Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
W hen Esme opened her door the next morning, she didn’t expect to see Fiona standing on her step. She felt a rush of happiness at the sight of the older woman, along with confusion. Fiona was holding a small child in her arms. A baby, really. Esme didn’t have much experience with infants, but he couldn’t be much more than a year old.
‘I just wanted to let you know we’re back.’
They weren’t huggers, neither woman being big on physical contact, but Esme put as much warmth into her voice as she could. ‘Who is this?’
‘Hamish.’
‘Hello, Hamish.’ Esme smiled and hoped the child wouldn’t start crying. She had always had bad luck with small children in the past, but Hamish twisted in Fiona’s arms and stared frankly at her. His expression was serious, but he wasn’t crying, so that was a start.
‘He’s my niece’s boy. And he’s here for a lovely holiday.’ She jiggled the boy in her arms. ‘Aren’t you, Hamish?’
‘Did you want to come in for tea?’
‘Better not. Euan’s gone on to the cottage and I don’t want him on his own there.’
First time seeing the place where his stepfather had attacked him. Esme nodded her understanding. ‘How is he doing?’
Fiona pulled a face. ‘I don’t know. He doesn’t seem upset at all about Oliver, which is pretty worrying. I don’t want him to bottle it all up. He won’t talk about it, though. I know it’s partly his age… This is a tricky time for… People like us.’
‘I don’t know anything about it,’ Esme said. ‘But I’m happy to learn. And I’m always here to listen.’
‘Thank you.’ Fiona nodded briskly. ‘I’d better go. Will you spread the word for me? Tell everyone not to make a fuss?’
‘Of course. Goodbye, Hamish.’
The boy’s face crumpled and Esme thought he was going to start crying.
Fiona jiggled him again until he looked at her.
‘But first, we’re going to see Seren and see if she can find us some biscuits.’
The boy brightened and he pointed over Fiona’s shoulder.
‘Yes, that way. Clever wee man.’
‘See you later?’ She said to Esme, distracted.
‘Of course. Do you need anything?’
‘No, we’re good.’ Fiona was already walking away.
‘Welcome home,’ Esme called after her.
Once Fiona had gone, Esme called around the villagers and passed on the message. Everyone was to act completely normal, as if she and Euan hadn’t been away. Esme added her own instruction - that nobody was to mention Oliver.
Luke hadn’t slept well. It wasn’t just the presence of the package from Campbell & Sons. He had stored the maybe-hexed-book in the fire-safe metal box along with the dehexed book that had done its best to kill him, and there was no logical reason to believe it would suddenly ‘activate’ or whatever the right word was, but he still felt uneasy. Plus, there was the upset of the newcomer, Kate Foster, and the nagging feeling that he had messed up with Esme somehow. He had enjoyed being in Edinburgh with her and thought they had got on well, but something seemed to change when they came back from the mainland. He had become distracted with thoughts of Lewis, he knew that, but then Esme had seemed distant, too, and he hadn’t known how to bring back the easy intimacy they had enjoyed while interviewing Mona.
Now, he stood in the doorway of Bee’s house and asked about the supplies for dehexing the new book.
‘How do you know it’s hexed?’
‘We don’t. But Esme said that if we did the ritual and it worked, we would know it had been hexed. And we would have fixed it at the same time. Two stones, one…’
‘It takes blood,’ Bee said. Her silver hair had plaits running along the sides of her head with the back loose. It was the style that made her look like a warrior or goddess from Norse mythology and her expression at this moment matched perfectly. ‘That’s not something to be done lightly.’
‘No.’
Bee pursed her lips. ‘We’ll take a look at it first and then decide what to do.’
Having instructed them to meet her at the northern end of Coire Bay, Luke passed the message to Esme. An hour later, they stood together at the rocks of the beach ward, feeling a little like children who were about to be told off. ‘Did she seem angry?’ Esme asked, not for the first time.
‘You know Bee,’ Luke said. ‘She can be quite scary. She’s probably just concerned.’
They watched the figure approach. In deference to the cold weather, Bee had added a thick woollen jumper underneath her ubiquitous denim dungarees and was wearing black wellington boots and a knitted hat.
‘What were you thinking?’ She asked Esme the moment she came close. ‘Bringing problems from the mainland?’
‘It was my idea,’ Luke said. ‘I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt the way I did. I know I’m lucky to be alive.’
Bee ignored him. ‘We are a place of sanctuary. We don’t go looking for trouble.’
‘Alvis traded with other bookshops, it’s part of being the Book Keeper. Luke needs to do the same and he can’t do that if all the other shops have been burned to the ground.’
Luke looked at her in surprise. He felt like he wanted to curl up in the face of Bee’s disapproval, but Esme was holding her gaze steadily.
After a moment, Bee nodded. ‘Well, then. Let’s take a look.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Luke said.
‘No.’ Esme pulled a pair of rubber gloves out of her coat pocket. ‘I will. Find me a stick.’
Bee nodded her approval as Esme unlocked the metal box. ‘Do you know why I told you to come here?’
‘Less likely to start a wildfire on the beach?’ Luke said. He passed a stick to Esme, worn smooth from the sea.
‘The ward,’ Esme said. ‘For protection.’
‘Exactly so,’ Bee nodded. She dropped into a squat and peered at the package.
Esme opened the cardboard box, revealing a hardback text book that looked like it came from the sixties or seventies. It had lurid colour-printing on a glossy cover that had faded to a strange orangey-tinge.
‘Careful,’ Luke said.
Esme didn’t look up from her task. She hadn’t touched the book itself, yet, only the cardboard packaging. Now she straightened up and used the stick to flick open the front cover. The sea breeze riffled the edge of the pages as if trying to turn them.
Bee was watching Esme intently. ‘Now look. Just like we’ve practised.’
Esme closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked the same to Luke, but her body had gone very still. He could feel her concentrating as she stared at the book.
‘I’m not sure,’ Esme said after a long moment.
‘Don’t think. Just look.’
‘Pestilence,’ Esme said immediately.
Bee nodded in approval. ‘The witch has spoken.’
‘It’s hexed?’ Luke’s mouth was suddenly dry. A gull screeched up above as if voicing his own discomfort.
‘It looked like tiny black flies. Just for a second.’
‘We can assume it’s cursed,’ Bee said. ‘So, we need to lock that box and make sure nobody stumbles across it. I have a cellar.’
‘I will keep it in the stockroom of the shop. It’s not going to burst into flames spontaneously.’
‘As far as we know. That seems dangerous.’
‘He’s right,’ Bee said. ‘And I’m not asking Diana for another blood sacrifice. Not when I would have to explain that you two fools brought the damn thing to our doorstep.’ But she smiled as she spoke and Luke felt the knots of tension in his neck loosen.