Shattered Dreams (26 page)

Harry
lifted the window, and was relieved that the rumbling noise it made
was barely audible. He hefted Joseph in first and then quickly slid
into the room himself before he quietly closed it behind
him.

They
took a moment to study what appeared to be a sitting room within
the huge mansion. In its heyday it would have been opulent. Now
though, it was quite clear that nobody had cleaned it for some
time. A thick layer of dust lay over all of the surfaces, including
the floor, and hung in the very air they breathed. It had an air of
neglect about it that assured them both that they were in a room
that was barely used.

Joseph
motioned to the door across the room, and they each skirted around
the assorted old furniture as they made their way toward it. At the
rear of the house they could hear the low murmur of voices, and
stopped in the doorway to listen.

“
It’s got to be soon, I tell you. We are going to miss the
drop-off if we wait around here much longer. We have been here too
long already,” Charles Dandridge growled.

“
I told you from the very beginning that bringing that girl
here was a mistake. I told her too, but she didn’t listen to me
either. If we had just left her with him, or made sure she got out
of town, then none of this would have happened.”

“
You stupid woman, we need her here. Mavis has chosen her,”
Charles snapped in disgust.

“
It’s planned for next week. If we move them now then we will
have to keep them for several days, and I am no babysitter,”
Roberta Dandridge replied with a derisive snort.

“
You will damned well do as you are told, and shut up about
it,” Charles Dandridge sneered unpleasantly.

“
Don’t you speak to me like that,” Robert replied
loudly.

“
Oh, shut up woman. I will speak to you any way I damned well
please.”

“
One of these days I am going to give you exactly what you
deserve. I have seen you with that floozy; visiting her as often as
you please and thinking that I don’t know about it. Everyone sees
you in there all the time,” Roberta raged. “Now you are turning
your attentions to her. You really think that someone like her
would look twice at a man like you.”

“
Shut up, I tell you. I will have whoever I want, whenever I
want, and there is damned all you can do about it.”

The loud
scrape of a chair being shoved across the floor broke the brief
moment of silence before the argument resumed.

“
You push me, and you will regret it,” Roberta challenged in a
voice that was cold and hard.

“
Do your worst you damned witch, or pipe down. I will have
her, or my name is not Charles Dandridge.”

Harry
shared a look with Joseph. To his consternation, the crunch of
gravel out front heralded the arrival of someone new. With nowhere
else to hide, they remained frozen in place while they waited to
see who it was.

“
Are you two arguing again?” A woman demanded as she slammed
into the house. “Good Lord, I have no idea why you two stay
together. If you hate each other so much, go and find someone else,
both of you.”

Harry
peered through the narrow gap between the door and the door jamb,
and studied the new arrival. He knew with just one glance that it
was the woman who had recommended the non-existent job to Tilly.
Although the hair was red as opposed to dark brown, the stocky
build, and the age, matched Tilly’s description. Undoubtedly, the
new arrival was the woman who had introduced herself to Tilly as
Mrs Bolsworthy.

“
They are bickering again about when we should move,”
Cruickshank growled.

“
We move when I am ready, and not before,” the woman declared
firmly. Her announcement was followed by a rapid clip of heels that
disappeared into the room opposite. To Harry’s disgust, everyone
followed her into what appeared to be the study and, for a moment,
he lost the gist of their conversation.

He had
no choice if he wanted to hear what they were discussing now, so
crept slowly out into the hallway and stood directly outside the
door. He knew that if anyone came out of the room they would
practically run into him, but there was little he could do.
Overhearing their conversation was of paramount importance right
now, because he rather suspected that the group were, somewhat
unwittingly, on the cusp of answering several of his
questions.

“
Look, I can’t get in now. We know they are still there but I
just can’t get to them. I know that place like the back of my hand,
and I am telling you that nobody can get inside without being
caught. The damned magistrate has that building locked up tighter
than the Vicar’s purse strings,” Cruickshank snapped. “The place is
run by jailers from Battlington now, and I don’t know any of them.
None of us do.”

Silence
settled within the room. Harry looked at Joseph, who shrugged. He
tried to peer round the door, but winced when the floor board
beneath his boot flexed a little beneath his weight. Although it
didn’t squeak, it was too dangerous to risk making a noise, and
alerting anyone to their presence. Together, they slowly crept
backward, into the room directly opposite. Although the
conversation in the study was now muted, it was thankfully, still
audible.

“
Right, so let’s forget them,” the woman announced in a tone
that warned everyone her decision was final. “We still have the
other three.”

The
small hairs on the back of Harry’s neck stood on end, and he shared
a look with Joseph. They both knew that ‘other three’ the woman
referred to; Tilly, Zack and Suzanna.

To
Harry’s disgust, the woman didn’t mention what she wanted the
‘other three’ for.

“
You want us to get them?” Charles Dandridge asked
dully.

“
Of course I bloody well want you to get them. They are no
good to us where they are,” the woman snapped.

“
That man is strange,” Mrs Dandridge grumbled.

Harry
lifted his brows and wondered if she was talking about
him.

“
You are strange,” Bolsworthy replied tartly. “Now, if you
think you can get them without bundling this job too then please do
so.”

Harry
wished he knew what the hell her real name was because he was
fairly certain that it wasn’t Bolsworthy. He was also confident,
given her decidedly West Country accent, that she was not
aristocracy either. What connection she had to Lady Attingham, or
how she happened to come into contact with the three people she had
‘selected’, heaven only knew.

He
cursed silently when silence fell over the room again. Were they
planning when to strike? Frustrated that he now couldn’t hear what
was being said, Harry was on the verge of creeping back out into
the hallway to get closer, when Joseph suddenly leaned forward
until his lips almost touched Harry’s ear.

“
We need to go upstairs and take a look around while they are
busy,” he breathed.

“
I want to check the servant’s quarters to see if the
Dandridges’ are actually living here,” Harry replied with a sigh.
“We need to hear what they are planning though.”

They
crept closer to the study door again. The conversation within the
room suddenly resumed, and became heated when Dandridge began to
demand payment for something. Cruickshank entered the argument, as
did Roberta Dandridge and, together, they created a din within the
room that was a heady cacophony from which nothing of any use could
be heard.

While
everybody was bickering, Harry and Joseph hurried off to gather as
much information as they could. Unfortunately, they were both busy
searching their allotted rooms, and didn’t see Dandridge and
Cruickshank slip quietly out of the front door, and disappear down
the driveway.

Barnaby
stood in the shadows and yawned widely as boredom began to take
hold. He looked at his fob again, and watched a middle-aged woman,
who matched the description Tilly had given them of Mrs Bolsworthy,
walk through the front door but, other than that, this had to be
the most boring watch he had ever undertaken.

Suddenly, the front door opened, and Dandridge and
Cruickshank left the house. Barnaby watched them walk down the
driveway, and disappear toward town.

He
glanced at the house for a moment and contemplated what to do. He
didn’t want to leave his colleagues unsupported, just in case there
was a problem. However, he suspected that the ex-butler, and the
ex-warden, were up to something, and knew that if the Star Elite
lost them now, anything could happen.

He threw
the house one last measured look, and made his way through the
trees after them.

Tilly
sighed and pegged the shirt onto the line high above her. She had
to reach up on tip-toe and really stretch, and suddenly wished that
Harry was around to help.

Unfortunately, he had gone out just before dawn and she had
no idea when he would be back. It felt strangely domesticated to
think about him coming ‘home’, and it made her happy just to think
about it.

She
sighed as she thought of him, and couldn’t prevent the small smile
that softened her features as the memory of last week came flooding
back. It had been simply wonderful, and completely different to her
first week in Tooting Mallow.

To think
that she was now embroiled in a government investigation was a
little unnerving but, at no point during her time at the Rectory
had she ever felt threatened, or in danger. Quite the opposite was
true in fact. She now had food whenever she wanted it, within a
house that was amiable and welcoming, and there was always someone
nearby to help if there was a problem.

Her
musings were interrupted by the sound of Zack, who was inside
rolling marbles along the kitchen floor. He really was such a sweet
boy, and so willing to help out around the house that he had
endeared himself to all of them. Even Harry and his friends had put
themselves out to make him feel a part of their ‘group’, and took
turns teasing him mercilessly whenever they were on
watch.

The
young boy took it all in his stride and had blossomed at the
attention. It wasn’t just the darkness that had faded from his
young eyes; but the way he had filled out and lost his near
skeletal look, assured everyone that he would suffer little
long-term effects from his time in the poor house.

Tilly
was pleased for him, and turned her attention back to the washing
with a soft sigh. She reached down into the basket to pick up
another shirt only to stare in confusion at the now empty space.
Her mouth opened when she noticed that it was now further down the
line, beneath washing she had already pegged out. She stared at it
for several long minutes before she headed toward it.

Was
Harry playing a trick on her? She shook her head and reached down
to pick up a shirt.

“
There is someone at the door,” Zack called.

She
turned and peered through the kitchen door, and watched Marcus
disappear into the hallway. Satisfied that she was alright to keep
pegging the washing out, she turned back to reach for her tin of
pegs only to gasp in horror when she looked straight into the cold
eyes of Charles Dandridge mere inches away.

“
Wha-”

Her
scream was immediately smothered by the large hand he smacked
ruthlessly over her mouth. Before she could blink, she was swept
off her feet, and half-carried, half-dragged across the garden,
toward the trees at the edge of the property. She stared in horror
at the thick trunks of the huge oak trees that stood like waiting
arms, held out in readiness to swallow her up. The sight was
sinister enough for panic to take hold, and she began to struggle
in a desperate attempt not to let him take her in there.

She
kicked out. She kicked backwards. She dug her boots into the soft
ground at the same time that she clawed desperately at the hard
palm across her mouth. When it didn’t move, she opened her mouth
enough so that she could sink her teeth into the soft flesh of her
captor’s palm, and sucked in a deep lungful of air when he
immediately cursed and removed his hand so he could look down at
his bruised flesh.

“
You damned bitch,” he snarled.

Tilly
wasn’t listening. She sucked in a huge breath and screamed as
loudly as she could. Her desperate gaze was locked on the sanctuary
of the house behind her, and thankfully saw Suzanna appear briefly
in the kitchen doorway with a look of horror on her
face.

To
Tilly, it felt as if she was looking at everything in a dream. She
watched a second man, Cruickshank; appear at the side of the house.
He ran around the building so quickly that Suzanna never knew what
hit her. Tilly wanted to cry out to warn her friend, but the cruel
hand Dandridge had repositioned over mouth prevented everything but
a muffled murmur.

Determined that Dandridge wasn’t going to get his own way,
Tilly stomped down hard on his foot and was immediately rewarded by
his yowl of pain. She yanked her head to one side and drew in a
deep breath.

“
Get off me you bastard,” Tilly snarled, and turned her
attention to trying to get him to release his hold around her
waist.