Robin Jarvis-Jax 02 Freax And Rejex (46 page)

“This is for you,” the girl said, wiping her eyes. “I always promised I’d come find you if the book ever worked and give you money. Well, I ain’t got no dosh, but this is loads better.”

“A gift for me?”

“Yeah.”

The noise of the crowd was coming closer. They could hear shouts and cheers for the Jack of Clubs and praise for Ironheart, his magnificent steed. Lee was anxious to escape this place. He pulled the cowl over his head once more and waited impatiently.

“I do not know what I have done to warrant your charity,” the widow said, unbuckling the purse and looking inside. “What manner of curios are these?”

Charm managed a faint smile. “Rimmel and Max Factor, lippy and eyeshadow,” she said, “Olay and Garnier body and skincare – all the moisturiser I got. You said you missed Boots’ make-up counter most when you was here. Do your chapped hands the world of good them creams will.”

“Such treasures!” the washerwoman breathed. “They put even the Queen of Hearts’ own ointments to shame. How can I thank you?”

“If a girl can’t treat her muvver, what’s the point of anyfink?”

“We have
got
to go, now!” Lee stated.

Widow Tallowax held the purse close to her bosom and watched them hurry to the door. She didn’t understand what any of this had been about, but she knew the poor girl was in turmoil.

“Young maid!” she called suddenly. “If I was your mother, I should be so proud to call you daughter.”

Charm looked back at her one last time. “If you even remember this when you wake up next,” she said in cracking voice, “get rid of Uncle Frank. He’s… he’s not what you fink he is.”

The words meant nothing to the laundress. The two strangers departed. As she returned to the rocking chair to inspect the amazing gifts more closely, a sudden sense of loss overwhelmed her. The purse dropped from her fingers and she clutched at her chest. It was as if someone had torn the heart from her breast. That unhappy girl’s sorrowful face filled her thoughts and she ran back to the door.

The courtyard was empty, except for the gently swinging washing.

“Come back!” Widow Tallowax called, running forward and getting tangled in the drying linen. “Please, come back! Stay a moment more, child.”

Tears ran down her face. She staggered back to the washhouse, her mind racing and thundering, battling to get free. She had seen that maiden before, somewhere many miles from here – in a different existence…

“Cookie dough,” she murmured vaguely. “My flavour is cookie dough.”

As soon as she uttered those unusual words, she collapsed against the wall, like a knight struck down in the joust.

“Oh, God!” Mrs Benedict screamed, staring around wildly. She remembered. She knew who she was. She knew everything.

“Charm!” she cried frantically. “Charm! Where are you? Baby!”

She bolted forward, tearing the washing from the line as she yelled her daughter’s name.

“I’ll come get you! I promise!”

Then she shivered as tremendous forces seized her. The shape of Widow Tallowax blurred once more and Mrs Benedict’s face faded from Mooncaster forever. The woman who was the prime version of the laundress slipped back into that long skirt and apron and swayed unsteadily for a moment. Then she pulled herself together and stared at the wet clothes strewn on the ground about her.

“Who’s been flinging my good clean washing about?” she demanded crossly. “That Jockey – he’s naught but mischief!”

Charm and Lee opened their eyes. They were back on the bed, in the cabin. The girl gave him a feeble smile.

“Thank you,” she said.

He kissed her and they held one another until Spencer came upstairs, shyly, to warn them it was getting close to eight o’clock. Charm rose and returned to her cabin.

Lee rolled on to his back and stared at the ceiling. He didn’t know then, but tomorrow would be the darkest day of his life. He thought he had seen the worst pain and evil
Dancing Jax
could inflict, but he was wrong. That was yet to come and it would haunt him until he died.

T
HE FOLLOWING MORNING
Lee was up early. He didn’t want to miss a moment of Charm’s company. Pulling on his clothes, he hurried outside. The sky was sullen and grey, but he didn’t notice. He ran to Charm’s cabin and stuck his head round the door.

The girls were groggy. No one had got used to the intense sleep that the Bakelite device induced and most of them were still lying on the floor. They groaned at his cheerful face and one came running out, to make use of the bathroom in Esther’s cabin because theirs was still boarded-up.

Lee tilted his head to one side.

“Hey, where is she?” he asked.

They all knew who he meant and tittered among themselves.

“You want to hold her, you want to kiss her…” one of them sang.

“She might’ve gone the bog as well,” another suggested.

Lee chuckled and strolled about the lawn, waiting. He saw Maggie go running to the main block to get the breakfast started and, soon after, Esther followed her. Time ticked by. A nasal cackle sounded above. Yikker was on duty in the skelter tower. The Punchinello was staring down at him. Lee ignored him. The sight of that thing dressed as a priest made him feel sick.

Gradually the camp awakened. Children emerged, scratching their heads and yawning. Cold water coursed through the showers and the other girls from Charm’s cabin went to queue outside neighbouring bathrooms. But where was she?

After twenty minutes, Lee began to worry. He asked in every chalet, but no one had seen her and she wasn’t in any of the bathrooms. He went to the kitchen and asked Maggie. She was dying to know what had happened last night, but Garrugaska was there and she wouldn’t have
mentioned it in front of Esther anyway.

“She must be somewhere,” she said, frying the guards’ sausages.

“I’d try the bathrooms again,” Esther suggested with a sneer. “She’s always hogging ours.”

“No speak!” the Punchinello ordered. Jabbing a hostile finger at Lee, the guard told him to get out.

The boy left the main block, making sure Charm wasn’t in the lecture hall. A horrendous suspicion started to form and he ran back to her cabin. No, her two pink Louis Vuitton cases were still there. That calmed him a little, but where could she be?

When Jangler rang the bell for the prisoners to line up for the morning reading, Charm had still not appeared. Maggie and Esther hurried to join the ranks and, whilst Captain Swazzle did a headcount, Lee cast about for her.

Jangler consulted his clipboard.

“Firstly,” he began.

“Wait!” Lee spoke up. “We ain’t all here yet.”

Jangler looked at Swazzle.

“Ten and nine,” the Punchinello reported.

The old man ticked something on his list. “Jolly good, all present and correct.”

“Hey!” Lee shouted. “What’s goin’ on? Where is she?”

The other children shuffled miserably. The girls from her cabin were now desperately unhappy.

“If you’re referring to Charm Benedict,” Jangler said, with a dismissive sniff, “she’s gone. And if you address me in that insolent tone again, I will have you whipped.”

Lee choked back a cry. “What? Where’s she gone? What you done with her?”

“She was transported a couple of hours ago. This camp is for aberrants under the age of sixteen. She couldn’t stay. I made that perfectly clear when you first arrived. I fail to see what you’re puling about.”

“But her birthday’s not till the seventh!” Maggie objected.

“I thought it far better to send her away early. Much kinder, in my opinion. There’s a lot less mucus and snivelling hysterics when it’s done suddenly and quietly – nice and efficient.”

“You what?” Lee yelled. “You’re dead! You hear! You’re dead!”

Blinded with anger, the boy lunged forward. He wanted to wring that old creep’s neck and beat the ghost out of him.

At once Bezuel slammed Lee to the ground and trod on his face. Lee grabbed hold of his foot and twisted it violently. The guard squawked and was thrown sideways in a flurry of chinchilla. Lee was about to spring up and fly at Jangler when Garrugaska pressed the revolver to his head.

“The hell you will,” he growled.

“Don’t move!” Spencer urged Lee.

Lee slumped back on the ground and let out a rasping cry of despair. The Punchinellos thought the sound was hilarious and instantly copied it. Bezuel scrambled to his feet and brushed dust from the fur coat. Then he gave the boy a savage kick in the ribs. The other children winced and looked away.

Maggie raised a shaking hand. “Please,” she asked Jangler. “Is the adult camp nearby? Could we write to her?”

“The girl’s a fool,” he muttered to himself. “Don’t be stupid. She’s gone and that’s an end to it. You’ve had two whole months to say whatever you wanted. If you didn’t say it then it’s your own silly fault. Now before the first chapter of the day, here’s an interesting tidbit of news. The Jill of Spades’ trial is to commence this morning. Will that dark-hearted girl be acquitted of causing the Felixstowe Disaster or will she be found guilty? Europe is agog; crowds are already massing outside the Old Bailey. And some glorious tidings – the Lord Ismus’s High Priestess the Lady Labella…”

As he droned on, Christina tugged at Jody’s sleeve.

“Barbie’s gone away,” she whispered. “She’s not coming back. You can be happy now and get better.”

Jody turned an unfocused gaze upon her.
“You ought to see Sally on
Sunday,”
she sang softly.
“Dressed up in her dainty Sunday clothes. With her hat on one side, she’s a picture of charm… of charm… of charm…”

Christina looked at Alasdair. The boy shook his head. There was no getting through to her.

Lee felt annihilated. He couldn’t believe Charm had been taken from him like this. Maggie knew how he felt.

“Least she’s alive,” she told him later, during breakfast.

“Why’s her luggage still here?” he asked.

“You heard what he said. It was all done so quick. They’ll probably send it on.”

“I woulda killed that guy if I’d got my hands on him,” he said. “Really wanted to.”

“You think I haven’t?”

Lee didn’t remember the march to the minchet thickets that morning. He barely even felt the lash when it swiped across his back as Captain Swazzle chivvied him along.

Brooding, he harvested the squelching fruit, hardly realising what he was doing. He told himself he should have stayed away from Charm. He shouldn’t have let her get close to him. He almost wished he could go round the bend like Jody. Least it wouldn’t hurt so much. He wondered if Charm was thinking about him, wherever she was.

Spencer was in the same work party and kept a concerned eye on him. A little after midday, a car pulled up. The children had grown to dread this. Which of them would the driver select to abuse this time?

They didn’t dare turn round. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves. They heard the car door slam and a strident female voice called the guards over.

“I’ll give you a bottle of whisky and two packets of unfiltered Turkish cigarettes if I can go tell that piece of filth over there what I think of him and slap his face – the dirty, reject scum!”

Captain Swazzle agreed eagerly.

The woman’s heels came crunching over the forest road. Spencer held his breath. He was a preferred target for these enraged tourists. Swallowing nervously, he continued putting the minchet into his basket and kept his eyes lowered. The footsteps drew closer. Yep, here she was…

“You disgust me!” she shrieked. “Turn around, and look me in the eye, you despicable freak!”

Spencer blinked in surprise. She wasn’t addressing him. Slowly he looked to the left and saw a middle-aged woman thumping a handbag into Lee’s shoulders. Spencer bit the inside of his cheek. She really shouldn’t do that. The state Lee was in, he was set to explode.

“Face me – you scumbag, you steaming pile of dog dirt!”

She smacked the back of his head. That did it. Lee whirled around, ready to smash her nose into jam with his fist. Then he spluttered and stopped himself, just in time. The woman gave him a crafty wink.

“You wouldn’t dare, you coward!” she taunted, for the benefit of the guards. “You aberrants make me puke!”

Lee couldn’t believe it. The woman was smartly dressed in a cream skirt and jacket. But the last time he had seen her face it was wearing a linen cap and was flushed from the steaming coppers of the washhouse. It was Charm’s mother.

“What the…?”

Mrs Benedict glanced quickly at the Punchinellos. They had waddled over to the truck where they were dividing the cigarettes between them and squabbling over the whisky.

“I don’t have long,” she whispered quickly. “I’ve driven through the night to get here. Soon as you left me yesterday, I remembered. I remembered everything and found myself back at home. By heck, I’ve been busy since then!”

Lee stared at her in wonder.

“How dare you look at me, you insolent cur!” she snapped, slapping his face.

“I’m so sorry,” she hissed. “They were watching. You have to look at the floor.”

“Ow,” he muttered. “You got some right hook on you. But listen, about your…”

“I know,” she said bitterly. “I found the other work party first. One of the girls there told me they sent my baby away this morning.”

She threw a wary glance back at the truck. Captain Swazzle had pulled rank and taken sole possession of the bottle. Garrugaska was smoking two cigarettes at once and ambling back this way.

“I should’ve brought more drink,” she scolded herself. “I had to give some to the other guards just now. I don’t know who you are, but I could see my Charm trusted and liked you – a lot. That’s more than good enough for me. I believe there’s something incredible about you, some power to enter that awful world whenever you want, without it taking you over.”

Lee nodded cautiously.

“Then use that power properly!” she implored him. “You’re the only person I’ve heard of who can do that. You’re unique. It’s a fabulous gift – a miracle. You’ve been given it for a reason. Use it! Help me find my baby and I’ll get you out of that camp.”

“How you gonna do that?”

“Trust me,” she insisted. “I can.”

“You’re talkin’ large an’ empty, lady. Those guards got guns an’ my Kevlar vest is in the wash.”

“Guns? Is that all? You’ve no idea what it’s like out there in the rest of this country now. You wouldn’t recognise it. Things, monsters – miles worse than these ugly midgets – are everywhere. God knows where they came from. It’s a vision of Hell out there. What do you think all this muck you pick every day is for? What do you think eats it?”

“You!” Garrugaska’s harsh voice interrupted as he came stomping up. “More Red Eye – give!”

Mrs Benedict assumed a haughty manner.

“You’ve had all I’ve got,” she said. “There is no more.”

“Me want Tarantula Juice!” the guard ranted, stamping his boot, making the spur jingle and spin. “Me want Coffin Varnish!”

“Then go make your colleague share that bottle,” she instructed. “It isn’t fair he should hog it.”

Garrugaska blew a smoke ring from both corners of his wide mouth and studied her dubiously. Something about her wasn’t right. Her eyes weren’t as dark and glassy as they should be.

“You go now,” he drawled. “You move. Go in car.”

“I haven’t finished!” she cried indignantly.

“You too quiet with abrant. What you mutter mutter? Garrugaska say you go. Ride off, Greenhorn.”

“I was reciting the sacred text to him, you fool!” she retorted. “I want my money’s worth. I haven’t even kicked him in his privates yet! I’m not budging till I do that – the evil, ungrateful beast!”

The Punchinello snickered. “You do it. You kick hard. Me watch.”

Mrs Benedict turned back to Lee, a deeply apologetic look on her face. She couldn’t back down now. The boy took a step away.

“No chance!” he said.

Garrugaska pulled the gun from its holster. “You move, you dead,” he warned Lee.

Charm’s mother prepared to kick him. At that moment, Captain Swazzle called Garrugaska’s name. The imp turned and Mrs Benedict’s kick went wide. Lee thanked whatever angel was watching over him then started a performance. He uttered an agonised groan and fell to the ground, clutching his crotch.

Captain Swazzle was beckoning Garrugaska back to the truck. The silver-nosed guard enjoyed the sight of Lee rolling on the floor for a few moments then went to see what the Captain wanted.

“Tonight,” Mrs Benedict whispered as soon as she dared. “At eleven o’clock, there’ll be a lorry waiting at the junction of the road that leads to your camp. It’ll take you, and whoever you want to bring, to a safe place.”

“No way I can bust outta there!”

“You’ve got to! There’s someone on the outside desperate to meet you. I’ve arranged everything. But first you’ve got to find out where my daughter’s been sent.”

“She’s gone to the adult camp. Can’t you Google it?”

The woman looked across at the guards. Captain Swazzle was holding one of the confiscated mobiles and trying to operate it with those fat fingers. A picture message had beeped in and wouldn’t open. Garrugaska poked at the phone and they started arguing again.

“There is no adult camp,” she told the boy. “At the end of May, the last few adults in this country who were immune to that book were rounded up and shot. So you see, I really need to know what has happened to my baby.”

Lee sat up. “Sure,” he promised. “But I don’t see how I can get past those guards and their guns and jump a barbed-wire fence.”

“You must be a very nice lad,” she remarked dryly. “Because my baby obviously doesn’t like you for your brains.”

She opened her handbag and threw something heavy to the ground.

“For the fence,” she said.

Lee had just enough time to realise they were a pair of wire-cutters before he stuffed them into his pocket. This woman was as surprising as her daughter.

“Say, does Charm like Brazil nuts?” he asked suddenly.

“What?”

“Don’t matter.”

“Just you think on. Like I said, you’ve been blessed with this wonderful gift for a purpose. Don’t waste it. Go to that evil place and bring back something that will help you – and maybe all of us.”