Flare

Chapter 11

I woke to the smell of frying bacon and coffee. Light filtered through a crack in the curtains and I lay there for a moment trying to remember where I was.

It all came flooding back as I moved my injured ankle and felt it throb, wincing as I sat up and unzipped the sleeping bag.

I looked about for Jerry, but his sleeping bag was already rolled up neatly and tucked half under one of the sofas. I stood slowly, testing my weight on my ankle and realising that it would hold well enough to get me into the kitchen.

The day was already hot. As I entered the kitchen rich, golden light streamed through the window, making me squint as Harriet immediately chivvied me over to the table and laid out a plate of bacon, eggs and mushrooms and a large mug of coffee.

Jerry was already there, cleaning his plate with a piece of bread, and he looked up long enough to smile before wolfing it down, all the while watched by the mournful eyes of Maggie, sitting attentively at his feet in the hope of being slipped a morsel.

“Morning,” Harriet said as I began to eat, my stomach growling with hunger, “I trust you slept ok?”

I nodded, mouth too full of food to talk.

“That’s good. Thought you could do with a proper meal before you head off.”

I swallowed a mouthful.

“Thank you. For this and for letting us stay. Where’s Ralph?”

“He’s outside chopping wood for the stove, he asked to talk to you when you’ve eaten.”

Something in her tone worried me but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“I can go,” Jerry said, pushing his chair back, but Harriet shook her head.

“No, don’t worry, he wants to talk to Malcolm. Not to be rude.”

Jerry shrugged but our eyes met as he spoke.

“Not rude at all.” He raised an eyebrow at me but said nothing further, and the silence stretched as I hurried my breakfast, took a swig of coffee and then stood. I almost tripped over the dog, who had slunk under the table to sit at my feet now that Jerry’s plate was empty.

“Which way?” I asked.

Harriet gave me directions and I followed them, heading out into the yard then through the vegetable garden, past a chicken coop where several well-fed specimens scratched in the dust, and soon saw Ralph sitting on a thick, wide log with countless axe scars crisscrossing its surface.

A pile of split logs sat on one side while on the other a rough shelter kept the un-split ones from the worst of the weather.

As he sat, he idly ran his hands up and down the haft of a wickedly sharp axe. Despite the breakfast and Harriet’s friendly demeanour, I couldn’t help but think back to Ralph’s threats from the night before.

“You wanted to see me?” I said, putting as much weight as possible on my uninjured foot while the other barely touched the ground.

Ralph looked up and nodded.

“First off, want to apologise for last night. Seems I put the wind right up you and your friend, and after we worked out you wasn’t burgling us I should have relaxed. Harriet tells me I’m too protective of me and mine, and maybe I am, but you’ve got a family and no doubt you’d do the same in my place.”

I couldn’t help but nod in agreement. If I’d been him, I might even have sent us packing just to be safe, injured or not.

“Well,” he continued, “that being said I reckon you owe us a favour now, what with us patching you up and feeding you.” He squinted up at me, trying to read my expression. I shrugged and gestured at him to continue, not sure what to say. It was true that they’d helped us out when they didn’t have to, but my most pressing need was getting up to Manchester and finding Melody and I didn’t want anything interfering with that.

“I know you’re angling to get to your daughter as quick as you can,” he said as if reading my mind, “which is why I’m asking you this favour, ‘cause you know how important family is.”

“Every minute I don’t know she’s safe just terrifies me more,” I said, hoping he’d catch the hint.

He nodded. “Then you know how I feel. Our daughter, Emily, she lives just south of Guildford. It’s only twenty miles or so, but her car’s obviously not working or she’d be here already, that or something’s happened to her. I’ll not blame you if you say no, but the trip would only take an hour or so there and back.”

The last words came out in a rush, and all the while he looked me in the eye, one father to another as he all but begged me to go and find his daughter.

My heart sank. I wanted nothing more than to get in the car and head straight up to Manchester, but this man and his wife had helped us out and now he was asking for a return on that favour, albeit without any expectation that I’d agree.

“Have you not got a car?” I asked, then instantly regretted it as he took my question for a no.

“Landrover’s in the shop, supposed to be picking it up in a few days,” he said, looking down at the ground, “and the one in the yard is in pieces, more of a project than an actual car, you might say.”

I realised how much it had cost him to ask someone he barely knew for something so important, and I was suddenly minded of my begging Jerry to take me to find Melody.

“Where exactly is this place?” I asked, and there was a gleam of hope in his eyes as he looked back up at me.

“It’s a village on the outskirts of Guildford, not far at all.”

“But,” I said, “why ask me instead of Jerry? It’s his car after all.”

He shrugged and stood, swinging the axe with practiced ease so the head sank effortlessly into the chopping block.

“Not being rude to your friend, but not only is he not a parent, it’s clear that you’re the doer out of the two of you, and he’ll follow your lead. I may not know much but I know people, and I reckon if you say yes, he’ll agree.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, and it was only when I started working out what I was going to say to Jerry to convince him to do it that I realised I’d already made the decision to help.

“Ok, sure,” I said, “but I can’t force Jerry to go if he doesn’t want to.”

Ralph smiled, and there was nothing of humour in it.

“Oh don’t worry,” he said as he led me back to the house, “I’m not entirely daft. He’ll be staying here to look after Harriet, while you and I go and find Emily. Means that we won’t be sat there for days waiting for you to come back, not knowing, while you change your minds and head off up north.”

My heart sank. Although he was making sense I couldn’t pretend to like the idea, and I was pretty sure that when I tried to explain it to Jerry he’d like it even less than I did.