by Arnot, Tim
The reverend continued. ‘And he’s asked me to act as a go-between, and set up a meeting.’
Here it comes…
‘One last thing,’ said the vicar, seemingly changing the subject, ‘did he threaten you at all? The mayor, I mean?’ He looked her straight in the eye. ‘Think carefully before you answer.’
‘No,’ said Flick, a little too quickly. She met the vicar’s eyes and emphasised her words. ‘He did not threaten me, and he did not threaten my sister.’
The vicar studied her for a long moment.
‘I see,’ he said.
‘Come on darlin’, get us some drinks, we’re dying of thirst down here!’ The call came from the other end of the bar where three heavy-set strangers were waving their money at her. Flick shrugged at the vicar and moved off to serve them.
‘We thought you’d got religion or something,’ the second man said.
‘Well, something anyway,’ leered the third. He made as if to reach for his glass, but instead grabbed Flick by the arm. His leer turned to a sneer. ‘Now just tell us what you were talking about, and maybe we can keep this civil,’ he growled.
Flick pulled her arm back. ‘Don’t you threaten me,’ she said in a voice loud enough to carry over the background noise in the bar. Immediately the room went quiet. ‘The vicar was just enquiring how we were holding up after the mayor’s inspection and I told him fine thank you very much.’
She looked over towards the vicar at the other end of the bar and he raised his glass at them and smiled.
‘Now I suggest you finish your drink and leave. My friend Fred here will show you to the door.’
The men slowly turned around to see Fred, Bill, Stanley and Alf, standing behind them, still in their Watch uniforms and with big grins on their faces.
‘I’m sorry about that,’ she said, turning back to the vicar. ‘Some people these days, well they’ve got no manners…’
But he’d gone.
As she tidied up his empty glass, she spotted a small folded piece of paper wedged under it. She picked it up and looked at it. It appeared to be a message. She read the words out carefully, it said:
Meet me in the library.
Tomorrow
Ten O’Clock
S.
Flick folded the paper and shoved it into the pocket of her apron. There was a loud crash as the main door slammed, making her jump.
Stanley looked apologetic. ‘Oops, sorry!’ he called. ‘They was a bit reluctant to leave. Still, good riddance to bad rubbish, as me mum would say.’ Then all of a sudden he was standing at the bar.
‘Another round please, love.’ He slapped the coins down on the bar and grinned.
17
The Trap
FLICK SPENT A restless night, tossing and turning. Her dreams were filled with images of Shea running through the countryside being chased by a troop of horses, each ridden by Mayor Griffin, or of Shea hiding in the library with hordes of knife-wielding thugs closing in, and her standing there with them, holding her own knife and powerless to stop. Or Shea on the scaffold with a rope around his neck, and the person pulling the handle to the trapdoor was not the mayor, it was her.
She woke with a start. It was still dark, but not so dark that she couldn’t make out the contents of her room, and so she decided to get up; it was either that or go back to the horrid dreams.
She lit a candle and took it over to the night stand, where she splashed cold water on her face from the bowl. The dreams had left her sweaty and sticky, and there was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. As she dried off, she studied her face in the mirror.
What had she got herself into?
Who did she trust?
Why did Shea trust her?
It was obvious no matter what, that she couldn’t let Shea be captured. If he were caught, she was certain he would be killed, and it would be her fault. She made up her mind. She couldn’t tell the mayor anything. Immediately she felt better, and almost risked a smile. Now she could see Shea and warn him that Griffin was after him; tell him to get out of town.
She dropped into the kitchen on her way out. Maggs was cooking eggs and bacon on the stove.
‘Mmm… that smells good,’ Flick said.
‘Want some?’
‘Nah I have to run some errands. Swig of tea and some bread and cheese will do me; I’ll eat on the hoof.’
Maggs poured out some tea while Flick raided the pantry and made up some sandwiches.
The early brightness didn’t last long, and a low overcast developed, grey and ominous, threatening bad weather to come. A steady cold wind blew from the north-east, so Flick wrapped up warm.
The library was a smart, two storey building in Gloucester Street, close to the school. Gloucester Street was mostly residential, and quite narrow. The houses butted directly onto the pavement, with no front gardens, but some had alleyways leading down the side, giving access to the rear. Fred and Maggs lived in that street, and one of the alleys ran down the side of their house. Maggs was already at work in the Crown, but Fred? Well the Watch hours were often described as “easy”, so there was a good chance that he might be there. She didn’t want to involve him, but at least if he saw her, he wouldn’t give her away, or so she hoped.
The alley turned out to be sheltered from the wind, and the overcast meant that there she cast no shadow, two things that were definitely in her favour. She settled in to wait.
Several people walked past her hiding place, heading into town on their way to work. They didn’t notice her. Then there were the young kids walking to school. When Flick spotted Rosie, she ducked further back into the alley, beyond where it turned a corner and waited for her to go past. Eventually there was no one, and so she pulled out her sandwiches and started eating. The street stayed clear. From her viewpoint, she could see the library across the street and a good distance up and down each way. The entrance to the library was in the side street that led to the school, and she couldn’t see that. But that street just led to the school playing fields and the grounds at the back of the mayor’s mansion.
In the distance, she heard the town clock strike ten. There had been nobody walking along the street for a good half hour, no vehicles either. Surely that meant that Shea wasn’t going to show up. She decided to take one quick look down the side street at the library entrance just to make sure. The street was empty, but she turned down it anyway. Just as she reached the library door, it opened a crack.
‘Pssst!’
Flick looked. There was someone in the shadows beckoning. She went over… yes, it was Shea! He was inside the library. Had he been there all along? All that time hiding outside in the cold, when she could have been in the warm?
‘What…’ was all she managed to say.
‘Shh. Inside, quickly,’ Shea hissed, pulling her through the door.
He bolted the door behind them and ushered her into the main room.
‘Were you followed?’ he asked.
Flick shook her head. ‘No, I was careful.’
‘Listen,’ said Shea urgently, ‘there isn’t much time. It’s not safe for me here, and I have to get as far away as I can, very soon. But first there are some very important things I have to tell you.’
‘But…’ Flick started.
‘No,’ said Shea. ‘Just listen.’
‘Go on.’
‘Firstly, Mayor Griffin. He’s a really nasty man. I want you to stay away from him, as far away as possible.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ said Flick. ‘After I saw you the other night, he pulled an early morning inspection on the inn. Turned up with a load of thugs and searched the place good and proper. I think he was looking for you. Put the wind up a lot of people though, me included, I can tell you.’ She didn’t mention the promise that he’d forced her to make. But she wanted to mention the device she’d found.
‘I think he found your… radio.’
Shea looked confused. ‘How do you know about that?”
‘That�
��s what the mayor called it. I found it the day I found you, but then I forgot about it. Anyway, it was in my room, then it wasn’t, and Griffin had it.’ She didn’t mention that it was Adam who had taken it.
‘My radio,’ Shea said. ‘I thought that had been lost. If only you’d said something sooner, I… we… could have called in the rescue squad, and been away from here.’
‘Sorry,’ Flick said.
‘That’s not the half of it,’ Shea said.
‘So it’s all very well you telling us to stay away from the mayor and his thugs, but we still have to live here. I’m sure he’s got people in the Watch, although there’s still some that I trust, and if you try to go against him you just end up dead, or hanged in the street. He forces everyone to watch too.’
‘I heard. Now, the next thing. It’s about your brother…’
‘Adam? What about him?’ Does he know? She wondered.
Just then the door rattled as if someone was trying to open it. Then the sound of fists pounding on it.
‘Open up in there!’ a voice shouted.
Flick and Shea looked at each other in astonishment. He grabbed her hand.
‘What…?’
Then there was another voice, ‘Felicity, my dear, we only want to talk.’ It was the mayor. ‘Look, we promised you that no harm would come to him. Or you…’
A look of horror came over Flick’s face. ‘No!’ she gasped. How had he found her?
Shea’s expression darkened, and he let go of her hand. ‘What have you done?’
‘Nothing!’ Flick wailed. ‘Look, he threatened me, in the Inn, and Rosie too. Made me promise to tell him where you were, but I said I didn’t know. I didn’t tell him anything, honest. Look, I really don’t know how he found us here.’
Shea shook his head, sadly. The banging and shouting continued. Then there was the sound of breaking glass as a half-brick flew through the window and thudded onto the floor.
‘Shit! We’ve got to get out of here. The back door, quickly!’
They scrambled up and headed for the back of the building. The door opened onto a tiny courtyard with a wooden fence beyond. There was nobody here. Griffin and his thugs were concentrated at the front and the main entrance; they obviously hadn’t expected much resistance, or perhaps they hadn’t wanted to scare the school kids. No, on reflection that seemed unlikely; they were probably just too smug. At least Flick hoped so.
‘Over the fence–the school playground…’
She held a finger up to her mouth and pursed her lips, indicating they should keep quiet. Shea nodded, and they both scrambled over the fence, and ran as fast as they could across the field towards the nearest trees. Behind them they heard a crash as the thugs broke the door down, followed by more shouting, but they had reached the woods before anyone had thought to look over the fence in their direction.
‘Keep running,’ Shea panted as they pushed further through the trees.
When they came to an old brick wall hidden among the trees, Flick stopped dead. ‘That’s the mayor’s estate. We really don’t want to get caught on his land.’
‘This way,’ Shea said, leading her along a narrow track that ran parallel to the wall. They were heading in the direction that would take them back to the town. When they passed a dense pile of undergrowth, he started pulling at it and pretty soon he’d uncovered a large backpack, stuffed with tools and provisions.
‘Looks like you’ve got it all figured out,’ Flick said.
Shea grinned.
‘Somehow I thought I might be leaving in a hurry,’ he said. ‘Do you think you can get home from here without being seen? Griffin has probably got people watching the inn by now.’
‘Shouldn’t be a problem,’ Flick replied. ‘I can sneak all the way along this wall. It comes out near the back of the inn, and I can get in the back way through the courtyard.’
‘Good. Be careful, and remember what I said about Bristol.’
There was shouting in the distance, and the sound of a dog barking.
‘I’m going to go over the wall,’ said Shea, ‘it’s less likely they’ll spot me.’ He slung the backpack over the wall and was just about to go after it when he hesitated, turning to Flick.
‘One more thing,’ he said. ‘I love you.’ He kissed her full on the mouth, and as quickly as she could blink, he was gone.
For a moment Flick just stood there, stunned. He kisses me NOW? ‘I love you,’ she whispered at the wall. But there was no time for reverie and she ran as quickly as she could back to the inn and crept in through the back door. Fortunately, the main gate was still shut and barred so nobody could see through into the courtyard from out in the square. She rushed up to her room to change her clothes, and then peeked out through the window of one of the unoccupied guest bedrooms. Sure enough there were one, two, no, three surly looking men standing around the square watching the streets and the entrance.
Flick spent the rest of that day trying to act naturally and not to think about what had happened. She’d wandered nonchalantly down to the kitchen, where Maggie spotted her.
‘Hey Flick, did you get what you wanted?’
‘All sorted,’ Flick replied. ‘Oh, if anyone asks, I haven’t been out at all today.’
‘Okay, no problem.’
When Rosie got home from school, the men were still outside watching the inn. Flick thought about waving at them, but that would give away that she knew they were there, and they would start to wonder how or why. Better just to ignore them completely and pretend they didn’t exist. Flick asked Rosie how school was.
‘It was weird,’ she said. ‘They stopped play time. There were these men that came round and searched all the classrooms. I think they were looking for someone, like that time the mayor searched the inn. They were horrid. And smelly.’
‘Yes,’ said Flick, ‘those thugs have been all over town all day. There’s definitely something going on, and it’s not very nice.’
‘Has it got anything to do with your new boyfriend?’ Rosie asked.
Flick blushed.
‘It has, hasn’t it?’ Rosie pestered.
‘I don’t want you to say a word about him to anyone,’ Flick cautioned. ‘He’s not my boyfriend, and anyway he’s long gone.’
Rosie opened her mouth.
‘I mean it,’ said Flick, holding up her index finger, ‘this is serious. Now tonight, I want you to go to your room straight after supper. Don’t open your door to anyone except me, understand? Not to anyone. Those thugs could come back.’
Rosie nodded.
‘And tomorrow, I’ll walk you to school, and make sure you always have a friend with you. Don’t go anywhere on your own, do you hear me?’
‘Yes, Mother,’ Rosie parroted.
Flick tousled Rosie’s hair. ‘Hug?’
‘Hug.’
They hugged. Flick kissed the top of Rosie’s head and sent her off to the kitchen for supper.
The bar that night was quiet, with only a few customers. There were no paying guests; news of the incident with the mayor earlier in the week had got about and people were staying at the Bell, or simply avoiding the town altogether. Fred and Stanley were at a table in a corner of the room playing dominoes, but most of the regulars had also stayed away.
When Fred brought their empty glasses over for refilling between games, he parked himself on one of the bar stools.
‘Funny goings on today,’ he said.
‘What’s that then?’ asked Flick, innocently.
‘I thought you might know,’ said Fred conspiratorially, ‘seeing as you seem to be right in the middle of them.’
Flick finished pouring the pint and started on the second one.
‘Oh you’re a cool one and no mistake,’ said Fred. ‘Look, if it’s none of my business then fair enough, but if you’re in trouble and there’s anything we can do, you know, me and the lads, just say the word. There’s quite a few of us that think, you know who is well out of order. Although there’s some a
s I think are toadies too.’
‘Did Maggs say something?’ Flick asked.
‘Maggs? No, I was at my morning ablutions when I just happened to look out of the window. Hello, I say to myself, that’s Flick hiding in the alley, I wonder what she’s doing there. And then I see Griffin and his thugs attacking the library like it was world war five, and I put two and two together. Now I ain’t much good with sums, so maybe I made five, or three, but then again, maybe I made four…’
‘I’m sorry Fred, I don’t know what you mean.’ She put the second drink on the bar. ‘That’ll be six quid please.’
Fred looked at her long and hard before handing over the money. ‘Okay, suit yourself,’ he said. ‘The offer’s still there if you need it.’
‘Thanks Fred, I appreciate the thought,’ Flick said.
‘Oh one other thing,’ said Fred as he picked up the drinks. ‘There’s three thugs outside, been eyeing up the place for quite some time. I think me and some of the lads might ask them nicely to move along once we’ve finished this game. I reckon they’ve outstayed their welcome.’
Flick blew him a kiss and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’
The rest of the night was uneventful and the following day dawned bright and sunny. Flick took Rosie to school and brought her home again in the evening. She busied herself the rest of the time with the regular day-to-day tasks of running the inn. She kept peeking through the windows but there was no sign of the thugs that had been lurking outside the night before, so whatever Fred and his mates had done obviously did the trick. Nor did the mayor pay a visit. There was no word of Shea, so presumably he had got clean away. The Watch were not showing any signs of extra activity, and there hadn’t been a Kingsman sighted in the town since the May festival. There were still no paying guests and that evening the bar was pretty empty again, but these things would pick up; they usually did. Flick closed up the inn and went to bed early.
18