After a second, she hugged me back, then let go.

  “Come on. We’re going to catch it hot from the boys as it is.”

  She had that right. We locked up the car and wobbled our way into the house.

  Chapter Five – Spital Ho

  Steve had clearly travelled from irritation through concern into genuine gnawing worry. He’d replied to my message when he finally received it, but by then I was either in the Flixton signal cold-spot or it was just after my phone battery had died. His look of relief gave way to heavy scowl when he saw Claudia and me sloping in through a back door. The scowl was mostly directed at Claudia but when I gave my head a quick shake, he closed his teeth on whatever he’d been about to say to her. I shot him a grateful, apologetic smile. We’d really got quite good at couples’ shorthand, although I’d have some explaining to do once we were alone. Unfortunately, none of this was effective on Craig, who looked anything but relaxed and happy.

  “Where have you been?” Craig demanded. “I was starting to think you’d had an accident.”

  “We did,” I blurted.

  Claudia gave me a ‘thanks a lot’ look, then rushed to explain. “A minor one. Some animal darted into the road and winged the car. A pony or deer.”

  “Jesus, are you okay?” Craig caught hold of her upper arms in a grip as gentle as it was strong. He looked up into her face, seeing the strain there. “You’re not hurt?”

  “No. We’re fine. A little whiplash, perhaps.”

  I wished she hadn’t said that because now I could feel my aching back and shoulders. Not to mention my icy wet clothes. I shivered. “We really are okay. It was just a bit scary.”

  “I think the Corvette needs some work though,” Claudia said, in a defeated tone. “The right headlight and at least one of the taillights. Probably a decent dent in it somewhere too. And I want the engine looked at. After we’d skidded to a halt the battery just died.”

  “I wish you’d called me,” Craig said, but more as if he was relieved than angry.

  Claudia laughed breathlessly. “That was the first thing I tried. Well, you and the AA. Phones were dead too.”

  Steve glanced at me sharply. I felt my mouth twist. He nodded once, grimly. Neither Claudia nor Craig picked up on the second conversation taking place beneath the first.

  “Don’t worry about the sodding car,” Craig enfolded her in his arms. “You’re both back unscathed. Mostly. We can deal with anything else.” Something seemed to occur to him. “How did you get the car restarted if the battery was dead? The jumpstarter box was in my car.”

  “Amy took a look at the engine,” Claudia said, crisp, upper-class accent fraying with fatigue and the relief of stress being removed.

  “Might be an idea to invest in a second one of those,” Steve remarked, carefully covering the threadbare part of the story.

  Craig didn’t seem to think it was odd that I could restart a car without any kind of jumper cables or device, or in fact another car with a fully charged battery. Either he had an idea what I was capable of, or he had it filed under ‘Amy does science, of course she can jumpstart a car’. Maybe he was just happy that Claudia was okay.

  “You ought to get out of those wet clothes,” Steve said. “Come on.”

  “But…what about dinner?” I said plaintively.

  Craig burst out laughing. “You missed dinner. But don’t worry. We have an alternative. Come down to the rec room when you’re ready.”

  “Great, I’ll be ten minutes,” I said. “I’m starving.”

  “Make it half an hour,” Steve sighed, gently steering me down the hall.

  Claudia’s laughter joined Craig’s.

  Roughly twelve minutes later, I was sitting on the bed in Steve’s odd little bedroom on the third floor, towel drying my hair after a short, hot shower.

  “Feeling better?” he asked.

  “I’m still hungry.”

  “That’s a given.” He regarded me a moment, then pulled out the chair at the desk and sank into it. “Do you want to tell me what really happened?”

  “I’m second guessing myself now, but sure. Here goes.” I told him everything I could remember, trying to be as clear and accurate as if I was reporting something to Rebekah. Although his cousin – our boss in the cryptozoological investigation firm, Harker & Blackthorn – would have had a lot less patience with the slightly jumbled aspects of my account. “And now, Claudia is insisting it’s a deer or something. Not that I blame her. Can you imagine having to tell Craig a…a wild dog or something attacked you after everything?”

  “Yes, I can quite see her point.” Steve had listened attentively, expression growing grimmer and more troubled as I went on. “All the same, Craig is made of sterner stuff than that.”

  I let out a breath. “What if she’s right?”

  Steve lifted an eyebrow. “How do you mean?”

  “Well, what if we hit a large animal or it charged into us, and because I’d just been asking her about local paranormal activities, including werewolves, it made us take what we saw – in the dark, with poor visibility thanks to the rain – and make it into a monster?” I said, tying off the damp end of my plait.

  He let out a long breath. “I would give a great deal for that to be true. But Amy, love, your gift told you that you and Claudia were in danger.”

  “The Touch doesn’t always differentiate,” I said. “Maybe if we’d stayed there, we’d have been sitting ducks for a heavy goods vehicle travelling at speed.”

  Steve got up and came to kneel in front of me, forearms resting either side of my thighs on the bed. “Would you like my opinion?”

  I nodded.

  “I think you’re working very hard to minimise a genuine supernatural occurrence because you’re worried that something like this happening means that we’ll have to investigate. And you don’t want to ruin my week,” he said wryly.

  “You know me far too well,” I sighed. “But I was also channelling Bex, because someone should be insisting there’s a mundane explanation right up until it’s undeniably supernatural.”

  Steve chuckled. “What do you really think happened?”

  “We didn’t hit an animal. A large creature struck our vehicle as we were going past. It then moved with blurry speed and struck us in the other direction so that we wouldn’t go off the side of the hill.” I suppressed a shudder. “Then it withdrew, probably to allow us to get out of the car which was electrically dead by that point.”

  Steve wasn’t laughing now. “It was toying with you. Or hunting you.”

  “It was intelligent. Cunning in a human way.”

  “Do you think it caused the electrical failures?”

  I gnawed my lower lip. “Not directly. But if it was a supernatural creature, then its presence could have caused sudden energy drainage.”

  Steve nodded. “We need to call Rebekah.”

  “Really? I though Harkers and Thorntons didn’t mix?” I frowned. “Isn’t there some longstanding familial grudge between the two?”

  “Yes, there is and no, in general, we don’t. Or they don’t, rather. I’m not suggesting we summon her up here,” Steve snorted, amused. “Honestly, I don’t think I could drag her to this wedding with a coach and four. But I have a feeling that we may need one of my disreputable forebear’s journals. I vaguely recall reading part of an account about something similar in this area.”

  “You don’t happen to know which journal, do you?” I imagined Rebekah’s face if she was asked to go through the archives by herself.

  “As a matter of fact, I believe I do.” Steve smiled, pleased with himself. “But it can wait until tomorrow. Shall we go and see to your stomach now? It’s been growling away since we came up here.”

  “You knew what you were getting involved with,” I said haughtily, hopping off the bed.

  He wrapped an arm around my waist, kissing my forehead. “No matter what was out there tonight, you have no idea how relieved I am that you’re safe.”

  “I may have an inkling.” I hugged him back, breaking it before we got too side-tracked, and led the way downstairs.

  The so-called rec-room was a long double parlour which had been fitted up in a slightly more modern style. There was a pool table and table-tennis table, as well as an inverted U shape of comfy chairs and sofas around a large flat screen TV. I would have spent more time appreciating the friendlier surroundings but there were two large pizzas, gently wafting cheese and tomato scented steam, on the large coffee table.

  “Dinner is served,” Craig said, handing me a plate. “I hope you like homemade pizza.”

  “You made these?” I said.

  Craig shrugged. “A man’s got to have a hobby. Besides, no one delivers this far out in the sticks.”

  I sank my teeth into a piping hot triangle. The dough was crisp yet springy, the tomato base was sweet and slightly spicey, the cheese had melted to just the right consistency and somehow, he had managed to include many of my favourite toppings with almost psychic accuracy. “Oh my God, I might have to marry you instead.”

  “She’s delirious with hunger,” Steve deadpanned. “Hasn’t the faintest idea what she’s saying.”

  Craig laughed, pleased with my reaction. “One was made to your specs, with Stevie’s help. And the other was made with my darling wife-to-be in mind.”

  Claudia wiped her fingers on a napkin. “I hope you’re eating as well. If I’m allowed to finish that by myself, I won’t fit into the dress.”

  Craig shot her a look which I suspected I was not meant to see since it suggested that he didn’t mind if she turned up without the dress at all. I diverted my attention to the pizza. It really was excellent. I was going to have to badger Craig into giving me his recipe.

  “Are there immediate wedding matters to be taken care of tomorrow, or shall we do something fun?” Steve said.

  “I doubt your idea of fun and mine coincide,” Claudia scoffed. “But as a matter of fact, no, there’s nothing that requires immediate attention tomorrow. It’s the last free day before the guests start arriving.”

  “Spital Ho,” Craig said, helping himself to another slice of pizza.

  “Bless you.” I held out my plate in the hopes that he would take pity on me and deposit another slice there while he was serving himself.

  “It’s a sort of historic site,” Claudia said. “Near Saxton Hill. And if the weather is this bad, it will be an appalling walk.”

  “The rain is supposed to clear up later tonight and by mid-morning the sun will be out,” Steve said.

  Claudia looked from her brother to her fiancé with an expression of affectionate exasperation. “This is something the pair of you cooked up while Amy and I were out, isn’t it?”

  “That’s what you get for absconding with my girlfriend for the entire day,” Steve said.

  “He’s not even a little bit bored of saying those two words,” Craig murmured to me.

  I laughed, trying to ignore the heat in my face. “I’m game. As long as it’s dry.”

  “Claw?” Craig gave her a look which could only be described as smouldering.

  “Fine, since I’m outvoted three to one.” Claudia’s expression didn’t change but her cheeks coloured slightly, so she wasn’t as unaffected as she was pretending to be.

  “Great,” I said. “Is there any more pizza?”

  We finished up the evening with a bottle of red purloined from the wine cellar – an actual wine cellar! – and a few games of pool, while a movie none of us were really watching played in the background. It was surprisingly wholesome and fun. I could almost forget that Claudia and I had been attacked earlier that evening.

  Almost.

  ✽✽✽

  The loneliness was crushing but such a constant that I hardly noticed it anymore. Not consciously at least. Anyway, it was better to be alone than to draw attention to how thoroughly I was failing to meet expectations. I drew my knees up to my chest, trying to concentrate on the book spread open on the floor next to me. But a draught came from the ill-fitted window and the radiator wasn’t working properly again. It was too cold to really concentrate but I peered at the words anyway, wanting to unravel the poem, a lovely riddle of words that would play like music through my mind…

  A gentle tapping made me lift my head…

  I drifted to full alertness just as the bedroom door opened. For a moment I had the confused sense of not knowing where I was, then I sat up in bed, blinking owlishly at Steve who entered the bedroom carrying what appeared to be a mug of tea.

  “Hey.” I smiled but my voice came out scratchy with sleep. “What time is it?”

  “Just coming up ten,” Steve set the mug down on the nightstand next to me, before dropping a kiss on the top of my head.

  “Thanks.” I smiled up at him, then realised what he’d said. “Wait, ten in the morning? How long have you been up?”

  “A couple of hours.” He shrugged. “You appeared to need the sleep.”

  “I guess it was a stressful day yesterday.”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” Steve said drily. “A near death experience would wear anyone out.”

  I laughed. “I was actually referring to all the dress and lingerie shopping.”

  “Of course you were,” Steve sighed. “Lingerie shopping?”

  I grinned at him.

  He sat on the end of the bed. “I phoned Rebekah and filled her in.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Something along the lines of ‘trust Amy to go to a wedding and find a supernatural conundrum’ but with more expletives. She’s going to email me the relevant parts of the journal I wanted.”

  “Shame I haven’t got around to scanning that one into the data base yet,” I commented taking a swig of tea.

  “We could stay home today?” Steve suggested. “I know we made plans with Craig and Claudia but if you’d rather not go out…”

  “And miss seeing Spital Ho?” I replied with mock indignation. “Let me finish this tea and I’ll be ready in half an hour.”

  Steve smiled crookedly. “Full confession, there isn’t actually much to see at Spital Ho anymore. It’s more of a nice walk unless you happen to be a history enthusiast.”

  “Then I’ll enjoy the walk and you and Craig can go nuts.” I swung my feet out of bed, moving around the end of the bed towards the bathroom door.

  Steve caught my wrist, reeling me in to kiss me thoroughly before setting me dazed and breathless, back on my feet. He laughed at my expression. “Perhaps I’ll wait downstairs.”

  “If you want us to leave this room at some point today, that might be wise,” I agreed.

  Picking up my empty mug, he left. I fished out jeans and a sweatshirt and went to take a shower.

  ✽✽✽

  I got a bit lost making my way downstairs, which probably wasn’t surprising given the bewildering number of hallways and staircases combined with the fact that I still hadn’t had a tour. Finally I managed to hit upon a staircase that led to the ground floor, but I appeared to be at the wrong end of the house. I seriously considered swallowing my pride and just phoning Steve to come and find me. The door standing slightly ajar ahead looked familiar though. Wasn’t that the breakfast room? I pushed the door open, only to be confronted by a very masculine sort of study furnished in heavy dark wood, lined with bookcases.

  Magnus looked up from the newspaper he was reading at the huge mahogany desk.

  “I’m so sorry,” I blurted. “I got turned around.”

  “Not to worry,” Magnus said coldly, getting to his feet. “Do come in?”

  “No, no…please don’t let me disturb you,” I said. “We were all about to go out anyway.”

  “Oh really? And who is ‘we’?”

  I wasn’t loving his tone or the way he was once again appraising me, but this was Steve’s dad and I wanted to make a good impression. Assuming such a lofty goal wasn’t lost to me forever. “Steve, Claudia, Craig and me. We’re doing a history thing.”

  “I see.” The corners of Magnus’ mouth tightened. “And you enjoy history, do you?”

  “I’m no expert but I’m not averse to a little history. We can learn a lot from the past.” His attitude was starting to rub me up the wrong way, so I couldn’t help adding, “You certainly seem to set great store by your own family history.”

  A flash of interest mingled with a more fixed dislike in Magnus’ cold eyes. “It’s important to know where one comes from. How else is a beneficiary of a legacy to do justice to his inheritance and bring honour to his forebears?”

  I pursed my lips, unimpressed. “I’ve always thought we had more of a duty to become good ancestors than good descendants.”

  Magnus’ heavy, iron-grey eyebrows pulled together in a puzzled frown that finally allowed me to see some likeness to his son. “Explain, if you would.”

  “Well, it’s like you taking care of your land. You’re not doing it to benefit your ancestors – they’re dead so they can’t benefit from it. But your children can. Presumably that’s how your forefathers saw it too. Keeping things up so that eventually you would have something worth inheriting,” I said.

  Magnus regarded me for a moment. “I confess, I have yet to fully take your measure, Miss Matthews. You have an eager interest in my estate, do you?”

  I looked at him blankly. “It was the example that sprang to mind. I could have just as easily talked about farming practices or greenspaces.”

  “So you’re an environmentalist?”

  “You say it like it’s a bad word, but we all live here. Wouldn’t it be nice to have breathable air? And disease-free animals? And avoid a mass extinction event?” If he couldn’t work me out, I was just as lost with him. “Honestly, I’m an open book. Ask me anything you like.”

  There was a long, tense pause, then Magnus returned to his desk and his newspaper.

  “Perhaps I will take you up on that at some point, Miss Matthews.”

  “Please, call me Amy…”

  “Now, if you’re looking for the front hall, you need to continue down the corridor and take the first left and second right.”

 

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