looked at Greg. ‘Can I ask you to come with me? He’s a bit intimidating, this guy. Mat, can you two wait by the phone?’
‘So what has he done with her?’ Cal whispered.
Ben shrugged. ‘We’ll see if we can make him tell us. He wants me to speak to the bishop for him, apparently.’
‘Sounds as though he’s lost it,’ Greg said succinctly. He hesitated. ‘Can I suggest that you both stay away from the orchard for the time being?’ he said hesitantly to Mat and Cal. ‘I’m aware that this is very much your patch, but I think I may have awoken some problematic influences. My fault and I should deal with them.’
Mat nodded. ‘I for one am certainly not going to go looking for trouble.’ He sighed. ‘Phone us as soon as you know anything, Ben.’
When he had closed the front door behind them he came back to the kitchen to find Cal standing in front of the fire. ‘Has it occurred to you it might not have been Greg who stirred things up? It might have been Kier. Or even Abi,’ she said.
Mat nodded. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘We are going to take the dogs out again to look for her.’
He gave a wan smile. ‘They are getting used to hunting for missing people!’
‘We don’t have to go near the orchard,’ she added doubtfully. ‘What could he have done with her?’ She shivered.
‘She could be anywhere, Cal, if he persuaded her to get into his car with him.’
She shook her head. ‘She wouldn’t have.’
‘Perhaps he drugged her or something.’
‘Surely not.’ She looked down at the floor. ‘Is he deranged, Mat?’
Mat shrugged. ‘Ring Justin, Cal.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you sure?’
He nodded. ‘We need his help. That chap Greg didn’t inspire me with confidence, to be honest. If he is the expert on the paranormal that Ben said, why is he making elementary mistakes? And Just might be able to locate Abi somehow.’
She glanced at him quizzically. ‘With his super magic powers?’
‘Something like that, yes.’ Mat didn’t smile.
Cal went to the phone. She did not have to look up the number, Mat noted. When she put the phone down she looked at him uncertainly as though she had read his mind. ‘He’s on his way,’ she said.
Mat nodded. ‘I’ll take the dogs out again.’
‘No. Wait. I’ll go with you.’
‘I’m not going near the orchard.’ Mat smiled at her. ‘That’s my brother’s job! No, I’ll just wander round a bit with the torch and see if these two little blighters can get a sense of where she went. ‘Abi, dogs! We really need you to find her.’
Pym and Thiz sat up. Neither seemed very enthusiastic. Cal frowned. ‘That’s not like them.’
Mat shrugged. He walked over to the door and reached for his jacket. At that the dogs leaped up, tails wagging. ‘Don’t leave this room, Cal. There has to be someone near the phone at all times.’
She nodded. ‘Have you got your mobile?’
He checked his pockets, held it up then headed for the door. Then he stopped. ‘Isn’t that Abi’s bag?’ He had spotted it on the counter half-hidden behind a pile of books.
Cal went over to it and after a second’s hesitation, picked it up. ‘She wouldn’t have gone anywhere without her bag,’ she said quietly. ‘Not voluntarily.’
‘Where is Mora?’ Cynan stopped to enter the house and looked round. Lydia was brushing Petra’s hair. She looked up at him and smiled. ‘Look. Petra is healed! Can you believe it, Cynan? Yeshua healed her.’
Petra smiled at the young man and rose to her feet. She stumbled slightly, still unsure of herself, but her smile told him all he needed to know as she slowly pirouetted in front of them. ‘The pain has gone, Cynan. It has gone!’
He forced himself to grin, genuinely pleased for her. ‘That is good news. Such good news. But where are they? Have they gone already?’ He tried to hide his anxiety.
Lydia nodded. ‘They went a while back. I’m afraid you’ve missed them.’ Her expression changed as she saw the young man stagger forward. ‘Cynan? What is it? Are you hurt?’ In the dim light she had not noticed the blood seeping through his hair.
He collapsed onto a stool near the fire and put his head in his hands. ‘I’m sorry. Someone hit me. I was in the trees looking for them…’
Lydia went white. ‘Who hit you?’
He shook his head painfully. ‘I didn’t see.’
‘Flavius?’ Lydia spoke through pursed lips. ‘Of course it was Flavius! He must have come back. We thought he had gone away for the day. I knew we shouldn’t trust him. He must have been waiting.’ She blinked back furious tears. ‘What if he has hurt them!’
‘I’ll go back down to the boats.’ Cynan staggered to his feet again. ‘If they have already gone they will be safe. He wouldn’t dare follow them across to Ynys yr Afalon. You take care of Petra.’ He forced another smile. ‘If any of the men are around I will take them with me. Flavius won’t harm you or Petra. You will be safe. It’s Yeshua he’s after.’
‘Romanus!’ Lydia whispered. ‘Yeshua told him to stay here, but he followed them.’
Cynan shook his head. ‘He won’t hurt the boy either, lady. Don’t worry. It is Yeshua who is in danger.’ And Mora. He didn’t say her name out loud.
He ducked out of the door and stood for a moment as his head reeled in the bright sunlight. The compound was empty. There was no time to go and look for back up. Grabbing a staff which was leaning against the wall outside the house to replace his own which he must have dropped when he was hit he headed for the gate and the track back down across the fields and woods towards the water’s edge.
Both canoes had gone. He studied the ground carefully, trying to read the footprints, but so many people had walked there it was hard to make head or tail of the tracks in the mud. In one place he saw the marks of a smaller boot. Perhaps that was Romanus. Then he saw a sandal print. Small and neat. That would be Mora, but it was difficult to see which way she was going. They might have made these marks when they arrived. ‘Lord Gwyn, watch over them and keep them safe,’ he breathed. He turned north alongside the mere and began to run. There were hidden ways across to the island, threading through the reeds. He could get back without a boat.
A hundred paces further on he stopped again, listening. Somewhere behind him he had heard a shrill sound. He spun round, scanning the track. The day was warm and still. His skin began to prickle a warning. Carefully he backed into the shelter of some osiers and gripped the staff tighter. Then it came again. A scream from the direction of the house. There was no mistaking the desperation in the sound. He crept off the path and began to thread his way back the way he had come, watching for any sign of movement, keeping to the shelter of the trees and bushes, hurrying as fast as he could go. He could hear it now. The shout had turned to a painful sobbing. It was the boy. He was almost certain of it. He crept on, keeping his eyes skinned and then suddenly he saw him. Romanus was leaning huddled against the trunk of a tree, clutching his stomach. Cynan stared round cautiously. Romanus seemed to be alone. Running on his toes to stay silent Cynan approached him. ‘Rom? Are you all right, lad?’
He gasped as Romanus looked up. His hands were running with blood as he tried to staunch the wound in his belly. Only a rope tied around the tree was preventing him from falling. ‘Flavius told me to call Yeshua back,’ Romanus sobbed. ‘He said if I didn’t call him he would kill me.’ His words came in tight, thready sobs. ‘He stabbed me with his sword to make me scream.’ His voice was fading. ‘No-one came.’
‘I came.’ Cynan groped at his belt for his knife. It wasn’t there. The bastard must have taken it from him when he hit him. Swearing, he reached for the rope, groping through the blood, trying to find the knot. ‘Hang on, Rom. You’ll be all right. Let me get you free.’ They couldn’t be more than five hundred paces from the house. He wondered if he dared call out, or was Flavius still within earshot?
‘Yeshua and Mora have gone back to the island or they would have come for you,’ he murmured. He found the knot and tried to pull it open. The boy was failing. He could see the gleam of sweat, the pallor on his skin. ‘Your bastard uncle must have gone after them. Both boats have gone.’ He tugged violently at the rope with both hands.
