Chapter 31
The next day, Nicky was difficult about getting into the car to go to school, kicking up a fuss on the pavement. “I wanna take Faz,” he complained on this particular morning, stamping and posturing. “I wanna run in the park in the snow!”
“Get in the bloody car!” Emma snapped, casting her eyes frantically around the street as she cleared ice off the windscreen. Rohan warned her to be careful and Freda’s news about Alanya instilled further fear into Emma’s already overloaded brain. She had driven Freda home but refused to go into the flats, fearful of meeting Alanya. Freda wrote her phone number on a napkin and extorted a promise from Emma to have morning tea again sometime.
“Om er! Swearing!” Nicky squeaked, striking a hands-on-hips pose so much like Anton, it took Emma’s breath away. “I’m sick of this! You never walk the dog anymore. It’s cruel!” Nicky climbed into the car with genuine reluctance, mollified by his mother’s stony glare and the determination in her eyes.
“I already said; I need you to do as you’re told for a while,” Emma bit, locking the doors and turning to face her son. He stared at her, wide-eyed and fearful at the sudden intensity on her face.
“Is the gang after us?” His mind regressed to the miserable council estate in Lincoln where they lived on their wits and drifted like flotsam with the prevailing tide of trouble.
“No, baby.” Emma reached behind her and gripped Nicky’s outstretched hand. “But Uncle Rohan asked us to be very careful and we live in his house so have to do what he says.”
“Like monsters are chasing us?” Nicky said and Emma sighed.
“Kinda. We just need to do what Rohan said. But Nicky, don’t tell anyone please? This isn’t exciting or something to tell friends. Ok?” Emma stared at him until she got a crick in her neck, searching for surety he would be wiser than his years.
“Pinky promise, Mummy.” The child stretched forward and clasped her baby finger with his, the deal struck easily with a trusting smile and a belief in the impossible. “Harley Man said not to worry. He’ll take care of us anyway.”
“I thought you grew out of him,” Emma said, her voice laced with disappointment.
“No!” Nicky chortled. “How can you grow out of a person, Mummy? I seen him round all the time. He keeps us safe, like always.”
“Oh, goody.” Emma struggled with the huge vehicle, missing Rohan’s capable driving skills with every groan of the engine or jerk of the car body. Nicky sniggered as she almost side swiped another car in the car park. “You don’t like this car, do you, Mummy?”
“Not really, Nick. It’s too big.” Emma glanced in her rear view mirror. “Sorry for swearing at you before. I just feel stressed. Christmas isn’t far away and...” Emma stopped and put the hand brake on. Nicky unclipped his seat belt and stood up, reaching forward to hug his mother around the seat. His arms felt tight around her neck.
“Uncle Ro showed me how to get to the money. You want me to show you tonight?”
“I don’t know, babe. We’re not really his responsibility, are we?”
“It’s not charity. We’re looking after his house and his dog and his...well, you’re not really looking after his car, are you Mummy? Do you think he’ll notice that little scratch on the...”
“Fine! Show me how to get into the safe this weekend, ok?”
“Ok. Oh Mum, I forgot to say, the Christmas nativity is next Friday in the afternoon. I’m gettin’ tickets for you and Uncle Ro and Uncle Anton. Can you tell them for me?” He leaned forward and kissed her softly on the cheek and Emma struggled to keep her tears in. Unable to lie any more to her son, Emma kept silent. “I think they’ll love how I’m a wise man. I have to wave my telescope and shout, ‘This way!’ to the other wise men. I’m gonna do it real funny to make Uncle Anton laugh. I love it when he laughs. Do you think he’ll laugh at me, Mummy? Do you?”
“I don’t know,” Emma whispered, barely holding it together.
She returned home after dropping her son at school, avoiding small talk with the other mothers and knocking around the house aimlessly. She avoided the urge to drive to the Northamptonshire border, to the beautiful mansion, which by now would be stripped and empty. She went there so often it was bound to attract attention eventually, if Rohan’s fears were real. Emma imagined what it would be like to drive up the long driveway, climbing the gradient through open fields and grazing sheep to a place which looked so much like her perfect home. It called her there like a beacon, promising peace and sanctuary and now she knew its history, Emma found it increasingly hard to stay away. But the petrol gauge on Rohan’s car clicked onto a quarter full that morning and Emma dreaded the journey to a tightly structured garage forecourt to fill it up again. She would have to use Rohan’s cash from the hiding place under the stairs somewhere and besides, Emma wasn’t confident in small spaces with the enormous, imposing vehicle. It wouldn’t end well.
When the hammering on the front door came, Emma jumped almost clean out of her skin. Peering through the stained glass at eye level, she saw Felicity.
“Where’s Rohan?” The woman pushed past her and stopped in the hallway, casting around and looked at Emma in accusation.
“He’s gone away. I’m sure he told you.” Emma’s impatience was obvious in her voice and she tapped her foot on the floor. Felicity glanced down at the tattered boots which Emma hadn’t removed and sneered.
“He’s my boyfriend. I don’t know what your game is, but you need to back off! It all went wrong when you turned up.”
“Why aren’t you at work?”
“I’m sick.”
“You don’t look sick.”
“Maybe I’m sick of you!”
Emma smirked at the lame attempt at a threat and opened the door wider. “Go home, Felicity. When Rohan comes back, talk to him. Until then, stay away from me and Nicky.”
“I want to wait for my fiancé!” Felicity stood her ground and Emma snapped.
“Well, wait for him then! You’re just not doing it here! Get out!”
Felicity moved over the threshold and hovered on the doormat. “I know you’re in love with him. As soon as Rohan gets home, we’re getting married and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ll make sure you’re out of this house the second I get that ring on my finger, you make no mistake about that! You’re sick if you think he’d ever like you. Alanya says you’re a whore and you are. It’s incest. It’s disgusting. You’re disgusting!”
Emma slammed the door in her face and the glass rattled. “Did you see that? I am so tired of being called names! I didn’t choose to fall in love with Rohan bloody Andreyev!” Emma clapped her hand over her mouth, too late to stop the declaration spinning out into the open. She’d said it. Farrell gave a woof of approval and wound around her legs like a giant, woolly black cat, getting underfoot. “She’s insane!” Emma retorted to cover her embarrassment.
Emma cleaned the house until lunchtime, changing and washing bedding, tumble drying and putting it back on the beds. She killed time, constantly checking her phone for a message from Rohan until the obvious dawned on her and sent her spiralling into distress. “Ro doesn’t have my number!” she wailed to the dog. “I never gave him it! He can’t even let me know if he’s ok!” Emma wrung her hands in desperation, having wasted three weeks in foolish checking and rechecking for an impossibility. He’d been gone such a long time, things must have gone wrong for him. Emma felt worry like a sickness in her heart and no amount of pushing it away seemed to work in the last few days. It felt like an omen.
Finally, rattled beyond belief, she made a foolish decision. “Come on, Faz. We’ll go for a really short walk along the street, yeah? I’m sick of being cooped up indoors. I need to get out. On foot!”
Even the dog looked doubtful and slouched down in the corner of the kitchen on the cold tiles.
“We won’t go far. Just down to the side road half way along Newcombe Street and I’ll throw the ball for you on the waste ground behind the hous
e. What do you say?”
Farrell yawned and refused to be drawn, uncharacteristically ignoring Emma as she rattled his leash. “Fine!” she said finally, in irritation. “I’ll walk down and see Allaine, without you!”
He stood up at that declaration, allowing Emma to fit the leash onto his collar. He slunk along next to her, stuck to her left leg, so close he almost pitched her over with his inflexibility. At Allaine’s gate, Emma sent the dog through first and he sat on the front doormat, waiting for her to follow. Emma watched as his tail thumped a tiny beat, his huge eyes watching as she rang the doorbell.
“Drop the leash, Emma.” Christopher’s clear voice made her jump and she turned quickly, finding herself up against his chest. “Just do as I say, darlin’. Drop the leash and they’ll leave the dog here.”
Emma gulped and did as she was told. Christopher smiled at her, an expression which seemed genuine. “How could you? You’re a double crossing git! And a pervert!” she hissed at him and his eyes grew wary.
“Just do what they say, Emma,” he advised. “They’re definitely goin’ to kill me, but you might be ok, if you’re a good girl for once. And I’m definitely not a pervert, thanks. ”
Christopher took her arm after patting the useless dog on the forehead, leading her down the path to the street and clicking the gate shut behind him. “Will your friend take care of the dog?” he asked, sounding concerned.
Emma didn’t answer, allowing herself to be pushed towards the road side. Within seconds the dark car with the tinted windows was in front of her, Christopher jabbing her in the back to make her get in. Emma lurched into the back door of the large vehicle, falling face first into the seat. Christopher got in behind her, pushing at her bottom until he was in and the door was closed. The vehicle moved forward even before he managed to secure the door and Emma saw Farrell standing up against the front fence of Allaine’s garden, barking his furry head off in distress.