she caught you up, then I turned round and came back here.’
Realization struck them simultaneously. ‘It wasn’t you, was it?’ she whispered. Her face had gone white.
Mutely, he shook his head.
She sank down on to the floor beside him and reached out for the mug he held. She took a sip, then handed it back. ‘It looked like you,’ she muttered. ‘Are you absolutely sure? Could it be that you didn’t hear her hurrying up behind you? You did have your back to us…’
He thought hard, running through his movements that afternoon and early evening. There was, however, no real need; he knew full well he’d still been far from home as dusk fell.
‘This afternoon I was fishing on the Teise,’ he said. ‘I was miles away, and it took me ages to get back. I caught a trout,’ he added absently.
‘So you would have arrived home from the opposite direction,’ she said. He watched her fierce concentration as she worked it out. ‘Rosamund and I were approaching from the west, and you were coming from the east. It can’t have been you she saw.’
He pounced on her words. ‘You just said it looked like you,’ he cried. ‘You must have seen this man too!’
Slowly, she nodded. ‘Yes, but Rosamund said, “There’s Ninian,” and I suppose I just took her word for it that it was you.’ A sob broke out of her, quickly suppressed. ‘I should have looked more carefully! I should have gone on with her and handed her over to you! To him, I mean,’ she corrected herself. ‘Whoever he was.’
Whoever he was, Ninian thought. Who was he? Oh, dear God, and what did he want with Rosamund?
He twisted around and put his arms around Meggie, pulling her close. ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ he said. He felt her resistance. ‘It wasn’t,’ he repeated, ‘and you are not to waste any more time on blaming yourself, because that’ll take your mind off what you ought to be doing, which is helping me work out what happened and where we’re going to find her.’ He realized he was yelling. ‘Sorry,’ he said quietly.
She pulled away from him, pushed back her hair and met his eyes. He saw a flash of humour in hers, there and gone in a moment. ‘You’re so much the elder brother,’ she observed. ‘I’m helping you.’ She snorted. Then her face clouded and she said, ‘Where do we start?’
‘Describe this man,’ he commanded.
She closed her eyes, and he guessed she was picturing him. ‘About your height and build, wearing a dark leather tunic and a short cloak with a hood. You’ve got a leather jerkin,’ she added, her eyes blinking open and fixing intently on his.
‘Yes, I have,’ he agreed. He waited.
‘At first he had his back to us,’ she went on, ‘and he was walking in the direction of the house.’ Her eyes were shut again, the lids screwed up tightly as if by this effort she would make herself remember more. Suddenly, she relaxed, slumping against him. ‘That’s all,’ she said. ‘I saw someone, Rosamund said it was you, I believed her. I didn’t really study him. He was among the trees and I didn’t have a clear view of him, and I-’
Gently, he took hold of her hand. ‘Enough,’ he said softly.
He had the clear impression she was about to start piling blame on herself again and that wasn’t going to help. Still holding her hand, he got to his feet and pulled her up beside him.
‘Come on,’ he said.
Her eyes in the dim light were huge, the pupils wide. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I’m taking you to the House in the Woods. Then I’m going to look for Rosamund.’
‘I don’t need you to take me anywhere!’ she snapped. ‘I know my way through this forest far better than you do and I won’t go astray.’ She was reaching down into the corner as she spoke, and he thought she was picking up the bag of provisions and clean linen that she always took with her when she went to stay in the hut.
‘Indeed you do,’ he agreed, ‘but Rosamund is missing, perhaps taken by this stranger who looks like me. I won’t risk the safety of another of the family, so I-’
She did not let him finish. She spun round, and he saw that, far from picking up her old leather bag, she had a sword in her hands. It was only a short sword, little more than a long knife, but the candle light glinted off its edge and he could see she kept it very well honed.
He took an involuntary step back. ‘You don’t-’
Again, she interrupted him. ‘I don’t know how to use this? Don’t patronize me, Ninian. My mother and I lived here in the wilds for years together, and I didn’t know about this weapon until long after she’d gone. She would have been able to use it, make no mistake, and I can too.’ She held the sword firmly in front of her, the knuckles of her hands white as she gripped the hilt.
She saw his face, and slowly she lowered her blade. He said, so quietly that he was surprised she heard, ‘She was my mother too.’
The sword fell on the floor. She was in his arms, and he felt her shake as she sobbed. Then she pulled away, picked up the sword again and said, ‘Go. I’ll make for the house, and I’ll use all my senses to search for any traces of her. Come back when you can.’
He looked at her set expression and realized there was no point in arguing with her. Usually, she looked like Josse, but as she stood there in the little hut there was so much of their mother in her that Ninian felt his heart tear.
He turned away, let himself out of the hut and raced back up the track to where he had left his horse.
Josse could not remember when he had last felt so weary. He and Gus had split up soon after leaving the house, and they had been searching all night. Occasionally, Josse had heard Gus in the distance, crashing through the undergrowth and always calling, calling, her name. Once or twice they had bumped into each other.
Now dawn was beginning to brighten the sky in the east. He and Gus were riding, slowly and with their heads down, back to the House in the Woods. Neither of them had seen any sign of Rosamund.
They were approaching from the forest and, as the area of cleared trees around the house came into view, Josse saw a cloaked figure standing perfectly still on the edge of the path. He did not for an instant believe they had found Rosamund, for he had immediately recognized his daughter. He and Gus drew rein, and Josse slipped off Alfred’s back. He was about to run to Meggie and take her in his arms, but something in the quality of her stillness stopped him.
He handed Alfred’s reins to Gus, exchanging a warning glance with him. Gus, who, like all the household, was well used to Meggie and her strange ways, gave a brief grin and nodded. Josse turned back to Meggie and waited.
After some moments she said quietly, ‘Rosamund was here. I can feel something of her…’
‘She was almost home, then!’ Josse exclaimed. ‘She-’
Meggie put up her hand, and he stopped. She smiled at him. ‘Of course, you don’t know,’ she murmured. ‘I walked back with her,’ she went on. ‘When we reached the bend in the path back there — ’ she pointed — ‘Rosamund spotted Ninian, and she ran on to catch up with him. I turned and headed back to the hut.’ She drew a shaky breath. ‘Only, it wasn’t Ninian. He was nowhere near the house at that time.’
Josse was trying to make himself believe the unbelievable. ‘So someone was pretending to be Ninian with the purpose of abducting her,’ he said slowly. There was a gasp from Gus, quickly suppressed, but Meggie regarded him with solemn eyes and slowly nodded.
‘Abducted. Yes,’ she said. ‘It is terrible, but I believe we will serve her better if we accept the fact and act accordingly.’
‘We will return to the house,’ Josse began, hardly knowing what he was saying, ‘and-’
Gus interrupted him. ‘May I say something?’ he asked apologetically.
‘Of course!’ Josse said.
Gus turned to Meggie. ‘You just said you could feel her here.’ He sounded embarrassed, as if this brush with Meggie’s mysterious powers was a little too close for comfort. ‘Can you — that is, does this place tell you anything else?’
Meggie looked at him, her head on one side. ‘I was completing my examination when you rode up,’ she replied. ‘Rosamund came running up the path here — ’ she pointed — ‘and someone heavier and with bigger feet was here — ’ again, she indicated — ‘and he had been standing here for some time.’
‘That must be the man she mistook for Ninian!’ Josse exclaimed. ‘You’re sure it was a man, Meggie?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. I, too, saw him, although only fleetingly, and he was too tall and broad for a woman. Also-’ She broke off, frowning.
