Foxblood #1: A Brush with the Moon

  Chapter Eleven

  I HATE HOSPITALS. The overpowering aroma of bleach and antiseptic stinging your nostrils and clinging to the back of your throat and the constant beep beep of the heart monitors always reminds me of the day my Gran died.

  I sat in the visitors’ room, a tiny blank box with no windows, staring at the circle of uncomfortable plastic chairs around the circumference and a square table fully laden with last year’s magazines for nearly three hours.

  Frustratingly, no one had deigned to come and speak to me since the policewoman who’d interviewed me earlier. She’d wanted to know who’d delivered the chocolates, and if I knew who they were from, or had any inkling of someone wanting me dead. A strange look had crossed her face when I mentioned Vincent’s name.

  There was a small glimmer of hope about two hours later when a nurse peered around the door, but she merely gave me a sympathetic smile and disappeared again.

  I must have flicked through every tatty, coverless magazine and read every wall poster repeatedly until I knew them off by heart. Did I know the symptoms of meningitis? Was I eligible for the flu jab? Had I used the gel provided to prevent the spread of MRSA? I was bored out of my tree and fraught with worry.

  Finally, another nurse arrived, and I followed her bright pink plastic sandals through to the single room where Beth was hooked up through a spaghetti of wires and tubes to a variety of monitoring machines.

  The doctor was waiting. “She’s stable for now, but we haven’t been able to fully flush the toxin, and unless we discover what it is and neutralise it, we could still lose her.” He hooked a clipboard back onto the end of Beth’s bed. “We’ve been in touch with her father. He’s on his way.” The doctor passed by me, about to leave, but then turned at the last minute. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  I made myself comfortable in the bedside chair and curled up waiting for sleep to claim me. It didn’t come soon. My head was whirring. I couldn’t lose Beth. She’d been my best friend for, like, ever. No, she was going to pull through this. She had to. She was too full of life not to. And I couldn’t shake the thought that the chocolates had been meant for me. Me. Why? Why would anybody want to kill me?

  I awoke to the sound of voices outside, seconds before they burst through the door.

  “We’re doing all we can. Only we’ve never come across anything quite like this before,” the doctor said.

  “Mr Morrison. I-I’m so sorry,” I heard myself say.

  His head whipped around and he glared at me, unspeaking, before focusing on the doctor again. I got the message. Mr Morrison blamed me. I had to get out of there. He paid me no attention as I exited and fled down the corridor.

  Twenty minutes later, the taxi I’d flagged down pulled up outside our flat. I ran around the corner and down the alley. A figure was sitting on the top step, hands hugging his head, which he lifted upon hearing my approach.

  “Sebastian?” I shouted, bounding up the stairs to greet him with a sudden burst of energy.

  “Seb. I told you.”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I’m just so pleased to see you.” I threw myself into his comforting arms. “You’ve no idea.”

  “Actually, I think I do. I heard what happened and came straight home. How’s Beth?” I didn’t get a chance to answer before he continued, “Don’t worry. My father’s people are on it. They’re very good at fixing things. What’s more worrying for me is that those chocolates were sent to you. It doesn’t bear thinking about. You’re coming to my place for a while. It’s the only way I can protect you.”

  “But—”

  “No arguments. Go pack a bag.”

  “You’ll be safe here,” Sebastian said when we arrived at Lovell Towers a little while later. “I’ve had a room prepared that I think will please you. It was my mother’s room when she first came to live here.”

  “Oh. I thought…”

  “No. Better not to have too many distractions until we get to the bottom of all of this.”

  The room was gorgeous, almost identical to Sebastian’s in style and décor but coloured a beautiful creamy yellow instead of his pale blue. Where the desk stood in Sebastian’s room, a beautiful dressing table was placed in this one. It had an oval mirror at the back and an assortment of silver-topped, cut-glass scent bottles next to an intricately inlaid wooden box on the top. I couldn’t resist running my finger across the box’s shiny surface.

  “My mother had good taste,” he reflected.

  “Do you miss having a mother?”

  “You can’t really miss what you’ve never had.”

  “I miss my dad,” I mused. “I can’t lose Beth too.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  He wrapped his arms around my waist. I leant back, snuggling against his chest, and took in the view from the window.

  The room looked out over the front grounds and down towards the pond, a scene I knew well. The melting snow had fuelled the waterfall, now gushing gloriously down the cliff face, and if I craned my neck far enough, I could even see across to the mine entrance on the left.

  “Father says Mum loved this view, particularly the waterfall.”

  “Your mum and I have a lot in common.”

  “Speaking of my father, he’s asked Mathanway to place a protection charm on all the Lovell land, which should keep us safe for a while. If any foe attempts to break it, we’ll know.”

  “Mathanway?”

  “She’s a very wise and powerful sorceress, stemming from old magic. She lives in the Alician realm and is an old family friend. We call upon her often for assistance and blessings. She’s repaid with items that she may otherwise find hard to source.”

  He released his hold on me and went to light the fire. “While you’re here, I want you to treat this place as your home. Feel free to explore as much as you like. The house has many secrets, but it won’t keep them from you. I’ll answer any of your questions when I get back.”

  “Back? Where are you going?”

  Sebastian replaced the coal shovel in the scuttle and stood up. “I have to return to the city. My father still needs me, but I’ll be back as soon as I can, and Connor will be here to look after you. Oh, and I’ve been in touch with uni. I told them you’re ill. You’re not expected in class next week.” He opened the door. “I need to inform Grandmother you’re here. Why don’t you settle in? I’ll be back in a minute.”

  It didn’t take long to unpack the few items I’d thrown into my backpack, so I decided to take a quick shower.

  The bathroom was straight out of the pages of Homes and Gardens Country House Designs. There was a roll-top bath with an antique style metal shower head and a square pedestal basin. The toilet had a wooden seat, an overhead cistern, and a porcelain-tipped pull chain. The bare floorboards were darkly stained, and forget-me-not flowered wallpaper covered the walls.

  At least the water had been hot, I thought five minutes later as I wrapped myself in a huge lilac towel.

  “Sorry. I was a little longer than I thought. Grandmother wasn’t in the best of moods,” Sebastian said from the other side of the door. “Are you okay in there?”

  Before I could answer, the door opened, and I turned to face him.

  A look of pure shock covered his face, and his jaw dropped. “Oh. My. God!”