The Father's House (20 page)

On that same Friday morning Lucy dragged herself reluctantly to school. She kept to herself in the playground and tried to avoid the Drax House children.

“Murderer,” whispered a girl, passing in the corridor. Lucy flushed scarlet.

“Liar!” she retorted angrily, but immediately wished she hadn't. Any response to insult usually led to further taunts. In the past she would have run her fingers along her reminder and that would have kept her calm, but she couldn't bear to touch it these days. She was angrier with herself than with the girl, for losing her self-control. Linking David's warning that she was to be Copse's downfall, together with the rat poison incident, had made her jumpy.

After school David followed her down the steps.

“Meet me on the common as soon as you get home,” he muttered, scarcely moving his lips as Matthew loomed up behind him.

Lucy pretended she hadn't heard and marched off, over at the lights and up South Hill. George was not in his usual post and she hurried past his house. She had always liked David, but now she wasn't sure if she could trust him. Perhaps she shouldn't meet him. How could she know that he wasn't trying to frighten her with false information.

Thomas usually came on a Friday. He would know what to do. When she reached number 3 Mortimor Road she went straight round the back into the garden, but he wasn't there. She waited a little, and in the end she decided she'd go on the common and listen to what David had to say, but she wouldn't have to believe it. Checking that Aunt Sarah wasn't watching, she hastily crossed back over the road and disappeared into the bushes surrounding the pond. David would know where to look for her. She waited for what seemed like an eternity.

Back in Drax House David was racking his brain for some means of escape, when Matthew told him to wait for him in the hall while he just popped in to Senior Aunt Sonia's office.

“I only want to ask her about the badge on my new blazer. I'll be back in a tick.”

You have to report to her more like, thought David bitterly. As soon as the office door closed behind Matthew, he ran. Less than ten minutes later he was cycling over the grass towards the pond. He chained the bike to the base of a bush and slipped through the foliage. Lucy was just about to leave.

“Sorry I took so long. Nobody saw me,” he said. “I hope.”

He crouched down by the side of the pond and pulled Lucy down next to him.

“Listen,” he said. “I've got two things to tell you, and you mustn't be unreasonable.” His piercing blue eyes looked urgently into hers.

“I'm listening.”

“The first thing is I heard the aunts say Dorothy's been taken to the disposal cells. I know where they are. They're in the underground passage behind Drax House. It's where they put people before they take them away to be disposed of.”

Lucy caught her breath, and her heart seemed to stop beating.

“I don't believe you! It can't be true! They wouldn't really, actually, do it. Not to someone who's only fifteen!”

“You've got to believe me!” he insisted. “They even dispose of babies if they're not likely to be any use to the Holy Cause – at least that's what I've heard. And anyway, it must be just as horrible for someone of fifty as fifteen.”

Lucy's mouth was dry. She had to swallow hard before she could speak.

“If she is there, is there any way we could get her out?”

“I'm going to try. I know how to get there from the outside. They think we don't know but we all do, all us kids. You go up that narrow road the other side of Drax House. There's an entrance there into the woods behind the house, and if you go through the woods back towards the house, the passage is on the left just before you reach the garden fence.”

Lucy forgot her doubts.

“I'll come with you!” she whispered, her mind immediately working on the problem of getting out through all Aunt Sarah's locks and bolts at night. “I can get out through the cellar!”

“No. I can't go yet. There's a problem. The entrance to the passageway is locked with a padlock and I don't know the code to open it. All I know is it's six numbers. I'll just have to keep eavesdropping – that is if I can get back into the linen cupboard without being caught.”

“Can't you ask some of your friends if they know it?”

“No. You can't trust anyone, even your friends. Some of them are training as infiltrators, but I don't know which ones. I only definitely know of one. They report back to the aunts on everything we do or say, and the aunts report to the Holy Leaders.”

The thought of Thomas jumped into her head. He had been grooming her to be an infiltrator, and it had made her feel useful – important. Now the whole idea horrified her. She was shocked at her own naïvity. Holy Magnifico! They might even have asked her to spy on David and Dorothy! Or perhaps David was spying on her at this very moment.

David shook himself. “Well, sitting here isn't helping Dorothy. I simply have to find that code.” He looked at her anxiously. “Do you trust me?”

Lucy had a question. “If you don't know which ones are infiltrators, why did you risk singing those words in assembly? You could have been heard by a child infiltrator. One of the boys that dared you could have been one.”

“It was the risk that was exciting. I've had the guidance cane so often that I don't care about that anymore. But you could be right. Now I think it might have been deliberate, and guess who the infiltrator was! Sitting right next to me. It must have been something to do with trying to get you into trouble.”

The significance sank in and Lucy gasped. “Holy Mag! Matthew! He's your friend!”

“Exactly!” said David bitterly.

“OK. I'll trust you,” whispered Lucy eventually. It was impossible to imagine how Dorothy must be feeling at this moment. “Well, at least it's something that we know where she is. If you only had the code!”

“The aunts might give me a clue. I'll just have to keep listening, but there isn't much time. She'll be sixteen on Tuesday. They won't keep her beyond that.”

Lucy's throat constricted. She couldn't speak.

David stood up, “The second thing I came to tell you is that one of the aunts said that Father Drax wants the redhead. I don't know what that means. She said, ‘They'll have to get into the house while Copse is away,' and then someone said ‘what about the old woman?' That's all I heard, but I had to warn you. When is Father Copse away?”

Lucy tried to get her voice back.

“He's gone,” she croaked. “He went this morning. He'll be back on Monday.”

David looked down at her stricken face.

“Take Paul and get away from here before anything happens,” he whispered. “If I can get back into the linen cupboard after tea, I'll keep listening. I'll let you know if I hear anything – if you're still here, that is.”

He unchained his bike, and Lucy watched as he put in the code to the padlock. Then he left abruptly, and rode off over the common. As he approached the further side he did some practice twirls and swoops before disappearing down the little lane to South Hill.

Lucy's chest was tight with fear. They wouldn't keep Dorothy beyond Tuesday, and there was nothing she could do to help her. The father would be back on Monday. Today was Friday. If David was right, something was going to happen within the next two days. She had to warn Aunt Sarah, and she only hoped that she would believe her!

Maria poured and Claudia jabbed. The prospect of freedom lifted their spirits to an almighty high and filled them with energy. They laughed as they worked, mocking the idiocies of the Holy Leaders and Copse's absurd vanity. Their jokes seemed hilarious to them, and occasionally they would stop and collapse with stitches in their sides. Every now and then they swapped over tasks and Claudia would pour while Maria jabbed.

Their evening meal was sent up earlier than usual, and they stopped for a break. Maria flopped back in an armchair and pictured the blue front door of her parents' house, and the joy that would light up their faces as they opened it.

“Fifteen years!” she exclaimed. “I'm afraid to hope.”

“We'll get there, don't worry,” said Claudia. “If that Copse thinks I'm going be one of his wives he's got another think coming. Anyway, he must be about a thousand years old!”

“He's forty,” laughed Maria.

“Yuk! Decrepit! I can't wait to see my boyfriend again. What a hunk!”

By the time they returned to their task the plaster was soggy, and after a few more buckets and jabs at the lath the ceiling below collapsed. Claudia squeezed her head and shoulders down through the beams and found herself looking into a luxurious living room. Maria peered through the space alongside her. They could see a leather armchair and a Persian rug which was now saturated with water and covered with chunks of wet plaster.

“Shall I try and get down?” asked Claudia.

“The trouble is you may not be able to get back up again.”

“No, but I won't want to. I could ring for the police. He must have a phone there somewhere.”

“But we don't know where we are.”

“True! I suppose the police could trace the call – unless his phone is bugged and goes through to some headquarters or other.”

“We have to be careful, even with the police,” said Maria, “because they're heavily infiltrated with the Holy Leaders' agents. If you could contact your father or your boyfriend first we'd be safer.”

They pulled themselves back up and sat at the edge of the hole.

“If I can't get out of his flat through the door,” said Claudia, “I'll simply jump out of the window.”

Maria looked at her watch.

“My God! The day's gone in a flash. We've still got tomorrow. Let's have a break now and work out a strategy. I'm too tired to think at the moment.”

“Me too,” said Claudia.

“Those banging noises have stopped at last,” remarked Aunt Sarah. “They've been going on all day and goodness knows where they came from. Next door must have workmen in.”

Lucy watched her as she put the tenants' meals into the dumb waiter and pressed the button that took it to the second floor. It was at least an hour before their usual eating time. Sarah was looking forward to an early night and a lie-in tomorrow morning. The dumb waiter whirred upwards, and she sat down to eat with the children.

She gave them the same food as the tenants. Lucy had never smelled anything so delicious in her life, but she couldn't swallow. She had to warn Aunt Sarah about the next two days and was certain she'd never believe her. She'd tell her not to talk rubbish and get on with her meal.

“Something's going to happen in this house before the father comes home.” Lucy's voice was tense. “Within the next two days. Something bad.”

“Who said that? One of the Drax House children I suppose.”

“Yes. They heard the aunts talking about it.”

Sarah was silent as she absorbed the information. A pain crept through her arm and chest and her head seemed to spin, just for a moment. Lucy looked curiously at her and was concerned. “Are you alright, Aunt Sarah? You've gone grey.” Sarah nodded faintly, and Lucy pretended to eat.

The pain passed and Sarah's head cleared.

“Well, don't you take any notice of them.” She was slightly breathless. “They're just trying to frighten you. There's too much gossiping in that commune.”

Nevertheless Sarah was very worried indeed. She missed Martha who normally kept her in touch with what was going on. Tomorrow she would go to Copse House, ostensibly to ask after her bad back, but in reality to hear the latest rumours.

Lucy looked down at her plate. “Perhaps we should leave the father's house now, this very minute,” she whispered.

“Nonsense,” said Sarah, less forcefully than usual, “Pull yourself together.”

When the meal was cleared up, and the table set out for the usual homework, Sarah pressed the down button and the dumb waiter appeared with the tenants' used plates. They'd forgotten to send back their knives.

“Never mind,” said Sarah. “They'll come down with the breakfast things.” She washed up and Lucy went into the garden to look for Thomas. He still hadn't come.

“What are you fidgeting about for?” asked Aunt Sarah sharply when she returned. “You've got your weekend homework to get on with.”

“I was looking for Thomas. If he was here we might be safer.”

Aunt Sarah snorted. “You'd be safer in a nest of snakes! Shut that back door, and I'll bolt it now. Let's hope that makes you feel better.”

Lucy felt offended on Thomas's behalf, but said nothing.

Aunt Sarah put Paul into his pyjamas. Setting him down in her big chair with a book, she told Lucy to read him a story as soon as she finished her homework, and if he seemed bored he could do some drawing. She found some crayons and put them on the table with a large sheet of drawing paper. Lucy pretended briefly to look at her homework, but she could hardly make out the words. She squeezed into the chair next to Paul and found one of his favourite stories.