Chapter 16
The rest of the journey passed in silence, the only sound the roar of the truck’s engine and the odd cough from the driver.
Alyssia stared out of the windscreen, trying desperately to remember as much as she could, but it was difficult.
The baby kicked and squirmed inside her, as if it could feel her fear, and she put a hand on her stomach to calm it.
“You’d better not go into labour in my cab,” the driver grunted, noticing her movement. She nodded silently, refusing to look at him, and he fell silent again, the drive growing ever more unbearable.
Eventually they pulled up outside what looked to be an abandoned barn, but was in fact a house.
The truck growled to a halt, and Douglas got out of the cab, his boots thudding dully as they hit the earth.
Alyssia stayed seated, not knowing whether or not to make a break for it, until Douglas reached up and gently helped her out.
She stretched her legs, feeling the soreness in her spine, and then a wave of dizziness overtook her, and she nearly fell to the floor.
Douglas managed to catch her before she hit the ground, and lifted her into his arms. Too weak to fight, Alyssia submitted to him and was carried quickly towards the house, where a simple bed and some ramshackle furniture stood waiting.
Douglas placed her gently on the bed and then switched on the lights before heading off to find a source of heat.
It was bitterly cold in the house, in part due to the lack of furnishings and rugs, but it wasn’t uninhabitable.
In another life, it might even have been cosy.
A geriatric radiator sprang into life, and she started to feel the heat gradually creeping into the room.
It wasn’t much, but it was better than the bone-aching ice that had been there before.
Douglas returned, a frown on his face, and she tried to offer him a weak smile.
He didn’t return the gesture, however, and she stopped smiling.
“Are you warmer now?” he asked, offering her a blanket that looked as if it had last been used in the Middle Ages.
She sat up and took it gratefully, wrapping it around her shoulders.
Douglas’s face clouded over with worry as he looked down at her, taking in the pathetic situation she was in, although given that he’d slapped her across the face and called her a dumb bitch, she was finding it hard to believe that he actually cared.
Douglas frowned down at her, but didn’t ask again, and instead went into the tiny kitchenette to see if there was any food.
Luckily, there were a few tins of beans and some biscuits, but it wouldn’t last, and there wasn’t any food that could pass as a meal.
He sighed angrily, wishing Maria had told him there was nothing to eat so that he could have at least made a stop at a local store.
Whatever her gripe with her family was, even Maria wasn’t about to starve a pregnant woman to death. At least, he hoped not.
“I’ve got to make a call,” was all he would say. “Don’t go anywhere - I don’t want to have to tie up a pregnant woman.”
“I won’t,” Alyssia gestured to her bump. “I wouldn’t get very far anyway.”
Douglas nodded at her before stepping outside to make his phone call.
The second he’d left, Alyssia took out her phone and tried to call Antonio, but she still had no signal.
Groaning quietly in frustration, she tucked it back into a secret compartment inside her handbag.
Once she was sure that it was safely hidden, she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and tried not to shiver.
The radiator did its best to keep going, but eventually gave up, and the room returned to its former frigid temperature.
Outside, Douglas took out his phone and called Maria. She answered almost immediately, her tone impatient as always. By the sounds of it, his job was the only job that was going well, and he felt a tiny flicker of pride blossom in his chest.
“Package has been delivered, but we’ll need supplies,” his said, his voice curt. “Your guy only left three tins of beans and some biscuits.”
“What?” Maria snapped back. “I specifically told that imbecile that she’d need food, water, decent things … hell’s teeth, why is everyone so useless?”
Silence fell on the other end of the line, and Douglas had to check to make sure the call was still ongoing. Eventually, Maria spoke again.
“Is she in labour?”
“Not yet, but I’d say she’s ready to drop any minute. By the looks of her, she’s about eight months gone, but you know what first babies are like – either early or late, but never on time.”
“I don’t give a shit if her baby’s on time or not! What I care about is making sure she doesn’t have said baby in the middle of nowhere, unless you’ve suddenly qualified as a midwife!”
“What do you want me to do, exactly?” was the terse reply. “I can’t keep her in that house any longer, it’s not fit for a dog, never mind a pregnant woman! Even I’m shivering, and I’m used to the cold!”
“Take her up to the main house,” Maria eventually decided, her mind racing.
“It’s in better condition than the guest house, and there’s more food there, unless that moron decided to gorge himself before he left.
I’ll have one of my men do a food run and get you anything she needs. It’ll be there in less than an hour.”
“Fine.”
Douglas hung up the phone and headed back to the guest house, where he found Alyssia huddled in a ball on the bed, desperately trying to stay warm.
She looked pathetic, frail almost, and he felt a huge twinge of regret at having kidnapped her.
He’d served the Blackwood family for many years, and she’d always treated him like family, even though he was nothing more than a servant in the grand scheme of things.
Maria’s money, however, had been too good to pass up, especially with what he needed it for.
“Get up,” he said, offering her his hand.
She stood up with difficulty, her face contorting with pain, the blanket clutched tightly around her. “Where are we going?” she asked, her voice exhausted. “I’m not sure how far I can walk. My ankles are killing me.”
“Up to the main house,” Douglas said. “You’ll be warmer there, and there’s better food.”
“OK.” Alyssia said softly. “Douglas?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you doing this?”
Douglas didn’t answer immediately, caught between his loyalty to the Blackwoods and the path he’d chosen.
If he was being honest, he didn’t really know why he’d agreed to this, especially since it meant the end of his career – and possibly his life.
When he’d agreed to it, he’d only thought about the money, but seeing Alyssia in so much pain made him think that he’d made the wrong decision. Too late now, though.
“We should get moving,” was all he said before gently helping her out of the barn.
Mercifully, the road to the main house was short and well lit, so it wasn’t long before they were inside and Alyssia could finally start to warm up.
She folded the tattered blanket and gently laid it over the back of a chair before gently lowering herself into it, her bones groaning with every movement.
Douglas came into the room a short while later, holding a steaming mug of tea. It smelled like green tea, and she could tell he’d added a little sugar to it, just how she liked it.
“I know you can’t have coffee, so I made you some tea,” he said, doing his best to sound apologetic. “Figured it’s better than nothing.”
Alyssia took the mug gratefully, wrapping her icy fingers around it. Her hands slowly started to loosen, and she could feel her fingers once again.
Douglas watched her anxiously, hoping she wasn’t about to go into labour. That really would put a spanner in the works, and Maria would be livid if her ace in the hole turned into a joker.
“Douglas?” Alyssia asked, looking up at him.
“Yeah?”
“Why are you being so nice to me? I mean, you’ve kidnapped me and my unborn baby, taken us out to the middle of nowhere, and it’s fairly obvious that somebody wants something from us, so … why?”
Douglas sighed, sitting opposite her and taking a deep breath. If he was being honest with himself, he was starting to hate every second he had to keep her hostage, but he didn’t dare tell her that in case she didn’t believe him.
“Look, I didn’t want to be any part of this to begin with,” he said hesitantly.
“I didn’t think there was any substance to it.
Then a few years ago, I was in Mr Blackwood’s office looking for some paperwork he needed when I saw your husband’s birth certificate.
It was just … there, on the top of the desk, so I looked, and I saw, and I confronted Mr Blackwood about it all.
He denied it at first, but when I told him I’d seen the birth certificate, he eventually came clean.
When Maria got in touch about having an ‘in’ that could help me with something I needed, I asked her to show me what she had, and she did.
After that, I hoped that Antonio would just … do what she asked.”
“You mean … Maria is the reason I’m currently sitting in someone else’s house?” Alyssia gasped. “Because my husband didn’t know who she really was to him and is having a hard time accepting it? Jesus, Douglas, of all the dumb reasons to kidnap someone ? ”
“It’s not just that!” Douglas burst out, gripping the arms of the chair tightly.
“Maria’s entire reputation went down the drain after Antonio was born!
The only reason Tony married her was because she was seen as damaged goods – nothing more than a puttana who tried to get in with the boss and failed – and no respectable man would marry her.
And let’s face it, how was David supposed to explain away a child?
As it was, he had to claim that Antonio was abandoned at the fire station, and nobody who knew him believed a word of the story. ”