Chapter 12
“Danny why are we going to the wood at this hour and why are you driving so fast?” I demand, hanging onto the leather at the sides of the seat as we hare around the corners.
He twitches nervously. “Sorry.” He says eventually.
“Well?”
“That was a call from the Night security man I’ve had stationed up there. Apparently he chased someone he spotted sneaking around inside the fenced off area.”
My stomach tightens. “At this time in the morning, it’s..barely five o clock.” I say peering at my watch in the gloom.
“That’s what I thought.” Danny sighs. “Only a real die-hard anarchist would be up at this hour, so I have to go and see.”
“So what’s happened? Have they caught anyone?”
He frowns, aggravated. “No, he got away.”
I relax and allowed a huge wave of relief sweep over me, hoping that the mysterious intruder is Tony and that he’s about to go ahead with his master stroke. Mentally I go over all that he’s told me again. Due to my lack of sleep, it isn’t easy to remember exactly what he’s told me to do. But I’m determined that whatever effort he’s put into his plan it will not be ruined on my account. This is my last hope, but it feels strangely similar to the more barmy plans Avril tends to come up with after she’s had a few large drinks. But I resolve to give it all, no matter what.
Danny changes down through the gears, ready to make the tight turn off the road and I watch him as he concentrates on manoeuvring the big car, hating to admit, even to myself, that the wood no longer seems quite so important anymore. Getting back at Danny and all I believe he stands for has become paramount in my mind until I’ve got to the stage where I am thinking of little else. But underneath his bullishness, there is a decent man who’s simply painted himself generously over the years with layers of black in an effort to mask the seething anger and hurt that has lived in him since his childhood. At this moment I feel torn apart inside and I close my eyes, battling inwardly between telling him the truth and guilt at giving up the wood and all of Tony’s hard work so readily.
Danny speaks, cutting through the electric atmosphere that has invaded the car.
“I’m worried in case it’s some sort of reconnaissance mission by the Animal rights brigade or another of those loony groups.” He says. “They might be planning to occupy the site. That’s all I need.”
“So are you going to call in the heavy mob to deal with them in the time honoured fashion?” I say.
He shakes his head grimly. “Not yet. No point wasting fortunes hiring an army of security guards if it’s just some nosey fisherman taking a short cut to the lake.”
The narrow dirt track becomes barely wide enough for walkers, let alone a large four wheeled drive vehicle, but he’s determined to plough through, oblivious to the overhanging branches as they drag and scrape along the bodywork with alarming shrieks on either side as the full beam headlights illuminate our way through the dull almost alien landscape stretching out in front of us. If the mystery man is Tony, he has guts prowling about up here on his own.
Again I study Danny’s rugged face in the eerie half light that comes just before the dawn. I’m in love with him and the truth of it frightens me. But it is the truth. I have started out hating him for what he represents not for what he is and what he is has turned out to be something quite different from what I’d expected. I’m glad now of the dim light to mask my face, somehow unable to cope with the thought of him seeing it and I fight to shake of the doubts gnawing away at my insides, as he focuses on weaving the car this way and that to avoid the trees. Am I really prepared to give up the fight to save the place I love and all the happy memories of my Father for this man? Soon he’ll be gone. Fresh fields to conquer and more people to upset and trample over. What will I have left then? Right now, I feel more wretched than at any other time in my life, apart from the day my Father died. I’m in love with Danny Marsden and every time I think of it I just want to be sick.
“Are you all right Cathy?” he drawls suddenly, his voice cutting into my spinning thoughts. He has stopped the car and is staring at me curiously. I will my heaving stomach to behave.
“I’m fine Danny.” I murmur. “That felt like the most severe roller coaster ride ever though.”
“You stay here and rest.” He says as he climbs outside.
“No I’m coming with you.” I say.
I hurry after him and the security man comes of his little hut at the foot of the hill and salutes grandly as we approach. “Good Morning Sir.” He says.
Danny nods a curt greeting. “Well have you seen any more of them since you called? Any ragged types at all?”
“Ragged types Sir?”
“Yes you know, friends of the earth, ban the bomb, the loony fringe.”
He has an odd habit of lumping vast groups of people under one banner and then regarding the lot of them as his enemies.
“No sir.” The security man replies, comically confused. “I just saw the one of them, a tall young fella. He buggered off towards the lake and I lost him among the trees.”
“Mmmm.” Danny growls. “Keep a sharp look out. Work starts on Monday morning and I don’t want any more hitches. If these pests think we’re open house just because it’s the weekend, they’ve got another thing coming. If they get to squat on the site, I’ll never be rid of them.”
“Yes sir.” The man says. “Do you want me to go and have a look around the water?”
Danny peers up at the trees up on the hill, suspiciously narrowing his eyes to little more than slits. “No, I’ll have a wander round. But I’ll send extra men for the day shift I think. We’ll probably need them.”
We walk on. “Do you really think it’s the militant fringe?” I ask innocently, desperately trying to sound concerned.
“Could be.” He says, eyes flickering over the dense vegetation all around us. “Anyhow, I’m not taking any chances at this stage.”
“So how come you let me come along?” I ask.
He smiles now. “I want to keep my eye on you too in case you’ve got any half-baked ideas about joining them.”
I glare up at him. “Still trying to tell me what’s best?”
“No. I just don’t want to see you get hurt when the time comes to evict them that’s all. These things can get pretty rough you know?”
“I know that,” I snap. “But I really doubt you care very much one way or the other.”
He stopped dead and wheeled round to face me, causing me to walk into him. The shock of the sudden halt causes me to jump as I smacked my face against the hard area between his shoulder blades. There’s no time to step back as he wrapped powerful arms around me, making escape impossible.
“Yes I care. I care about you very much.”
Again I feel myself being assailed by the familiar twisting loyalty I’m having to get used to as he lowers his dark head, his lips finding mine without having to search too hard. The odd sensations that pulsed through me with such alarming ferocity the night I’d fallen into the pit in the grounds of the manor. The feelings I had managed to push and shove into the back of my consciousness. Now they have broken free in a raging torrent that threatens to sweep away all my determined intentions.
The sun raised its golden head at that moment. The large flaming ball fabulous from the higher ground as it seems to peek knowingly at us from the brow of a distant hill. We both watch it for a few moments, caught up in its radiant magic and guilt suddenly rages through me as I look at the dell just a little way ahead.
“Do we have to go there Danny?” I whisper.
He relaxes his hold a little. “I thought you wanted a last look around. Maybe, if I try really hard, I could feel a little of that magic force you’re always going on about before I grow out of it completely.”
I shake my head sadly. “I doubt you ever felt any magic, even as a child.”
He grimaced. �
�That’s not very fair. I had a great imagination back then.”
“Yes. Imagining you were ruler of the world no doubt. Genghis Khan in short pants.”
His pained expression makes me laugh but the buoyant mood doesn’t last long. He takes my hand gently and we walk on.
As we near the entrance to the dell it feels as though every unseen eye in the wood is on me, willing me to weave a magic spell that will stop the destruction and I try to imagine myself as an actress about to play an important role that I have to get right. It will have to be an Oscar winner to fool this man and I hardly dare look into the gloomy interior of the place as we approach. Whatever Tony has planned had better be good, I think grimly.
“Well whoever was up here has long gone.” Danny announces after scanning carefully for anything suspicious. “But I’d better take a look around the lake to see if there are any anglers about.”
Just as I think something must have gone wrong and he veers away from the dell to wend his way around to the water beyond, he stops dead in his tracks, squinting through the natural entrance with a curious look in his eye.
“Did you see that?” His voice carries surprise but it’s a far cry from the astonishment I’d been hoping for.
“See what?” I reply coolly.
“That light, coming from in there?”
I feign impatience. “What light? There is no light. I told you before, there’s never any light in there until the suns directly over..”
“There, there it is again.” He hisses, cutting me off. “And look, there’s more than one of them too. Come on I’m going to take a look at this.”
He marches on, a look of determination set into his face as I hang onto a muscular arm.
“Hold on a minute,” I gasp. But it’s like trying to pull back a bolting horse. “It could be anything. Something you don’t understand.”
He stops walking and looks down at me with that familiar condescending gleam in his eye I hate so much. “Don’t tell me you really think there’s something in there that’s not of this world.” He sighs. “Cathy,” he grinned. “I don’t believe you sometimes. Here, take my hand, we’ll go in together.”
His hand clasps mine and he tugs me along the last few yards and with a huge effort I manage to break free. I know it’s imperative he stay outside the place. If he sees something he shouldn’t, he’ll make my life hell for the rest of his and frantically my mind searches for something to hold him back. But there’s no reasoning with him now. His blood’s up and he’s determined to investigate at close quarters.
“Please Danny, don’t go in there.” I beg, panic rising in case he should get too close. He pauses by the naturally arched entrance, the mass of gnarled branches twisted together through centuries of natural confusion. The whole place has somehow come alive and seems to throb with some unseen power. Even Danny hesitates before lowering his head to pass under the overhanging limbs. Reluctantly I follow him inside.
I notice the temperature has dropped to an icy chill in contrast with the air outside and there are dim lights winking on and off around the stones at the dell’s centre. Danny studies the sight ahead, his dark eyes large and almost childlike. It’s easy to picture him as a small boy, playing out his games and I watch, fascinated as his business brain tries to cling on to his welling emotions, but for once losing out.
“It’s marvellous,” he gasps. “What do you think it is?”
I hardly dared look around for fear of spotting some overlooked box of tricks or reams of wire that have broken free of their anchorage points high in the trees. “I don’t know.” I venture, determined not to gild the lily. “But it’s creepy don’t you think,”
“It’s probably some natural phenomenon.” He reasons aloud. “I don’t know, marsh gas, some form of ball lightning. It could be anything.”
Inwardly the doubts are chewing away at me. Tony’s exhibition is good enough to fool me or anyone else, but not Danny Marsden it seems. He stands, arms folded, enjoying the sight immensely but not in the least afraid by it and we watch as the light pattern begins to change, and more of the willowy white lights appear around the stones. Others can be seen appearing on the far side of the circle as if they are watching the odd proceedings at the centre. I don’t have a clue how Tony’s doing it but I guess he could charge money for such a show. He’s captured the mood so well and it’s a terrible pity that a certain member of the audience is so hard to please. The lights began to take on more clearly defined shapes now and Danny chuckles quietly to himself.
“Time for a closer look I think.” He announces, marching boldly towards the stones. The lights disappear and he begins poking and prying into the crevices where they rest together. He’s suspicious, a determined look set into his features and I’m sure he’s about to find something he shouldn’t. I bite my lip waiting for the shout and the cruel laughter, but it doesn’t come. He backs away, shaking his head, deep in thought. “I don’t know.” He drawls. “Weird. Nothing there at all.”
I swallow down my shock at his failure to spot any electronic gizmos. “There, I told you this was a magical place didn’t I?” I say. “But you didn’t believe me.”
He grins and shakes his head by way of reply. “Come on.” He says, let’s get out of here. We turn to walk back towards the low gap in the trees and are both shocked to see what appears to be a group of large dancing lights blocking the exit. Danny’s grin evaporates.
“They look like figures,” He murmurs. “Like children.”
He doesn’t seem so sure of himself now and an excited buzz runs through me. For the first time since I’d met him, he seems confused and he turns to stare me and I struggle to appear as bemused by the sight of the odd apparitions as he is while fighting to control the excitement welling up in me which threatens to expose the whole thing to his cynical eye. At least he appears to be no longer quite sure of what he’s looking at and as we return our attention to the odd scene, one of the shapes breaks away from the others and begins to glide eerily towards us. The consistency of the thing is something like a fine mist and we watch it make slow sweeping half circles a few yards from where we stand, as if forbidding us to come any closer.
“They want us to leave now,” I whisper, terrified in case Tony, however he’s doing it, should overplay our hand.
Danny stares at me. “They want us to leave!” He says. “Cathy, what do you think they are?”
I glare back at him, angry at the waste of effort and of his pig-headed refusal to accept something he can’t examine under a microscope. “If you had a half a brain Danny Marsden, you’d know exactly what this is.”
He drops the sneer and returns his attention to the shapes. Something in the tone of my voice has spooked him and he peers at the circling forms hard, desperately trying to find something to explain them away. An idea struck me then.
“You once made a wish here. Do you remember that?” I say, keeping my voice even.
“Yes.” He replies, loathe taking his attention from the marauding entities.
“Did your wish come true?”
He desperately attempts to shake off the trap he knows I’m trying to spring on him.
“What’s the hell’s that got to do with anything?” He drawls. Kid’s games. Just a silly moment that meant nothing. Now what is it you’re trying to say?”
“Me! I’m not the one who’s saying anything and if you looked with your heart rather than your head for once in your life, you’d see it too.”
We hear a crashing sound from among the dense branches above us and for one awful moment I think something must have blown up and ruined everything. The noise is loud and shocking in the still and eerie light around us, but to my relief, a crow breaks cover before spreading its serrated wings as he determines to get away from the strange events occurring below him. We looked back towards the eerie lights, but they have vanished. Danny seems genuinely sorry and his shoulders slump. “Damn.” He whi
spers.
”Come on Danny, let’s get out of here.” I say quietly.
To my horror, Danny ignores me and walks right around the circle and weaves in and out of the trees, closely inspecting the ground, the stones and then the tree branches above. Tony insisted that Danny should not be allowed to do this under any circumstances, but short of hitting the man over the head with one of the many grey lumps littering the place, it’s impossible to stop him. I can only stand and worry my lower lip as I watch him prowl backwards and forwards, scanning high and low, certain in the knowledge that he’s about to see something he shouldn’t.
“Danny,” I hiss. “Will you please come out of there? Haven’t you seen enough?”
With some reluctance he tears himself away and I note with a sinking heart, that he’s grinning broadly as he approaches.
“Well,” I demand. Expecting his damning report on wiring looms and disco lights hanging up in the trees.
“There’s nothing there.” He whispers. “Isn’t that strange? Nothing. It’s like they were never here.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “They?”
He’s embarrassed now and he laughs softly but it isn’t his usual cocksure cackle. “Let’s get back to the car.” He says. “It looks like it’s going to rain again.”
We set off down the hill and after a long silence he speaks. “Fascinating.” He drawls. “I would love to know exactly what that was.” I say nothing but watch him as he constantly looks over his shoulder, as if anticipating another show and I know it’s time to come up with something tangible as I’m unlikely to ever catch Danny in such a frame of mind again.
“They granted you that wish didn’t they?”
“I thought you told me not to tell anyone about it!”
“You’re not supposed to tell anyone until you get it. But you did get it, didn’t you?”
He paused. “Well . yes, I suppose my wish came true. I don’t know if my old man’s going to walk again, but he’s alive and well and everything looks hopeful. That was one of them anyway.”
“One of them!” I bark. “How many did you make?”
He grins like a man who’d received a double tax rebate in error. “Two.”
I shake my head, stunned. “Well isn’t that just bloody typical of you?”
He avoids my accusing stare but he’s grinning madly. I’m not going to be put off though. “And did you put something back like I told you.” I say, having to run to keep up with him now. “You told me yourself, nothings for nothing. Remember?”
He laughs, but the sound is hollow and flat in the still around us. “Of course I didn’t put anything back.” He replies. “I told you. We both know it’s just a silly game. It doesn’t mean anything. Not really.”
“Just you remember, Danny Marsden,” I call to his broad back. “There are things in this life you can never understand.”
He ignores me and keeps walking. He’s anxious to be away from the place and me now, fighting to keep me and his own more human thoughts out of his head.
“Meaning?” He growls without looking around.
“Meaning that anything they did for you can just as easily be undone.”
He stops and turns to speak. He has a curious unreadable look on his face, but says nothing more until we reach the car.
I pull myself out of my uneasy slumber at the persistent ringing of the phone by my bed and struggle to focus on the small clock on the bedside table. It wasn’t quite 7 am.
“Hello.” Boomed a voice in my ear making me jump.
“Who the hell’s that?” I mumble. People have no right to sound like this first thing in the morning.
“It’s Tony.” Says the voice. “I just called to say sorry for the complete balls up at the dell.”
I haul myself up onto an elbow, screwing my face up as I struggle to understand what’s being said to me.
“The what?” I say.
“I had all my stuff ready and some damn fool security man came up and started nosing around.”
”So what went wrong Tony?” I ask, coming to my senses quickly but still as confused as ever.
“I had to beat a hasty retreat with my box of tricks and what do you think happened? Me and it went straight into the lake on the other side of the hill while I was trying to get away from him. I’m really sorry Cath. Perhaps we could try it again sometime. It wouldn’t take me long to put something together. I could even ..”
“No Tony . that’s all right.” I gasp, cutting him off before the flow got started. My head is spinning and the effect is not just from lack of sleep.
“Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be staying at my Mother’s house until my new term starts.”
I promise to call him and replace the receiver, now suddenly very much awake. This was incredible. The idea that Tony himself might be playing a joke on me crosses my mind but I shake off the thought immediately. Tony is Mr Sincerity and he wouldn’t lie for a joke or anything else. He just isn’t made that way. But something strange has happened all right and as I lay pondering the mystery the phone rings again, making me jump. I snatch up the receiver.
“What?” I hiss.
“You still up?” Says a voice I know only too well.
“Who the hell is this?” I lie.
“Who do you think it is?”
“The worst bogeyman of them all? Don’t you ever sleep? Do you know what time it is? I’ve had about one hour’s kip and I’m shattered.”
“When are you going to see our fox again?” He says. There’s genuine concern in the deep voice.
“Today sometime.” I reply. “But for now he’s in the capable hands of Sheglah. Now get some rest before you end up in hospital yourself. It’s my day off. No Cycling, No ARC and definitely no you!”
My muddled mind clears a little at the sound of his voice. Curiously he sounds in high spirits. The bulldozers are no doubt winging their way to the wood for the planned start of hostilities. He’s probably phoned to gloat I think grimly.
“I just had to tell you.” He gushes. “The hospital have done their tests and my Father’s going to walk again. He has full feeling in both legs.”
I close my eyes and slump back. “Thank God.” I whisper.
“Will you come over to the wood with me? I’ll meet you at the old call box across the road from you in twenty minutes.”
I sigh, here he goes again, ordering me about. “And why would I agree to meet you at the call box at this time in the morning? You’ll no doubt be bombing down the motorway pretty soon to see your Father. So get some sleep or you’ll be the next one for a serious accident.”
He laughed lightly. No doubt one of those enviable types who exists on four hours sleep a night with little effect. An echoey silence fills the receiver. “I mean it Danny.” I add, sensing the grinning presence on the end of the line. “Three hundred miles in traffic. Just think of it. All those people cutting you up and giving you the finger while you swear at them and try to mow them all down in your big red tank as you try to overtake them. Oh such fun.”
He laughs heartily, forcing me to pull the receiver from my ear until the sound subsides. “And I really don’t want you to have an accident. Can you imagine what that might do to your Father?” The line goes quiet again for a moment. “But I want you to see the developments over at the woods.”
I bristle with anger. This guy’s about as sensitive as a plank of wood and I want to scream at him and only the thought of my Mother sleeping in the room next door stops me.
“What? You want me ..” I pause to get my voice down to a more acceptable volume. “You want me to come over to the woods to witness your little army of hard hats ripping the place to pieces. Are you out of your bloody mind? I never want to go up there again.”
“You’ll like it when you see how wonderful it will be. Please, just come over and take a look?”
I tremble with anger now. “Do your worst Danny.
I don’t want to see the new look or you ever again. Just leave me alone.” I slam the phone down, horrified to admit to myself that I’m close to tears. Why did the man feel the compunction to keep on spearing me? He’d won, I couldn’t deny it and we both know it. So why does he persist in revelling in the fact? I can’t believe I’ve been so wrong about him all along. I got up and looked back at the warm bed and strangely felt no desire to get back into it. Fully awake now, I head for the bathroom where I showered for longer than usual, the water running down my face a perfect cover for the lie to myself that I wouldn’t cry over the unfeeling monster.
The sound of a car horn honking in the road below my bedroom window ten minutes later has me seething at the insensitivity of some drivers and I throw open the window, intending to make some noise of my own but I stop open-mouthed. An odd mixture of sadness, anger and elation sweeps over me at the sight of Danny, yards below with the top half of his body sticking up through the open sunroof of his car. He’s wearing the silliest grin outside of a circus I’ve ever seen. “What do you think you’re doing?” I hiss. “If you wake my Mother, I’ll bloody well kill you and I mean it. Do you hear me?”
He doesn’t budge. “Come on down here.” He calls. “I want to speak to you.”
“No”
“Please.”
“Please.” I repeat, shocked. “Is that really Danny Marsden down there? Did you really say please or am I dreaming again?”
He looks around him as if it will never do to be heard saying such words in his line of business. “Are you coming down or do I have to start hammering on that door?”
I laugh and the strange sensation of looking down at him produces an exhilarating effect.
“Hammer all you like.” I say. “I won’t answer”
“Just come down here.” He says again. “I’m asking nicely.”
Then a wonderful thought oozes through my mind as I recalled the night I’d fallen into the pit up at the Manor. “Well you’re not asking nicely enough.”
He sighs loudly. “How do you want me to ask?”
I bite my lip, the pain of it enabling me to hang onto my serious expression for my next sentence. “How about ‘Please Cathy, come down here. I really am the most unbelievable, selfish, butt-head who ever lived.”
He glowers up at me and I watch him froth with rage as he clearly remembers our first evening together too. He pauses for what seems an age, before looking carefully all around the quiet road. He’s like a man about to embark on a first parachute jump and he isn’t smiling when he looks back up at me. “Please Cathy, Come down.” He begins. “I am the most unbelievable, selfish, butt head who ever lived.”
I clap madly, all thoughts of my snoring Mother forgotten. “There, wasn’t too difficult was it. Oh the truth is so uplifting isn’t it Danny?”
He quickly drops back down into the driver’s seat and slams the sunroof shut as if worried any casual onlookers might be wondering who this self confessed butt head could be and I wait for him to drive off in a huff. But the car stays put and I throw on the rest of my clothes. Within seconds the phone’s ringing again.
“Well, are you coming?” Demands the voice. “I did my part of the bargain.”
“Give me two minutes.” I whisper.
I guess he’ll make me pay for forcing him to make such a statement out loud. But the feeling of power it gives me is nothing short of wonderful and I don’t care what he does to me now. If only I’d been able to record it, I sigh.
He holds open the car door for me as I approach and he doesn’t speak until we’ve driven away.
“Am I really that bad?” He asks seriously.
I shake my head sadly, like a Doctor having to announce a terminal case. “Yes Danny. You are without doubt, that bad.”
“Why did you come down then? You know what today is don’t you?”
I stare at him, wondering if he really does have the gall to stand and make me watch the bulldozers at work. “Yes, I know what today is. I’m hardly likely to forget am I?”
“And you don’t mind?”
“Of course I mind.” I snap, barely able to control the anger that wells up in me. “But there is only so much I can do.”
”And you don’t hate me for what I’m doing?”
“No. I can’t hate you. I hate what you’re about. But you I can’t hate. Of course, if you really are taking me up there to watch bulldozers in action then I will hate you. Is that where we’re going, up to the site?”
“Yes.” He says.
I notice a large group of men clearing an area much closer to the ARC than had been originally planned and I hope they are just making a flat area for the diggers when they’re brought up from the road. Molly Preston’s out in the yard and so too is Sheglah and I cringe as they catch sight of me in his car. I shoot him a withering look as he parks up a few yards further on.
“Did you have to do that?”
“Do what?” He replies innocently. He’s wearing that infernal grin again.
“Let Molly and Sheglah see me sitting in your car?”
“So you lie to your friends too?” He says. “Well, that’s very idealistic I must say.”
I close my eyes. He always twists everything around to his own advantage. “I just didn’t think they should know that’s all. They’ll probably never speak to me again now, you know that don’t you?”
He shrugs, not giving a damn and I so want to punch him right in the middle of his self satisfied smirk. “I wouldn’t worry about them.” He says.
I glowered at him and the urge to kill him is now so strong I can feel the adrenalin necessary for committing such a violent act coursing through my veins.
“No, you wouldn’t would you?” I hiss.
He leans forward suddenly, his dark head moving towards mine. I bristle with rage as I pull back from, him. Surely he wasn’t seriously trying to kiss me again. Not now?
“Do you know, you’re incredibly beautiful when you’re angry?” He whispers softly.
Immediately I display the most hostile face in my repertoire. He really has gone too far this time and my days wasted playing his silly games are well and truly over. Reluctantly I throw open the car door, hardly daring to look over at the two women. Aware only of their accusing stares. Knowing how they must hate me for having consorted with the enemy and without saying a word to either of them.
To my amazement Molly Preston grins widely as I approach. The smile displays more gaps than teeth and without warning; she throws her arms around me. I feel the power in the big rugged body and fleetingly I wonder if Danny has simply brought me here with the sole intention of enjoying the sight of Molly crushing me to death for being a traitor to the cause.
“Well, you did it.” She growls. “I don’t know how the hell you managed it, but you did.”
I gently disengage myself as confusion spreads through me and I manage to step back but find myself caught up in another hug from Shelagh. She’s grinning as broadly as Molly.
“Cathy,” She whispers. “I don’t even want to think about what you had to do to get us out of this. But fair play to you, it’s a fair old miracle.” Her cryptic statement only succeeds in confusing me further.
“I don’t understand.” I gasp as Danny sidles up behind me. The idea of him being able to stand so close to Molly without getting himself murdered is pretty amazing too.
“They’re thinking of naming the new place after you.” He whispers close enough to my ear to make it tickle. “Personally I think it’s a great idea,”
My brain fumbled at last into first gear. “What new place.” I manage. “Will someone please tell me what the hell’s going on and what are that lot doing over there.” I nod over to the workmen hard at their toil just a few yards away from us.
“That’s where they’re going to build our new place.” Sheglah said. “A new ARC with all the mod cons. Imagine it?”
“Build a new.” I sp
in around. “Is this some kind of sick joke Danny? I don’t believe even you could be this cruel.”
”It isn’t a joke Cathy.” He says in a low serious voice, confirming that this is not some sad dream brought on by an over-anxious mind. “As I’ve already explained to your two comrades here, we’re going to put the new place right there and then were going to bulldoze this crappy heap and good riddance to it if you ask me.”
I did a disbelieving double take. “So where are you going to put the shopping mall?”
Danny laughs. “That’s been scrapped.”
“Scrapped.” Is all I can reply. “But why?”
“Because as much as it pains me to admit it. You were right. You were all right. The people round here really don’t want it. So what’s the point?”
Molly and Sheglah return to the animals still hugging and grinning at each other like two silly kids on the last day of term and for a moment my mind threshes about as I consider what to say first. “I thought you didn’t care what the people wanted?”
”Well I’ve changed my mind. I’m allowed to do that aren’t I?” he growled.
An odd twinge of guilt creeps through me and I beg myself not to ruin everything for so many people by telling Danny the truth. But then I stop. What is the truth? I hadn’t hoodwinked Danny into anything. Tony’s box of electronic tricks had been drowned in the lake along with our dishonest intentions and whatever had caused Danny to change his mind had little to do with me.
“Are you coming?”
“Coming where?” I reply.
“Back to the house.” He says. “You’ve got to have a drink just this once. I’ve got some marvellous champagne I’ve been keeping for a celebration and now we’ve both got good reason for a little indulgence.”
I giggle and the happiness I feel now is intoxicating enough without topping it up with alcohol.
“Champagne! It’s not even 8am yet.”
Soon we’re in his car and heading for Fulton Manor.
“But surely you’ve got nothing to celebrate Danny.” I say.
He becomes serious now. “Haven’t I?”
“But all your plans?”
“Well, all my plans are not completely awry. There’s another site..”
“Oh I see.” I begin.
“No you don’t see.” He says, cutting me off with a big raised finger. “It’s a big patch of waste ground over on the other side of town. Now that’s definitely an eyesore. We were thinking of giving it a look. That’s if you’ve no objections once you’ve inspected the area of course.”
“You mean the place where the old football stadium is?”
“That’s the one.” He replies.
“No, I’ve no objections. It’s all yours. But why did you decide to build a new ARC?”
“That’s a present for you.”
“Me.” I squirm in the seat, unable to take it all in fast enough. “What for?”
He looks unusually serious now and he doesn’t speak for a very long time. “For making me see things a little differently for one thing.” He says quietly. “When I left you last night I lay awake thinking.”
“About those fairies?”
“No,” he adds too sharply for my satisfaction. “More about my ways and how lucky I am to get my old man back again in one piece after so many years of grief. To be honest, I didn’t want to rock the boat and destroy the Dell. There can’t be anything in it of course..”
“No of course not.” I reply, cutting him off.
He grins sheepishly. “Well, you know what I mean.”
I nod, knowing well enough exactly what Danny’s trying to say.
We arrive at the house a few minutes later and head inside where he pulls out a bottle of champagne he’s had on ice in a bucket that looks as if it’s contained cement at some stage. I grinned into it. “How romantic.”
He looks embarrassed. “It was all I could lay my hands on at short notice.”
He passes me a glass and I fear spilling it onto the plush carpets, my hand is trembling so much, as I take an unladylike gulp. “So according to you.” I begin. “You came up here to mull things over and came to the conclusion that what you were doing was wrong and that you shouldn’t do it?”
For once, it’s Danny blushing and he’s no longer the terrifying ogre I’d first locked horns with back at the town hall.
“Yes.”
“And it had nothing to do with those strange apparitions at the dell?”
“No,” He says flatly, avoiding my gaze.
I smile at him. It’s so hard to believe he really is human after all. “So why present me with the ARC. It would have been more than enough for you to leave the wood in peace.”
“No, I don’t think so.” He says. “I had the strangest feeling that I had to do more than that. That I really did have to leave something there, just like you told me. So what better than something that’s going to do a lot of good around the whole area for years to come. A brand new rescue centre.”
I put the glass onto the table and throw my arms around his neck, kissing him gently on the mouth, pressing my slim body against him.
“I reckon you ought to drink alcohol more often,” he grins.
“Maybe I will.” I drawl. “But you didn’t tell me about that second wish either?” I giggle, enjoying the wonderful feeling of being so close to him. He kissed me then, hard on the lips. “It looks like I’ve got that one too.” He smiled.
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