Chapter 16
ALEX
Alex was aware she wasn’t awake, but that this wasn’t the same dream she relived night after night.
Something reached up from the foundations and the rocks on which Wildewood Hall was built, from the earth itself, from the water deep underground, and coiled around her. It dragged her down, clawing at her skin, pulling her into darkness.
The cold arched roof of stones and the stench of mulch. The taste of blood in her mouth, choking her, and the world blurring through tears and terror, shadows covered her, crawling over her. Inside her.
She stared at the ceiling, blinked at the ornate plasterwork, at the leaves and the vines and… and it wasn’t the house anymore. It was a forest, a vast, ancient forest. It was lush and verdant. And alive.
She felt him coming through the trees and undergrowth around her, felt the forest shiver with his approach.
A man, crowned with antlers like a stag.
He was life, warmth and everything the darkness was not.
His very presence drove it away. She remembered that old story Gran used to tell, the walker in the woods.
Alex was in Wildewood Hall, lying at the foot of the stairs. She was in the heart of the wild wood, in that ring of stones. Both of them at once. And he was with her. She struggled to focus through the blinding pain in her head.
The floor was cold and hard beneath her body as only marble could be. When she opened her eyes, she expected to see endless faces peering at her over the bannisters of the landings above. Laughing at her. Mocking her.
But, God, her head hurt when she tried to move it. Her skin was sticky.
‘Don’t move. Try not to – I’m going to call the doctor, okay? Just stay with me.’
Was that Nick?
His voice sounded shaken. Scared. Far from the gruff and grumpy rumble she expected from him.
She reached out and grabbed his hand. Such a big hand, his palm and fingers calloused from physical work.
He was real. That was something. Touching his hand, feeling the warmth of his skin, that was good.
She tried to squeeze but her own hand didn’t seem to want to cooperate.
So she just clung to him as best she could.
His voice went on, not talking to her now. Or at least she thought not. She wasn’t sure. He wasn’t making any sense. Or maybe she wasn’t understanding him. Was she missing moments?
‘Yes. No, she passed out. No, not for long. But she’s dazed.
I found her… found her at the foot of the stairs.
I haven’t moved her. She hit her head when she fell.
She’s only in and out of consciousness. Barely.
Yes. Please. As soon as you can. Yes, just bring her with you. I will. I will. Thank you.’
There was something like a sob in his voice. Alex tried to squeeze his hand again to comfort him. It was like squeezing stone.
Something told her that was bad. Something logical and reliable, that was desperately trying to reassert itself and push the nightmares away.
Nick murmured soft, comforting things to her. She wasn’t sure exactly what he said. He sounded like another man entirely.
She wanted to hear that voice. Like music.
Like the distant sound of rain. She didn’t want him to stop talking, so she could just listen to him.
He was music in the shadows, sliding through the sharp pain in her head.
Much better than anything else she’d been hearing in her dreams, her nightmares, in the house at night.
When she tried to speak, to ask what had happened, he just shushed her and smoothed his free hand over her head.
His big, strong hand. How was it so gentle?
‘It’s all right. I’m here. Just stay with me, all right? I’ve got you.’
And then there was someone else with them, someone who shone a light in her eyes and spoke with a quiet authority which could only mean the doctor Nick mentioned had arrived.
Alex tried to focus on her, a woman with that kind of firm but fair expression.
No-nonsense, her mum would have said. The kind of doctor you wanted.
‘No concussion,’ the older woman said at last. ‘Just a nasty bump, I think. Nothing too serious. Still, you did the right thing calling, Nick. Let’s get her somewhere comfortable to start with. No need to keep her on the cold floor.’
Nick lifted her in his arms, so strong that Alex felt like she was floating.
She rested her head – the side that wasn’t hurt – against his chest and was swept up in that scent again.
Cedarwood, cloves and citrus. And something else underneath, an undoubtedly male scent.
Nick Walker, she thought, and closed her eyes.
That scent was him, entirely. She could feel his heartbeat racing, but he held her so carefully, unwavering, as if she was something precious and fragile.
A few minutes later he set her down on the bed, adjusting the pillows and pulling the sheets up over her. At least until the doctor told him sharply to stop fussing and examined her again.
‘There now. Painkillers will see you right. Along with some rest. Honestly, what were you doing up in the dead of night in a place like this?’ Nick started to say something.
‘Not you,’ the doctor told him. ‘Off you go and sort yourself out or you’ll be no help.
’ Her voice softened. ‘You look half dead. Take a moment, love. Breathe deeply. She’s fine.
But it can’t have been pleasant for you finding her like that.
’ Not pleasant for him, Alex thought in disgruntlement.
She was the one who fell, the one with the thumping headache and possible concussion.
And then she remembered his wife. She’d died falling down the stairs. Just like that. And tonight, Nick had watched her fall. It must have been him at the top of the stairs. Who else could it have been?
The doctor’s mouth tightened as she studied Nick with a deliberating gaze. To Alex’s surprise, she wrinkled her nose. ‘And have a shave, for the love of God. That thing on your face looks set to crawl away to die all by itself. Go see to Maeve. She’ll be frantic.’
Somewhere outside the bedroom, there was laughter again, dark with mockery. It rang throughout the corridors of Wildewood Hall, from the floor to the rafters, and Alex started.
All three of them stiffened, just for a moment. Hearing it and making the decision to not admit that. Or just sensing the menacing nature of the house. Nick took another look at Alex, his face so pale beneath the ghastly beard, he seemed ghostly himself, and then he fled.
The doctor Nick had called sat down on the edge of the bed, a grey-haired woman with a dependable kind of face, wire-framed glasses and a stern expression.
‘Hello?’ Alex croaked.
The older woman smiled. ‘Ah, there you are then, pet. Here, I’ve some painkillers to help with your head. Nothing too bad. You won’t even need stitches. I’ve patched you up. Lucky Nick found you though. Don’t worry now. There’s no harm done. I’ll stay here with you tonight.’
‘Shouldn’t I be… a hospital or…’
The doctor gave a fond kind of laugh. ‘Nearest emergency department open now is more than thirty kilometres away. And an ambulance would take hours to get here, let alone back there. Besides, I don’t think there’s a need. You were lucky this time. We’ll see what morning brings, will we?’
There wasn’t much more to say. No arguing with someone like that, not that Alex had any wish to argue. It was comforting, the confidence in that voice. Something to cling to. Like Nick.
‘Is Nick… is he okay?’
‘Nick? He’s fine. Bit shaken, what with finding you like that and all. The state he’s got himself into the last few months, I don’t know. But you, young lady, need to close your eyes and get some sleep. Don’t worry about him. Here, painkillers. You’ll need them.’
Alex took the pills and drank some water. She fell back asleep a lot more quickly than she would have liked to admit.