“They’ve been there a few hundred years, at least, Ma.”
I nodded. “That’s good. We’ll not have to worry about farming equipment then, but if my memory serves me right it could get a bit tricky in the winter so it might be worth looking at some of those polytunnels I’ve seen on the television.”
“Not from Morrisons, Ma.”
“Perhaps leave the polytunnels then,” I paused and stared at the flames for a few seconds. It was difficult to focus on the job at hand when all I could think of were Simon, Eilidh and Harry.
“Anything else, Corran?” Kate asked.
“Sorry, love, I was day dreaming. Errm, fishing rods, nets and rope… flour, yeast and oats,” I sighed feeling suddenly exhausted again.
“That’s OK, Ma, thank you. I think we’ve got enough to be going on with.”
“I’ll keep thinking,” I said, watching the gentle rise and fall of Amber’s chest as she slept. “Shall I start dinner?”
“Yes, Ma, you start dinner. I’ll just have a quick word with Rose and Kate and then we’ll come and help you.”
“Just do the best you can,” I heard my son whisper as I disappeared into the kitchen. I fumbled with some cups in the sink, debating whether to wash them or put them in the dishwasher. Commonsense got the better of me and I filled the sink with warm water and added a squirt of washing up liquid, thinking as I did how much easier life was in this new world than it had been in mine. I hadn’t quite cleared the cups when the two girls and Duncan appeared in the kitchen.
“Kate’s going to be off now, Ma.”
I nodded, casting her a reassuring smile.
“Thank you for everything you have done for us, Kate.”
“No worries, Corran. Honest. I love shopping, anyway. Can’t wait to get at it.”
“You will keep safe, won’t you, sweet?” I said, giving her hand a nervous squeeze.
“Yeah, of course I will. Hell, what’s the worst can happen? I’m going shopping at Morrisons for a lorry load of food.”
Rose laughed. “Sounds like Kate’s perfect evening.”
“Alright then, just don’t do anything that could put you in danger,” I said softly.
We saw Kate into the tunnel and then made our way slowly into the kitchen. None of us spoke. There was no need. We each knew the fear in each other’s minds.
“What are we cooking?” I asked, with more enthusiasm than felt.
“How about macaroni cheese?” Rose suggested.
“Sounds nice, but I’ve no idea what it is. You are going to have to talk me through it,” I said.
“It’s super easy, Corran,” Rose said, opening the fridge and extracting a block of cheese from it. “Here,” she said passing the cheese to Duncan. “You grate this.”
“Grate?” Duncan asked, with a puzzled look on his face.
Rose sighed and handed the grater to my son. “Run the block of cheese along the grater, you know, the sharp bits. It’ll shred the cheese.”
“I could have done that with my dirk,” he replied indignantly.
“I don’t think so,” barked Rose. “You’ll use the grater; one because it’s clean, which I’m damn sure your dirk isn’t, and two because that’s what we use to grate cheese, not your bloody dirk.”
“What can I do, Rose?”
“You can make us a salad, Corran. Kate bought plenty of lettuce and tomatoes. They’re in the fridge.”
Whilst I washed and chopped the salad I watched with interest as Rose made a white sauce.
“You really meant it when you said this was quick and easy,” I said. “Will it keep alright?”
“It’ll keep fine, I mean, we can warm it up in the microwave when Kate gets back,” she said dishing a healthy portion of the pasta onto four plates.
I sat in front of the fire on the mattress, staring at the flames. Amber curled up on the duvet beside me, her head resting heavily on my lap. My fingers played with the corner of a sheet of paper. It was my intention to add to the list of items Kate had gone shopping for, but my mind refused to focus. Duncan and Rose had stayed in the kitchen, and I was quite sure I knew what they were discussing. Dragging my mind back to the task at hand I picked up the pen and scribbled idly in the corner of the page. Cloth, I suddenly thought, they’ll need cloth to make new clothes. Then I looked at Amber next to me on the mattress and thought how much my people would appreciate the soft pillows and duvets of this place.
A sharp crack brought my attention back to the moment. Barking gruffly, Amber sprung off the mattress and into the hall. I pushed myself up and followed the dog through to the hall to find my son and Rose staring in shocked silence as the forms of their fathers, Eilidh, Grace, and a man whom I assumed to be Robert materialized in front of them. Amber pounded on Eilidh, but she pushed her back, turning to Duncan instead.
“What date is it?” she asked in a panic.
“December eighteenth,” he replied.
“Thank God,” Eilidh said, letting out a long breath and dropping to her knees beside Amber.
“I’ve missed you, pudding,” she whispered, allowing the dog to nestle against her.
“You’ve only been gone a few hours, Pa. What happened?” Duncan asked.
“Actually lad, we’ve been gone a few weeks, only clever Eilidh managed to set us back right where we needed to be,” Simon replied.
Harry stepped forward, pulling Grace with him. “Duncan, this is your mother, boy,” he said, pushing Grace forward.
Duncan extended an awkward hand. His eyes shifted uneasily over the woman’s face and then upwards toward the man I assumed to be Robert Hamilton.
“Ma… errm, Mother,” he said, lowering his head in a small bow.
I bit my lower lip in an effort to ward off the tears that backed up in my eyes and stared in stunned shock at the five bodies in front of me.
Grace moved slowly forward and cupped my son’s hands in her own. “You look so, so much like Jack,” she said, staring up at Duncan.
My insides churned as I watched this woman run her critical eyes over my son’s face. I wanted to shout that she knew nothing, that the man’s name wasn’t Jack, it was Angus, and who was she to compare my boy to that evil excuse for a human being? But I didn’t. I stared, and bit my lip, and pushed my finger nails into the skin of my hand to stop me from opening my mouth or crying. I would not allow this woman to break me, she would never take my son, and I wasn’t about to give her the impression she had.
“It’s two years since I lost you,” Grace said, letting a tear run down her cheek. “I’d only just given birth to you when he took you. My tiny little baby, all wrinkled and pink with a mop of thick blond hair,” she stammered. “How did you get so big? I know, Harry explained it all to me, I should understand, but I don’t. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, Duncan.”
Despite the dagger the woman had driven into my heart, I felt her pain. I couldn’t just stand there and watch her weep, watch her heart break for the years she had forever lost with her son. Simple human instinct drove me to her side and before I knew it I had her in my arms, her head on my shoulder and her tears in my hair. No matter how hard I bit my lip or dug my nails into my hand I was never going to stop my own tears which now flowed freely down my cheeks. Away in the distance, in a place my mind couldn’t quite reach at that moment, I was vaguely aware that people around us had disappeared. I didn’t look up to find them, nor did I care much where they had gone.
When we could cry no longer and my senses had returned I became aware that there had been one person missing from the party of people who had materialized.
“Grace, where is Jenny?”
She stared at me, her face pale and drawn. Dark bags underlined her sunken eyes and the life that should have shone from them lay buried somewhere in her own personal hell. “We couldn’t get her.”
“That’s preposterous, Grace. You are her mother. There must be a way for you to reach her.”
“It’s not that simple, Corran
. She’s with Jack, I mean, Angus. He doesn’t leave her alone for a minute. We watched her for days, but he’s with her every minute. He’s even driving her to and from school now.”
“Then surely we can just go to the school and get her,” I argued.
“I tried. I called the school and told them I was her mother and that I needed to pick her up early for a dentist appointment. They told me that they had a note from the courts forbidding me access to her. Jack…errr, Angus has taken out a court injunction against me. He bloody well knew I was going to come back for her.”
“Grace, we’ll find a way, I promise,” I said, taking her hand and squeezing it.
“We watched her, every day for a week. She’s terrified, Corran. I’ve never seen her so afraid.”
“Then she has discovered what her father is like and will come to us willingly.”
“I’m frightened, Corran.”
“I know you are, Grace, but we’re going to put all this right, I promise you,” I said, hoping that I was going to be able to make good on the promise.
“May I spend some time alone with my son?” Grace whispered.
“Of course you can. He’s a fine boy, you should be very proud.”
“Then that would be a credit to you, Corran.”
I stopped dead and stared at the woman, her words cutting my flesh to the bone. I was taken off guard, thrown by her comment into a terrifying pain that ripped the joy from my soul. Had she meant the comment in malice? I would probably never know.
******
CHAPTER 15
Kate had returned and the men, including the infamous Robert Hamilton, to whom I had yet to be introduced, had all gathered in the taproom to discuss her purchases. I was mildly curious to know what she had bought, but my overriding emotion was the need to be alone; to get myself away from the sympathetic eyes of everyone around me. Grace had found her son, and my son had found his mother, somewhere in that equation sat me, the woman who had raised him. I considered bolting upstairs and crying into a pillow, but pride prevented it. I may have lost my son to this woman, but I had no intention of losing my dignity to her as well.
Instead, I decided to correct the catering deficit and hid in the kitchen with a cheese grater and pasta. I resented the meal for its simplicity, and dragged the process out as far as I could. Realistically, though, there really was a limit to how complicated I could make this macaroni cheese.
I toyed with the idea of creating a desert, even rummaged through the cupboards with the thought of baking a cake, but in the end I didn’t have the enthusiasm. What I really wanted was somewhere to hide, not something to do, yet pride prevented me from seeking solace in my room. The baby felt heavy and my back ached. My head throbbed where I had banged it earlier and although I didn’t much care for Grace, that didn’t change the fact that I was desperately worried about her daughter.
For all my vocal confidence, I had absolutely no idea how we were going to get her away from Angus.
Warming the heaped plates in the microwave one by one I turned to see my husband in the kitchen.
“You ready for dinner?” I asked
“Aye, lass,” he replied with a smile that only he could muster at the mention of food.
“Can I help?” Rose asked, joining us in the kitchen.
I nodded, slowly handing her a bowl of salad. “You can take this through to the taproom.”
“Anything else?”
“I’m warming the plates up now, you can give me a hand to take them through,” I replied, removing the first heated plate from the microwave.
Amber appeared beside my feet, her hazel eyes looking expectantly up at me.
“I’d not thought what you were going to eat.”
“It’s alright, Corran,” said Eilidh, running into the kitchen with a tin in her hand. “I asked Kate to get her some of these. She loves them almost as much as pudding.”
At the mention of her nickname she barked, which reduced both Eilidh and I to laughter. It felt good to laugh and I silently thanked the creature for it.
“Eilidh, Grace told me about Jenny.”
She nodded. “It’s a problem and I don’t know how to fix it, Corran.”
“I’ve got an idea, Eilidh, but I don’t know if it will work. How accurate can you be with the crystal?”
She smiled, “After today, I’d say even Marta would be impressed. I brought them all back to within hours of when we left.”
“Can you do it again?” I asked.
“I can try. Why?”
“Because I have an idea but I can’t tell you now. Meet me in the cellar after dinner and bring Grace, a pendant, and two lockets.
I noticed that two plates sat untouched. My son and Grace were absent from the party of people that crowded in front of the fire to eat. No one mentioned their absence and I pretended not to notice.
I watched Robert with his food, and concluded that he had an appetite easily as healthy as both Simon and Duncan. Harry by contrast seemed to eat little of his food and sat uncomfortably, playing with the tubes of pasta on his plate, casting an occasional glance across at Rose.
So many lives had been changed forever in this pub over the last few days. I wondered how many of us would leave here the same people we had been. Certainly Rose and Harry’s life would never be the same again. I shifted my eyes across to my husband and for the first time wondered how he had felt when he discovered that Angus was Duncan’s father. My hand instinctively went to my bulging stomach. Life had taken some unexpected turns alright.
I could hear my husband’s voice.
“I’d like to get an early start. What time do these supermarkets open?”
“Nine,” replied Rose.
“Right. Kate, I’d like you to take Grace and Robert with you tomorrow. You’ll get more done with their help,” Simon said, turning to face Robert. “Are you alright with that?”
“I welcome the chance to be of assistance,” he answered, and I realized that those were the first words I had heard the man speak.
He had a nice voice, deep and commanding; much as I had expected his voice might sound like. His features were striking, and it wasn’t difficult to see what Grace saw in him, but to my mind he wasn’t half as handsome as my husband. Simon stood a good inch taller than the man, and although they sported similar heads of black curls, Robert’s was peppered with flecks of grey.
“Corran, did you think of anything else for the list?” Kate asked.
I shook my head. “No, sweet. Sorry.”
“No worries,” Kate replied.
Everyone had eaten except for Duncan and Grace. I couldn’t wait any longer. Making an excuse that the plates needed clearing, I followed Eilidh, Kate, and Rose into the kitchen.
“I need to talk to you, Eilidh. We haven’t much time,” I whispered as she loaded the last plate into the dishwasher.
“What’s this?” asked Kate.
“Nothing, love,” I replied cursing silently.
“You’re up to something, Corran, what is it?” Rose said, joining in the conversation.
I put my finger to my lips to silence the girls. “Shh… Keep it down. Come with me?” I stuck my head around the kitchen door to check that the coast was clear. It was. I rejoined the three girls in the kitchen and lead them down into the cellar, grabbing a candle before we left.
“Right, Eilidh, I’m guessing Grace is too busy with Duncan so we’re going to have to do this ourselves. I need your help,” I said, nodding at Kate and Rose. “But you aren’t to say a word, do you hear me?”
They both nodded nervously.
“Eilidh, I need you take me to Jenny - but instead of going back in time I want you to go forwards. Take me to the twentieth of December. Harry told us that no one has ever travelled further than that date. If that is true, then I’m willing to bet that Angus is no exception. He’ll have other things on his mind that day and I’m guessing Jenny won’t be one of them. With Angus distracted we will have the best chance of ge
tting Jenny away from the monster.”
“Corran, I don’t know. I think we should talk to Simon first,” Eilidh argued.
“No,” I said, knowing that Simon would veto the idea without thought.
“Just do it for me, Eilidh, please. I’ve never asked anything of you before. Trust me, love, please,” I begged.
“Alright, but only if we can take Kate and Rose with us,” Eilidh replied reluctantly.
“Fine,” I said without hesitation, thinking that they could actually come in useful. “Do it, Eilidh. Please, now, before we run out of time.”
We all joined hands and huddled around the lit candle. “Take us to Jenny on the evening of the twentieth, Eilidh, and set us down somewhere safe,” I said, as she opened her hand and lifted the crystal to its light.
Before I knew it the cellar spun around us until we fell into a vortex of disorientation. Eventually the spinning stopped and I steadied myself trying to work out where we were.
******
CHAPTER 16
Monnies End, Chesterfield, Derbyshire - 20th December, Modern Day
“We’re in a graveyard,” said Eilidh, reading my thoughts. “Through those trees is where Grace used to live. Look,” she said, nodding to a gap in a thick row of old trunks, “Jenny’s in the lounge.”
I stared down through the break in the trees and saw the girl. There was no disputing her father, or brother, but she was smaller; shorter than either Angus or Duncan. I guessed she must have inherited Grace’s build. Scanning my eyes along the length of the house I noticed Angus in the kitchen, two windows down from the lounge. It wasn’t going to be as simple as I had made out, but then I had always known that.
“Eilidh, can you use the crystal to get into the house?” I asked.