Underbelly (79 page)

Laura realised the river, while not as painful as the fire, was equally dangerous. She had expected dangerous currents to come and wash her away, and hurt her a little, but less than Chesmu was. She hadn’t expected the river to come through her. She turned her head to the side as water cascaded from her nose, mouth, ears and eyes, as well as from her vagina and anus, her discomfort increased by the torrents that poured onto her from above, from Chesmu’s nose and mouth, and from his penis through his clothing onto her torso, saturating her further. He seemed the only other person affected, possibly because of his close proximity to her, and Laura used his surprise to wriggle away, pursued by him, both spurting water everywhere, torrents coming from Laura’s chest wound once she stood up. It was impossible for either of them to catch a breath, and after two minutes the water stopping pouring from Laura, coming out quicker because of her chest injury. Chesmu felt that his death was imminent and did what he had to, casting the spell he knew to soften part of his body and he ripped his chest open and let the water, diluted with only a little blood, flow faster through him. His action seemed to come too late and he collapsed on his back and closed his eyes as the water flowed for another minute.

One of Chesmu’s relatives wanted to go to him, held in place by the chief, Kuruk, as desperate as the others for their forefather to live but unprepared to go against his wishes. Laura crawled to him and put her left hand into the large wound in his chest and burrowed deeper, his insides proving softer. She still couldn’t disintegrate him and she realised that she didn’t need her powers to ensure that he was dead, her hand able to do enough damage by raking through his insides. She pierced his heart with two pointed fingers and tried to rip into his lungs when she felt his fist shoot up through her, through the centre of her chest and through her back.

“
Well fought,” he said faintly without opening his eyes, followed by a long sigh. Laura felt that she would be joining him in the grave quickly enough. Her shrunken heart was intact but the damage she had sustained would not be easily cured, the gaping wound at her centre not small. She knew that she had to prise herself off him, which proved harder and more painful than she was prepared for, her impalement feeling permanent. She kept trying, able to raise herself a little each time before falling again, until Jemima came to her aid, lifting her off him and throwing her onto her back, or what was left of it. She had thought that Grey’s spinal injury was bad – it was a scratch next to her huge cavity, which left her powerless, using any energy she had left to try and keep herself alive. She lay still as Chesmu’s family took his body away and left the scene, leaving her with Jemima and her family, who came closer, bringing their horses close to her too, five in total. She saw ropes tied to the back of the horses and didn’t understand until Jemima tied one of the ropes to her wrist. She tried to sit up but couldn’t move and remained rooted to the spot as she was tied to a horse by each limb and Jemima finished by tying a noose around Laura’s neck and mounted her horse as her relatives did likewise (save for the eldest man). Laura’s body was pulled up off the floor as the horses began to move. She would not die like this! She ignored the pain and tried to defend herself, determined to survive. She made no sound as her body stretched close to breaking point, refusing to scream for their amusement.

Laura contorted her fingers on both hands, as she tried to grab hold of the ropes that bound her. This was hard to do with her right hand due to the partial removal of her thumb and she eventually managed to grab the rope between her forefingers. Laura stopped using her magic to stem her chest wound (which instantly caused major blood loss from the huge cavity, and it felt like vital organs were passing through her to the ground) and instead summoned great force as she grabbed on both of the ropes that bound her wrists and pulled the riders towards her. Her grip with her right hand was weak and the horse only moved a few inches, while the horse on her left side was pulled to the ground and the male rider landed in a heap on the ground. Even if defeat was inevitable, she was going out fighting.

This sight prompted Jemima to move things along and she spurred her horse on: Laura’s head came off first, followed by her left arm and left leg, then her right leg, while her torso and right arm remained. The riders all slowly returned to the torso and dismounted, and the other two male riders joked with the unseated jockey (who had dusted himself down and got back to his feet) about how he’d let the side down and old Bartholomew would have done a better job while Jemima picked up Laura’s head and said to the others gleefully,

“
There was a witch who was born in a barn

Who is the subject of our mundane yarn

She killed on request

And she did it with zest

So now she’s dead, who gives a darn?”

Chapter 12 – Fade Away

Grey didn’t recognise his visitor, who quickly introduced herself as Alice Chapman, who seemed to be a charming young woman, just as Laura had described. She brought her young son up to the manor house with her and indulged in small talk with Grey, which he responded to, keen to put her at ease. She remembered Laura talking about him and she asked about his wife and Grey told her, to her distress. He felt bad for other people when they asked, aware it made them feel uncomfortable, and he assured her that her apologies were appreciated but unnecessary. Even when he had felt at his lowest he had never wanted other people to feel bad or watchful of every word they said, and he steered the conversation from Germaine onto Ewan, asking what he was up to.

“
He’s still in Southampton. I come up every other month for a few days to let Sylvia and Patrick see their pride and joy. Do you want to hold him?” Alice offered, Grey neglecting to mention that his unborn child had died also. He didn’t want to offend her by refusing and he needed to be instructed how to hold him by Alice as she put him in his arms.

The baby started to cry and Grey said, “I think he wants his mommy.”

“
Just lift his head up a little bit and he’ll stop.” Grey did as she said and the baby did calm down a little, though Grey was still quick to pass him back. Holding the baby caused him no distress, but it wasn’t something he would be keen to repeat. With his own child it would have been different; he found that holding someone else’s child bored him. He had thought that fatherhood was going to be thrust on him before he was ready and now that it had been taken away he knew he was missing out on something special.

The baby went to sleep quickly in his mother’s arms. Alice told Grey, who praised her maternal skills, that she had to be a good mother to atone for the name she’d let Ewan give him, her manner light. “Poor Dougal Horsfield Chapman. I was so ecstatic after he was born that name didn’t sound so bad then.”

“
He’ll just be called Dougal Chapman, or Doug, and that sounds okay to me,” Grey said.

“
I knew it would have to be a Scottish name so I thought that Alistair would be nice, but Ewan hated someone at school with that name. It was Ewan who insisted on him having my maiden name as his middle name too. I mean, I love my family dearly, but I wasn’t sad to leave my old name behind. It lends itself to a lot of name-calling at school.”

“
I think kids can find a way to make something up for any name if they’re of a mind to do so. I’m sure Dougal will be all right,” Grey said, feeling from his brief encounters with him and from what Stuart had told him about their schooldays, that Ewan would more likely raise a bully than a target.

“
Hopefully I’ll be on hand to see that he is. Before I had him I was a teacher and I’d like to go back to it eventually. Ewan wants more children already,” Alice said, and hearing herself back she realised that she was being too confessional. “I’m sorry, James, you mustn’t want to hear all this.”

“
I don’t mind,” Grey said truthfully.

“
No, no, I shouldn’t bore you with it. I’m pleased to meet you, but I came to ask about Laura. As I say, I come back up every couple of months, and I’ve missed her every time so far, so I was wondering if you know when she will be here and I’ll organise a trip for then.” Alice had found Laura to be very good company and was keen to maintain the acquaintance and build a friendship.

Grey shook his head and said, “That’s impossible to say I’m afraid. I know that she wanted to travel for a long time and was constricted by the war and now she’s making up for lost time, I believe. I’m not in touch with her so I really can’t help you, unfortunately.”

“
Did you not talk to her to tell her that you were coming to stay?” Alice said, finding this a little unusual.

“
No. I have my own key, and I know she wouldn’t mind, as long as I don’t put my feet up on the sofa,” he said, doing just that.

“
Would you dare do that if she were here?”

“
That would depend on her mood.”

“
When I first saw her I thought she might be quite bad-tempered but she’s actually quite playful, isn’t she?” Alice said fondly.

“
Very much so.”

“
Very good company too, I found.”

“
Definitely.”

“
She was very…” Alice said, her train of thought completely interrupted by the fleeting image of a small ring of fire on the hearth, which made Grey instantly put his feet back on the floor. It appeared for less than a fifth of a second, Alice and Grey turning silent for a few seconds, seeing in the other’s confused expression that they had seen it too. Grey couldn’t think of a palatable excuse and acted like nothing had happened, trying to resume the conversation. Alice made her excuses and left quickly, and Grey didn’t blame her. After she left he touched the hearth which was undamaged; it was not even hot, if anything unusually cold. He checked every room for any other phenomena, everything appearing normal at first, until Grey looked at his watch an hour after Alice had left. She had left around half four, and Grey saw that his watch had stopped at 4:21, as had each clock in the house, three in total, including a grandfather clock that Laura deemed infallible. This confirmed to him that something had happened to Laura and he wished that he had tried harder to dissuade her from seeking out Chesmu again. He assumed that she had sent him a sign that she was in trouble or sought his help and he took a thousand dollars from her secret stash and left town immediately.

Travelling alone on a passenger ship bound for America, he couldn’t help but think of his earlier crossing, happier times. With Germaine the journey had been fun – travelling had been fun wherever they went, no matter what form of transport. The life of a solitary traveller seemed to be his future, and it felt bleak, but he had no time to lapse into self-pity and he focused his thoughts on Laura. He knew that the reservation would be hard to find, Laura merely telling him that it was small and situated in northern Idaho. The information she had given would prove sufficient (he was very grateful that she had given the state), but it would take time, which he didn’t know if she had. She wouldn’t summon him (if that was what it was, Grey growing less certain of this) unless it was absolutely urgent. Why the hell did it have to be a state so far in the west? He travelled day and night, taking sleeper cars, only pausing from his travels to see a myriad of train stations between connections.

When he arrived at Idaho he bought a motorbike and rode around, asking locals for information about Indian communities at various towns, most proving to be helpful and informative. The first reservation he approached told him they had never heard of Chesmu and hadn’t received any English visitors for a number of years. He rode away, distrusting them, unfairly as he soon learned when he approached a second reservation. Kuruk Chesmu came out from his home and greeted him with a handshake and introduced himself as Grey did likewise.

“
What brings you round here?” Kuruk said, his manner courteous though not overly welcoming.

“
I’m looking for a friend who said she might call around here,” Grey said, mindful of what he said. The man in front of him was longhaired and not as physically imposing as the man Laura described, but he was uncertain if Kuruk Chesmu was the Chesmu Laura had talked of, Octavius’ killer.