“Wow, thanks for the kind words,” replied Martha as she slid into the passenger seat and pulled the belt around her.
“Martha, you are my oldest friend and I love you dearly,” said Sue, turning directly to face her. “But sometimes you do stupid shit and you have to stop doing stupid shit and stop forever. I know this involves being dishonest but it’s the best I can come up with under the circumstances. If you tell Will that you kissed Dan – and feel free to do that – it might make you feel better but you’ll break up a happy family – and for what? Something that you barely even remember doing with someone that you despise? Maybe I’m not Claire Rayner but this is the best I can think of to keep things the way they are. You’ll just have to find a way to deal with the guilt – it’s not like you slept with him, is it? Oh God, please tell me you didn’t sleep with him?”
Martha shook her head. She had a recollection, however vague, of being in a taxi. And if Sue had heard her come in at midnight then she couldn’t have. Did that mean, however, that she wouldn’t have? She flushed. It didn’t feel right not to tell Will but she couldn’t think of anything that would feel right. Maybe Sue’s way was the only way to minimise the hurt?
“What if Will finds out?” she asked quietly. “What if I lie to him now and then he finds out later? Won’t that make it worse?”
Sue grunted slightly as she reversed the car out of the spot they had parked in, concentrating as she peered over her shoulder. She put the car into first.
“I don’t know,” she replied firmly. “I don’t have all the answers. Like I told you, this is the best I can come up with. You can take my advice or leave it.”
Martha nodded and they proceeded in silence out onto the road. Sue was right, she told herself and took a deep breath.
The midsection of the journey was undertaken in silence, just the low hum of Radio 4 in the background. When Ruby awoke, demanding drinks and a banana, it was a blessed relief. It was another distraction for Martha to sing songs with her the remainder of the way, clapping hands and making silly faces through the gap between the top of the seat and the headrest.
The countryside eventually grew bleaker around them, a mist suddenly enveloping the car as they wound along narrow roads. Sue flicked on the windscreen wipers, switching between ‘intermittent’ and ‘fast’ as the mist grew thick, then abated, then grew thicker again. She exchanged Radio 4 for some music from her MP3 player as they drove on and Puccini filled the car, adding to the atmosphere created by the increasingly misty landscape, odd white shapes looming at them from the verges, terrifying at first, nothing but weather-beaten trees and hedgerows on closer inspection. Even Ruby grew still and silent as she looked out the window. There was only so much ‘Wheels on the Bus’ that even a toddler could take, Martha reckoned.
“Channelling Inspector Morse here somewhere?” she chanced, nodding towards the source of the music – an attempt to play with her friend who was focused on peering through the haze created by the mist.
A smile played on Sue’s lips but she concentrated and forced it away. “Quiet!” she barked. “This is the best bit.”
A soaring voice filled the air from the car speakers as Martha peered again at the bleak landscape, alien in the fog.
“Where the hell are we?” Martha asked and followed Sue’s finger to the screen of the Sat Nav.
Sue tapped their location, a blue arrow on a completely white background. “Here,” she replied. Martha laughed. “Didn’t realise my car was so prepared for off road!”
Sue slowed the car down a little slower. “It’s not. And I think we’re a bit lost and the Highlands is not somewhere I want to be a bit lost in, particularly as the Great Fog sets in and . . . oh! Maybe we’re not lost after all.”
The glimpse of stone through trees caught both of their attentions at the same time.
“Bloody hell,” whispered Martha, taking in the vision that peered from the trees at them.
“This is it all right,” said Sue in a more assured voice and sat more upright in her seat, accelerating into a higher gear as the road seemed to improve a little before them. “This sounds just like Gabriel described it. Spooky, haunted Scottish Castle.”
Martha groaned. “Do you think there’s even the slightest possibility it isn’t?”
Sue shrugged. “You’re the big believer – what do you think?”
Martha knew what she thought and glanced nervously out the window as they drew closer, turning up the main driveway and catching sight, through the mist, of the chimneys, the turrets, the towers. Sue braked suddenly as she spotted a crude, hand-painted sign reading ‘Car Park‘ and she turned slowly into the gravelled courtyard edged with disused farm buildings.
Martha recognised Will’s Volvo, parked amongst considerably more modern and expensive vehicles. She giggled. “Gabriel must be so ashamed,” she observed.
Sue smirked as she pulled in beside a gleaming Mercedes. She killed the engine, and with it the music which had just started to swell again. “Right then,” she stated. “We’re agreed. No mentioning of the war and good times to be had by all?”
They turned to face each other and Martha nodded reluctantly. She didn’t want to lie to Will and she still felt terrible about the night before but she couldn’t think of anything else to do.
“Good,” Sue stated, pulling the keys from the ignition and stepping out of the car.
Martha stepped outside too, hit immediately by the blast of freezing damp air that filled her nostrils. She inhaled sharply and exhaled again, the mist refreshing after the heat of the air-conditioning. Sue suffered from smoker’s circulation and required her travel temperature to be just a little higher than Martha would have liked.
Martha took in her surroundings as she prised Ruby from her seat. The toddler, too, glanced around her almost nervously. her bright eyes darting about her as she took it all in. She would normally attempt escape the instant she was released from the constraints of her car seat, wriggle from Martha’s arms, excited by the stimulation of new surroundings. Today, however, she snuggled into her mother’s chest, looking upward at the grey sky and squinting as she felt the dampness hit her face.
They trudged across the gravel with a quiet focus and then, as Will and Gabriel had done the previous day, made their way onto the path through the lawns, and across the short distance to the castle steps. Martha glanced around her as they walked, as quickly as they could, toward their destination. The lawns were well-tended, she noted. And the gravel surrounding the perimeter of the building was dotted with pruned rosebushes. It must be spectacular in the summer, she thought to herself, and turned for a moment to look behind her. The view took her breath away. To their rear, the sky had turned from the misty dull grey that had surrounded them throughout their trip, to a menacing black. A storm cloud, still in the distance, but approaching. Casting its shadow on the already grim horizon. The view was a landscape of grey and black, as if all the colour had been sucked out of the countryside. She turned back toward the castle, felt how it somehow seemed to wait for her to enter. So unwelcoming. Ruby saw it too and Martha watched her daughter’s face for a moment, the bright little eyes filled with apprehension as they drew closer. It must be enormous to her, thought Martha, and hugged her tighter. The toddler looked at her mother, trusting her, and then back again at the castle as they reached the entrance with its heavy wooden doors opened back against the walls.
They entered the porch and Martha jumped suddenly as she reached out for the brass doorknob of the inner doors and an unexpected figure loomed at her through the panels of glass. Fear swelled in her as the handle of the door was wrenched from her hand and the door swung open, the air from inside filled with a medley of odours – must, damp, pine needles – like in Gabriel’s flat – and a familiar scent that she couldn’t place for a moment.
“Hello, gorgeous!” she heard a voice, and felt instant relief at seeing Will before her.
He had obviously seen them coming across the lawn. She
couldn’t stop the flash of irritation that ran through her as he pulled Ruby from her arms and stood aside to let them in.
“Hi, Sue –” he began, but Martha interrupted him.
“Why didn’t you text me when you got here?” she demanded, regretting the words the instant they came out of her mouth.
Will’s response was to laugh nervously, which made her even more irritated. “Have you checked your coverage bars? What’s your excuse?” He replied and turned his attention to Ruby who was excitedly pulling his hair. “I’ve been trying to ring from the landline all morning but there was no answer.”
“My battery’s gone,” she replied simply, avoiding eye contact with him. Of course, he’d had no coverage. Now that she could see the place, it all made perfect sense. She watched him kiss Ruby’s little fingers which were now tugging at his lips and felt her heart swell a little.
Martha closed her eyes for a moment and leaned over to briefly rest her head against his chest which prompted him to take her into a one-armed embrace. Maybe it would all be okay, she thought to herself, before turning to look at him and raising her face for a kiss.
She heard a familiar vomiting sound as Gabriel came up behind Will.
He laughed as he greeted Sue with a brusque “Brice,” as he was fond of doing.
“McKenzie,” she replied and a conversation began between them, snappy banter back and forth as was their habit.
Martha watched her friends bicker and felt Will’s arm close more firmly around her as he guided her further into the hallway. She began to take in her surroundings for the first time and felt a small sense of dread creep into her as she surveyed the dark hall, the stag’s head watching everything. And up the stairs . . . she found her gaze drawn up toward a wooden balustrade protecting a mezzanine area above her, off which ran a passageway. There was another stag’s head up there, she noted, high on the wall, smaller than the other. But nothing else that would draw her attention. Just some doors, presumably leading to bedrooms. Still, she couldn’t help but stare . . . what did she think she’d see up there?
“Missed you,” she heard Will say softly, and he gave her a squeeze, his voice filled with concern. She pulled her gaze back to him. “Me too,” she replied and meant it, so sincerely.
“How did signing those documents go?” he asked, and her stomach gave a dart of nerves.
“Oh, it was all right,” she began. “There was a bit of a mix-up with the . . .”
She was interrupted by another voice coming from the doorway of the house.
“Make way! Make Way! Be upstanding for the arrival of the Christmas Men!”
Martha glanced at the doorway to see the figure of a thin old man in a burgundy pullover and a pair of beige slacks opening the glass doors through which Martha had just entered and placing small wooden wedges underneath them.
A red van had pulled up outside, disgorging two men in jeans and sweaters who opened the back doors of the van and began to remove items. Christopher Calvert waited on the top step for them and stood back as the first climbed the steps and entered, carrying a stack of cardboard boxes which he placed carefully on the floor in front of an enormous Christmas tree, already half-decorated with red, green and golden baubles. The second man followed with a long fir garland slung over his shoulder, like a snake charmer carrying a python. The smell of fresh pine filled the air.
The small group watched the proceedings intently. Martha pointed Ruby in the direction of the Christmas tree as the first man exited and then returned, this time with a box marked ‘Lights’.
“Look, Ruby!” urged Martha, feeling a frisson of childlike excitement run through her at the festive sight. She couldn’t resist Christmas. Maybe this weekend could be fun after all. Once some twinkling lights were brightening the place, and they warmed up from the soaking outside, they might actually start to enjoy themselves. An image of Dan’s face lowering itself to hers suddenly flashed across her mind and she blocked it, feeling herself flush again. A mistake, she told herself. A mistake that was over.
“That’s Christopher Calvert,” said Will in a low voice, with a nod in the direction of the elderly man who was barking instruction at the ‘Christmas Men’ as he had called them. “Gabriel’s godfather. I’ve been watching him in action all morning – he’s the most energetic human being I’ve ever seen. Like an eighty-year-old Usain Bolt – but out of his mind on espressos and Red Bull.”
Martha giggled. “Not sure I like the sound of that!”
The men were bringing in more garlands and a giant wreath. Martha watched the chaotic scene unfold, the old man with one hand on Gabriel’s arm, the other pointing upward at one of the portraits, Sue gazing in the direction he indicated, her expression rapt, Ruby jiggling up and down with excitement, the noise growing and growing.
And then the breath on her ear.
Martha slapped a hand to where she had felt it tickle her and turned, suddenly, to see who could be standing so close. But there was no one. The noises seemed to quieten for a moment as she looked from right to left, taking in the murky passage that lay behind her off the hallway. Surely no one would have sneaked up behind her, blown in her ear and run off again? And it wasn’t so much a blow as a breath . . . like someone leaning over her shoulder, watching the scene unfold, just like she was doing.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Will squeezing her shoulder protectively. She allowed herself to be absorbed back into the moment. To listen to Sue laugh charmingly as the old man flitted between telling some tale or other which also made Gabriel beam, and giving instruction to the two decorators who were growing increasingly soaked as they traipsed in and out with more and more paraphernalia.
The hubbub increased as from behind the pair of doors at the end of the passage which led toward the back of the building, the sounds of hammering began, punctuated by the occasional wheeze of what sounded like an accordion.
“That’s the ballroom down there, where our festivities will be taking place tonight,” she heard the old man tell Gabriel and Sue. “I’m not allowing a soul in there till it’s done though. These local fellows come up every year from the village and decorate the place for me – I’d be happy with just a few garlands, but the ladies seem to love things that twinkle and, well, it’s a great time of year and I like to start it early . . . oh, Hibbert – can we have some tea in the drawing room for our new arrivals, please? I expect you’ll need a little warming up after the trip. This way folks, just through here”
Martha watched as Sue allowed the old man to take her arm and steer her through the archway and down the passage, disappearing through the first door on the left. Gabriel followed and Will set a wriggling Ruby down on the floor to toddle her way in at her own insistence. Martha stood back to allow them leave ahead of her, the buzz of conversation transferring through the door to the drawing room. As she stood there, the woman who Calvert had addressed as Hibbert caught her eye and looked at her directly. Martha stared back. There was something distinctly familiar about her, but Martha couldn’t place her. The woman took a step closer to where she stood.
“It’s Martha, isn’t it?” she said kindly and Martha smiled in return.
“It is,” she replied, glancing to one side of the woman to keep tabs on Ruby who was taking a few tentative exploratory steps toward the great Christmas tree which towered above her. “Don’t touch that, love!”
The toddler stopped, looked back at her mother, and then back at the tree.
Mrs Hibbert glanced in her direction and smiled warmly. “That’ll be Miss Ruby then,” she said, joy in her voice. “Long, long time since there was a little one up here.” She returned her gaze to Martha.
“I’m sorry to waylay you like this – but I wondered if you actually might like to come with me to my cottage and I can show you where you’ll be sleeping? I’ll get one of the maids to do the tea for the others.”
Martha glanced again at Ruby, and then back at Hibbert, confused for a moment. “Won’t we be staying
in the castle?” she asked.
Mrs Hibbert shifted slightly from one foot to the other. “Mr Peterson had a word with me earlier – with Ruby being so small, we felt that . . . well, my cottage is a stone’s throw away outside and it’s very cosy. We thought you might be more comfortable out there as –”
“Ruby!” Martha screamed as the huge tree began to topple forward.
There was a shout as one of the Christmas Men lunged for the tree, thrusting a hand forward and pushing the fir just as it was about to crash down on the little girl, altering its course so that it crashed onto the boxes he’d carried in rather than on the child.
The great pine landed, bounced slightly and then settled, a little less than a foot away from where Ruby stood, still watching it with wide eyes.
Martha groaned with relief as she saw her daughter was safe, and scooped her up, pulling her close, holding her as the panic rose again around her.
“The damn thing was secured to the wall!” the decorator shouted.
“What’s going on?” came the reedy tones of Christopher Calvert from the door of the drawing room, rushing out to see what had happened.
Will emerged behind him, rushing to Martha’s side, demanding to know if they were all right. She nodded, breathless with shock, her hand rubbing Ruby’s hair and cheek as she tried to soothe her.
“I don’t know how that could have happened,” the shaken decorator said to the other one who had just burst into the hall. “It was tied to the bloody wall! I secured it myself to that hook!”
“Well you should have done it tighter then!” growled the second man, bending to pick up a piece of rope which was lying on the floor underneath where the hook protruded from the wall. In an instant, Will had joined him, taking the rope from his hand and examining it thoroughly before turning his attention to where it should have been secured.
The Dark Water Page 28