The Chrysalid Conspiracy (46 page)

Her anger started to rouse itself and was made worse by Rayn, who danced round her. “I told you so, I told you so,” she sang quietly.

Amelia could see that Rayn’s face was beaming and her eyes were moist with emotion. Amelia took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, allowing her shoulders to relax.

Having established her authority over her rebellious emotions, she voiced what secretly had been concerning her all that day.

“Have you seen George today? I’m worried about the way we treated him yesterday.”

“No I haven’t. And yes, I agree. We left him looking like a pathetic old man, and that’s not fair. Despite everything, we owe him a lot. Let’s go and find him and apologise,” suggested Rayn.

“I’d like to, but I have this sudden urge to walk. That way.”

“Out the back of the paddock?” questioned Rayn. “It’s tough going out there. There’s a path the other way.”

Amelia didn’t answer. Instead, she started walking across the grass towards the back of the paddock, where the trees swooped down to the fence and the undergrowth stretched up, soon to embrace the lower branches. Horace, magnificent in his show harness and brasses and posing for photographs all morning stopped eating and looked towards Rayn. He swung his head in Amelia’s direction, as if to say ‘Go on then’. Rayn gave a shrug of resignation and followed.

The two girls, Amelia leading, climbed the fence and forced their way through the thorns and nettles in silence. Rayn filed away her complaints till a better time and watched out for the backlash of Amelia’s by now almost urgent progress. They found themselves in what Amelia could only describe as a ‘woodland glade’ and the pale sun came out right on cue.

In the centre of the clearing there was a plastic garden table laden with food and drinks, hardly touched, with wine and glasses. Of the four chairs, two were occupied by Dr Barrenborn and Miss Collins. The girls stared in amazement. Both women were dressed in the country uniform of green Wellingtons, jeans and waterproof jackets. They’d walked down from the Hall.

“Dr Barrenborn, Miss Collins,” said Amelia, a little unsure of herself. “What on earth are you doing here? You could have joined us, you know.”

“Ah, Rayn and Amelia,” replied Dr. Barrenborn. “I hoped you would find us. How nice to see you again. Thank you for the invitation, be we didn’t want to intrude, and I’m afraid Mrs Mgee was complicit in this little deception. I just thought it was time for us to have a little talk.”

Her voice was gentle but compelling, almost musical, with a warm smile, which quickly seduced Amelia’s intellect. Rayn, however, was on full alert as usual, looking for the hook that would be used to draw them in. What distracted her was the slim cigar that Dr Barrenborn was smoking. When she was offered one she quickly reassessed her priorities and her addiction took over as she accepted.

“You know we are under age, don’t you?” Amelia said, appalled as Rayn lit up. Miss Collins poured two more glasses of wine while the doctor explained her reasoning.

“Only chronologically. Physically, you are both way ahead of the pack. Would you like some wine?”

Both girls declined, sharing a growing unease.

“No thank you, Dr Barrenborn,” they said, almost in unison.

“Oh, please, call me Maddy. Dr Barrenborn is such a mouthful. And this is Alyson, my housekeeper.” Miss Collins nodded in agreement.

“I owe that Miss Dempsey a crack on the shins for tripping me when I tried to get to Professor Melkins. Please tell me about your school desertion incident,” said Miss Collins. Amelia grinned and looked at Rayn, who took this as an invitation to enjoy herself. Rayn’s outrageous exaggerations didn’t fool anybody but it did make them laugh, even Amelia, but she sensed that Maddy could ‘see’ the truth behind it all.

Amelia laughed with them and then asked, “What did you want to talk to us about, Doctor… sorry, Maddy?” She was eager to find out what this was really about.

“We wanted to ask you a couple of questions, if that would be all right,” interjected Alyson.

“A couple of what?” Rayn laughed. “What about the million and a half we want to ask you?”

“Steady Rayn,” warned Amelia. “Let’s see where this goes.”

“Okay then,” she replied. Then, in a flash of inspiration, she added, “How about question for question? Then we get something back.”

“We’re not your enemy, Rayn,” said Alyson, in her firm teacher’s voice.

“It’s all right, Alyson,” said Maddy. “Rayn, use your ‘Astral Flow’ techniques and then you’ll know we are not lying.”

Rayn was physically jolted by this revelation. For a moment she lost all confidence and some of the cockiness went out of her voice. “You’ve read that book?” Rayn couldn’t believe it.

“Actually, I wrote it,” declared the doctor, “but that’s not relevant at the moment. Can we just ask the questions and see where it gets us?”

“In answer to your first question,” Amelia smiled, knowing what their reaction would be. “Professor Melkins’ book is a work of almost genius.”

“How on earth…?” stared Alyson.

Maddy broke in. “How she knows isn’t important, Alyson,” she said.

Alyson was determined to defend herself. “But I read that book over and over from cover to cover. It’s nonsense,” she exclaimed.

“Only because you didn’t have the cover, its two books cleverly combined to look nonsense. I found the key inside that old leather cover. Once you get that, one story gets pretty interesting.”

Alyson looked devastated. “The hours I spent trying…” she said, but was suddenly over-ruled.

“Hey, how come you have a copy? I thought Amelia’s was the only one?” interjected Rayn

“I photocopied it when I worked for him. Then destroyed it,” Alyson replied.

“You don’t know how relieved I am to hear that you made some progress, Amelia. Could I ask you your conclusions?” enquired Maddy, in her calm, steady manner, even though Amelia’s extra sense told her the doctor was thrilled and elated by the news.

“Sorry Maddy. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” She spoke in the same calm voice, as if this was pleasant idle chatter.

“Then can I ask you to destroy it, please? It’s very important.”

“Sorry again. I can’t do that either,” Amelia smiled.

“Then do you mind if I ask you why you won’t help us?”

“That’s three questions to none,” chipped in Rayn, purely as a point of observation.

“Of course,” said Amelia, maintaining her polite manner. “Look at it from our perspective. We don’t know you, or who or what you are. You seem to be at the top end of this intriguing food chain, but Rayn and I have been deliberately kept in the dark as to what’s going on and who’s doing what to whom.”

“That’s just one of the dilemmas we face,” added Rayn. “Everything we know or think we know we’ve had to figure out for ourselves. So why should we trust anybody now?”

“And we don’t know how good you are at whatever it is you are doing,” continued Amelia, “because someone has made some pretty simple mistakes. We don’t even know how much, if any, has been contrived to make us think it’s our own doing.”

“So you can see what sort of a quandary that puts us in over who to trust,” Rayn finished.

Alyson broke in, almost hostile by contrast. “I can’t imagine Dr Barrenborn making any mistakes,” she argued.

“Really?” Rayn fired off. By her body language Amelia knew that the gloves were off, and it was going to be a rough ride. “Then how come you think that there are only three sides to whatever this is? You aren’t even aware that there’s probably a fourth and much more deadly element with its own agenda.” Rayn spoke directly to Alyson. She had been offended by her use of Maddy’s formal title as a means of establishing her authority and considered it an insult to her intelligence. She was ready to fight.

“More to the point,” Amelia responded quickly to head off Rayn’s advancing tirade. “Until someone we trust says it’s okay, we just can’t help you. I’m sorry.”

“I must apologise,” Maddy retreated. “I deserved that, and you are right to be suspicious. We’ve handled this badly. I’m sorry.”

“And I’m sorry too. We have to go now. We have to help clear up and I must get ready to visit my mother in hospital this evening. So if you will excuse us.”

“Lucy’s at the Hall, Amelia,” said Maddy suddenly. “I meant to tell you. We have better facilities and it’s a lot safer. I’ll send a car for you.”

“You what!?” Amelia rounded on the doctor. All the anger and frustration she’d been struggling to control since her mother’s collapse finally burst through. She was furious. “Who the hell do you think you are? Who’s with her now?” she almost screamed.

“She’s perfectly all right, Amelia,” Alyson tried to reassure her. “George is there, with Gabrielle Orugo and Lorraine. Why?”

Amelia stared at Rayn, her face contorted by fear and pain. “Rayn,” she almost choked on her own words. “Cellos, Mum, the dream. Oh God!” she cried. Turning back to the two women, who were completely astounded at what seemed to be irrational behaviour on the part of Amelia.

“You fools. Lorraine’s here,” Amelia shouted.

“Amelia Jaxson! How dare you say…” said Alyson.

Amelia cut her off in mid-sentence. “Where’s Ryxyl?” she snapped at her.

“I’m not going to allow you to speak to me like that…” but again she was silenced.

“SHUT UP AND ANSWER THE DAMNED QUESTION.” It was Rayn this time.

Dr Barrenborn was quick to respond, becoming aware that this was not rebellious anger or arrogance. There was something very wrong.

“Ryxyl? She offered to take over to allow Lorraine the day off,” she explained. “And to give Alyson and I time to come and see you. Why, Amelia? What is it?”

Amelia was already moving. She crashed through the table scattering food, drinks and Rayn in all directions.

“Go, Amelia. I’ll catch you up,” Rayn shouted at the retreating figure, as she tried to untangle herself from her chair and wipe the coleslaw from her face.

Maddy had at last lost her calm confident manner and shouted after Amelia. “What’s wrong? Where are you going?”

Rayn looked up at her from the ground, her reasoning only a split second behind her friends.

“The fourth element,” she answered her. “It’s Ryxyl.”

“Ryxyl? It can’t be. You must be mistaken. It’s ridiculous. She’s been with me for years. I’d trust her with my life.”

“And what about Lucy’s life? Damn you, she’s already tried to kill her once,” she said as she rolled over and was up and running, following Amelia into the woods.

Totally focused on her mother, Amelia ran through the thick undergrowth at full speed. Her supple body twisting and turning to avoid the low branches, she leapt over or through the shrubs and brambles. The woods, ignoring her plight, seemed to snag and lash at her clothing in a bid to slow her down. It was like her dreams, only this time she was supremely confident with her athletic abilities.

Suddenly she reached the fence that she and Rayn had climbed over. Not even hesitating, she leapt. With one foot on the top rung, her momentum took her out into the paddock.

Two things occurred to her simultaneously during that short flight. One was that she had no way of reaching the Hall quickly as they had no cars with them. The other was how odd it was that Horace was standing exactly where he was at that precise moment. She landed astride on his shoulders, the extremely painful jolt knocking the breath out of her.

There was no time to look for answers. Horace took off at a gallop. To save herself from rolling back, she grabbed handfuls of his mane and hung on tight. Never having been on a horse before, she had no experience of counter balance or anticipating the movements.

There’s obviously a gap in my education.
She thought.
Surely someone should have anticipated the need for riding.

As Horace left the ground for a magnificent clearance of the gate, Amelia was thrown around like a rag doll. Her only contact with him was with her hands in his long flowing mane and when he finally touched down she was, once again, slammed onto his broad back. Her fingers felt as if they were being torn off but, strangely, all she could think of was “Why am I wearing cowboy boots?”

Suddenly they were racing through the campsite and she only managed a glimpse of floundering bodies scattering in all directions. All five children were whooping and cheering like crazy.

As Horace headed into the woods towards the iron bridge she became aware that the pin holding her over-tight jeans together had relinquished its responsibilities and retired from active service. The fact that her backside was now hanging out she considered a low priority, but at least it afforded her greater freedom of movement.

The noises from the campsite receded as she survived the dash through the woods, which were now becoming less dense, and out on to the iron bridge, which protested loudly as they thundered across it. Horace swung left into the Tetherington Hall driveway with Amelia wondering how he knew where to go, and they settled in for the long haul up the hill. On firm level ground the ride became easier and she managed to pull herself up onto Horace’s neck and grip with her knees. How this great lumbering animal, which stood at eighteen hands, could move with such grace and speed amazed her.

The woods and overhanging trees gave way to well-kept lawns and random flowerbeds. Horace veered off the drive and galloped across to a huge nineteenth century, grandiose mansion, his giant hooves gouging out great lumps of broken turf divits in his wake,

Amelia didn’t have the time or the inclination to take in the wonderful architecture or the landscaped gardens. The agony of running up the wide stone steps while pulling her jeans up and tightening her belt after the beating Horace had given her took all her attention.

Speeding across a wide balcony and through a wide-open pair of glass-panelled doors she found herself in what she could only describe as a hotel reception area. It was a large room the size of a sports hall. The ceiling and walls were plainly decorated, with no arches or statues, and none of the intricate decoration favoured by the Victorians. A series of long chains supported neon lights.