised her voice, leaving Anais speechless.
“I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I just want to be alone right now.” She turned away from Anais.
Anais decided that now was not the best time to try to comfort her. She obviously needed time to come to terms with what had happened to Rafe. She got up off the bed and made her way back down to the kitchen. It was empty, so she made herself a sandwich and took it up to her own room. She spent the evening there alone reading. It was ten o’clock before she decided to sleep. She was just getting into her pyjamas when she heard a noise. It had been a quiet thumping sound. At first she thought it was someone in the corridor outside or Andrew returning to his room, but a quick check outside her door proved her wrong. She listened again. Nothing.
Shrugging it off, she got into bed.
Thump.
There it was again. It was a faint sound, but she definitely heard something. It came from above her. The only room above hers was the giant attic. She’d only been up there once. It was full of memorabilia of years gone by, along with a lot of junk. The best part of the attic was a giant model of the house and its inhabitants which had been built by Andrew.
She remembered that she had heard a similar noise a while back. At the time, she’d assumed that something had fallen over. This time though, it sounded like something was moving about up there.
The entrance to the attic was through a door at the end of the corridor. She made her way along the corridor and tried the handle. The door was locked. She was just wondering if she should bother to go and find August to get his giant bunch of keys when Andrew turned up.
“Hey. I was just going to bed. What’s up?” He called to her from outside his bedroom door.
“I heard a noise from the attic, but the door is locked.”
“Is it? How strange. Someone probably locked it on account of the high security. I wouldn’t worry about the noise, though. We’ve been known to get squirrels up there. They are a menace. If you like, I could track down some keys to check.”
“No, don’t worry about it. It probably was squirrels.”
“I’ll go and have a look tomorrow. If it is squirrels, I’ll deal with it.”
“Ok, thanks, goodnight.” Anais smiled and made her way back to her bedroom. She listened for a few minutes but heard nothing else. Eventually, she fell asleep.
The rest of the week dragged by in a very slow manner. Rafe’s condition didn’t improve at all and Andrew got nowhere in finding Sabine. He couldn’t find any relevant CCTV footage from the closest airports to Florence, and the gallery’s phone reports showed a couple of calls placed at the right time but came up on the bill as ‘No number.’ He did however catch up with Anais and let her know that he’d dealt with the squirrel in the attic.
The only thing of any worth that happened was Arcadia, Aethelu’s sister, coming home unannounced. She’d heard about Rafe and decided to catch the first plane back. Anais had a huge shock when the immense oak doors opened one day as she was walking through the main entrance hall. It was only when Arcadia launched herself at her for a hug and cried, “Darling!” that she realised it was only Aethelu’s older sister. She looked as immaculate and stunning as ever with her now, caramel-coloured hair cut shorter than usual and framing her face perfectly in a flicked out layered bob.
“Anais, I’ve missed you!” She finally let go and looked Anais up and down. “Looking good, and I see you are finally mobile. Good for you.”
She paused for a moment and her expression turned serious.
“How’s Rafe?”
“He’s not so good. Your father and James have done every test they can think of, and he responds to nothing.”
“I forgot about James. That was a turn up for the books. What is he like?”
“He’s nice, troubled, though. I think he blames us for the loss of his daughter. He’s probably in the surgery looking after Rafe if you want to go see him.”
“Yeah, I should go and see him. I’ll just take my bags up to my room.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Anais picking up Arcadia’s bag. “I’ll take them up.”
She’d barely spoken to Aethelu in the last few days and taking Arcadia’s bag to the adjoining room would give her the opportunity to start a conversation.
“Thank you, darling.” She kissed Anais on both cheeks and clipped clopped off in her ridiculously high heels.
Anais carried the bags to Arcadia’s first floor bedroom and laid them on the floor next to the bed. She wasn’t sure if Aethelu was in her room, but she knocked on the door all the same.
“Come in.”
Anais opened the door and walked in to find Aethelu lying on the bed reading.
She looked dreadful. Her eyes had black circles under them from lack of sleep, and she looked exhausted.
“Hey,” she put the book down and smiled at Anais.
“You’ll never guess who just turned up.”
“Who?”
“Arcadia. She’s downstairs looking in on Rafe.”
“Cadie? She’s here?” Aethelu jumped out of bed.
“Yes, just this minute came in.… Wait a minute,” she added, as Aethelu ran to the door.
“I wanted to speak to you. Arcadia has gone to see Rafe. Give her a bit of time with him.”
Aethelu looked like she was going to snap at Anais, but then her face softened, and she obviously thought better of it.
&nbs
p; “Ok, what’s up?” She returned to the bed and sat down on the edge.
“I don’t know; you just seem different. I’ve barely seen you over the last few days and I miss you.”
Aethelu smiled.
“Come here soppy!”
Anais moved over to the bed and sat beside Aethelu, who put her arms around her. The buzz of The Light had diminished so much that Anais barely registered it.
“I’m sorry! I’ve been so preoccupied with Rafe and everything. It’s nothing to do with you. I just need a little time and space to process. I think you were right about Rafe by the way. What he did to Andrew was disgusting, and I can’t just forgive him because he’s my brother and in a coma. Cheating sucks. It’s the absolute worst thing you can do to someone who loves you. I feel awful for Andrew but have taken to hiding when I see him coming because I know that he doesn’t know yet. I feel so guilty about keeping it from him.”
“Me too, but unfortunately, for now, I don’t see an alternative. If he ever found out about Rafe and Judith, he would be devastated. We need him too much at the moment. He’s busy looking for Abel and Amber, searching for Sabine and keeping the house safe. We’d be lost without him.
“He’s going to find out sooner or later, and then he’s going to hate us all.”
“I know that this is going to sound heartless, but let’s hope that we either catch Jago or find the ingredients for The Light before that happens.”
“Mmmm.” Aethelu lay down, wrapped up in her own thoughts.
Neither of the girls spoke for a few more minutes until Anais broke the silence.
“I can’t believe we are back here again, in this situation, I mean.”
“I know,” Aethelu sighed. “I felt really great when we got the seeds from Kew Gardens. You had managed to get Audsley’s pendant and things were looking up. We were moving; things were happening. I felt like we were all on track but now everything seems to be so hopeless. Rafe is ill, we are no closer to finding the last two pendants, we don’t know if Sabine is even alive and we are probably wasting time looking for her. Plus, we still have the threat of Jago looming over our heads every day.
She closed her eyes and sighed again. Anais desperately wanted to comfort her, to offer words of wisdom, but Aethelu had summed their situation up so perfectly that she didn’t know what to say. It did seem utterly hopeless.
“You still have me.”
“I know,” Aethelu smiled a sad smile. “I think it’s the only thing keeping me going at the moment.”
Anais lay next to her and cradled her head. She stroked Aethelu’s hair until she fell asleep.
Leaving Aethelu to sleep, she carefully removed her arm from under Aethelu’s head and headed out of the room to the corridor. For a moment, she considered visiting Andrew in the cellar, but what Aethelu had said about them keeping secrets from him had struck a chord. She didn’t want to sit with him, knowing what she knew, not at the moment. She decided to find August to ask him about the seeds.
After searching the house from top to bottom and not finding him or Baker, she concluded he must either be out or at his own house, which had formally been the gatekeeper’s cottage by the main gates.
A nice walk down to the cottage sounded like just what she needed to clear her head and get a little exercise, but when she got to the top of the main stairs and looked out of the window, she could see a storm had blown in. Rain was hammering on the windows, and she could hear the wind blowing fiercely. Not wanting to face the bad weather unless she had to, she decided to call the cottage instead, to make sure he was in. He answered on the second ring with a cheery “Hello!”
“Hi, August, I was just checking to see if you were home. I thought I’d come over and see you.”
“That would be grand. It’s good timing on your part, too, as I’ve just this minute put some muffins in the oven. I hope you are hungry.”
Anais’ stomach rumbled at the mere mention of the muffins.
“Sounds lovely. I’ll be right over.”
“Ok, make sure you use the tunnel, mind you. You don’t want to be going out in this weather. The wind will blow you right over.
Anais had forgotten about the tunnel leading from The Manor to the cottage. She looked out of the high windows and could just about see the tops of the trees. They were being bent in all directions, taking a battering by the gale.
“Will do. See you soon.” She replaced the receiver and made her way down into the kitchen.
She’d never been down the tunnel to the cottage before, but she knew the entrance was opposite the door to the cellar.
The door had the same keypad and fingerprint system as the cellar door. She hoped it was the same code for both doors as she didn’t fancy going back all the way upstairs to call August again. Fortunately, when she inputted the code, the big metal door slid back into a recess in the wall, allowing her access to the tunnel.
The tunnel itself was roughly hewn out of rock and no attempt had been made to pretty it up. The lights were lit up by sensor to save electricity so only the portion illuminated was the bit she was in. Ahead of her, the tunnel plunged into pitch blackness, and as she moved along the tunnel, the lights behind her went off. It was rather unnerving walking into the blackness, but the lights continued to come on as she walked. Eventually, the tunnel split into two. One of the passages would take her to August’s cottage, the other, out into the grounds somewhere. Both looked exactly the same, but an educated guess told her that the right passage was the best one to take. It headed in the general direction of the cottage, whereas the other one curved in the opposite direction. She hoped she was right and wouldn’t end up in the grounds somewhere.
Finally she made it to the end of the tunnel and was faced with yet another coded door. Again, she hoped for the best as she typed the code into the pad and was rewarded with the door pulling back. Unlike the pantry lift at The Manor, she was now faced with a wooden staircase which was painted glossy white. It led to a door at the top, painted with the same gloss. As she made her way up the stairs, she heard the metal door below shut behind her. At the top, she wasn’t sure whether to be polite and knock or just walk right in. She was saved the dilemma by August opening the door for her.
“Anais! Come in. I heard you walking up the stairs.” He beckoned her through the door into the daintiest kitchen she had ever seen. Pretty floral curtains covered the windows, while a matching tablecloth decorated the table. A white vase stood on top, with handpicked sweet peas from the garden filling it. The kitchen itself was painted white with very feminine accents such as pink tea towels and coffee cups.
The whole effect was so completely incongruous to August’s personality that she stood open-mouthed for a minute, completely unaware of how rude she was being. She had expected something more along the lines of a lumberjack’s cabin.
“Coffee? Anais?” August had to repeat himself to get her attention.
“What? Oh, yes, please.” She sat on a beautiful white shabby chic chair. The smell of the muffins permeated the air making her stomach growl again.
August ignored the pretty row of dainty pink cups hanging on a rail and instead extracted two giant mugs, both with chips in them, from a cupboard.
“I like the kitchen,” said Anais, for want of anything else to say.
“Oh, don’t you start,” chuckled August. I’ve not heard the end of it from Alex and Rafe since it was put in. I lost a bet to them in a game of poker about a year ago. The forfeit was I had to let Winnie redesign my kitchen. Well, I didn’t think it was such a bad bet. I’d get my kitchen renovated if I lost. I figured it was a win-win situation. This is what I ended up with. Not really my style, but what can you do?” He placed a steaming coffee in front of her and then put on a pair of frilly oven gloves. He extracted a tray of muffins from the oven and took each one out separately and placed it on a cooling rack.
“Have you been to see Rafe today?” he asked, as he placed two of the muffins on a china plate and brough
t them over to Anais.
She didn’t want to admit to not visiting him at all, so she simply said “no” and left it at that. She’d not been to visit for a number of reasons; the main one being that she was mad at him. Besides, he was in a coma and wouldn’t know she was there anyway.
“I was going to head up later.” He grabbed a muffin and despite the fact it was still so hot that steam was coming off it, bit into it.
“Arcadia is probably still with him.” Anais decided to let her muffin cool a bit before trying it.
“Arcadia’s here? Blimey. She couldn’t wait to leave the last time she was here.”
“She came home to see Rafe.”
“Of course, silly me.” He polished off the rest of the muffin and went to get another.
Anais picked hers up, but it was so hot it almost burnt her fingers. She quickly dropped it and sipped her coffee instead. August must have an asbestos mouth, she mused as he took a seat and bit into his second muffin.
“I cut that tree branch off, by the way.” He said between mouthfuls. It took a couple of moments for Anais to realise he was talking about the branch that overhung the electric fence that has allowed her and Aethelu to get out without being spotted.
She’d forgotten about it until now.
“Thank you,” she said, rather guiltily.
“Not a problem. So Anais, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Anais remembered why she had come to visit August in the first place.
“I was just wondering how the Heatherwort seeds were doing.”
“Ah. I’m glad you asked.” He once again got out of his seat and walked over to the windowsill. He picked up a small pink flowerpot and set it down in front of Anais. Three little shoots were just peeking out from the soil.
“I wanted to make sure we had given them the best chance to grow. I planted two of the seeds in the garden and three in here. I wasn’t sure which would be best. It turns out I needn’t have worried because the ones outside have sprouted too. In a few weeks, we will have some lovely specimens of Heatherwort.” He smiled proudly.
Infinite Spring Page 15