The Soft Whisper of Dreams (13 page)

The Reverend Blake-Jones seated himself at the head of the table as usual, looking pleased with himself, and bent his head to say grace. The others joined in the ‘Amen’ at the end, before passing him the dishes one by one. He helped himself without a word, and Jane braced herself for the inevitable outburst which was sure to come when he discovered the food had gone cold. Nothing happened.

Jane stared at her father and watched him eat with every sign of enjoyment. She glanced at her mother, but Ruth was too sunk in misery to notice anything around her. For the last few days she had uttered nothing but monosyllables to her daughter and her husband, and appeared to have retreated into a world of her own. Jane had given up trying to communicate with her and had begun to fear for her sanity.

Just as Jane raised the first forkful of food to her mouth, her father’s voice boomed out across the table.

‘It’s over, Ruth. The problem is solved.’ Jane jumped and dropped the food back onto her plate. Her mother’s eyes turned slowly towards her husband and widened in horror. Then she too dropped her fork and it clattered to the floor. She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle the scream which came out and fled from the table, upsetting her chair in her haste to leave the room. Jane stared after her with a sensation of dread building in the pit of her stomach.

‘What did you say, Father?’ she ventured finally.

‘Nothing you need concern yourself about,’ he replied through a mouthful of food. ‘Your mother is having one of her fits, that’s all. She’ll be fine by tomorrow.’

‘But ―’

He banged his fist on the table with such force that all the china jumped, and Jane gasped. ‘Are you questioning my word?’ he bawled, fixing her with his dark eyes.

Jane shook her head and picked up her fork. Slowly she started to eat, although the food might as well have been sand. She knew that if she didn’t eat, however, he would take exception to that as well, and worse would follow. She’d rather eat dirt.

‘Good,’ she heard him mutter and prayed that he wouldn't take any further notice of her. As soon as she could, she would flee to the sanctuary of her room.

‘Maddie! Maddiiieee!’

Maddie woke up with a start and rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. She thought she’d heard her name, but perhaps it had only been a dream.

‘Maddie!’

No, there it was again. Standing up, she swayed slightly and shivered in the darkness. ‘Here! I’m down here!’ she hollered for all she was worth. The sound echoed round the mine shaft and she wondered if it could be heard up above. She almost wept with frustration when there was no reply. How was she going to make herself heard?

She shouted again but nothing happened. The other voice seemed to have gone. In despair she slumped down again. Hunger gnawed at her insides, and she was terribly thirsty. Her wrist was throbbing and her head hurt. This is just hopeless …

‘Maddie!’ The voice startled her and she looked up towards the edge of the shaft. The sky was a lighter patch in the darkness and she saw torchlight flashing above. Soon after, she could just about make out a person leaning over precariously.

‘Here,’ she yelled. ‘I’m down here!’

‘Bloody hell! Are you hurt?’ It was Alex, and Maddie thought she had never heard anything more wonderful than his voice in her entire life.

‘Not much, just a sprained wrist, but I can’t get out.’

‘Hold on, I’ll get help. Will you be okay for just a bit longer? I have to find a rope.’

‘Yes. Yes, I’ll be fine. Please hurry.’

‘I will. Hang in there.’

He disappeared, and the waiting started again. Now, however, she had hope and the time seemed to pass much faster. Before she knew it, Alex’s face appeared at the top again, and a rope was lowered down.

‘Can you put that around your waist and try to put your feet against the rock?’ he shouted. ‘We’ll pull from up here at the same time.’

‘All right.’ With shaking fingers she picked up the rope and tied it round her waist, pulling the knot as tight as she could with one hand. Then she braced her feet against the mine shaft wall and grabbed the rope with both hands, wincing as pain sliced through her left arm. ‘I’m ready,’ she called. The rope tightened, and she felt herself being slowly hauled upwards.

To help her rescuers she walked her feet up the rock face. She stared into the darkness of the stone in front of her, determined not to look up or down. After what felt like eons, she reached the top, where strong hands helped her over the edge. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

‘Maddie, are you okay?’ She was turned over onto her back by Alex, and someone else shone a light over her. She brought up one hand to shield her eyes and saw that the torch was held by Foster, Alex’s strange friend.

‘Y-yes. I am now,’ she stammered through teeth that were chattering with delayed shock.

‘We must get you to a doctor. Here, let me carry you.’ Alex bent to pick her up, but she held up a hand in protest.

‘No, no, you’ll break your back. I’m too heavy. Just hang on a minute and I’ll be able to walk. My legs feel like jellyfish at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll be fine soon.’

Alex grinned at her and put out a hand to stroke her cheek. ‘I’m glad you’re okay,’ he said. ‘You had us really worried there for a while. What on earth possessed you to go wandering round these woods? Don’t you know it’s dangerous? There are mine shafts everywhere and although they’re supposed to be signposted, you can’t see that in the dark.’

‘Of course I know that and I didn’t come here on purpose. Plus it wasn’t dark at that time.’

‘Then how did you fall? Weren’t you looking where you were going?’

‘Yes, but I was nowhere near this hold. I was walking along the forest track and someone hit me over the head from behind with something. Next thing I knew, I was lying at the bottom of that pit.’

‘What?’ Alex and Foster exclaimed in unison and stared at her in dawning horror.

‘You’re not serious? Who?’ Alex clenched his fists.

‘Yeah, who’d want to go and bash a nice lady like you over the head?’ Foster looked completely baffled before scanning the surrounding area as if he expected the attacker to try his luck with him next. ‘Did he attack you first, like, you know …?’ He trailed off, obviously embarrassed at the direction of his thoughts.

Maddie shook her head. ‘No, no one attacked me. One minute I was bending down to fix my shoe and the next minute everything went black. I didn’t even see whoever it was.’

Alex scowled. ‘We’ll have to tell the police.’ It was Foster’s turn to shiver, then he appeared to remember that he hadn’t done anything wrong and relaxed.

‘Oh, yeah,’ he said. ‘Can’t have mad people like that running about the countryside.’

‘How did you know where to find me?’ Maddie asked. ‘Did Annie miss me at dinner?’

Alex looked slightly abashed. ‘No, actually, no one missed you. I ... er, was with Foster down the pub and Annie had gone home early. She left us a cold dinner. It must have been a couple of hours later when a friend of yours rang. Someone called Jane.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes, she asked if you were at home and when I said I hadn’t seen you since lunchtime she got very agitated. She told me to go out and look for you and she wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

‘I see.’ Maddie sat up and brushed some grass off her shorts. ‘Did she say why?’’

‘No, she just said it was urgent. Is she psychic or something?’

Maddie smiled. ‘No, I don’t think so. I, um, guess she was just concerned about me. I forgot she was going to call tonight.’

Alex gave her a strange look, but said nothing more, and soon after they began the walk home. Maddie leaned on Alex and Foster brought up the rear carrying her belongings.

‘We found these over near the edge of the forest.’

‘Well, that’s not where I left them, but I’m glad my stuff wasn’t stolen at least.’

Alex insisted on taking her to the nearest emergency room for a check-up, but there was nothing wrong with her apart from the sprained wrist, which was quickly bandaged, and a lump on the back of her head.

‘You should probably rest for a couple of days and if you feel any nausea at all, let us know. It could be you have a slight concussion,’ the doctor told them.

‘Thanks, I’ll take it easy.’ The painkillers they gave her helped and Maddie didn’t feel sick so she thought a good night’s sleep might be enough.

‘Can you face dealing with the police tonight, or shall we wait until tomorrow?’ Alex asked as they reached the car.

‘No, please, let’s not say anything, Alex.’

‘Why? There’s a potential murderer on the loose out there and you don’t want to tell the police? Are you crazy?’

‘It’s complicated, Alex, but I need to speak to Jane first. Please, trust me on this.’

‘What’s this Jane got to do with anything?’

‘I can’t tell you right now. Please, Alex, let me handle this my own way.’ Maddie felt very strongly that this was all connected to her adoption somehow, and she wanted to get to the bottom of that before she took any action. She knew it was illogical, but she’d feel embarrassed voicing suspicions that might be completely wrong, especially if they involved her new-found sister. And she wanted to know what Jane had to say first. It could be important.

‘Very well, but I don’t like it. Will you at least tell one of us where you’re going if you go out?’

‘Yes, I promise.’

The rest of the journey was completed in silence.

Early the next morning Alex went to find Foster, who was temporarily camping out in another of the holiday cottages Alex had bought. He’d asked his friend to help him with the work and Foster had been only too pleased to agree.

‘You don’t mind painting and decorating?’ Alex had asked, and Foster laughed.

‘Nah, at least it’s honest money, even if it’s not the most exciting job in the world.’

This morning, however, he had another job for the young man.

‘Foster, I’d like you to follow Maddie around, but without her seeing you. Could you do that, do you think?’

‘Sure. Easiest thing in the world. Why? You think that psycho’s gonna try and kill her again?’

‘I don’t know, but I would feel safer if I knew you were keeping an eye on her. I haven’t got time to do it myself and besides, she’d be sure to see me and get angry.’

‘No problem, you leave it to me.’ Foster grinned. ‘You like her a lot, huh?’

Alex smiled sheepishly. ‘It shows, does it?’

‘Yeah, a mile off.’

‘Yes, well, unfortunately for me, she doesn’t feel the same way.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s life, eh?’

‘She probably just wants to play hard to get for a while,’ Foster said. ‘Women are like that. Weird creatures.’

Alex laughed. If only it were that easy. ‘Hard to get’ he could overcome. Blatant contempt, no. ‘We’ll see,’ was all he replied. ‘Start this morning, would you please?’

‘Sure thing.’

‘Maddie, are you all right?’ Jane sounded tearful on the other end of the phone, and Maddie felt her throat constrict. Someone really cared. My little sister.

‘Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for making Alex go out looking for me yesterday. If you hadn’t told him to, I would still be stuck down a mine shaft.’

‘A mine shaft? Oh no ... What happened?’

Maddie told her and when she had finished there was complete silence. ‘Jane? Are you still there?’

‘Yes, I’m here.’ The voice was nothing more than a whisper.

‘How did you know I was in trouble?’

‘Oh, it was just a hunch.’ Jane gave a brittle little laugh. ‘Sisterly intuition perhaps?’

‘Really? It wasn’t something, er … more concrete?’

‘No, no.’ Jane sounded suspiciously airy and Maddie could tell she was holding something back.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, of course. I’m just so glad you’re alive. You will be careful from now on, won’t you?’

Maddie was even more convinced Jane was covering up for her father and wondered if he’d threatened her too somehow? She’d said he had a hold over her mother – did he have one over Jane as well? Either way, Jane obviously wasn’t going to tell Maddie anything else at the moment so she gave up on this line of questioning. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere alone for quite some time, believe me. Have you made any progress with the other thing we discussed?’

‘What? Oh that. No, but as a matter of fact I’m going to see someone this afternoon who might be able to help. I’ll try to call you this evening if I can.’

‘Where are you calling from now? You sound a bit far away.’

‘I’m in a phone box in town, but if my father goes out this evening I’ll be able to call from home. If not, I’ll try tomorrow.’

‘Okay. Thanks so much for doing this, Jane. Bye.’

After she had hung up, Maddie went to lie down on top of her bed. She was still a bit shaky and there was a dull ache throbbing in her arm. The doctor had told her she might have nightmares or suffer a delayed reaction to the shock. He’d given her some tranquillisers, but she preferred not to take them. She decided rest would be a better option.

There was a knock on the door and she called, ‘Come in.’

Alex popped his head round the door. ‘Am I disturbing you?’

‘No, not at all. I’m just resting. My wrist is a bit painful. And my head.’

‘You were lucky it wasn’t broken.’ He came into the room and shut the door behind him. Slowly he approached the bed and perched at the end of it.

‘Yes. Lucky it was my left one too. At least I can still paint.’

He was silent for a while, staring out the window, then he drew in a deep breath. ‘Maddie, have you remembered anything more about your assailant?’

‘No. I never saw whoever it was. I just heard a rustling noise, that was all.’

‘Have you any idea who it might be? I mean, is there anyone who would wish you harm?’

Maddie looked away. ‘Not that I know of. I’m sure it was just some looney who couldn’t resist. I must have looked tempting bending over like that and the fact that I was all alone in the woods.’ She turned back to Alex and saw him smile and shake his head. ‘What?’

‘It’s just that I could understand it if someone walked past and found you tempting, but not in the sense that they would want to hit you on the head,’ he said, then added, ‘Sorry, I know you don’t want to hear stuff like that from me.’ He shrugged.