The Way Home

by Glover, Nhys

  Hawk gasped and kept himself still until she came back down. Then he began to move inside her, slick and hard, building the momentum, until he was pummelling her with ecstatic thrusts that her body absorbed with delight.

  When he cried out her name so loudly she was sure the bugs would pick up the sound as he came hard inside her, she helplessly followed him over one more time.

  When she came back to herself, Hawk was pressed to her side, his head resting on her shoulder, his breathing still harsh. With limp fingers, she stroked his hair.

  ‘That was…’

  ‘Real.’

  ‘Ahhah, I would say more real than real. Are you sure we aren’t dreaming?’

  He laughed tiredly against her neck and kissed her there. ‘Not this time. I feel very awake. Although for how much longer, I don’t know. Cassie, love, I…’

  ‘You don’t have to say anything. If you felt what I felt… it made our dream seem mild…’ She chuckled.

  ‘How did I live before you?’ His voice was low and smooth as velvet.

  ‘You didn’t. You were dead, remember?’

  ‘In more ways than the obvious.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ‘Cassie?’ Marnie’s worried voice and gentle knock brought her instantly awake.

  ‘I’m not here,’ she whispered as she sat up. Hawk, at her side, was instantly awake, too. Cassie was mortified to be caught in bed with a man by the old lady. But of course, Marnie couldn’t see Hawk so his presence didn’t look suspicious.

  Marnie opened the door and moved into the room. Making more noise now, she began opening wardrobe doors and calling for her.

  ‘I’ll go out the back and the front and look around. Will that give you time to get to the car?’ She whispered as she passed by the bed.

  Cassie felt energised and ready for the next stage. Her body felt more alive than it had for several years. She looked at Hawk to see what he thought.

  ‘Check the whole house first and that should give us time to get down the tree. Open the side gate while you’re looking,’ Hawk said.

  Cassie hastily passed the message on and Marnie simply nodded. Then she opened the window, looked out as if searching the back garden for Cassie. Finally, she turned to leave and closed the door behind her without another word.

  Jumping out of bed naked, Cassie grabbed for the t-shirt and track pants she’d been wearing the night before. She pulled on the padded bra that she wore when she was going out into the world and the short blonde wig with which she rarely bothered. The wig would help her blend in better and, as it wasn’t her natural colour, it would be an added disguise. She rather liked the helmet straight hair with its thick, straight fringe, because it made her look very different from the dark-haired woman she used to be.

  While she dressed and put on her trainers, so did Hawk. But he didn’t bother with his jacket, collar or cap.

  With her carryall over her shoulder, complete with passport and wallet, she prepared for the climb. In daylight, the huge oak seemed less intimidating and the gap between the cut off branch and the windowsill less distant.

  In a flash, Hawk was out on the tree bough, his hand reaching out for hers. Without a moment’s hesitation, Cassie took it and made the jump across into his arms. She even smiled up at him in delight as he edged them along the branch to the tree’s trunk.

  ‘Hold on,’ he said as he jumped down to the branch below. It was the place she’d hidden from the intruders the night before. Then he was helping her to reach around the width of the tree and lower herself down onto the branch he stood on.

  Looking down, there was only another ten feet or so to go. Even if she fell, it wouldn’t kill her, she decided. But that didn’t make her careless. Nor was Hawk taking anything for granted. He lowered himself down onto the next bough and then reached up for her. She let herself drop down into his arms, wobbling slightly as she momentarily lost purchase on the rounded bough that was less substantial than those above it.

  ‘Only one more,’ Hawk said encouragingly, running his hands up and down her arms.

  Once he had her gripping tightly to the trunk, he swiftly slid around to the house side and dropped down to the final branch before the ground. His hand came up for her and she took it wordlessly. The excitement of the challenge was wearing thin now. She was more tired than she expected. But there was no way she was going to give that away.

  By the time she was on the lowest branch, she could see Marnie walking around the walled garden, unlocking the wrought iron gate in the wall, stepping out as if she were looking for her, and then going back inside. Hawk jumped the final four or five feet to the ground and held up his hands to her. Cassie gave herself over to him, falling into his awaiting arms.

  For a moment, he held her against him, cradling her like a baby. The relief on his face was obvious. She kissed his lips and smiled impishly. Assured she was well, he let her slide down his body to her feet.

  Cassie was never so glad to feel solid ground beneath her, but she was also exhilarated by what she’d done. Climbing down the tree had seemed an impossible feat last night. This morning, after her night with Hawk, it had been almost easy.

  They made their way across the small yard to the gate, and after Hawk did a quick check of their surroundings and gave the ‘all clear’, Cassie let herself out and crept to the backdoor of the single garage.

  The door was never locked and was rarely used. It was swollen with moisture and hard to drag open. The hinges creaked noisily.

  ‘It’s okay. They aren’t close. One is watching the bugs on the screens and the others are dozing in the front seat of the van.’ Hawk told her. It amazed her that he’d been able to get there and back in the blink of an eye. His skills were improving exponentially.

  Inside the garage, the dark mustiness assaulted her senses. It was a space that was rarely used for anything but parking the car, and so it was thick with dust and cobwebs that Marnie insisted she was going to clear away one of these days. There was just one small window high on the back wall that let a limited amount of dingy morning light to pass through.

  Hawk opened the back door of the blue Toyota Yarish hybrid and ushered her in.

  ‘The rug will be in the back,’ she whispered, unwilling to make too much noise, even though the men were nowhere close by.

  Hawk opened the hatch and removed the tartan rug. The loud bang as he closed it again made her jump. Then they heard the mechanical sound of the roller-door being activated. Hurriedly Hawk draped the rug over her and closed the door. She dropped down behind the front seat and tried to make herself as small as possible.

  Moments later, Hawk was sitting on the other side of the back seat, his hand resting comfortingly on her bowed head. The grating of the opening door was harsh on her nerves. But the light was reassuring, even under the blanket. She could see Hawk’s neatly pressed trouser leg and shiny black boots. The lace was undone and she reached over to tie a bow.

  Marnie was opening the driver’s door now and taking her seat.

  ‘Everyone set?’ she asked softly, once she’d closed the car door.

  ‘Yes,’ Cassie replied from beneath the blanket.

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘The railway station?’ Hawk suggested. ‘We have a better chance of getting lost in London.’

  ‘Beverley Station,’ Cassie told Marnie. ‘We’re going to London to try to find out what Fran knew that got her killed.’

  ‘No… we are simply finding a safe place for you to wait out this board meeting,’ Hawk said tersely.

  ‘I’m not going to bury my head in the sand. These men think I have something Fran gave me. I have no idea what that might be, but I have to work it out, and then get whatever it is to the authorities.’

  ‘Fran was killed for what she took, what she knew. I will not let you take that risk.’ Hawk’s voice had become stern with disapproval. Cassie had to remember that he came from a different time. His was a generation that saw women as the weaker gender and b
elieved that the fairer sex had to be looked after and kept safe in all circumstances.

  And maybe that was partly true for her given her physical limitations at present, but she was not going to be bullied into hiding when Fran had lost her life trying to do the right thing. Whatever it was that she stole was obviously terribly important. It couldn’t just be illegal. It had to be immoral, too, for Fran to have considered stealing it.

  ‘I can and I will take that risk. But with you with me, I know I’ll be safe. Please Hawk, Fran needs me to do the right thing, the brave thing. You said I had courage climbing out onto that tree last night. Well, let me prove I have courage by trying to locate whatever it is Fran wanted to be revealed.’

  ‘He doesn’t like the idea, I’m guessing,’ Marnie said as she started up the engine.

  ‘Ummm, no. He wants me to hide in London, and I’ll do that, too. But if I can work out where Fran left whatever it was, I will. I think you and I are the only ones who could work out where Fran would have left something of value.’

  ‘Not me, dear. She wouldn’t share something like this with me. Whatever it was, she made a point of going to London to see you. Otherwise she would have flown back to Munich from Manchester as her return ticket required.’

  Marnie had driven the car forward out of the garage by this time and, leaving the roller-door open, she headed down the long drive toward Grange Road.

  ‘You sure they can’t follow us?’ Marnie asked nervously, as she spotted the black van sitting on the side of the road just outside the property boundary.

  ‘I let the tires down last night. They should be flat by now. I cut the fuel line, just in case.’ Hawk said, his voice still tense with annoyance. He didn’t like that she was going against his wishes. They were about to have their first fight, Cassie thought nervously. Would he throw up his hands and leave her to her own devices if she went against his wishes? No, he wasn’t that sort of man. No matter what tension existed between them, he wouldn’t desert her.

  She passed on the information to a relieved Marnie, who put her foot down once she was on the lane proper. It was a narrow hedgerow-lined road that saw more than its fair share of traffic because of the DST. As they motored on, they passed numerous workers heading for the old RAF base for the day.

  Cassie inched her way up so that she could look out the back window. There were no cars or vans following them. She smiled at Hawk who was staring straight ahead of them, his face closed.

  Sitting up on the seat now because it was safe, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. ‘Please don’t be angry with me. I won’t do anything to put myself in more danger, I promise. But I have to solve this… for Fran.’

  He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and jerked out a nod. Then he sighed heavily and drew her against him. ‘I’m just terrified that you will be hurt. These men are professionals and their skills are beyond me. I do not understand these bugs, or how they found you in the first place. How they could have killed your friend. This is out of my realm of experience. I think I made it across Europe by luck more than good management when Poland fell. Hiding and secrecy are foreign to me. And your century is so different. There are all these cameras everywhere, watching us, keeping track of us. If these people have the ability to tap into that information you will be safe nowhere.’

  ‘That’s why we’ll use only cash. Marnie, can you get money out for us? I only have about fifty pounds. I’d access my account, but if they are as good as Hawk thinks they are they may well have my account flagged.’

  ‘Certainly, dear, as much as you need. There’s an ATM in Beverley I can use. If you need to get a message to me, call Phillip next door and he’ll come across with it, I’m sure.’

  Phillip was a retired schoolteacher who lived in one half of the barn conversion to the right of the farmhouse. Although he was substantially younger than Marnie, the man showed a great deal of interest in her, offering to do odd jobs around the place for her, just to keep himself busy, so he said. And Marnie would invite him in for lunch or afternoon tea at least once a week, just to give him something to do, so she said.

  On several occasions, Cassie had been tempted to call Phillip her toy-boy, but Marnie would not have seen the humour in the teasing, so she’d kept quiet. She hadn’t wanted to do anything that might disrupt their budding relationship. But now it pleased her to know that Marnie wasn’t completely alone at the farmhouse.

  They made the two-mile journey to Beverley in no time and while Marnie went to the ATM, Cassie checked her iPhone for hotels in London.

  Hawk couldn’t maintain his distance. He looked over her shoulder with fascination.

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘It’s a palm size phone and Internet access point. Like the laptop I showed you but obviously a lot smaller. I’m worried about using this, too, as they can locate me with it. But leaving it behind would be like cutting off my arm. Everything I know is stored on here. I’ll turn it off though. That will make tracking me harder.’

  ‘Someone could use this little machine to find you?’ Hawk said with dread.

  ‘So the movies and TV shows tell us. I’ll use landlines if I call Phillip or anyone else. There are still phone boxes around the place.’

  ‘I am not sure I will ever get used to this world. I feel like I am on a runway with planes taking off all around me. I cannot hope to catch any of them or stay out of their path.’

  Cassie leaned up and kissed his mouth. ‘You’re doing just great. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you. I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me. You need to know that. And most of all, you make me feel loved and safe, even with bad guys after me.’

  Hawk kissed her back tenderly. ‘I am glad I could be here for you. If I had not found you, I might have spent eternity standing in that garden, unaware of anything… Now I feel alive again. And with that comes fear. I fear for you, Cassie, and it is killing me.’

  ‘Not possible. You’re already dead.’ Cassie smiled cheekily.

  Marnie climbed back into the car and handed over a large wad of money. ‘Hope that will be enough. If not, I can get Phillip to get you some more…’

  Cassie looked at the money in her hands. ‘This will be plenty for a week. I might even stay at the Carlton or somewhere ritzy with this.’

  Marnie laughed. ‘I think it would take a lot more than a thousand pounds to stay somewhere upmarket, but you should find a nice B & B in the city for a week with that.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Marnie dropped them at the station and headed back home. If the men approached her, she would say she had been driving around looking for Cassie but hadn’t seen her. Then she’d stay with Phillip rather than on her own.

  ‘I don’t like the idea of all those cameras in the house,’ she said. ‘I feel like I’m on Big Brother.’

  Hawk hadn’t even bothered to ask what Big Brother was as they got out of the car.

  ‘I have to find the bathroom. Holding on is not going to be possible for much longer,’ Cassie said as she pulled a face at the invisible man at her side.

  He grinned at her. ‘One of the benefits of not being physical anymore. I do not have to worry about such things.’

  Although the station wouldn’t have been too different from what Hawk was used to, the trains passing through obviously were. As they stood on the platform a little later, his eyes were as round as saucers as an express train flew through the station on its way north. All Cassie could do was grin at him with amusement. There was so much about her world that was going to blow his mind.

  Finally, after a half-hour of nerve-wracking waiting, they managed to get a train into Hull and then on to London.

  By mid-afternoon, Cassie and Hawk were standing outside Kings Cross Station trying to get their bearings. Hawk’s mouth was permanently gaping, not only at the traffic and people, but at the signage and traffic lights. It was sensory overload for him. She couldn’t imagine what it must all seem like to him.

 
Fiddling with the locket at her neck, she considered their options. She’d found several B & Bs close to where they now were, but wondered if a bigger hotel might be more anonymous, especially when she was going to be talking to herself quite a lot. But then, a small, out-of-the-way room might be less easy to track.

  ‘Boarding House,’ Hawk said, as if reading her mind.

  ‘Bed and Breakfast is the thing these days. But yes, I think I agree. I’d prefer a big comfy hotel bed but anonymity is the name of the game, so let’s go see if the Hastings around the corner has a room.’

  They headed down the street and turned up another that ran parallel to St Pancras. A block farther on they found a row of Georgian houses, one of which sported a sign for Hastings House. The little sign in the front window said ‘Vacancy’.

  At the bottom of a steep flight of stairs just inside the second glass door, Cassie found a little buzzer. She pressed it as she studied the notices on the board next to the door. In moments, a young slim woman came bustling down the stairs, a big-toothed smile pasted on her plain face. She wore track pants and a t-shirt and had her fair hair dragged back in a ponytail.

  ‘Good afternoon, how can I help you?’ she greeted Cassie in a broad East London accent.

  ‘I’d like a room for a few nights if that’s possible,’ Cassie said, fighting the urge to check the number of days with Hawk.

  ‘For you and your husband, is it?’ The girl glanced in Hawk’s direction and gave him a flirtatious smile.

  Cassie’s mouth fell open as she looked from the girl to Hawk and back again. The receptionist/housemaid was definitely staring openly at Hawk, who looked as gobsmacked as Cassie felt.

  ‘Ummm, yes. A double, if you have one.’