Storm Child (12 page)

Polly knew she had been missing too long. The chances of
Ernesto still being asleep when she got back were slim to none.  Whatever
punishment he wanted to give, she would have to quietly bear it if she was
going to get Annie free.  But first she had to concoct a story convincing
enough to prevent him questioning where she had been. He probably didn’t know
that Isaac was dying, but if he got wind of the fact, and that Polly was trying
to save him, there was no doubt that he would do everything in his power to
prevent that from happening.  Ernesto had no personal grudge against
Isaac, despite what he had said, he was simply so bitter about his own failures
in life that he enjoyed preventing other people from being successful in their
endeavours.  Polly knew him well enough – he was as close to a father as
she could remember having – but that didn’t mean she had to like what he was.

Letting herself in at the kitchen
door, Polly sneaked towards the staircase.  Ernesto’s study door was ajar
and a lamp still burned, but all was quiet. She wondered whether to look in,
but dared not risk it, so she waited a little longer.  If he had been
awake, she would have heard the sound of his quill scribbling, or his glass
tumbler clinking on its matching silver tray as he drank, but she heard
nothing. Perhaps he was still asleep after all. She had thought that she might
have
spend
precious moments explaining where she had
been, all the while Isaac’s life slowly leaving him, but perhaps, for the first
time, fate was smiling on her. Turning on her heel, she went out the way she
had come and headed for the cellar.

‘Annie,’ she whispered loudly as
she tapped on the door. ‘Are you awake?’

‘Yes, I’m awake.’ The tiny voice
came from the other side of the wood.  

‘I’m
goin
’
to let you out, but I don’t want you
makin
’ a fuss.
Got that?’

‘I only want Georgina and I’ll
go, quiet as you like. You’ll never see us again.’

Polly bit her lip. ‘I can’t let
you do that… not yet.’

‘I have to. Ernesto will have her
killed.’

‘He’d never do that. Ern might be
many things, but he
ain’t
a child killer.’

‘He won’t do the killing, but he
might as well if he hands her over to the Brethren.’

Polly’s eyebrows knit together.
‘You know about that?’

‘I heard him one night, talking
to someone. That’s why I hid her. And then you –’

‘Alright, alright, I was wrong,’
Polly cut in. ‘You don’t know how persuasive old Ern can be.’

‘You’ll help me?’

‘If you help me first.’

‘What is it?’

‘Swear you’ll do it.’

‘I can’t till I know what it is.’

‘Then I can’t let you out and
Georgina will be lost in the morning.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Swear you’ll do it first, then
we come back and get your sister.’

There was a brief silence from
the other side of the door. ‘Alright,’ Annie said finally. ‘What do you need me
to do?’

‘I need your magic.’

‘I told you, I don’t –’

‘I know you do, so don’t play
that game with me. Now’s not the time. You think Isaac’s leg mended itself that
night in the jail? You think I don’t know that
them
guards were asleep because of you? If you don’t
come Isaac will die.’

‘Come where?’

‘To the cottage where you left
Georgina.’

Annie paused. ‘That’s hours away.
Georgina will be gone when we get back.’

‘That’s the deal.’

‘No,’ Annie said, her tone hardening.
‘I like Isaac, you know I do, but she is my sister. I have to save her first.’

‘I don’t see as you can do much
saving from a locked cellar.’

‘I don’t see as you can do much
for Isaac with fake magic.’

Polly couldn’t help the tight
smile that spread across her face. ‘You’re not as weak-willed as you pretend,
are you?’

‘Let me out and help me find
Georgina. We can take her with us. I’ll do what I can for Isaac then.’

Polly sighed. ‘I’ll get the
keys.’

A few moments later she returned.
‘Annie,’ she called quietly through the door. ‘I can’t find the keys. Ern must
have moved them in case I came looking.’

There was a muffled sob from
behind the door.

‘No point in
cryin
’,’
Polly said with a scowl. ‘Can’t you use your magic to get out?’

‘It don’t work like that, not for
me. I need help. I channel my magic through animals and I can heal, but I can’t
unlock locked doors with it.’

‘You got us out of jail.’

‘I had help… from some mice.’

Polly raised her eyebrows but
decided it was probably better not to scoff. She needed Annie as much as Annie
needed her right now. ‘
Ain’t
there no mice in the
cellar you can ask?’

‘I would need to tell them where
the key is.’

Polly let her head fall to the
wood of the door with a groan. ‘What do we do now?’

‘Chester!’ Annie said suddenly.
‘Chester could kick the door in.’

‘It would make too much noise.’
There was silence from behind the door again. ‘Perhaps,’ Polly said, breaking
the quiet, ‘if we get Georgina first, we can let Chester kick the door in and
we’ll be ready to make a run for it if Ernesto wakes.’

‘You’d run with us?’

‘To save Isaac, yes.’

‘What about Ernesto’s fortune?’

Polly sighed. ‘It don’t seem
quite as shiny as it used to.’

Annie was quiet again for a
moment. ‘Go and find Georgina then,’ she said finally.

Polly searched the house but there was no sign of Georgina
or the missing cellar keys. There was only one place left to look for either,
apart from Ernesto’s study, and Polly wasn’t about to go crashing in disturbing
what must be a very light sleep by now.  Besides which, she couldn’t
imagine for a moment that Georgina was in there – when Polly had left him
sleeping he had been alone in his study and she couldn’t imagine he had woken
at any point during her absence in order to move Georgina in there.  What
she had given him was likely to knock Chester off his feet, let alone a man, at
least for a couple of hours anyway.

Polly had only been into the
‘wolf den’, as Ernesto liked to call it, on three occasions during the entire
time she had lived with him. Each time, even though they were behind bars, the
way they stared at her with their cold, dead eyes filled her with dread. 
When she had asked him where they came from and why he kept them, he had simply
given her a warning glare that told her not to ask again. This part of the
house – a building tagged onto the back, far away enough to avoid the scent of
the wolves spooking Chester in his stables – was a part that only Ernesto
himself ever visited.  What he did in there none of them knew, but Polly
and Isaac had often commented over the years that he was just a little too fond
of his pet beasts.  They had to assume that Ernesto himself somehow
cleaned their cage and fed them on a regular basis – an unlikely scenario to
anyone who knew Ernesto Black, but the only explanation for their upkeep. 
Though, neither Polly nor Isaac had ever witnessed him doing these tasks either
and had commented many times on just what dangerous and seemingly impossible
tasks they were. In light of what she had now learned about Annie’s powers, it
raised the question of whether Ernesto himself had a similar type of magic. If
so, he had chosen to keep it a secret, even from them. Perhaps he was as afraid
of the way magic was viewed as Annie. In many ways, it all made perfect sense.
What better cover for him than to turn in others with magic?

Taking a deep breath, she pushed
open the heavy iron door. It creaked and scraped on its hinges, cracking the
silence of the night.  Polly paused for a moment, but when no movement
came from the house, she continued to open the door.  From within, Polly
could hear the scuffles and clicks of claws on stone and panting jaws, could
smell the stench of old meat and sweating, furry bodies. Holding up a lantern,
she wrinkled her nose and peered through the gloom.

Reflecting the light of the lamp,
yellow eyes stared back at her.  Polly couldn’t decide whether it was the
eyes or the absolute stillness and quiet with which they watched her, almost as
if they were intelligently weighing her up, that made her most uneasy.  A
dog would have barked and growled and leapt about, but they did none of this.

Polly wasn’t quite sure what she
had expected to see. A cage within the cage – Georgina captive like a prize
specimen at the zoo? But as her eyes raked the gloom, she saw no sign of the
little girl at all, only the wolves, pacing in silence, their collective gaze
fixed intently on her.  She knew that there was a key hook in here, where
Ernesto sometimes kept keys for his cash boxes and such like when he was
feeling particularly distrusting, but this was oddly empty too.

Every second that Polly searched
with no result filled her with renewed dread for Isaac’s condition. 
Running back to the cellar, she called through the door, all consideration for
secrecy forgotten.

‘Annie! Georgina has already
gone.’

There was silence.

‘Annie?’

‘I’m here,’ Annie replied in a
small voice. ‘What are we going to do?’

‘We need Isaac.’

‘I can’t go to Isaac knowing that
Georgina is out there somewhere in terrible danger.’

‘It’s the only way. He might know
where Ern was
plannin
’ to take her. But he
ain’t
goin
’ to tell us if he’s
dead.’

‘This is a trick…’

‘It
ain’t
a trick! You got to trust me.’

‘Trust you? But you was the one
who told Dr Black where to find my sister!’

Polly bit her lip. ‘I know…’ she
said quietly, leaning her forehead on the door. ‘I know I did. But I never
meant all this to happen.’

‘You don’t care about my sister,
you just want Isaac back.’

‘I
ain’t
goin
’ to lie, that’s part truth. But I don’t want to
see the little ‘un lost to the Brethren.’

There was a sharp breath from
behind the door. ‘You know about them, what they do?’

‘I heard enough to know they
ain’t
having her over for tea and crumpets. But the only
way you’ll get her back now is if we find out where they are. And as no one
hardly knows anything about them, the only thing we got left to do is ask
Ernesto himself or Isaac. I don’t fancy my chances with Ern, do you?’

‘You’d better get Chester. I’ll
do my bit.’

‘Good girl. You know it makes
sense. We can take Chester with us, we’d be there and back in no time at a good
gallop.’

Polly turned for the stables, but
Annie’s voice halted her.

‘Poll…’

‘Yes, sweet?’

‘What if I can’t make Isaac
better?’

‘I don’t know. But you
ain’t
goin
’ to do it from behind
that door so first things first.’

Ten minutes later Polly had Chester saddled up and was
leading him out into the yard. 

‘Stay there, that’s a good boy…’
She ruffled his mane before going to the cellar door. ‘I got him. You do your
bit now.’

Polly backed away from the door
as Annie began to sing.  Polly’s eyes became wide and vacant as the music
poured through her – clean and pure like nothing she had ever heard before, as
if it could cleanse her very soul.  It wasn’t meant to enchant her, but
she almost felt as though it was.  Then Chester shook himself a couple of
times, before seeming to succumb to the spell too.  He turned himself to
face away from the door, and, in two sharp kicks, it was open.  Annie
tumbled out and the spell was broken.  Chester reared up and Polly ran to
grab his reins.

‘There, there now…
ain’t
no need for that,’ she soothed.

Once he was calm, Polly clambered
into the saddle, reaching for Annie and helping her up too.  A quick flick
of the reins and a dig of the heels, and Chester was galloping out through the
open courtyard gates and into the night.

Nineteen:

‘That was a neat trick,’ Polly called over her shoulder as
Chester raced through the countryside.  The cold night air froze as it whipped
their faces, making Annie’s eyes water. ‘All that time we were on the streets
doing pretend magic an’ you could do real magic.’

‘I didn’t dare tell you.’

‘I’ll keep your secret.’

Annie didn’t reply. Polly
realised she probably deserved Annie’s distrust and thought better of pushing
the subject.  Right now, her mission to save Isaac was the most pressing
concern. A chill ran through her that had nothing to do with the frosty night.
Urging Chester on faster, she tried not to think about being too late. Whatever
happened with Isaac, Ernesto would want to know how Annie had come to be freed
from the cellar, how Chester had come to be missing along with the both of
them, and where they had been, but she tried not to think about that
either. 

Without any means of telling the
time, Polly could only guess that it was around midnight when they arrived back
at the tiny cottage on the heath. Despite the lateness of the hour, puddles of
warm light still spilled from the windows and Polly detected movement inside. 
Polly and Annie both slid from Chester’s saddle and tied him loosely to the
garden fence. Grabbing Annie’s hand, Polly pulled her to the door and hammered
on it.

Mrs Harding hadn’t managed to
utter a word before Polly had pushed impatiently past her, dragging Annie in
her wake. ‘He’s still with us?’ she asked, heading for the bed.  Charlotte
was sitting on a chair next to him. She nodded, although Polly herself could
see clearly that he was barely clinging on to life, his chest rising and
falling in stuttering breaths.  

Annie clapped a hand over her
mouth, unshed tears shining in her eyes. ‘Poor thing…’

‘Never mind
poor thing
.
Just like that
clotpole
to get himself knocked over
the head,’ Polly replied briskly. ‘What I need to know now is can you fix him?’

‘I don’t… I don’t know…’

‘You got magic! I’ve seen you
heal.’

Charlotte shot a sharp glance at
her mother, and they both stared at Annie.

‘I didn’t know he would be this
bad,’ Annie whispered.

‘I told you he was dying,’ Polly
snapped.

‘Yes but… now that I
seen
him…’ Annie took a deep breath and sniffed back her
tears.  ‘I’ll try my best.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Mrs
Harding asked uncertainly.

‘Annie here can heal him,’ Polly
said, not moving her eyes from Isaac. Annie was now kneeling beside him, her
hands laid on his forehead and her own eyes closed in concentration.

‘You’re certain of that?’
Charlotte asked.

‘Well,
it’s
better
tryin
’ than waiting around for him to die,
ain’t
it?’ Polly shot back.

‘It’s just that…’ Charlotte sighed.
‘Is there anything we can do to help?’

‘You can stop your yakking for a
minute and let her concentrate,’ Polly replied.

Charlotte clamped her mouth shut
with a frown.  Mrs Harding took her daughter gently by the arm and led her
away from the bed.  ‘Let them do what they must, Charlotte. Celia is
right.’

Polly looked up for a moment, a
faint look of surprise on her face. But if she had thought to put them right
about her name, her attention was drawn back to the bed as Annie began to sing
softly.  

All three women froze and stared
at Annie as the beautiful but unearthly sound poured from her.  Delicate
notes echoed around the small room; Annie’s eyes were closed tight and a frown
furrowed her forehead.  And then the music swelled, Annie straining to reach
the highest phrases. It seemed to fill every head, until their surroundings
dissolved and all that filled their consciousness was music.  Louder,
higher, the very air itself humming, until finally Annie became quiet again.
Then all was still.  For a long time, nobody had the strength to speak.
But then Polly broke the silence.

‘He
ain’t
woke up,’ she said in a dull tone.

‘No,’ Mrs Harding replied. ‘But
his breathing seems easier.’

They all looked closer to see
that she was right. Isaac was now calm, his chest rising and falling in a
peaceful rhythm.  Some colour had returned to his cheeks too, so that he
now looked as though he was sleeping.

‘Should we leave him?’ Charlotte
asked doubtfully.

‘Yes.’ Annie turned to them now.
She seemed pale, like a ghostly copy of herself, paler than Polly had ever seen
her. ‘He needs to rest. I can only heal him so far – the rest is up to his own
body.’ She pushed herself up to stand, and lurched sideways.

Charlotte ran to catch her.

‘I don’t feel right…’ Annie mumbled. 

She fainted in Charlotte’s
arms. 

‘NO!’ Isaac screamed and bolted up.  It took a moment
for his eyes to focus and he stared around without comprehension. ‘Where’s
Ernesto?’

Charlotte rubbed her eyes. She
had fallen asleep at the table, as had her mother and Polly, neither of whom
had stirred, despite Isaac’s outburst.

‘He’s gone. You’re safe now,’
Charlotte said gently.

It seemed that Isaac’s memory
suddenly came flooding back. ‘He took her, didn’t he? I couldn’t stop him,’ he
replied bitterly.

‘None of us could stop him,’
Charlotte said.

Isaac sighed and let himself fall
back onto the bed, watching absently as the fire in the grate reflected dancing
shadows on the ceiling. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said quietly. He turned to look at her
and then noticed Polly leaning on the table, a tumbling mass of black curls
spilling across the wood.  ‘How did Poll get here?’ he frowned.

‘Poll?’ Charlotte followed his
gaze. ‘But that’s Celia…’ She smiled ruefully. ‘Not Celia at all then? I
thought she reacted strangely when I called her by that name last night.’

Isaac couldn’t help a small smile
of his own. ‘I don’t know what I’m
goin
’ to do with
that one.’

‘I think she loves you very
much.’

‘Polly?’ Isaac forced out a short
laugh. ‘She don’t love
nothin
’ but Ernesto’s fortune.
I found that out the hard way.’

‘That’s not how it looked last
night. She was beside herself with worry for you. That’s why she went to fetch
your friend.’

‘Worry? Why should she worry
about me?
Nothin
’ wrong with me, is there?’

‘Don’t you remember?’ He shook
his head in a tiny
movement
.‘
You
hit your head. We thought… well, we thought that you were dying.’

‘Was I? That’s strange. I could
eat a horse and sleep for a month but I’m sure I
ain’t
dyin
’.’

‘That’s because the witch healed
you.’

‘Witch?’ Isaac scratched his
head. ‘Am I still asleep? When did all this happen?’

‘Last night.’

Isaac gave her a lopsided smile.
‘Well, if that’s all true, then I should probably thank this witch when I see
her.’

‘She’s asleep in the bedroom
right now. I think it somehow drained her, healing you. As soon as she had done
it she fell into a swoon and she hasn’t woken since.’

Isaac’s smile faded. ‘But she’s
alright,
ain’t
she?’

‘We don’t know.’

‘I want to see her,’ Isaac said,
pushing himself up again. He made to get out of bed.

‘You might as well let her rest,’
Charlotte insisted. ‘You need to rest too, don’t forget. She said that her
healing would only go so far and that your own body needed to do the remainder,
which means that you avoid exerting yourself.’

Isaac looked as though he would
argue for a moment, but then relaxed and nodded. He gazed at Charlotte
thoughtfully. ‘What will you do now?’

‘About what?’

‘About the little ‘un?’

Charlotte shrugged. ‘She seems
lost now for sure. Your friend said that she had already been taken from Dr
Black’s home as far as they could tell.’

‘I’ll find her.’

‘You know where she’s been
taken?’

‘Not yet.’ Isaac grimaced. ‘But
I’ll take great pleasure in persuading old Ern to tell me.’

‘He almost killed you last time
you tried to stop him.’

‘I weren’t ready last time. I
won’t make that mistake again.’

Charlotte shook her head slowly.
‘Why would you risk your life for us? For Georgina?’

Isaac shrugged. ‘I don’t know.
But what Ernesto is
doin
’ don’t seem right, that’s
all.’

Polly stirred and groaned as she
lifted her head from the table. Isaac looked at her expectantly, something very
like hope shining in his eyes. It was clear that whatever he had said about
Polly only loving Ernesto’s fortune, deep down, he wanted it not to be true.
Slowly, she focused on him.  And then her eyes grew wide, all traces of
sleep gone.

‘Isaac!’ she launched herself and
threw her arms around his neck, kissing him full on the lips.

Isaac sat stock still, apparently
in shock from Polly’s unprecedented show of emotion.  She pulled away and
he grinned broadly.  Then she smacked him on the arm.

‘Ow!’ he cried. ‘What did I do?’

‘You damn near died, you great
lump of uselessness!’

‘It weren’t my fault!’

‘You was the one standing in the
way of Ern’s fists!’ Polly fell back onto her heels on the floor beside his bed
with a sullen pout.

‘
Ain’t
you
gonna
kiss me again?’ Isaac asked with a
mischievous smile.

‘You’re lucky I don’t thump you
again. And you damn near killed Annie.’

‘Annie?’ Isaac asked with a
frown. ‘How did I do that? She weren’t here.’

‘She came to heal you, didn’t
she? And fell all of a swoon
doin
’ it.’

Isaac’s frown deepened. ‘I don’t
understand.’

‘Annie has magic.’

‘She does?’ Isaac scratched his
head, a confused look on his face which was suddenly illuminated by
understanding.

Polly nodded. ‘See what you can
work out when you use that noggin of yours?’

‘She said…’ Isaac nodded towards
Charlotte, ‘sorry, Miss, I don’t know your name…’

‘Charlotte Harding.’

‘Yes, Miss Harding said that the
witch were asleep in the other room. That’s Annie then?’

‘You don’t have to call me Miss
Harding,’ Charlotte cut in, blushing slightly. ‘Charlotte will do just as
well.’

Isaac shot her his most winning
smile.

Polly rolled her eyes. ‘Didn’t
take you long to start with the flattering looks, did it?’

He turned to Polly, ignoring her
chastisement, and his expression became earnest. ‘Poll, what are we
goin
’ to do about the nipper?’

‘Georgina?’ Charlotte asked.
Isaac nodded. ‘You said you didn’t know where she was taken to.’

‘I don’t. But I reckon we could
get old Ern to tell us, eh, Poll?’

Polly folded her arms and stared
at him. ‘How do we do that?’

‘We’ll… tell him we’ll leave him
if he don’t.’

‘He’ll just buy new orphans. It
ain’t
like there’s a shortage.’

‘Then we’ll threaten him.’

‘He nearly killed you!’

‘He can’t kill all of us at once.
And Annie has magic.’

Polly huffed. ‘Not that she can
do much with it. Animals and
healin
’ she says. Hardly
goin
’ to frighten Ern, is it?’

Isaac looked thoughtful for a
moment. ‘The wolves!’ he suddenly yelped. ‘Annie can do magic on animals you
say? What about she gets the wolves on him?’

‘At the moment she
ain’t
gettin
’ wolves on anyone.
She’s still sleeping and who knows when she’ll wake.’

‘Perhaps we should try to wake
her?’ Charlotte asked tentatively. ‘It may be that she is ill and we’re simply
waiting here for her to rouse not knowing.’

‘I reckon she’s plain worn out,’
Polly replied sagely. ‘She’s used so much magic on Isaac that she’s exhausted
herself. Give her more time.’ Polly stretched and yawned. ‘I wouldn’t thank you
for waking me if I were in a nice bed.’

Isaac shifted uncomfortably. He
glanced at Charlotte. She seemed to guess his thoughts.

‘I’m sure you could sleep by the
fire for a time if Isaac is well enough to leave his bed,’ Charlotte
offered. 

Polly waved her hand vaguely. ‘I
don’t need it. Let goat-brains have the bed a while longer.’ She stood up and smoothed
a hand down her billowing skirts. ‘I’m off to see if Chester is alright.’

Isaac watched Polly pull a white
crocheted shawl around her and head for the door. ‘Where did you get that?’ he
asked. Polly stopped and turned around.

‘What?’

‘The shawl. You usually have that
old coat on.’

Polly glanced at Charlotte. ‘Your
mother gave it to me. She went to a chest in her room to fetch something… said
my old coat was so worn it was worse than useless. Happen it was an all.’

Charlotte smiled. ‘She’s always
kind and generous…’

‘Even to them that don’t deserve
it, eh? That’s what you’re thinking
ain’t
it?’ Polly
said.

‘No,’ Charlotte replied. ‘I was
thinking that it suits you. It brings out the colour of your hair.’

‘That it does…’ Isaac agreed.

For possibly the first time in
her life, certainly the first time Isaac had ever witnessed it, Polly blushed.
She turned quickly back to the front door. As she opened it, the first pink
lights of dawn could be seen over the heath.  She closed it quietly again,
and Isaac turned to Charlotte with a wry smile.

I might be a
clotpole
,’
he said. ‘But I’ll get your little ‘un back.’

‘How?’ Charlotte replied. 
She shivered slightly and shifted her chair closer to the fire. ‘Where does one
even begin with such an overwhelming task?’