Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) (25 page)

‘
No, Papa, I will stay. It is not half as bad as I anticipated
and I feel quite excited now I am here with everyone.’

‘
That’s my girl! Alexandre, you stay at the rear with Savas
and Nail.’

‘
Yes, Papa.’

‘
Good. Then let us proceed.’

They made
steady progress, even though they were constantly tempted to stop
and examine all the artefacts and chambers they passed. On reaching
the sixth level, they entered what appeared to be a large storeroom
with many nooks hollowed out of the walls, some containing
earthenware containers. In the corner of the room they saw yet
another staircase leading downwards, but Victoria regretfully
informed the party the time was now five o’clock and they should
head back.

‘
Can we not just go down to the next level?’ Freddie asked.
‘It seems a pity to leave now, when we could quickly see what is
there.’

Tired as he
was, Alexandre hoped they would agree. Papa looked at Maman and
Victoria, who both smiled and nodded.

‘
Very well,’ Papa said. ‘Ten more minutes and then we shall
return. I too am most curious.’

Alexandre was
not disappointed, for on the seventh level they discovered another
great hall, twice the size of the first one. It was more
elaborately designed in a cruciform shape - another church. They
wondered at the stunning frescoed triple-arched ceiling, the ornate
pillars and rows of arches carved into the walls. Alexandre looked
around in awe. It felt strange to be in such an ancient place.

‘
I cannot believe we are here,’ Papa said. ‘It is absolutely
marvellous.’

‘
I know, my darling,’ replied Maman. ‘This will be the find of
the century. Monsieur Bouvier will be delighted.’

‘
To hell with Monsieur Bouvier!’ he exclaimed.

Alexandre
grinned.

‘
Now I see where our eldest son gets his irreverence from,’
Maman laughed.

His father
suddenly frowned. ‘Now where are those blasted boys?’

Alexandre and
his parents looked around the hall, but could see no sign of
Freddie or Jacques.

‘
I knew it was too good to be true. You wait here with the
others. Isik and I will seek them out.’

‘
Jacques!’ Papa shouted.

‘
Papa, we are through here!’ came the reply from a narrow
tunnel at the end of the hall. ‘Come and see what we have found!
You will not believe it!’

Didier entered
the chamber with Isik and saw the two boys gesturing excitedly.
They stood next to row upon row of what appeared to be carved stone
sarcophagi set up on stone pedestals. Jacques and Freddie had
managed to slide one of the lids part way off and were looking at
its contents.

‘
I thought I issued you with strict instructions not to wander
off and not to touch anything,’ Didier said. ‘It is too easy to get
lost down here, boys. Jacques, I am surprised at you.’

‘
Sorry, Papa, but do come and look. We thought it would be
just old bones in here, or a corpse or something, but see, it is a
marvellous statue.’

‘
Sir, I do not think it wise to linger,’ Isik said. ‘We should
leave this place. My other guards will come to search for us if we
do not return on time.’

‘
Yes, Isik, you are right. I will just take a look at this
statue and then we will leave.’ Didier walked over to Jacques and
peered down into the coffin.

‘
My goodness! It is remarkable. Isik, give me a hand to slide
this lid off properly.’

The four of
them heaved and pushed until the stone lid tipped onto the rock
floor with a scrape and clatter. They were greeted with a most
unusual sight. Lying in a cloud of silken material was the stone
statue of a man in full dress, wearing a jewelled turban and rich
green robes.

‘
But I do not understand ...’ Didier fingered the cloth,
puzzled. ‘How can these clothes be so immaculate? They appear new.
Help me with this other one.’

They stepped
over to the adjacent coffin and began to slide another lid off. Yet
again, they were confronted with a lifelike statue dressed in rich
brocaded costume. Didier leaned in to touch the smooth white stone
face and stroke the heavy beaded headwear.

‘
Byzantine I think. Yes, this clothing is from the Byzantine
era. It is the same costume as depicted in the frescoes. We are
talking seventh or eighth century perhaps. Let us look at
another.’

‘
They are so beautiful, so mesmerising.’ Didier gazed at a
bejewelled woman statue with a mustard-coloured robe and golden
girdle. She wore a gorgeous headdress and a beaded mantle in deep
blue. Her pale sculpted face was exquisite and Didier was
hypnotised by her beauty.

‘
We should head back now, Sir,’ Isik said. ‘I really do not
think we should delay further. We can return tomorrow. If we are
too long, my guards will put together a search party.’

Didier did not
reply. Isik noticed he was not moving. Something did not look quite
right.

‘
Sir,’ Isik said. ‘Monsieur Chevalier? Sir!’ He crouched next
to him and then jumped backwards in shock. He shouted to Jacques
and Freddie. ‘Boys, get out! Return to the great hall. Take the
others and start back to the surface immediately. Whatever you hear
from this room, ignore it!’

Chapter
Fifteen

*

When Ben
returned from the cinema, it was eight thirty and Maddy had been
shivering on the front lawn for over forty minutes. His friend’s
mum drove up to the house in a large people carrier. There were
about four or five boys in the back who shouted and waved as Ben
jumped out. Madison stood up and waved her thanks to the boy’s
mother. The woman buzzed down the window and called out to
Maddy.

‘
I won’t stop! Got to deliver these monsters back home. Ben
was a real pleasure, good as gold. He’ll have to come round
sometime. Byee!’

‘
Thanks!’ Maddy shouted back.

‘
Hey, Mads,’ Ben gushed. ‘I had an awesome night. That movie
was immense.’

‘
Glad it was good, Ben.’

‘
You coming in, Mads? Hey the front door’s locked. You got the
key on you?’

‘
Uhhh, no. Don’t worry, the back door’s open.’

‘
Come on then.’ Ben bent down to pull her up off the grass.
Maddy reluctantly let herself be helped to her feet. Well, she had
to go in sometime. She couldn’t stay out here all night, could she?
She supposed she felt marginally better now Ben had come home. Ben,
with his twelve-year-old enthusiastic ordinariness.

Maddy followed
him around the side of the house and they approached the taut cable
that ran from the open cellar window to the Land Rover. Maddy
couldn’t help herself - she gave a small shudder and a scream,
pretending she was mucking about. Linking arms with him, she
shouted:

‘
Come on, Ben. Run!’

Ben laughed.
‘Maddy, you’re a psycho. What you doing? Why are we running?’

‘
Dunno, Ben. But come on, hurry up.’

‘
What’s the Defender doing up there with the rope?’

‘
Oh, I was just trying some stuff out. Don’t worry about
it.’

They jogged
around to the back door, panting and laughing. Maddy’s laughter was
slightly crazed. She took a deep breath before entering the house.
The back door led into the utility room and the cellar door. Maddy
walked straight through to the kitchen and turned on the light. She
closed the utility door behind them. Then she walked into the hall
and flicked that light on, followed by the lounge light. She
switched on the television and put some crappy home makeover show
on. That felt somewhat better - a bit more normality. Every time
the image of the skull came into her mind, she tried to push it out
and concentrate on ordinary things.

‘
You hungry?’ She called to her brother who was in the games
room, potting some balls.

‘
No, we went to Pizza Hut on the way back. I’m
stuffed!’

Maddy returned
to the lounge where she stared at the bright images flickering
across the screen. Still in shock, she had no idea what she was
watching. The minutes ticked by slowly until Ben finally popped his
head around the door and announced he was off to bed.

‘
Wait for me.’ Maddy jumped up from the sofa as if she’d been
electrocuted, switched off the TV and followed Ben up the stairs.
It was much earlier than the hour she usually went to bed, but
there was no way on earth she was staying down here by herself
tonight.

She slept with
the light on, which was weird in itself. Usually she liked to sleep
in total darkness, but tonight her mind played tricks on her and
every creak and rustle she heard, sent her heart racing and made
the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. She tried to tell
herself it was no big deal, all she had found were some old bones
and they couldn’t do anything to her. But in the creaking darkness,
everything felt menacing and surreal.

Maddy had
coped with a lot of things in her life – abandonment, the death of
her mother, separation from Ben and a lot of hostility from a lot
of different people. She had experienced sadness, anger,
frustration and fear. But the feeling rising up in her when she’d
seen that grinning skull had been a primal terror that strangled
all rationality.

She finally
succumbed to sleep sometime after 4am, and endured a series of bad
dreams. The remnants lingered with her when she finally awoke,
giving rise to strange melancholy emotions. However, it was a
relief to see daylight and she showered and dressed, finally
walking apprehensively into the kitchen. She hadn’t had any food at
all last night and her stomach complained even though she didn’t
really feel like eating anything. Maybe she should try to force
down a bit of toast or something. Ben was slouched at the table
eating cereal.

‘
Hey, Mads.’

‘
Hey, Benny Boy,’ she murmured.

‘
You okay?’ he asked. ‘You look rough.’

‘
Didn’t sleep well.’

‘
Why don’t you go back to bed then?’

‘
No, I’m up now.’

Maddy was just
finishing her toast when the doorbell rang. She and Ben looked at
each other across the kitchen table. Neither of them moved to
answer it. The bell chimed again. Maddy groaned and dragged herself
off to answer it while Ben carried on eating. She felt a bad mood
descending. After the excitement and subsequent horror of the
previous day, she now felt exhausted and depressed, mingled with a
pervading unease.

She opened the door and squinted into the sunlight. Travis
stood there with a couple of his friends.
Oh no, what are they doing here?
She
wasn’t in the mood to talk to people, especially not people she
didn’t even know.

‘
Hi,’ she said.

‘
Hi, Maddy.’ Travis looked eager. ‘Hope you don’t mind. I
thought we’d drop by to see you. These are my mates, Kerri and
Taff.’

Maddy looked
past Travis and tried to smile at them. She reluctantly realised
this could be the perfect distraction to jolt her back into
normality.

‘
Yeah, come in.’ She held the door open.

‘
This place is unbelievable,’ Kerri cooed in a strong
Gloucestershire drawl. She had long dyed blonde curls and twinkly
blue eyes, set in a round cherubic face. She was quite large and
busty and looked like she could be a laugh.

‘
It’s wild, man,’ Taff agreed in a broad Welsh accent. He had
straight brown hair in a seventies style, that hung over his eyes
and skimmed the collar of his suede jacket.

They sat in
the kitchen whilst Madison made tea. Kerri wore a royal blue dress
which kept riding up her large white thighs and she tugged
ineffectively at it to try and cover up some of her flesh. She and
Taff were an item and Maddy was sure that bringing them round was
Travis’ unsubtle way of having a double date without actually
asking her out. But they seemed like a nice couple so Maddy didn’t
mind. She started to perk up, the unsettled feelings receding.

‘
So, Maddy, when did you say you were gonna have your next
party?’ Travis asked for the twentieth time.

‘
Ummm, let me think,’ she made a pretence of pondering over
the answer. ‘Never.’

‘
Come on, Maddy, just think, you could be single-handedly
responsible for launching my career.’

‘
It’s launched already,’ Maddy laughed. ‘Don’t try and guilt
trip me. I’m not going through that hassle again.’

‘
Leave the poor girl alone, Travis,’ Kerri reprimanded
him.

‘
Yeah, Trav, stop bullying her. I heard it was a good night,
but you’ll get other chances to DJ, mate.’ Taff stood up and
stretched.

Travis ignored
them and turned back to Maddy. ‘You could charge an entrance fee
next time.’

‘
Shut up, Travis!’ they all shouted and laughed at
him.

‘
Ten points for trying, Travis. But you lose them all for
being so
ann-oy-ing,’
Kerri added.

‘
Fine, fine, I get the message.’

‘
Finally,’ Kerri teased.

Kerri was a
very straightforward girl with no pretensions. Just really easy
going with an outrageous turn of phrase and a very dirty laugh.
Taff was so laid back he was in danger of falling over. He didn’t
speak much, but he had a dry sense of humour that was right on
Maddy’s wave length. They all naturally included Ben in their
conversations too, which immediately endeared them to her.