Storm Child (14 page)

‘Well…’ Polly said carelessly,
‘you might be dead soon. I was just giving you a sort of consolation.’

Isaac grinned broadly
again.  He hooked Polly by the waist and drew her back into him. This time
he gently brushed a curl from her face and kissed her tenderly. ‘Might there be
more consolation if I manage to get back out?’

‘Not
bloomin
’
likely,’ Polly snapped, but around her lips there was the ghost of a
smile.  She pushed him away and straightened her dress. ‘Now go and see
Ern before we all die of old age.’

Isaac sprinted up the driveway
and veered off towards the courtyard at the rear of the house.  As soon as
he was out of sight, Polly turned to the others. ‘If he thinks he’s
leavin
’ me out here while he does all the important work he
can think again.’

‘What are you
goin
’
to do?’ Annie asked, her eyes wide and fearful.

‘I’m
goin
’
to find a big pan and make sure I’m ready to knock
ol
’
Ern out if he tries any more funny business. You two stay here and wait.’

Hitching up her skirts, she
marched towards the house in the direction that Isaac had just taken.

Charlotte looked at Annie. ‘We
can’t just let them go in there alone.’

‘Polly said to stay here.’

‘Polly is not in charge of me.’

‘You don’t know Polly,’ Annie
replied darkly. ‘If you’re in her company, then she’s in charge of you.’

Charlotte was about to reply when
her attention was drawn to a figure sprinting down the path towards them. 

Isaac drew level panting. 
‘It looks like we don’t need to worry about Ernesto after all.’ Charlotte and
Annie exchanged confused looks. ‘You’d better come inside, and quick,’ Isaac
added, glancing around with a worried expression. ‘We don’t want anyone to see
us here now.’

‘Why not?’ Annie asked. ‘People
see us here all the time.’

‘When you see what’s happened,’
Isaac said, ushering them through the gates, ‘you’ll realise that
ain’t
a good thing.’

Twenty

Inside the study, the dusty old curtains were still
drawn.  Polly stood next to Ernesto’s chair staring at him. Ernesto
appeared to be asleep – his head lolling onto one shoulder and his arm dangling
over the edge of the seat.  But something didn’t look quite right about
the scene, and a couple moments closer inspection revealed more sinister
details: purple marks around his neck and a bloodless pallor.

‘Is he breathing?’ Charlotte
whispered.

Polly shook her head.

‘He’s dead?’ Annie whimpered,
looking as
thought
she may faint at any moment.

Polly nodded. For the first time
in her life, it seemed, she was speechless.

‘But I don’t reckon he went
peacefully,’ Isaac said with a grimace.

Charlotte’s eyes raked the room.
‘Everything seems to be tidy.’

‘What does that matter?’ Isaac
asked.

‘Well… you’d think if he was
murdered there would be signs of a struggle.’

Isaac shrugged. ‘Depends on how
he was murdered, don’t it?’

Everyone was quiet as their
attention returned to the body. 

‘The Brethren…’ Polly finally
spoke into the silence.

Annie dropped to her knees, her
eyes wide. ‘The people that did this have got my sister…’

Charlotte knelt beside her.
‘Perhaps. But we don’t know that for certain. And besides which, this cult –
this…
Brethren
– must need her for something so she will be safe for
now.’

‘The prophecy,’ Annie said
quietly, unable to tear her eyes from Ernesto’s body. ‘I heard them talk of it.
They said they wanted Her Majesty dead and then the only other thing they
needed was the black-haired witch-child of the prophecy and then they could
take power.’

‘So she’s supposed to lead them
or something?’ Charlotte asked with a look of utter confusion. The day’s
revelations were getting stranger and stranger.

‘That’s why I had to hide her
away.’ Annie turned to Charlotte. ‘That’s why I had to leave her with you. She
weren’t meant to be found. She weren’t meant to be the child they were looking
for.’

‘But she’ll be alive!’ Charlotte
grasped her hand and gave an encouraging smile. ‘She’ll be cared for because
they need her.’

Annie shook her head in a tiny
movement. ‘No… they need her out of the way.’

‘So they’ll have her prisoner?’

‘They want her dead,’ Polly cut
in.

Everyone turned to her. ‘How do
you know that?’

Polly swallowed hard and took a
deep breath. ‘Before, I didn’t know what Ernesto intended, I swear. But as soon
as he told me where the nipper was ‘
eading
, I knew I
done wrong. I heard talk of the Brethren on the streets and it
ain’t
good. They’ve been searching for years for magical
kids of a certain age and they get rid of them good an’ proper. Nobody knows
why or how or where, but everyone knows they do it.  But now
we
know why. If they knew this prophecy business, then they were looking for the
witch that was mentioned in it. I’ll bet you half Ern’s mansion that all the
missing children are girls with black hair.’

Annie’s eyes filled with tears.
‘I’ve lost her.’

‘No,’ Isaac cut in. ‘I reckon
anyone who calls themselves
The Brethren
like a bit of pomp. They won’t
just slit her throat…’ he paused as Annie whimpered. ‘Sorry, Annie, I mean,
they won’t do anything with her yet. They’ll want to make a fuss, do rituals
and whatnot.  They probably have to wait for magical times of the day or
year and all that. She could still be alive right now.’

‘But the Queen is already dead,’
Annie cried. ‘There’s only Georgina in their way now!’

‘We don’t know that it’s
Georgina,’ Isaac shot back. ‘They don’t know it is either. They might want to
do away with her but they don’t know for sure they have the right girl. They
might never have the right girl and they must realise that.’

‘That doesn’t matter,’ Charlotte
cut in. ‘I agree with Annie, uncertainty won’t stay their hand and it’s too big
a risk to take with Georgina’s life to trust that it will.’

Isaac sighed and shoved a hand
through his hair. ‘We’re wasting time. We need to find out where she is…’ he
nodded his head at Ernesto, ‘and he
ain’t
tellin
’ us. So we need to think of another way of finding
her.’

‘Perhaps there will be letters,
paperwork, something documented in this room to help us?’ Charlotte suggested.

‘Not likely,’ Polly replied with
a barely disguised sneer. ‘Ern weren’t that green.’

Charlotte narrowed her eyes. ‘You
can’t read.’

‘What’s that got to do with the
price of eggs?’

‘None of you can read?’ Charlotte
continued, ignoring Polly’s rebuke and searching the faces of her other
companions. Both Annie and Isaac shook their heads. ‘So why would Ernesto have
to be concerned about you finding any of his documents? It would mean nothing
to you.’

‘If the Brethren have been and
taken care of him, then they’ll have taken any papers mentioning them too, you
can bet your life,’ Isaac replied. 

Polly flew to the desk and began
to feel underneath it with a slow smile. ‘Not if they don’t know about this…’ A
second later there was a click, and a shallow drawer slid out. Polly stood back
and clamped her hands on her hips with a triumphant look. ‘Secret compartment.
Ol
’ Ernesto might have been clever, but you have to get up
with the crowing of the cock to keep up with me.’

Charlotte went to the desk,
giving Ernesto’s body as wide a berth as it was possible to give, and gathered
up the papers that Polly had just uncovered.  Taking them around to the
other side of the desk, she spread them out and began to read, Polly and Isaac
standing to look over her shoulder.  Quite why they were looking, neither
of them was sure. It wasn’t as if they could read them, but it seemed that some
kind of show of support was in order.

‘What do they say?’ Annie asked
from her spot on the floor. Her tone was one of utter defeat.

‘I need a moment…’ Charlotte
replied vaguely, still poring over the contents of the documents. ‘It’s all
written in such archaic English, and some of it doesn’t look like English at
all.’

‘That’ll be the Old Language –
words of magic,’ Annie said flatly. ‘Mama could read it but she never taught
me.’ 

‘They can’t be Ernesto’s papers
then,’ Polly cut in. ‘He don’t know none of that.’

‘Maybe they belong to the Brethren,’
Isaac said.

‘Why would they be here?’
Charlotte replied. ‘That makes no sense.’

Polly shook back her curls and
glanced at the silent body in the chair. ‘Ernesto weren’t stupid. He knew that
he were dealing with rum coves and there were no guarantees he would get his
payment for turning Georgina over. He might have stolen these papers, for
insurance or something in case things went badly for him.’

‘You reckon they came here to get
them back and killed him then?’ Isaac asked.

Polly shook her head. ‘Like
Charlotte says, there’s no mess. I don’t think they knew he had them. I think
death
was
his payment for handing Georgina over.’

‘To shut him up?’

Polly nodded.  She turned
back to Charlotte who had resumed her reading. ‘What can you tell from them?’

‘Not much,’ Charlotte said
without looking up. ‘It’s difficult to make any sense of any of it. But I think
these are writings about the prophecy itself, and most of it we’ve already
pieced together ourselves.’

‘So they don’t give us any clues about
where the Brethren will be?’

‘They don’t seem to. Nor about
whom they are either.’

‘Perhaps the prophecy will give
us some clues?’ Isaac said.

‘It isn’t really the prophecy as
such, but writings that pertain to it.’ Charlotte paused and gazed at Isaac.
‘One thing is clear, they are obsessed with power. Assassinating the Queen and
seizing control of the empire was only the beginning of their plans, from what
I can tell here. But they also seem rather fixed on this idea that an infant
will somehow bring about their downfall and are determined to prevent that from
happening.’ She frowned. ‘I still don’t really understand how a baby such as
Georgina would be able to do that. Apart from remarkable progress in her growth
and skills, there was nothing extraordinarily powerful about her.’ 

‘Unless there’s
somethin
’ Annie
ain’t
telling
us,’ Polly cut in, looking at Annie.

‘There’s
nothin
’
other than she has magic, which you already know,’ Annie replied. ‘There
ain’t
no point in hiding
anythin
’
from you now.’

Charlotte had resumed her reading
and held up a hand to silence them. ‘Isaac was right about pomp. There are some
details of a ritual here for…’ she glanced up at Annie with such sadness in her
eyes that it seemed her heart was about to break.

‘I know what you’re
goin
’ to say,’ Annie said quietly.

Charlotte drew a deep breath.
‘But the ritual takes days to perform. So it means she should still be alive
for now. Although… I cannot say that she won’t have endured some torment.’

Annie gave a weak nod of understanding.

‘All the more reason we find out
where she is as quick as can be,’ Isaac interrupted. ‘So we’d better get
thinking about it.’

Polly’s eyebrows knit together.
‘Annie, what about
your
magic? I know you said only
animals and healing, but there must be
somethin
’ it
can do?’

Annie shrugged. ‘I suppose I
could call on help. A bird or some such to search?’

‘How would you be able to explain
to a bird what they’re
lookin
’ for? Unless you can
put your thoughts of what Georgina looks like in their heads.’

‘I can’t do that.’ 

‘So…’ Charlotte offered, ‘we need
to think of a way an animal can track her without knowing what she or the
Brethren or their lair look like.’

‘Could Chester do it?’ Isaac
asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Polly said
doubtfully. ‘Do horses track things? You want
somethin
’
like a dog probably.’

‘
Somethin
’
exactly like a dog…’ Isaac smiled. ‘Or a
wolf
…’  He turned to
Annie. ‘Have you got anything that smells of Georgie?’

Annie leapt up, a new sense of
purpose in her expression. ‘I have her old blanket,’ she called breathlessly as
she raced from the room to fetch it.

‘You’re surely not
goin
’ to let Ern’s wolves out?’ Polly snapped.

‘That’s exactly what we’re
goin
’ to do.’

Polly folded her arms. ‘I’d
better get the seasoning then because they’re about to get their dinner.’

Isaac strode across to her and
took her by the shoulders, gazing into her eyes. ‘If Annie can use her magic on
animals then she can get the wolves to track the nipper. It’s worth a go,
ain’t
it?’

‘What if the wolves don’t want to
track the nipper? What if they’d rather
eat
the nipper… after they’ve
finished
eatin
’ us?’

Isaac smiled faintly as he kissed
her. ‘
Ain’t
like you to be scared.’

‘I’m not scared,’ Polly pouted.
‘It’s just someone’s got to use their noggin’ around here. And you can stop
that kissing nonsense as well. You’ve had enough for one day. You got to die
three times over to deserve what you’ve already had.’

Isaac laughed and then pulled her
into another one. ‘Annie will do it, you’ll see.  She’s got us out of more
than one jam before, don’t forget.’

‘I hope you’re right or I’ll see
to what Ern couldn’t.’

Isaac gave a tight grin. ‘That’s
my Poll.’

‘Wolves?’ Charlotte asked
uncertainly.

‘Ern keeps some, at the back of the
house.’ Polly disentangled herself from Isaac’s embrace.

Charlotte’s eyes widened. ‘He
keeps
wolves
?’ Isaac and Polly both nodded. ‘In that case, I have to say
that I agree with Polly on this occasion,’ Charlotte ventured.

Polly scowled. ‘
On this occasion
?
What was wrong with the other occasions?’

‘I just mean that we haven’t
always seen eye to eye,’ Charlotte said hastily. ‘I mean to say that on this
occasion I have serious reservations about using wolves.’ She shuddered.
‘Georgina and I were attacked by a wolf not so long ago and we barely escaped
with our lives. It didn’t look like a creature you could reason with.’

‘Nobody said
anythin
’
about reasoning with it,’ Isaac said. ‘If Annie’s magic is as good as I think
it is, the wolves won’t have a choice.’

Charlotte shook her head, clearly
still unconvinced. ‘One wolf is dangerous enough. A pack of them, twisted by
years of unnatural captivity, would take magic of the most potent kind.’

‘Then we’d better hope that magic
of the most potent kind is exactly what young Annie has got,’ Polly said,
shooting a loaded glance at Isaac.

Annie returned, thrusting a
tattered, knitted blanket at Isaac. ‘Here it is!’

‘Good girl,’ Isaac said, putting
his nose to it and sniffing. ‘Nice and smelly. Should be perfect.’

Annie frowned slightly. ‘It’s not
Georgina’s fault.’

‘No, smelly is good,’ Isaac
smiled. ‘The smellier the better.’ He put a hand on her shoulder and held her
in a measured gaze. ‘Do you think you can do this?’

Annie nodded uncertainly. ‘I
think so. Whether I can or can’t I don’t have a choice.’

‘Good girl, that’s the spirit.’

‘Do you think we should all go
into the wolf den whilst Annie casts her spell?’ Charlotte asked hesitantly.

Polly rested her hands on the
fullest part of her skirt and glared at Charlotte. ‘What’s the matter? You
scared?’