The Macbeth Prophecy (28 page)

“But –”

“Don't worry about me, Jason, nothing's likely to happen yet. Mr Hardacre said ‘a month or so'; it could be another two weeks, and you'll be back long before that.”

He said worriedly, “I hope you're right, because there's no time to make contingency plans – I'll have to leave right away. Oh God, darling, promise me you'll take care. I'll phone every evening and you can get me at this number if you need me.” He jotted it down on the flap of his cigarette pack. “Now, are you sure – ?”

“Go on with you!” She forced a smile and gave him a little push towards the door, but moments later, as he backed the car out of the gate, a wave of desolation swamped her and it took all her courage to keep the smile in place until he was out of sight.

Reassured that Madeleine was safe for the moment, fear for his son blotted everything else from Jason's mind as he fought his way down the motorway, solid with returning holidaymakers. Jam after jam, hold-up after hold-up. The hands of his watch crept steadily round and round the dial, and he cursed the fact that, thinking he'd not need it on holiday, he'd left his mobile phone at the London flat.

When at last he reached the Ml, he stopped at a service station to fill up with petrol and phone the hospital. There was no change in Alexander's condition. “Tell Mrs Quinn I'll be there in a couple of hours,” he said.

Penelope was waiting for him and went straight into his arms. “Oh Jason, I'm so frightened!”

Alexander lay in a screened-off bed at one end of a ward. A nurse was sitting beside him but she stood up as they pulled back the curtain.

“We'll take over for a while,” Penelope said with a strained smile.

“Of course, Mrs Quinn. I'll bring another chair.”

They sat close together, Penelope gripping Jason's hand. “He looks so little!” she said with a break in her voice.

“Hasn't he come round at all since it happened?”

She shook her head. “They were playing at Lynton Park. The first thing I knew was when the games master phoned from the hospital.”

“Where's Emily?”

“With a school-friend. She'd gone there for tea so I rang the mother and asked if she could stay.”

“He'll be all right, Pen. Children are tougher than they look; they're always knocking themselves out.”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” She drew a deep breath. “We should keep talking, I think, because our voices might get through to him. So tell me what you've been doing since you phoned. As you didn't ring back I presume you found someone else to talk to?”

He smiled. “Yes. Actually things are hotting up at the moment.”

“Did you find out who killed her?”

“What?”

“The chambermaid – I thought you were trying to discover who killed her?”

Jason realized with surprise that he hadn't spared a thought for Patsy Lennard for some time. “Among other things, yes, but there's not much progress there. It's the twins I've been concentrating on.”

“Oh yes, the twins. A classical connection! Didn't Jason take Castor and Pollux with him on the Argo?”

“If he did, I hope they gave him less trouble than I'm having.”

“With the little boys Ted saw?”

“Among others. There are no fewer than five pairs of identical twins in Crowthorpe.”

“Good grief! That's unusual, surely?”

“Very unusual. And not a little sinister.”

They were interrupted by one of the doctors who came to check Alexander's condition. When he'd finished he said kindly, “I think it would be as well if you both went home and had some sleep. This could be a long job and I'm quite sure there'll be no developments during the night. If there were, we should contact you immediately.”

Penelope hesitated. “I'd rather stay.”

“As you like, of course, but there's nothing you can do at the moment. Later, we might well be glad of your help and you'll want to be fresh for that.”

“The doctor's right, dear,” Jason said gently. “Let me take you home.”

As they drew up outside the house in Blackheath, Penelope said, “You'll stay here, won't you, since Tania's still in France?”

“If I may. I want to be on hand.”

“You can have Alexander's room.”

It was after midnight but the night was still warm. He followed her into the dark, quiet house.

“Would you like a drink?”

“An excellent idea. It'll help us to sleep.”

They sat in the sitting-room, its uncurtained windows giving on to the darkness of the garden and reflecting back their images.

“Tania's asked for a divorce,” Jason said suddenly. “Oh no!”

“It's been on the cards for some time.”

“I'm so sorry.”

He shrugged and put his glass down while he lit a cigarette. “It's more of a relief than anything.”

“Is that what you said about me?”

“Pen, I'm sorry. I'm a callous devil. Of course it wasn't.”

“I'm sorry too. Put it down to exhaustion.”

“We should go to bed.”

When she had left him he went to the little room which belonged to his son, his eyes moving over the model aeroplanes on a table and framed photographs of the school First XI with Alex himself proudly in the centre. On a chair was the rumpled T-shirt he had presumably discarded when he changed into cricket whites that afternoon. Jason picked it up and clenched it tightly in his hand. So many dangers seemed to be hovering over those he loved, and his new vulnerability left him no armour to withstand their menace. God keep them safe, he thought, and wearily began to prepare for bed.

Up in Crowthorpe the days crawled by. The airlessness persisted, clothes stuck to hot bodies and tempers frayed. Mr and Mrs Staveley, unaware of their niece's misgivings, duly left for their holiday in Cornwall.

Madeleine watched them go with a feeling of dread, yet there was nothing concrete she could put forward to delay their longed-for break. Keep away from the Selbys, Jason had told her, but now school had broken up she and Matthew would have long days to put in at Rowan House, and if she continually refused to see him, he might begin to guess at her reasons.

All of this she tried to hide from Jason during his nightly telephone calls. It seemed that far more than three hundred miles separated them. He was tense and preoccupied, deeply concerned about his son's continuing coma, and she reflected that his ex-wife and child had far more claim on him than she had. Perhaps, back in London, he would realize that their brief happiness together had no real substance.

“You're sure you're all right?” he would say brusquely, and repeatedly she assured him that she was. Possibly Penelope was in the room when he phoned. Certainly there was nothing she could not have overheard in their stilted conversations.

But on the Wednesday, for the first time Jason sounded guardedly optimistic. “The doctors think he's coming out of it. We should know in a day or two.”

“Thank God! How – how's your ex-wife?”

“She's been wonderful. What about you? Any developments up there?”

“No, things are just the same. We had a card from Cornwall today.”

“Hell, I'd forgotten the Staveleys were away.” His voice sharpened. “And school must have broken up, too. Has Matthew been round?”

“He suggested a picnic but I managed to put it off. I'm taking Deidre out tomorrow, so that'll be a help.”

For the first time he was aware of the anxiety behind her determined cheerfulness. With his attention exclusively focused on Alex, he hadn't appreciated the extent to which, for his sake, she'd been playing down her fears. Out of that awareness and a resurgence of love and fear, he said urgently, “I miss you, Madeleine.”

“Me too.”

“Just another couple of days, darling. I should be back by the weekend.”

Penelope came into the room as he put down the phone. “I do wish you wouldn't leave money there every night, like a lodger!”

“I am a lodger!”

“Who is it you keep phoning, anyway?”

“Madeleine Peachey, Mrs Staveley's niece. I need to keep in touch.”

“You said before things were hotting up. Tell me about it.”

So he told her the whole story as it had unfolded for him and she listened carefully, her eyes on his face.

“No wonder you're worried,” she commented when he finished. “Are they all insane?”

“I wish I knew. They're certainly dangerous.”

“And this girl Madeleine; do you think they'll harm her?”

“Not intentionally, but she could get hurt. I'm damn sure she figures in their plans.”

“You're in love with her, aren't you?”

He met her eyes. “Does it show that much?”

“I noticed at once that you seemed different, but I was too upset to wonder why. Does she love you?”

“Yes, thank God!”

“So how are you going to protect her?”

“Try to persuade her to go into hiding while I sort things out.”

“She can come to us if you like.”

“You wouldn't mind?”

“Why should I? I'll be fascinated to meet a girl who can wreak such a change in you! But I'm sorry I dragged you away at such a critical time. Thanks for staying, Jason. I couldn't have got through this week without you.”

He bent and kissed her cheek. “What are ex-husbands for?” he said.

“Meddling again?”

The Smith boys spun round to see Granny Lee in the caravan doorway, the huge bird balanced on her shoulder, wings outspread.

“We picked you some herbs, Granny,” Kim said quickly, holding out the bunch he'd brought for just such a contingency.

She brushed the excuse aside and advanced on them, black and menacing.

“Spies! Traitors, betrayin' yer own! Yer
Crows
, ye hear me? Never been twins in our family, nor wouldn't be now wi'out Artio's meddlin'! Ye were promised to
me
– it were in the cards – Nell's third child wi' special powers, like in the oud times.” Her voice rose in a shrill paroxysm of fury. “But he split ye in the womb, one fine babby into two scrawny mites, and stole ye for his own!”

Her eyes were glittering and the boys, backed into a corner, instinctively raised their arms to ward her off.

“It'll come to nowt, all this plotting and planning! I'm more'n a match for the ten of ye! The power will be divided again, and the Bears lost for ever!”

She flung out her arm and the great crow, unseated, fluttered forward. Ducking, the two boys raced for the door and clattered down the steps to safety.

“Mummy? My head hurts!”

Penelope bent and slid her arms under the little body. “I'm not surprised, my darling! Oh Alex – thank God!”

Alexander's eyes went to the tall figure of his father. “Daddy, I made fifteen, not out!”

“Very creditable,” Jason said, “but you were certainly ‘out', my lad! “Alex, I have to go back to Crowthorpe now. But I'll be home in a couple of weeks, and you and Emily and Mummy and I are going to get to know each other a lot better. Right?”

Penelope reached up a hand. Jason took it and bent to kiss her. “All right with you too?”

“Wonderful. Give my love to Madeleine. I'm looking forward to meeting her.”

At last he was free to go, and with the anxiety for Alex removed, Crowthorpe and all its dangers came surging to the forefront of his mind. Friday afternoon, and London full of shoppers and tourists. The traffic lights were all against him and as he fumed helplessly he became aware of growing unease. Impatiently he pushed it aside. He might have changed, as Penelope informed him, but not, please God, to the extent where he accepted presentiments of doom! He put his foot down and shot through the next set of lights on amber. Once on the Ml he should be able to make good time.

Eve said, “I hope they'll be calmer than they were last time.”

“Don't count on it,” Philip warned her. “They know as well as we do that this is D-day.”

“You told the staff what time to expect us?”

“Yes, about four. They'll have time for a rest when we get back.”

“Douglas isn't at all happy about their staying with us. He hasn't said much, bless him, because he doesn't want to sound unchristian, but I can tell he's apprehensive.”

“If the worst comes to the worst we can sedate them, but we need all their faculties for tonight.”

“I can't believe it, can you?” Eve's voice trembled. “Tonight! After all these years, the time has finally come!”

“All these years,” Philip repeated softly. “Several thousand of them!”

“You think she knows, the Crow?”

“Almost certainly. The boys said she was rambling on about it yesterday.”

“What will she do?”

“There's nothing she can do. The power we've amassed will far outweigh hers.”

Eve looked across the still, grey waters of Lake Windermere as they drove alongside. “What's happened to the blue sky we've been seeing all week? It's even closer today.” She ran a finger round the neckline of her dress.

“We could do with a good storm to clear the air. I shouldn't be surprised if it's on its way. At least it would keep people indoors and we could start that much earlier. We want it all over by midnight, while it's still the first of August.”

She looked at him curiously. “Have you any idea what's likely to happen?”

“Not really.” His voice shook with suppressed excitement. “We can begin as we did the other evening and see how it goes. The Crow is certain to be there for her feast day. She might set things in motion herself.”

The first drops of rain were falling as Jason came out of the motorway café where, having had no lunch, he had stopped for coffee and sandwiches. By now his disquiet had grown to an extent where it overshadowed everything and, conscious of an urgent need to speak to Madeleine, he turned into one of the telephone alcoves. Her voice in his ear brought profound relief. “Nothing's happened, has it?”