Entwined (12 page)

“I understand the pressure we are under, but I think you three should try and get some rest. The lot of you look dreadful.”

“Perhaps the girl is right,” Harry said, stumbling out of a chair and catching himself on a round table.

“Go on, Harry, get some sleep,” I said, reaching for a slip of paper off the bar. “You’ve not got much in the kitchen. I thought I might pop out and get some food whilst you three are asleep.”

“No!” Simon shouted. “You’re not leaving this inn. None of us are. You take one step out there and you risk
all
our lives, not just yours and the baby’s. Do you hear me, Corran?” he boomed.

I nodded, shaken by his furor. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think, only we aren’t going to last long in here with the little food we have.”

“I’ve thought about it already, Corran. We can get what we need delivered. You make a list of what you want and I’ll see to it,” Harry said.

“After she has had some rest,” said my husband.

“But I’ve not long since got up.”

“It matters none when you rose, lass. You look as weary as I feel. Now come to bed with me and be done with the arguing.”

I was becoming impatient with the bump that seemed to have grown rounder and heavier every minute of the day, and didn’t bother arguing with my husband.

Duncan took no telling, and was upstairs and in his room, before I had extracted myself from the spindle chair. Harry, however, swayed across the room and threw a few lumps of wood on the dying fire.

“Get the lights when you come up, will you?” he said, staggering towards the stairs.

The room fell quiet as we flicked the switch and the lights died. Only the gentle glow of the fire lit our way from the room.

“Are you scared?” I asked, turning to face my husband outside our room.

“Aye, lass, this time I am scared,” he said, opening the door to our room.

“Simon, how much did you know before last night?”

He lay staring up at the ceiling. I shifted uncomfortably next to him as the baby rammed its bottom into my stomach.

“Enough to know we were in trouble,” he replied seriously.

“Did you know about the baby, being -”

“Aye,” he said, cutting me off mid sentence.

“Oh,” I said, pausing to push a pillow between my knees. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t want to frighten you.”

“Is there anything else you aren’t telling me?”

“Not intentionally, no.”

“Are we going to get through this?” I asked quietly.

“Aye, lass, of course we are,” he said, turning to kiss me lightly on the cheek. “We’ve come this far, survived the unimaginable, and we’ll thrive through the impossible.”

******

CHAPTER 11

‘Ye Olde Starre Inne’, York - 17th December, Modern Day

It was early, well before sunrise, when we stirred. Even the baby’s twists and turns hadn’t woken me that night. I reached out my hand and laid it gently on my husband’s arm. He opened one eye and the sides of his mouth quirked in a lazy smile.

“Good morning, lass.”

“Good morning, darling,” I said, wincing as my lower back cramped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just the baby moving. Do you think Harry will mind if I use his shower?” I asked, fighting the urge to massage my back.

“I shouldn’t think he’d mind. You go on, I’ll see you downstairs,” Simon said, sliding his trousers on.

Alone in the room I moved slowly toward the window and pulled the curtain open a crack. The sky was dark but I could still see large flakes of snow in the orange glow of street lamps. A shudder rippled down my spine as the icy hand of silence reached up from the courtyard. Not a single customer had come knocking at the pub the past few days. I wondered if the rest of the city was as quiet as I let the curtain drop and turned to collect my clothes. The warmth of the shower soothed and eased the cramping in my lower back. The baby felt different. Something had changed, but I wasn’t sure what. Breathing deeply I reached for a bottle of shampoo. It struck me then that I had just filled my lungs for the first time in weeks. I glanced down at my bulging abdomen and realized that the baby had dropped. It was early. It shouldn’t have dropped yet, especially as this was my first child. I had seen other women, women from my village who were on their fourth and even fifth pregnancies who dropped at thirty six weeks but never so early on a first. I leaned forward and groaned as a knot tightened in my belly. It lasted only a few seconds and then slowly the muscles relaxed. I considered for a moment that my dates were wrong but then dismissed the idea. The doctors with their fancy equipment and machines had taken pictures of the baby and measured its growth. Their predicted delivery date matched my own. We couldn’t both be wrong. I recognized the tightening of my womb. It was a normal enough occurrence. The women from my village had called it ‘practice labor’. I felt a tiny stab of fear as another tightening crept slowly across my belly. Taking a long steady breath I closed my eyes and filled my mind with thoughts of home. Slowly, with the mountains and the faces of friends and family firmly in sight, my body relaxed, and with it the cramp in my womb. I felt desperately alone. I wanted my friend, Nansaidh. I wanted her to hold me and tell me that my baby was going to be alright. I wanted her to tell me that the bleeding was alright. That it would stop, and the baby would be just fine. But she wasn’t coming, not today and not tomorrow. I was facing this alone, and as I opened the door to the shower and stepped onto the cold tiled floor of Harry’s bathroom, I realized just how much that terrified me.

Following the sound of my friends’ voices I made my way steadily down the stairs and into the main room.

My husband turned as I entered the room. “Hello, lass. How was your shower?”

“It was good, thank you,” I lied, returning his smile. “Where’s Harry?” I asked, scanning the faces in the room.

“He’s gone out back to get some more fuel,” said Rose, warming her hands in front of the fire.

“Are you alright, Rose?”

Her mouth lifted in a forced smile which didn’t reach her eyes.

“I’m fine, Corran. What about you?”

I laughed gently, “As good as you, I expect. Now who’s been frying bacon? It smells amazing.”

“Kate. She found some in the freezer.”

“Clever girl,” I said, smiling at Kate. “Was there much in there?”

“Nah, not really. A couple of loaves of bread and some sausages. Harry got a call this morning from one of his suppliers. They were meant to deliver today but their driver can’t get to work,” replied Kate.

“Any idea what the city is like?” I asked.

“I just checked the local news on my phone and the city seems clear,” replied Rose. “I’m guessing it’s the rural routes that have been hardest hit.”

“We are going to need to get some supplies in from somewhere,” I said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, we are, but Simon and Harry are refusing to let any of us leave the pub,” said Kate.

“Simon?” I said, turning to my husband who lifted his eyes but not his head from Harry’s laptop, “Kate isn’t in danger out there, is she? Couldn’t she go?” I asked.

“Aye, she could, but we’d have to make very sure she isn’t seen leaving or entering the pub. We don’t know if the place is being watched.”

“She won’t be seen,” said Harry, lugging two large buckets of wood across the room.

“Oh aye?” said Simon, giving Harry his full attention.

It annoyed me slightly that he managed to distract himself from the laptop for Harry, yet when I spoke, I got little more than a cursory glance.

“Off the cellar is a tunnel. Jessie and I used to use it to meet in secret.”

“Where does it come out?” Simon asked.

“Next door to the antique shop.”

“Angus’ Antique shop?” I exclaimed.

“Yes,” Harry replied simply.

It took me a moment to register what he had said.

“Why? How could she have known.” I asked.

“They knew a lot about what was to come. You see, every time the crystal is used it leaves a mark. Just like when you tread in the mud and leave behind the print of your shoe, so the crystal leaves it mark in time,” Harry said, putting a log into the fire. “The thing is, only a few have the skill to read the marks, and even those that do aren’t always as accurate as they would like to be. It’s not just the crystal that leaves a mark. People too leave a trace, a stamp in time of their life; their joys, their sorrows, their deeds… but that isn’t important now. Jessie and her mother bought the property next door to the antiques shop before you were born, Rose. It’s much the same as Angus’ shop in its layout. I believe it was last owned by a watchmaker,” he paused, and stared at the kitchen, a slight wrinkle creasing his forehead. “The strange thing was we found something in the tunnel.”

“Oh aye?” Simon said, raising his eyes in interest.

“Yes, we found four portraits.”

“Some sort of robbery gone wrong, perhaps?” I suggested.

“Perhaps,” he replied thoughtfully.

“Tell me about the portraits?” Simon said firmly.

“One of them was a portrait of you,” Harry said, nodding at Simon, Duncan and I.

“And the other three?” Simon asked.

“Well, two of them were of Grace and Robert, and the other was just of Robert.”

“Robert?” I asked.

“The man Grace marries in the past. My many times great uncle.”

“So you have no idea how these portraits came to be in the tunnel?” Simon asked with a clear hint of suspicion in his voice.

“No, fella, no idea at all. Jessie had no idea either.”

“What happened to these portraits, then?

“I… errr… I showed two of them to Grace before she left. I used them to help her understand what was going to happen to her. I didn’t tell her where I had found them of course. I think I just said I’d found them in the attic. The odd thing was, she had actually written notes to herself on the back of them.”

“And the rest of the portraits?”

“I gave one to my cousin, George. He owns the Bed and Breakfast by the minster, ‘Cavalier’. You might have come across it?”

Simon shook his head, “No, can’t say as I have.”

“Giorsal recognized you three immediately and took the portrait home with her. They had it up in the house for as long as I can remember.”

“What happened to the tunnel?” Rose asked.

“Jessie and I used it to move between the shop and the pub. That way we were sure never to be seen together. Then, after you were born, your mother came to work for me as a cook. The job provided the perfect cover, but as time went on and the Dark Circle grew more powerful and dangerous, we were driven back underground. We couldn’t risk anyone linking us, so Jessie stopped working here and we met only in the tunnel. We installed two bells: One at the shop and one at the pub. If anyone entered either end, a bell would ring at the other end of the tunnel. When she left she gave me the keys to the shop, but I haven’t been across since.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Soon after she left, Angus bought the shop next door.”

“Harry, if you knew what was to come, why did you let Rose go out with Angus?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I had no choice but to let it happen.”

“So this tunnel is still open?” Simon asked.

“As far as I know it is, yes.”

“Draw up a list of what we need,” Simon said, slapping a pad of paper and a pen on one of the round topped tables. “Kate, are you agreeable to going into the city?”

“Yes, of course, I don’t mind.”

“Good. Harry and I will take you through the tunnel and wait for you in the shop. Duncan, you are to stay here and mind Rose and your mother.”

“Right you are, Pa,” Duncan nodded.

“How long should we cater for?” I asked, tearing a sheet of lined paper from the pad. It still amazed me how easily available and thin the parchment of this place was.

“Cater for two days,” Simon replied.

I slumped against the spindle back of the chair, and drew an absent minded swirl in the corner of the page. I jumped as Rose and Kate pulled up low padded stools and settled in next to me.

“So what we got then, Corran?” Kate asked.

I looked up and smiled at the fiery-red headed girl. She was just a child, a normal nice, friendly child who should have been out buying gifts and decorating her house with tinsel and glitter for Christmas. She didn’t belong here, with us, in the middle of all this.

“Kate, you are free to leave whenever you want. You know that, don’t you?” I paused, searching her face. I could see the fear in her eyes and understood the tremble of her hands. “This is a dangerous fight, sweet. Go home now and forget we ever existed.”

“I’ve never run from a fight in my life. I don’t intend to start now. I’m with you lot, all the way.”

It wasn’t difficult to see what Rose liked about this girl. She had gumption, guts and most of all she was strong. Not just physically but mentally. The girl had what it took to do great things and perhaps this was her destiny.

“Just know that we don’t expect it, Kate.”

“I know,” she said, her voice strong and sincere. “No one’s
asked
me to stay. I’m staying because I care and want to help. Besides, I kinda feel like it’s my duty to help Grace.”

The mention of the woman’s name cut me dead and I flinched unwittingly.

“You OK, Corran?” Rose asked.

“I’m fine. Just a twinge,” I lied. “Shall we do this list, then?”

“I was thinking about the best way to do this,” said Rose, tapping her fingers gently on the table. “Kate’s not going to be able to carry enough food for five of us. I could go with her.”

“No,” Harry interrupted. “You aren’t leaving this pub, Rose. It’s too dangerous. You are resourceful girls. I’m sure you’ll work something out.”

Rose scowled up at him and I couldn’t help but notice the dark look of betrayal that flashed across her eyes.

“Suddenly I have a father,” she muttered under her breath.

“He’s just looking out for you, love,” I said.

“If you say so.”

“Resourceful and creative. That’s what we need to be,” I said, changing the subject, “We need three meals for two days, for five people.”

Kate rubbed her forehead as if to shift a headache. “I’ve never been very good at maths, but that sounds like an awful lot to carry.”

“Let’s start with breakfast,” I suggested. “What about oats? A box large enough to do ten servings.”

Rose laughed and I frowned over at her. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh man, this is going to be good,” she said. “Harry hates oats. Mum used to make it when she cooked here.”