Chapter 34
34
‘We need to piece together what happened that night. Up to now I remember you hammering on the cabin door, I remember you telling me I would die if I didn’t run but where did we run to? Do you remember a library? A bookstore? A hideout?’
Ambrose was nodding. Dora had told him about the memory. He was squeezing his eyes shut, deep frown lines appearing on his forehead.
Dora reached out and took hold of his hand. ‘Maybe if we sit together and try to remember, close our eyes. What were the woods called, are they still the same now?’ He kept a tight hold of her hand and she realised that she didn’t want him to let go.
‘I don’t know what they were called back then.’ He jumped up. ‘But the store vanished. It was my own hiding place, somewhere I stashed books that weren’t allowed in town. I’ve never been able to find it. You mentioned a tree. Hang on, I can get some yellow pamphlets written by a historian Marilynne K Roach, she did like this Time Traveller’s Map of Salem Witchcraft Trials .’
He left her and she heard his footsteps thundering down the narrow wooden steps. Moments later he burst through the door, waving two yellow booklets at her. He passed her one and they both began to study the hand-drawn maps of the area. It was handy living above Sephy’s shop, Dora thought.
‘Your cabin was in the fields near to what’s called Pine Street,’ Ambrose said. ‘We ran through the woods which have been mostly cleared for luxury houses since then, we were heading to the cove to what’s now called Singing Beach.’
Dora looked at him, then back down at the maps. ‘That was a long way, how did I manage that?’
He chuckled. ‘Not very well. You complained and moaned the entire time until you heard the dogs chasing us and then you realised that I was being serious. But this tree – if it was a large cedar, we have to go into the woods and see if it’s still there.’
‘What if they built houses on it? We can’t go into someone’s house and ask them if we can dig the cellars up.’
He was shaking his head. ‘No, the woods that border the immediate area surrounding the beach are a conservation area, they’ve never been touched. We just need to figure out where in the woods it was, it’s been some time since we were last there.’
He was giddy with excitement, and it was catching, suddenly Dora was raring to go. Every bit of exhaustion and brain fog had lifted at the thought of finally finding Lucine’s book and taking it back where it belonged.
‘Do you have a car, how long will it take to get there? Can we walk it?’
Ambrose held up his hands. ‘Whoa, slow down a moment. I have no car and it’s too far to walk from here.’
‘Have you got the Uber app?’
‘Yes.’ He took his phone out and opened the app, typing in their destination, then double clicked to pay and smiling at her. ‘Four minutes to meet us on Washington Street. Come on, we better get moving. Do we need anything?’
‘A bag to put the book in, maybe a spade?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, damn. Hang on, let me go speak to my friend and see if they can help out with the spade.’
They went back down into the shop and found Margo, who stared at the pair of them. ‘Geez, you two have ants in your pants, you can’t keep still for more than ten minutes.’
Dora smiled at her as Ambrose grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the shop down the road to a shop on Essex Street called The Magic Parlour where the owner was busy chatting. He took one look at Ambrose and nodded. ‘What’s up, dude?’
‘Have you got a spade I could use?’
The guy looked confused but nodded. ‘Be a minute, watch the shop.’ Then he went out into the back and returned with a spade in his hand. ‘I have no idea what you need that for, but as long as you’re not about to start digging Essex Street up looking for buried treasure I don’t care.’
Ambrose smiled at him, and Dora wondered if he was a little psychic. If they found Lucine’s book it would be better than any treasure chest full of gold sovereigns.
The Uber driver dropped them on a street nearest to where Ambrose had worked out had been the path through the woods they would have taken. A lot of the land had been cleared and there were the most beautiful mansions standing on it. They got out of the car, Ambrose with his spade and backpack.
Dora looked at him. ‘You know, we look like a couple of criminals about to break into someone’s house. How long before the cops get called?’
He shrugged. ‘We better not waste any time then. Can you tap into any of your powers to try and remember where the hell it was?’
Dora wished that she could, wished she could do something because time was running out. What was her power? Sephy had said she spoke the language of flowers. Did that include trees, she wondered. There were lots of them around still and Dora walked over to the biggest, oldest tree and placed her hands on the trunk. She closed her eyes and whispered, ‘Do you know where I need to go?’ She felt stupid, Ambrose was watching her along with probably at least ten home surveillance cameras.
But underneath her fingertips she could feel the slightest vibration. She pressed harder and although she didn’t hear a voice telling her she felt something shift inside her and closed her eyes. Placing her ear against the trunk, she waited, listening. Her mind began to spin, and she saw the land as it was before the woodlands had been cleared to make way for the houses. There was an overgrown path they needed to follow a little further down the road.
‘Hey, is she okay? Do you need help?’
Dora jumped and opened her eyes; an older man was standing behind the gates of the beautiful mansion they had been dropped outside of.
Ambrose smiled at him. ‘No, she’s fine, she’s a tree hugger, always been a bit weird. Sorry, we’re going now.’
Dora’s mouth dropped open and she had to stifle the laughter threatening to burst out of it. Ambrose grabbed her hand and waved at the guy. ‘Have a good one.’ Then he was dragging her away, hissing, ‘We better keep moving before he calls the cops. Did you get anything?’
She nodded. ‘I know where there’s a path.’
He stared at her in wonder. ‘You still have it, who’d have thought.’
She knew he was referring to her ability to communicate with flowers. Now she could add trees to that list.
Half a mile down the road there was the tiniest of paths leading between the trees, so overgrown she almost missed it, but she heard a voice inside her mind telling her to stop and she did, so abruptly that Ambrose walked straight into the back of her.
‘This is it; we need to go down there. I’ll go first, although I don’t know what exactly I’m looking for.’
She looked around to see if anyone was watching her, there was nobody, and she pushed her way through the low evergreen branches of white pine which filled the air with the scent of Christmas. There were lots of brambles, too, that kept catching on their clothes. After what felt like forever the path opened into a small, wooded area but none of this looked familiar to either of them. Dora didn’t want to sound pessimistic but she felt it. A large flat rock jutted out of the ground, and she sat down on it, and Ambrose did the same.
‘It’s so different. I have this clear image in my mind of where it was, but this doesn’t feel at all familiar. I’m sorry, Ambrose, I thought that I would have no problem finding it.’
He reached out and clasped hold of her fingers. ‘Don’t give up just yet, Dora, we’re close, I can feel it.’
She closed her eyes to stop the tears from falling and to give into the exhaustion she felt. The burden of knowing she was being chased by an evil hunter who wanted to kill her was making it hard to think of anything else, that and Lucine. Her beautiful, dying mum who she wasn’t going to spend much time with. She heard whispering and opened her eyes.
‘Can you hear that?’
‘What?’
‘Shh.’
Dora stood up, where was it coming from? It was like a swoony, sing-song sound of kids singing nursery rhymes. She let her feet move in the direction of the voices and hoped that this wasn’t some kind of trap.