Anais jumped at the chance to do some shopping. She hated the maternity clothes she had as much as Arcadia did. A day out girly shopping also sounded fun and would take her mind off the failure to find all the pendants. She knew that tonight’s celebratory dinner would be tainted with the news that the last remaining pendant was still missing and they had no idea where it was. She also knew that yet another family meeting would be called with yet another plan of action. The thought of it exhausted her. A day of shopping for cute girly things was just what she needed to take her mind from it.
“I’d love to, thanks.”
“Lulu, you coming?”
“No thanks, I’m not a huge fan of shopping. You two go, have fun. I think I’ll stay and help Mama with Dinner.”
Arcadia and Anais opted to leave through the kitchen door and take one of the cars from the family’s enormous garage. Out in the courtyard, they bumped into Sabine, who was just making her way back into the courtyard through the little gate.
“Hey, Sabine,” cried Anais. “We were just about to head into town. Would you like to join us?”
“Oh, I’d love to thanks.”
Arcadia drove a small red sports car out of the garage and the other two got in.
“Thank you so much for inviting me to go with you,” said Sabine in her beautiful Italian accent. “I hate being in that house. I don’t know why, but it, how you say, gives me the creeps. Alex says I’m being silly, but I really don’t feel at peace there. I had to go for a walk in the grounds this morning just to get away.”
“The house is a bit much really,” said Arcadia, “Not enough light. I don’t like to spend much time here either. I prefer my house in France. I suppose coming from Italy, You’ll be a bit more used to the sunshine, too, instead of this miserable weather.”
Anais looked out of the car window. Arcadia had a point. The sky, full of dull, grey, clouds, was threatening rain. It shouldn’t be this bleak during summer, even near the end of the season. Still, she had a lot to be thankful for. Her baby was healthy, and better still, she was going on a shopping trip to buy new clothes for her. Pink dresses. Lots of pink dresses.
The afternoon sped by in a whirl of baby shops. Arcadia helped Anais choose a number of stylish outfits and insisted on buying rather a lot of designer baby clothes. Sabine also seemed to be much happier cooing over tiny pink baby shoes and outfits.
On top of all the clothes, Anais ordered a beautiful white cot and bedding to be delivered at a later date, as it wouldn’t fit in the sports car.
Back at the house, Anais found Aethelu still in the kitchen. It looked somewhat different from when she had left hours previously. It was much hotter for a start, and the large oak kitchen table was laden down with so many dishes that Anais was amazed that it could take the weight.
She had only gone to the kitchen to find Aethelu to show her all the baby things, but a harassed- looking Winnie collared her before she had the chance to drag Aethelu away.
“Anais, darling, I’m running out of plates for everyone. I think I’ve probably done too much.”
Anais had to agree, it did look like she’d cooked enough for an army.
“You’ve certainly gone all out!”
“Hmm,” answered Winnie with a stressed out look. “Would you be a dear and go up into the attic and look for my best china. It’s labelled in a box somewhere.”
“Of course.”
“You’ll have to get someone to help you. I don’t want you carrying too much in your condition.”
Anais smiled. It was nice that Winnie worried about her. Anais made her way up the winding staircase into the great hall and up the main stairs to the first floor. Up another set of stairs to the second floor, she walked along the long corridor, past Andrews’s room, past the room that was once hers and now had been given to Jennifer, to the door that led to the attic. It was only when she tried turning the door’s handle that she remembered that it was locked.
She mentally kicked herself, knowing that the only person likely to have the keys was August and he was more than likely at his home in the cottage. She didn’t really want to have to go all the way back downstairs and out into the grounds just to get the key, but she supposed she would have to. She hoped that Winnie wasn’t in any rush to get the extra dinner plates. It would probably take her more than half an hour just to get back. It was when she passed Andrew’s room that she remembered something from months before. She had heard noises in the attic over her bedroom. Andrew had told her that it was probably squirrels and that he would deal with them. That would mean that he had the attic key. She knocked on his door in the vain hope that he still had it in his possession.
“Yes?” asked Andrew bleakly when he opened his door. He still looked as pale and miserable as he had done the previous day.
“Sorry to bother you, but do you still have the keys to the attic from when you got rid of the squirrels?”
“What?” he wore a confused look on his face but then remembered, “Oh, squirrels, right. What do you need the keys for?”
“Winnie asked me to get some plates for tonight’s dinner.”
“Oh, ok, right, just a minute.” He closed the door leaving Anais out in the corridor by herself. She waited a moment. Was he getting the keys? Should she knock again? She had lifted up her hand to knock once again when he opened the door and thrust a small bunch of keys at her before closing the door again.
“Thanks,” she shouted through the closed door. Andrew’s behaviour was really becoming strange, she mused. She wondered if he somehow knew that Rafe and Judith were coming to dinner. He had to know it would be a possibility. She suspected that he wouldn’t show up for dinner himself and to be honest, she couldn’t blame him. Despite Winnie's talk of him ‘getting used to it’, it was not an easy thing to get used to.
She found the right key in the bunch and slotted it into the keyhole. It turned the first time and the door opened revealing the stairway up to the attic. She switched the light on and made her way up the stairs.
The attic was just how she remembered it. The amazing model of The Manor and its ground stood on a table in front of her. Normally, she would have turned its lights on to see it in its full glory, but she didn’t want to keep Winnie waiting, so she turned and walked to the other side of the room. Her heart fell as she saw the huge amount of boxes stacked up amongst centuries of family history, broken furniture and general junk. She’d forgotten just how much stuff was stored up here. It could take hours to go through each box and find the plates. She hoped Winnie was right and it was marked plainly on the side of the box. At least that way, she wouldn’t have to open each one. Scanning the vast array of boxes for one marked ‘plates’ or ‘crockery’ or ‘kitchen’, she methodically moved her eyes from one to another. After only five minutes, she found a box that looked like it might be the right one, stood next to an old travelling chest. It said ‘Best China’ on the side and sure enough, when she opened it, it was full of pretty plates with gold leaf around the edges and pink roses delicately painted on each one. She’d have to get help to carry the box. It was too heavy for her to carry it all by herself in her condition. She was just about to turn and go and find someone to help her when her eyes fell on the chest next to her. It was the one she’d opened the only other time she’d been in the attic. A memory sparked. There had been an old silver jewellery box in there. It was engraved with a ballet dancer. What was it that Amber had said as her final words? Save the Ballerina. What if she had said ‘silver ballerina.’ Anais opened the chest and quickly found the silver box. It was tarnished but she could still make out the engraving of the dancing girl. Just underneath it was another engraving. Anais rubbed her thumb over it to try and wipe it clean to make it more readable. She pulled closer and angled it towards the light. It was faint, but it was unmistakable. It read “Amber.”
Anais tried to open it, but it was locked. She quickly searched the chest for a small key to no avail. Not wanting to get anyone’s hope
s up, she instead searched the attic for a tool to use to open it. She quickly found a box labelled ‘cutlery’ and pulled out a knife. She inserted it between the silver box and its lid and moved it around to try and jimmy the lock. It took her a few attempts, but then it opened spilling its contents into her lap. There amongst the rings and bracelets sat a star shaped pendant. She’d found it! The last remaining ingredient for the Elixir of life. Her heart hammered in her chest and she let out a little squeal. She hugged the necklace to her chest and stood up. She was just about to run down to tell everyone, but then remembered the crockery. She decided to keep the necklace a secret and surprise everyone when they were together at dinner. She couldn’t help the huge grin that now showed on her face. It was over. Finally!
She wasn’t sure what to do first, the excitement of finding the last pendant had overtaken all other thoughts. She took a deep breath and decided what to do. Looking down, she noticed that, in her excitement, she had spilt all the other contents of the silver box onto the floor. Rings had rolled off in all directions. She put the necklace round her neck and hid it under her blouse. It felt cold against her skin, but she barely felt it, such was the excitement of finding it. Getting to her hands and knees, she began to pick up all the other jewellery. Chains and earrings all knotted together were just thrown back into the silver box. Anais made a note to come back up here soon and separate everything and present the box and it’s contents to Jennifer. They were her mother’s, after all, and now belonged to her. Now was not the time, though. She still had to get the plates down to Winnie and jewellery was still scattered on the floor. She picked up as much as she could find and then scanned the nearby floor for any rings she might have missed. Seeing a glint of gold from under a large sideboard about two metres away she moved towards it. Kneeling, she put her hand underneath and pulled out the ring. As she picked it up, she noticed a number of beads nearby. They must have broken off a necklace. As she picked them up, she realised she had seen them before, beautiful brown glass beads with a seam of red running through them. They registered in her subconscious, but she couldn’t remember where she had seen them. She didn’t have time to worry about beads, though. She threw them, along with the ring, into the silver box and placed it carefully back in the chest.
She knew both Arcadia and Sabine were in as they had driven back to the house with her when they had finished shopping. She decided that she would ask one of them to help her with the plates. Andrews’s room was nearer than either Arcadia’s or Alex’s where she assumed Sabine was staying, but she really didn’t want to disturb him in the mood he was in. Alex’s room was on the same floor as hers and Aethelu’s and it was here she tried first. Sabine opened the door and seemed surprised to see Anais.
“Hi, again. Is everything ok? Do you need help with the clothes?”
Anais had almost forgotten about all the clothes she had bought that afternoon in the excitement of the last ten minutes. She could feel the pendant against her chest and it was all she could do not to blurt out the good news. Instead, she asked Sabine for some help.
“Can you help me carry some plates down to the kitchen? I would have taken them all myself but…” she indicated her growing stomach.
Sabine smiled. “Sure. I’d be happy to help. Alex has gone out to see Rafe and I’m pretty bored.”
“Thanks.” Anais led her up the stairs to the entrance to the attic and opened the door.
She began to climb the uncarpeted stairs and it was only when she was half way up that she realised that Sabine wasn’t following her.
“Sabine? Are you ok?” she walked back down to where Sabine was standing. She looked frightened.
“I know it looks a bit spooky, but I promise that it’s not so bad once you are up there. It’s pretty well lit and only has a minimal amount of spiders.” She tried and failed to elicit a smile from Sabine.
Sabine cautiously followed Anais, but Anais could tell she was frightened. She couldn’t understand why. Sure it was a bit unloved up there and could do with a bit of a sweep, but it was well lit with both artificial light from the numerous bare light bulbs and natural light streaming in from the big arched windows. As far as big old attics were concerned, Anais was sure there were far spookier ones. Still, she could almost feel the fear radiating from Sabine behind her.
She picked up the top few plates to hand to Sabine and turned. Sabine was deathly white, her eyes as wide as saucers.
“Sabine?”
Sabine stood stock still as if she’d not heard Anais and then she screamed, loud, fearful screams. Anais dropped the plates in shock, smashing them all.
“Sabine, what’s wrong?” Anais moved towards her, but she was hysterical. Nothing she did could calm her or stop her screaming. Anais panicked, looking around to see what had scared her so much. There was nothing there except the boxes and broken furniture.
She was at a loss for what to do. Sabine’s screams pierced through the air. She grabbed her arm as if to pull her back to the attic steps. She had been fine before they had come to the attic. Perhaps if she could drag her out, she could calm her down long enough to find out what was wrong. Sabine refused to move. The screams had abated slightly, and now, she was hyperventilating. Anais didn’t know what to do. If Sabine wasn’t going to move, she’d have to get someone to help carry her out. She certainly couldn’t do it on her own. She hesitantly left Sabine and ran towards the steps. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw both Jennifer and Andrew running up the stairs.
“Oh, thank goodness,” began Anais, “she just started screaming. I don’t know what the matter is.”
Jennifer ran past her to Sabine. She took Sabine’s hand and turned her. Just as Anais was beginning to feel some relief at having help, Sabine started to scream again. The look of fear in her eyes was palpable. It chilled Anais to the bone. Sabine was staring over her shoulder into the distance. Anais turned around.
“Andrew. Help us. We are going to have to carry her out. I think we are going to have to ask Aldrich to give her something to calm her down, she’s hysterical.”
“Jago!” Sabine screamed and ran towards the pile of broken furniture, trying to escape by climbing over bits of broken tables and wardrobes.
Anais looked around again. What had Sabine seen? A photo or a painting? Anais scanned the room behind Andrew to see if she had missed anything, but all she could see was the model of The Manor.
Looking once again back to Andrew to ask for help, she finally understood what Sabine had seen.
Andrew stood looking at her in a way she had never seen before. His face twisted in malice, he no longer looked like the sweet computer nerd she knew. He was barely recognisable. Even his voice was different. It held a force she had not heard from him before.
“I was hoping that no one would find out I was Jago until after Aldrich had made the Elixir.”
“What are you talking about?” confusion whirled around Anais’ brain.
“I knew it was a mistake to let you bring her here. I was hoping that I had drugged her enough not to remember me, but it seems I did not.”
“What are you talking about? You are Jago? You? You can’t be!”
“Why ever not?”
“But, but…” stammered Anais. “He nearly killed you. You were infected with the Jagovirus and nearly died.”
“Yes, that was a little accident. I intended to infect myself, but accidentally gave myself a higher dose than planned.”
“But why infect yourself in the first place. I don’t understand. What is going on?” Anais felt light headed. She could hear Sabine still clambering over furniture behind her, with Jennifer imploring her to get down before she fell.
“I infected myself because I was worried that suspicion was beginning to fall on me. I tried my first lot on Rafe because I wanted to kill him. I still do, actually. I certainly plan to since he stole Judith away from me. She is MY girlfriend, not his. I was hoping he would die, but he recovered. I modified it and tried it on Alex.
He was starting to poke his nose where it didn’t belong, so I thought he’d make a good guinea pig. He too survived. I was worried that he was beginning to suspect it was me, so I injected myself. I was hoping to be out for just a day or two, but, as you know, I reacted badly to much too high a dose.”
“So why did you infect me?” asked Anais, still in shock.
“Can’t you guess?” he began. “Actually, it was partly because you were also starting to suspect.
“I wasn’t. I had no clue.”
“The squirrels, of course, there are no squirrels up here. It was her.” He pointed at Sabine. “The drugs wore off sometimes and her banging around was what you heard.”
“I still don’t understand. Why do you want the Elixir in the first place? You are immortal already. The Elixir won’t change you in any way.”
“Not me. Judith. I’m doing it for her.”
Anais was at a loss for what to say. He was doing all this to impress his ex-girlfriend? Suddenly another thought occurred to her.
“You killed my parents. You bastard! Why?” she screamed at him.
“Sarah was the only person who ever talked to me. She played chess with me on that chessboard you so love. Did you know that I made it for her?”
“So why did you kill her?”
“I asked her to leave Alistair, come and live with me, but she refused. She told me that she was pregnant with his baby. I couldn’t believe it after all the work I’d done in making her that chessboard. How could she pick your halfwit father over me? She was a fool. Anyway, they emigrated to America before I could perform the deed, as it were. As you know, I’m afraid of flying so I couldn’t get them. As soon as they came back to England I’d vowed to get them. Not because I was in love with Sarah anymore, no, by that time I had Judith, but I still held anger towards them. They deserved to be taught a lesson.”
Infinite Spring Page 27