If she flew up to Scotland now, today, that would shake Giles and his floozy up a bit. Spoil their fun. And she could still be back in time for Damien’s party. That would be amusing. Idina stood up purposefully. Amusement was, after all, what life was all about.
Accident and Emergency. Fourteen stitches. Painkillers. The police.
It was dawn before Beth turned the Porsche wearily into its place outside the doors of the hotel and climbed out. She stood for a second taking deep breaths of the cold, pure air and then went round to help Giles. He was very white, his torn blood-stained jacket slung round his shoulders, his left arm heavily bandaged and in a sling.
Patti met them on the steps. ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ She was already dressed in jeans and a heavy sweater, her hair pulled back from her face in a perky knot. Breakfast for her energetic hill-walking guests started very early. ‘You haven’t crashed Dave’s car?’
Giles managed a grin. ‘No. No damage to anything important. Just me.’
‘Oh Giles!’ She caught his good arm and squeezed it. ‘You know I didn’t mean that! What happened? Did you have a fall?’
‘He was attacked by some kind of wildcat. Near my grandfather’s house,’ Beth put in. ‘We’ve spent most of the night in the hospital. And with the police.’ Trying, she wasn’t quite sure why, to persuade them not to go hunting for the animal with high-powered rifles.
She was pushing her way in through the front door when Patti put her hand on her arm. ‘Listen, you two.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Idina arrived last night, after you left. I thought you ought to know. She insisted I put her in your room, Giles, and of course she wanted to know where you were.’ She glanced from one to the other and registered their shocked faces. ‘Dave and I said that Beth had been summoned because her grandfather was ill and you went with her, Giles, to help drive. I don’t know whether we did right, but we didn’t know you’d be out all night! She stayed up until after midnight, waiting for you. She was awfully cross.’ This was, even by Patti’s standards, an understatement.
‘Oh shit!’ Giles closed his eyes, swaying slightly. ‘That’s all I need.’
Beth relinquished her hold on Giles’s arm. ‘You’d better go up and explain,’ she said bleakly.
‘Beth – ’
‘No, Giles, there’s no point in talking about it. Just go.’
She followed Patti into the kitchen and sat down at the table, exhausted. ‘I can’t believe it. Not after everything we’ve been through last night. Why did she come?’ She was near to tears. She had sworn she wouldn’t let herself fall in love with him again. She had determined to be so strong. And it had worked. Almost.
Patti shrugged diplomatically. ‘You look as though you could do with some good strong coffee and a huge cooked breakfast. How does that sound?’
Beth hesitated, automatically assuming she could eat nothing, then she realised suddenly that she was ravenous and that the wonderful smells coming from two plates being carried into the dining room had made her mouth water.
‘Can I have it in here with you?’
‘If you don’t mind me rushing about like a mad flea. She won’t give him up easily, you know.’ She paused looking down at Beth.
For a moment Beth was confused. How did Patti know about Brid? Then she realised that she was talking about Idina again and she slumped back in her chair, allowing exhaustion and depression to sweep over her.
‘I’m sorry, love.’ Patti put the coffee down in front of her. ‘But I’ve known Idina for years. I like her very much but there is no hiding the fact that she is a very possessive woman. Dave and I have always wondered how much she really loves Giles. I suspect not all that much. But he is one of her possessions. She will fight to the death to keep him.’
‘Is that why she’s come up here. Because of me?’
‘You bet. Nothing would drag her out of Chelsea otherwise. Specially not Scotland. She’s never bothered to come here before.’ Patti was breaking eggs into a bowl. ‘Now tell me about this cat. It must have been terrifying. And how was your grandfather?’
‘Odd.’ She had an overwhelming urge to tell Patti everything that had happened, but something stopped her. She did not want Adam ridiculed any more, and she needed time to think. The cat attack had terrified them both. It was too violent and too sudden – and too specific – to be a coincidence.
She was coming out of her bathroom after breakfast, hair washed, bathed, wrapped in a towel, her thoughts still relentlessly and miserably whirling from Giles and Idina to her grandfather and back, when the phone rang.
‘Beth, I’m at Heathrow. Michele says you’ve been trying to reach me. What’s wrong?’ Liza’s voice was sharp. ‘Something’s happened, hasn’t it? What are you doing in Scotland? Shall I take the shuttle to Edinburgh and come?’
How could Beth have forgotten her grandmother’s intuition?
‘Sweetheart? Can you hear me? Are you all right?’ Liza went on, her voice so clear she might have been in the same room.
Beth threw her towel on the bed and sat down, the telephone receiver in her hand. ‘Oh thank God! Liza, you are not going to believe what’s been going on.’
During her recital Liza was totally silent. Only when at last Beth paused to draw breath did Liza speak.
‘Never mind the ifs and buts, Beth.’ Far away in the busy arrivals lounge in Terminal 2 Liza had gone completely cold. ‘If Adam is looking for a way to raise Brid from the dead, or conjure her up or something, I take it very seriously indeed. That cat was no coincidence. Don’t go near your grandfather again, do you understand me? If she is back, she won’t let anyone close to him. She won’t hesitate to kill again. And you are probably her prime target as the only member of his family left. Listen, I’m catching the first plane and I’m coming up there. I mean it, Beth. Don’t go near him again until I come.’
Beth sat still for several minutes after she had hung up, trying to take in what she had heard, then at last she lay back on the bed. Her mind was still racing in spite of her exhaustion. Adam and Brid. Giles and Idina. The cat with its vicious claws and snarling teeth. Closing her eyes she felt warm slow tears beginning to slide down her cheeks and miserably she turned her face into the pillow.
She was awoken from an uneasy doze by Giles creeping into the room, his finger to his lips. He had showered and changed out of his blood-stained clothes but he was still looking very white and strained. ‘Idina’s gone out for a walk. To cool off.’ He sat down on the bed. ‘Oh Christ, Beth, what are we going to do?’
She glanced at him as he eased his painful arm in the sling. ‘What does she want?’
He grimaced. ‘She thinks I’m having an affair with you.’
Beth was silent. She didn’t know what to say.
I love you so much it hurts.
I wish I was having an affair with you.
What good would that do? The only night he had spent with her in Scotland had been in the Accident and Emergency department of a hospital.
Not very romantic.
Idina was his wife and he must still love her or he would have divorced her by now.
She levered herself up onto her elbow. ‘What did you tell her?’ Her voice was husky.
He shrugged. ‘She wanted to know about my injury. But we didn’t really talk. She was too angry.’
Beth sighed. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. ‘Liza has just rung. She has flown into Heathrow from Florence. I told her what happened. She is coming straight on here.’
Don’t go near your grandfather … She won’t hesitate to kill again.
Liza’s words echoed suddenly again in her head. ‘She said it’s all true about Brid.’
There was a moment of shocked silence. Giles shook his head wearily. ‘I don’t suppose you’re joking?’
‘No.’ She closed her eyes. ‘No, Giles, I’m not. I wish I was.’ She looked at him and suddenly her hands were shaking. ‘Liza said Brid wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.’
‘She can’
t mean it.’ Giles shivered. ‘My darling, I won’t let anything happen to you.’
‘How can you stop it with Idina here?’ She sat up and wrapped her arms round her knees. ‘You’d better go and let me get dressed,’ she added bleakly. ‘Liza will be here soon. Then she and I can concentrate on what to do about Adam.’
‘Beth.’ He sounded very stern. ‘I am here for you.’ Suddenly he leaned forward to kiss her. She closed her eyes. She should move away. She should leap out of bed and run. She should not let this go any further.
Their kiss lasted a long time. Then slowly he drew back. ‘I love you.’
She shook her head. ‘You can’t love two people, Giles. Not if they’re going to be happy. You have to decide between us.’ She slid out of the bed and picked up her clothes. ‘I’ll see you downstairs.’
He hesitated, then he got to his feet. ‘Idina and I don’t get on any more – ’
‘Don’t tell me. Tell her. Go on down, Giles.’ She sounded so calm; inside she was screaming at him: Tell her; tell her you love me! Get rid of her if she makes you unhappy! She forced herself to smile. ‘Please. Go.’
Only after he had closed the door behind him did she let herself cry again.
In his meditation Meryn frowned. The threads he was trying to gather between his fingers had grown tangled. Distress and fear and blood clouded the images, and his touch grew less sure. He was needed. The time had come to withdraw from his searches of the pathways of time. The one he sought was waiting in the shadows, waiting for a passage to open to allow him to travel freely down the centuries. He had to be stopped. But first there were matters to address in this existence: not on a dark, mist-shrouded area of common on a Welsh hillside but on the lonely Scottish mountain where the story had begun and where the energies were coalescing for a battle which would end only in death.
When Beth walked at last into the library where guests were encouraged to congregate before meals for a drink, Giles was already there. He looked strained as he stood up and beckoned her over to the sofa by the fireplace. No one else was there yet and they had the room to themselves.
He reached forward and touched her hand. ‘Beth, I love you. I’m going to ask Idina for a divorce. Right now. While she’s up here.’ He paced up and down on the threadbare Persian carpet. ‘She’s playing games with us and if she wants a showdown, she’s going to get one.’
‘Giles – ’
‘I need you. I’ve always loved you, since I first met you.’
‘But I don’t think you mean it, Giles.’ Beth spoke very gently. ‘We’ve said all this before, remember? In Wales. You can’t live without Idina. We both know that in an ideal world you could have us both and we’d both be happy, but we all know it is not an ideal world. We would all end up miserable.’
‘I don’t love Idina. It’s you I can’t live without.’
‘You can.’ She bit her lip. ‘And I don’t think we can work together. I’m sorry.’
‘Beth! What is it?’ He looked up angrily as Dave put his head round the door to tell Beth there was a call for her.
It was Ken Maclaren again. ‘I am so sorry to bother you,’ he said when Beth picked up the phone, ‘but Dr Craig has gone up into the hills somewhere and the weather is deteriorating badly. I don’t know if I should call the police – what do you think?’
She stared out of the window. The early-morning watery sunshine had disappeared and now it was raining hard. She could no longer see the distant mountains, and smoky cloud was drifting up across the lawns below the house.
‘Why do you think he’s in trouble?’
‘The door was wide open. The kettle had boiled dry. His post was lying on the table half open; he hadn’t taken his coat or his stick.’
Beth took a deep breath. ‘Listen, I’m waiting for my grandmother to come.’
Don’t go near your grandfather …
‘She’s on her way. You do what you think best, then when she arrives we’ll come over.’
When she returned to the library Idina was there, standing next to Giles, her hand resting possessively on his good arm. She was dressed in a shocking-pink wool dress and black tights. Her figure was pencil slim, her hair immaculate, her make-up porcelain-brittle.
She greeted Beth with a tight smile and a double kiss in the air a good three inches from Beth’s cheeks. ‘Mmm. How are you, sweetie? I hear you and Giles are going to be doing another book?’
Beth was for an instant intensely aware of her own less than svelte curves, clothed in bog-standard navy jeans and heavy cream sweater, a silk scarf knotted round her hair, and immediately put the image out of her head as being too depressing to live with. She smiled bravely. ‘I don’t know about that, Idina. It very much depends.’ She glanced at Giles, who was concentrating on his drink, his knuckles white on the glass. ‘How’s London?’
‘Better than this.’ Idina looked at the window and shuddered.
‘I can’t think why you came,’ Beth couldn’t resist saying.
‘We won’t be here long, sweetie, I assure you.’ Idina gave an icy smile. ‘Just as soon as Giles has finished up here we’re going on to visit some friends in Edinburgh.’
‘I told you, Idina, I am staying.’ Giles’s voice was harsh. ‘Beth and I are working on our book.’ He glanced at Beth. ‘What did Maclaren want? Is everything all right?’
‘Grandfather has gone missing again. I said we’d go over as soon as Liza arrives.’ Beth went over to the bar to order a whisky from George. The glass safely in her hand, she turned back to Idina, trying hard to contain her misery and resentment as she stared at the woman’s elegant figure. ‘He lives near Dunkeld.’
‘I see.’ Idina raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, I fail to see why Giles needs to go with you.’
‘He doesn’t need to.’ Beth smiled wearily. Then she couldn’t resist adding, ‘But he might choose to.’
When Liza finally appeared late that afternoon she looked exhausted. Beth who had been watching from the library window, ran down the steps and enveloped her in a huge hug.
‘It’s been awful, I can’t tell you! Oh God, I’m so glad you’re here!’ She pushed Liza away so she could see her properly and felt a pang of remorse. ‘You look tired. I’m sorry. Perhaps I shouldn’t have told you – ’
‘Don’t be so silly!’ Liza said crisply. ‘All I need is a cup of tea. And I need to know exactly what is happening.’ She was as slim and young-looking as ever, her fashionably cut hair showing only a few white threads amongst the auburn.
It took an hour for her to charm Dave and Patti, find her room, change, have her cup of tea and be ready for Beth to drive her over to Adam’s house.
There was no sign of Giles or Idina as Beth went into the office for Dave’s car keys. ‘Will you tell him where I’ve gone?’
‘Don’t worry.’ He winked. ‘If it’s any consolation they are not having a good time. You can hear the shouting down the corridor. Amongst other things, Idina doesn’t like the Scots rain. She must be afraid her frock will shrink.’ He gave a snort of laughter.
‘Dave!’ Beth pretended to be shocked. ‘I’ll ring you when I know what we’re doing, but don’t worry if you don’t hear tonight. Adam isn’t on the phone, and I suspect we’ll stay over there. We’ll play it by ear.’
‘Do I gather you and Giles are an item again?’ Liza leaned back in the deep leather passenger seat of the Porsche and closed her eyes as Beth turned out of the drive. It was already dark.
‘Hardly, with Idina here.’
‘Would you like to be?’
‘There’s no point in thinking about it. He’s still very married in case you hadn’t noticed. She’s the one in the pink dress.’
‘Silly woman!’ Liza sighed. ‘Poor darling. Life and love are never easy, are they?’
Beth glanced at her profile, illuminated by the dashboard lights. ‘Everything is all right with Michele?’
‘Yes, darling, everything is very all right with Michele.’ Liza’s eyes were
still shut.
They stopped outside the Maclarens’ bungalow at last, after a slow journey through heavy rain, and ran up the path to where Ken waited in the open doorway.
‘Come away in and get warm and dry for a minute, then I’ll drive us all up the hill,’ he said after introductions had been made.
‘Did you speak to the police?’ Beth asked anxiously.
He nodded. ‘They have been up to Shieling House. They said there was no sign of the animal that attacked your friend, and they could see no tracks, but the rain has been so heavy, and my car or theirs, or the postie, or anyone else, might have obliterated them. There was still no sign of Dr Craig.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m worried. I know he thinks he knows the hills, but it’s a long time since he lived up here, and he’s not a young man. And the weather is appalling.’
They climbed into the minister’s old four-wheel drive and Beth, sitting beside him, peering out of the windscreen at the twin beams of the lights which reflected rivulets of mud pouring down the track, thanked heaven she had not had to drive the Porsche up here in the dark.
When they finally arrived Beth stared round nervously. She was wishing desperately that Giles was with them. Ken Maclaren had produced a large torch and the bright beam lit up the dripping bushes and the flattened grass in a wide arc as he swept it around. Beth held her breath, listening, but she could hear nothing but the sound of the wind and the rain.
On the Edge of Darkness Page 50