The Girl With Ten Claws (The Adventures of Benedict and Blackwell)

by E. Earle

  Either way both of them were fortunate.

  I was neither of those things.

  We had just managed to get to the bottom of the stairs and nearing the door when the reporters and Vincent found us.

  “O’Connell!” Vincent called, clapping his hands, pale eyes flashing in the candlelight. “And where the devil do you think you’re going?”

  Brynn cocked his head towards me and rolled his eyes. “The missus is tired,” he said. “Best get her tucked in.”

  A huge breath heaved into my lungs, ready to snap at him before I managed to slam it down. I turned to Vincent with an apologetic expression on my face. “Sorry Vincent,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand as he stepped forward. “It’s been a long day.”

  Vincent took my hand and frowned at my glove. “A beautiful lady such as you shouldn’t be hiding behind lace,” he said frowning at my hand.

  I froze and Brynn tensed behind me.

  Vincent’s eyes rose to meet mine, and for a second, I feared he would rip it off. “Goodnight, Ellena,” he said finally, making me breath out in relief. “Always a pleasure.” He then reached my hand to my lips and stepped back with a nod to Brynn.

  I turned away, thankful that it was all over, but I must have thought too soon.

  “One moment, please,” called a journalist standing next to a photographer. “How about a kiss from Craggy’s favourite couple?”

  Oh God.

  I looked up to Brynn, praying he could read the thoughts in my head.

  Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it!

  The crowd started to heckle us demanding a picture of romance and I clenched my fists as Brynn moved restlessly next to me.

  “Don’t you dare,” I smiled through unmoving lips as I put an arm around his waist, hoping that that would placate the crowd of baying beasts.

  He looked down at me with a slightly raised eyebrow. “You didn’t just use the word dare, did you?”

  Oh balls. Brynn O’Connell was never a man to tell what to do. He would always do the opposite.

  Before I had a chance to reword my threat, he pulled me to him and sought my lips with his own.

  The crowd made a wave of applause with yells of encouragement. I felt the flash of lights beneath my closed eyelids as his hands tightened around my waist, pulling me closer to him. His mouth was hot on mind, demanding, and uncompromising.

  It was over by the next camera flash. I opened my eyes, startled, cheeks red and breathless. Brynn gave another wave before ushering me out into the cold, the wind yet another lashing to my overwrought senses.

  “What on earth do you think you were doing?” I growled under my breath as we walked down the steps.

  “Securing our exit,” was his brisk reply. He opened the car door for me and waited for me to get in.

  I wanted to slap the smug look from his face, but I was too cold to consider it further. The diamonds hung heavily from my neck as I stared out of the window, the silence stretching out between us as Jessica and Jack argued about what radio station they had on.

  My lips still burning from our very public kiss, I decided the only person I could rant to now was hunting for mice.

  The car had barely stopped moving before I was out and unlocking the door to Craggy’s, silently calling for Ben through each exhale.

  The others stayed downstairs for a nightcap whilst I went up to bed, feeling Brynn’s eyes burn into my back as I walked up the stairs. The night had been a success for him, which was great- but I just hoped that our lie would be soon forgotten.

  How wrong I was.

  “It’s in the papers!” I yelped.

  Ben jumped from my bed in shock as I ran into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

  “I was dreaming of Juniper,” he meowed grumpily, flicking his tail in annoyance as he settled on the windowsill.

  I ignored him- Juniper was his cat girlfriend in Warwickshire of whom he had had a litter of kittens- but that’s another story. Planting the newspaper on my dressing table, I shook my head as I read the headline.

  “Craggy’s Couple Catches a Gallery Success!” I looked back up to Ben. “Couple?” I exclaimed. “We’re not a couple!”

  Ben idly licked a paw, nonplussed. “Didn’t you say that you led them to believe you were?”

  Waving it away I stared at the huge picture of Brynn and me kissing at the exit, my cheeks going redder the longer I stared at it. I turned a page and the story went on. “Listen to this; Co-owners of Craggy’s Brynn O’Connell and Ellena Blackwell are partners in more ways than one, they finally announced to the public yesterday evening.” I looked back up to see Ben’s face but he still remained nonchalant. I continued; “Debuting his new work, Brynn O’Connell blah blah blah blah and says he couldn’t have done it without the support of the love in his life, Ellena Blackwell.”

  “You’re reading to me because?”

  “Ben!” I stepped away from the paper and walked to the window. “I don’t want this-”

  “Calm yourself,” Ben meowed, jumping back to his place on my bed. “It’ll be over in a few days.”

  But it wasn’t. People came in and out of Craggy’s congratulating us and Donny, our handyman who had retired since being stuck in the burning outbuildings, had bought us a bunch of flowers. I didn’t know whether he was taking the piss or what, but Jessica put them in a vase on the mantelpiece.

  “I always knew something was going on, you know,” Brynn’s uncle John said, throwing us a wink. “You crafty devil!” With a playful punch to Brynn’s shoulder, John left to continue work on Old Marley’s Museum, leaving us both to work in awkward silence.

  “So, you think people are going to shut up about it yet?” I asked in mock sweetness, snatching a tea towel from the side. “Because I think someone told me a few days ago that I had nothing to worry about.”

  “And what’s there to worry about, exactly?” Brynn said turning to me with a demanding glint in his eye.

  Slamming the towel down as quickly as I had picked it up, I stepped closer to him. “Don’t you think people are going to find out that we’re not together really soon? Hmm?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “People are going to think it’s really strange soon when we just go about things as normal,” I hissed.

  He sighed in annoyance. “Then what do you suggest?”

  I shook my head. “How the hell should I know?”

  Brynn put a hand on my shoulder to stop me from fidgeting. “Look- just calm down,” he said, trying to stop a corner of his mouth from turning up in amusement. “People will soon forget about it, and then in a few months when people ask, we’ll just say we wanted to be friends.”

  “A few months?!”

  People turned to my raised voice and stopped talking. Brynn laughed and batted their concerned glances away. “The missus wants to go away on holiday,” he explained to them, before turning to me. “It’s going to take a few more months of saving, sweetheart!” He then gave me a hug, burying my face into his chest so no one could see my expression.

  “I’m going to kill you!” I growled into his chest.

  He patted my back. “You’ll be the death of me sure enough, God knows that, Ellena.”

  Finally releasing me, he swung me to face the bar and a customer, my expression changing swiftly from rage to pleasantness. “Hello,” I said with brightness I didn’t feel. “What can I get for you?”

  And so it went on like that. Skirting around the subject, pretending everything was normal, playing up to the customers, trying to change the subject whenever they brought it up and nearly having heart attacks when you couldn’t avoid the subject.

  The guests were confused when they saw that we didn’t share a room.

  “We’re very traditional,” Brynn explained to a party of six when they commandeered us on the hallway in the morning. “No sex before marriage.”

  A teenage girl with blonde hair raised an eyebrow. “So you’re vi
rgins?” she asked crossed her arms over her chest.

  My hair still in a mass of bedroom havoc and odd socks, my brain was in no state to think of a clever comeback. “Err…”

  “We’re doing it right for this relationship,” Brynn said, eyeing up my choice of t-shirt to sleep in- a black oversized thing that said, ‘Instant Pirate- Just Add Rum.’

  “Oh isn’t that sweet,” the girl’s mother said, holding her husband’s arm. “You know, sometimes the old ways are the best- it makes it all worthwhile.”

  “Very honourable,” the husband said with a very serious face. He then stepped forward and shook Brynn’s hand. “Don’t forget- if you like it you should put a ring on it- so that singer says.”

  A high-pitched sound later, I was back in my bedroom and buried under my covers. “What on earth is going on, Ben?”

  “You’re on my tail,” Ben said from somewhere in the darkness. “That is what’s going on.”

  The next day Olivia showed up at the bar, looking decidedly normal, I thought. She was dressed in a black fluffy jumper, no expensive handbag and with trainers on, her dark hair tied back in a practical ponytail.

  “You free?” she asked me.

  I looked down as if to check, and seeing that I was sitting cross legged on the couch by the fire with a hot chocolate I shrugged. “Seems so. You ok?”

  “Yeah, great thanks- I was wondering if you wanted to go for a surf today?”

  I managed to stop a frown from coming. I thought she had forgotten all about that, but then I remembered from bumping into her at the gallery. “What’s the weather like?”

  “Cold, and windy,” she said simply.

  “Ah, a nice change from cold, wet and windy.” I stood up and gazed out of the window. It didn’t look too bad. Jessica was on the bar, Craggy’s was pretty quiet and Brynn was at the gallery to complete a transaction with a buyer and Vincent. He had asked if I wanted to go with him, but the thought of going through the romantic pretence in front of Vincent made me uncomfortable.

  I wanted to say no to surfing. I’m not a fan of cold weather- mix that up with getting wet and I’m decidedly against it. But there was something in Olivia’s face that said that she desperately wanted company- and for reasons unknown, she wanted to spend time with me.

  “Sure,” I said with a smile. “Let me just go tell the others that I’ll be back in a few hours.”

  But I knew there was no one in the kitchen when I went out back because we had just finished serving, and Jessica was down in the cellar.

  “How did I know you would be here?”

  Ben’s looked up from a plate full of ham, chunks still sticking to his face. “It’s not what it looks like.”

  “I think it’s exactly how it looks!” I sighed. “Ben, back on the bacon? You were doing so well!”

  “It’s this damn Cornish meat,” he meowed mournfully. “How can I say no?”

  “Well that’s your last dish,” I said sternly pointing at him. “You’re out hunting tonight, understand?”

  After a further two seconds of pointing, I put my hands on my hips. “Guess who’s in the bar right now?”

  “The nice delivery man from the butcher?”

  I rolled my eyes. “No!” Ben didn’t say anything when I told him I was going surfing with Olivia. He just fixed me with his bright eyes and flicked his tail at me in acceptance.

  I felt as though it was my good deed for the day. Maybe I had completed misjudged Olivia- maybe she just wanted company? I found it difficult sometimes making new friends- I didn’t like the thought of someone knowing too much about me in case they tried to use it against me.

  Maybe it was self-preservation- or paranoia.

  I zipped up my coat over my wetsuit and carried a small rucksack on my back with my jeans, an old t shirt and towel. Olivia was outside waiting for me.

  “Ready?” she said brightly.

  “Yeah, I’ll just grab my board.”

  “No need- you can use one of mine.” She patted away my next protest. “I have a small outbuilding right by the beach with a load of tack- we’re going to have to go there to get my wetsuit anyway.”

  I paused and then shrugged. “Fair enough,” I said. Plus I wasn’t even sure whether Brynn had taken the board for one of the learners. He was out on a lesson with Jack. I was surprised that we were still having busy bookings for new surfers considering how freezing it was.

  Her car was parked out the back and I held myself from whistling at the sight of it. It was something my dad would long to own himself and I glanced at Olivia curiously, wondering what the hell she did for a job.

  She looked both embarrassed and pleased at my astonishment. “Hop on in.” Clicking her fob, it made a small chirping noise, indicating it was now unlocked.

  I gazed at my Fiat Punto and sighed.

  Olivia’s seats were heated on the drive to the beach. She spoke about the gallery, making my skin prickle at the memory of mine and Brynn’s romance façade.

  “I have no idea you two were a couple!” she enthused, tapping her perfectly manicured fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the radio. “And that necklace! You looked radiant.”

  I grimaced at the sound of it. I had given the necklace to Ben and told him to take it somewhere I wouldn’t have to see it. He hadn’t been too amused when I had dangled it around his neck and suggested that maybe I should drink less in future.

  A smile reached my lips. Maybe he was right.

  “Ellena?”

  I jumped at the sound of her voice. “Sorry, what did you say?”

  “I asked you where you got it from, silly!” she laughed at me. “You were miles away!”

  I apologised again and frowned at the rain that started to drizzle against the windows. “Oh…” I shook my head and told myself to start paying attention. “It was left to me…by a friend.”

  Olivia became quiet, probably sensing my mood and didn’t speak again until we were outside some huts by the beach. “You ready?” she said opening her car door, letting out the heat immediately.

  Shivering I nodded and stepped out of the car, hugging my arms tightly. I watched her pull out a small key from her pocket and juggled her car keys in the other.

  “Can you open that hut for me over there, please?” she asked, offering me the small key. “I want to get my wet boots out of the back of the car.”

  Reluctantly releasing my hands from the warmth of my body, I took the key and hobbled over to the set of five huts, all painted a pleasant pastel blue colour. A rusted padlock was on the door that looked very different from the shiny key I had in my hand.

  “You sure this is the right key?” I shouted over the din of the wind.

  “Of course!” her muffled reply came.

  I shrugged and tried sticking it in, but it wouldn’t fit. Frowning, I gazed at the scratched metal of the padlock and then the pristine condition of the key in front of me, so new in fact that I could see my reflection.

  The ground crunched behind me. “Oh good,” I said, flipping the key so I could see Olivia standing behind me. “Sorry to be a pain, but-”

  “You’ve been nothing but a pain since you came here,” she said.

  A pain exploded at the back of my head before I could turn around. Before I knew it I was kissing gravel.

  Blackness came as one thought resonated through my mind.

  Ben!

  He was sitting in a chair staring at me with those thoughtful pale eyes of his, as my eyes fluttered open and closed. A small smile tickled the corner of his mouth and he shook his head slightly.

  A small sound escaped from my throat as I attempted to raise my head, the pain making my stomach swirl with nausea. I blinked again, and he was gone, the old chair empty but for a bunch of old boxes and a crumpled heap of sheets.

  The floor was wet beneath me, soaking into my clothes and skin with a shiver that my muscles couldn’t escape. My hair stuck to my face in wet rivets as I slowly worked my body from a lying positi
on into a hunched shape. Self preservation was kicking in.

  This had happened before.

  Alarm struck me when footsteps approached, and I forced myself not to look too quickly in case I passed out again.

  Unmistakable expensive boots stood in front of me, tapping impatiently as I slowly worked my eyes up.

  Olivia stared down at me, with contempt curling her lip and hatred narrowing her eyes. “I’m not going to waste time, Blackwell,” she said, the ‘K’ turning her face into a snarl. “Where’s Marley’s treasure?”

  I must have stared at her for a good few seconds in confusion before my mouth worked. “What?”

  Like a viper, she bent down and backslapped me around the face, making my world explode into tiny lights. “Don’t fuck with me!” she near screamed. “Where is it? You have the necklace- where’s the rest?” She bent down and grabbed my hair, wrenched my head back so her face was almost touching mine. “Where is it?!”

  I stared back into her half mad face, thoughts swirling in my head. This had been a set up. Right from the start. Memories of first spotting her in the summer came before my eyes. How she had kept appearing at Craggy’s. The way she acted when she saw the diamonds around my throat. The hunger in her eyes. The questions in the car. Her sudden silence.

  “Who are you?” I asked, feeling blood drip from my lip.

  She scowled at me, a cruel smile twisting her beautiful face. “I’m his stepdaughter.”

  I took a second to process that as she shoved my head away. “Oh.” I watched her carefully as she stepped away and quickly took in my surroundings. I was in a cave of some sorts- the floor was wet with seawater and sand, so I couldn’t be far from where she had hit me. She looked to weigh about 120lbs so there was no way she could have carried or dragged me a long distance.

  Unless she had bundled me in the car and taken me someplace else. It was an unpleasant thought. My eyes drank in more details- anything to help me know where I was. There was a couple of wind up lamps to illuminate the area, so I guessed that I had been out cold long enough for the sun to go down. There was furniture here too and I looked up suspiciously. Could I be in a basement somewhere?