Chapter 13
NICK
When Fionnuala phoned and said Alex had left on foot for Wildewood Hall earlier, he’d felt that stab of alarm like a splinter in his heart.
Deep and painful. A warning. Same as the day when Theo died.
And Alex had been wandering through the woods, as blithe as anything, for God knew how long before he found her.
Anything could have happened. She didn’t even know the first thing about keeping herself safe. She didn’t even know that she needed to keep herself safe.
Especially in the woods.
How could Nick tell her without sounding, just as he feared, like a madman? And maybe he was. How would he know? That was what everyone thought. Those who didn’t think he was a murderer as well. He knew there was gossip. There was always gossip. That was the way of Kilfayne.
What had they said to her? Which of the various tall tales and scandalous rumours had they spun for her? Because they loved a bit of scandal, especially when it revolved around Wildewood Hall and those who lived there.
He stamped his way back to the house, aware that he was still carrying an axe, like something out of a horror movie, and that Alex had screamed when he bore down on her through the trees. The look of sheer terror had brought him back to himself.
He hadn’t expected that.
He hadn’t expected that seeing her afraid of him would be… so awful.
And then she’d pulled herself together.
‘This is my land,’ she’d said and, God help them both, the woods had heard her. He knew that much. He’d felt the trees all around them and the earth beneath them react. He’d felt the words run right through him like arrows.
This is my land.
It was all he could do to find a reply. The wrong one, of course. He never should have mentioned Theo.
He’d found Theo here. In this place. In the clearing. In the stone circle.
And for a moment he’d been terrified he was going to find her lying there too.
Not standing there, arguing with him. He was convinced he was far too late, that he had failed. Because he failed in everything he did.
Three hours she had been missing. Three whole hours. She didn’t even realise it.
She’d seen the hare and followed it. She had wandered through the wild wood.
He didn’t even stray from the path if he could avoid it.
He certainly didn’t let anyone else do it.
Not anyone he cared about. He had warned Theo, time and again.
Sally had, of course, but then Sally always did whatever Sally wanted.
And Sally knew this place. She knew every inch of it. Every leaf. Every blade of glass.
But Alex? Alex didn’t have a clue.
Anything could have happened. Didn’t she realise that?
Maybe she did now. She’d realised something of the danger in the woods, just before they left. He’d seen that much and tried to ignore it, to give her the dignity she needed. It was the least he could do.
‘Nick,’ she called as he opened the back door and held it open for her. She was more herself again now. ‘I should have called. You’re right. I don’t know the area, but I – I didn’t think I needed to. But I promise, I didn’t damage the woods. I wouldn’t. They’re beautiful.’
For a moment he was lost for words. Damage the woods? As if she could.
But then he remembered what he’d said about the area being protected. She’d misunderstood. It was probably just as well.
Yes, the woods needed to be preserved, and protected from the world outside. But in turn, they were a protection. They held the line against Wildewood Hall. And sometimes they did that in violent ways.
He couldn’t tell her that. She’d never believe him for starters.
‘Please,’ he said, trying to weigh his words carefully this time. He couldn’t alarm her any more than he already had. ‘Please take more care in future.’
She could have fallen, he’d said, in the woods. But Theo hadn’t fallen. Not really. She could have been lying there, where he found Theo. She could have been as dead as her brother.
That was what he’d been afraid of. That something had happened to her, that the woods had done something. That was why he had brought the axe.
It was little more than a threat. He couldn’t have done much with it.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think.’
Well, that was obvious. But why would she? Who had to think about things like this?
Who apart from him?
Nick swallowed hard and felt the tension in the back of his shoulder unwind just a little. She was trying. She was being magnanimous. He had to meet her halfway.
‘I’m sorry too. I was rude. It was uncalled for.’
Alex smiled at him, brightly, as if she hadn’t a care in the world. ‘Apology accepted. Can we start again, Nick?’
‘I – of course.’
And then she stepped in through the doors of Wildewood Hall. She passed so close to him he could catch her scent, and he inhaled, perhaps more deeply than he intended to. It was warm and delicate, that fragrance, intoxicating.
And then the house seemed to enfold her in its cold hands, drawing her out of the light and into the shadows.
Nick shuddered and forced himself to follow her.
Alex did not believe in ghosts. Theo had told him that time and again.
Even though she made her living making TV shows about them, writing about them, investigating them.
Even though she had grown up as part of a family with a house where they were a fact of everyday life.
Except she hadn’t grown up here, had she? Once their father died, her mother would have nothing to do with the de Wildes. Patricia had said once, ‘Nothing good ever came to a woman in this house.’
He thought of Sally and flinched inwardly. He should have made her leave. He should have insisted. Not that she would have listened to him but he could have tried.
Nick believed now. He had learned far too much. To his eternal grief.
He wasn’t going to say any of that to Alex of course.
He wanted her. Ached for her. But he had no idea how much of that was real and how much was… well, whatever the house did. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Sally said that something old and terrible stalked the house. That the house itself had become subsumed in evil and it had taken all the wise women of Kilfayne to bring it under control.
But they couldn’t get rid of it.
Old stories. Legends. Things to frighten children. Or so he’d believed once. Right up until he lost Sally.
Wildewood Hall was no place for a woman. It was no place for the living at all.