Flare

Chapter 21

“I’m not going with you.”

I looked up from my breakfast, fork frozen halfway to my mouth as I stared at Jerry.

“Sorry?”

He looked down at his plate, surrounded by his notes.

“I can’t go with you,” he repeated, “I’ve been going through my notes and there’s still something happening with the sun. The problem is that for me to work out what, I need to take readings from the same place each night, and I can’t do that if I’m on the road.”

I dropped my fork, splattering the table with food but too angry to care.

“What am I supposed to do? Walk up to Manchester?”

He shook his head and pushed his chair back as if ready to run.

“Of course not! Take the car by all means, but I need to stay here. This is important, Malc, really important. There are implications I can’t begin to understand without more readings, I have to do this.” He looked back at his notes. “I’ll probably be more use here than I would on the road anyway.”

Everyone was staring at me. I let go of the breath I was holding, picking up my napkin and dabbing at the food on the table under Ralph’s stern glare.

“Fine, I’ll go on my own.” I tried not to sound like a sulky teenager but I wasn’t having much luck. Damn it though, even if he was right he was letting me go out there alone, and the thought scared me.

“No you won’t,” Emily said suddenly, “I’ll go with you.”

The silence stretched as I stared at her, unsure what to say. Conflicting emotions were raging inside me, surprise, relief, worry, and I could see at least two of those on every face around the table.

The silence was broken by the smack of a meaty fist on the table as Ralph pushed back his chair and stood.

“Over my dead body!” He declared, his face red and eyes bulging. “I didn’t go through all that to get you back only to have you traipse halfway across the bloody country with some man you hardly know!”

He drew a breath to continue but Harriet spoke before he could.

“Through all what dear? I thought you just had car trouble?”

I’d never seen the wind so neatly taken out of someone’s sails, and I would have laughed but for the look he gave me. I put my hands up and shook my head to declare my innocence and he turned the stare on Emily, who looked back defiantly with arms crossed over her chest.

“Come on, Dad. You asked him to help you come and find me, why should I do any less for him?”

His mouth opened and shut a few times, his face still red but slightly less than it had been a moment before as he tried to find the right words.

“It’s not the same,” he said, “I only just got you back! What happens if you get lost, or injured, or the car breaks down and leaves you stranded? What then?”

She shrugged. “Then I’ll use all that army training you’re so proud of and find my way back here. I’m not asking your permission, I stopped doing that a long time ago. I’m just telling you what’s going to happen.”

He stared at her for a moment longer, then strode out into the yard without another word.

Emily looked at me, her face unreadable.

“Well?” She asked.

“You’d do that for me?”

“You did it for me.”

“I know, but, well…”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me I just had the first row with my dad since I was sixteen and you’re going to say no.”

I shook my head. “No, I mean yes, well, no, I’d love you to come with me, I just don’t want you to think you have to, is all.”

Her words came out slowly, as if explaining something to a four year old.

“I don’t think I have to, I want to. I hate the thought of you being out there alone while I sit here nice and safe, it just doesn’t seem right. So how about you start packing up what we need while I go and talk some sense into my dad, eh?”

She left the table, stopping only to place a hand on her mum’s shoulder before heading after Ralph.

I looked over at Harriet, unsure what to say, but she had the resigned look of someone well used to things as they were.

“He’ll come around,” she said, “he always does. He’s never been able to say no to her, but he worries. Now as they’re outside, give me a hand with the dishes and then we’ll start packing up the car.”

We worked in silence, clearing up around Jerry who was already buried in his work, eyes scanning his notes and making yet more on a clean piece of paper. Washing up was done by dint of filling the sink from a nearby bucket, then using fresh water from a large clay pitcher to rinse it all off.

Despite the archaic way of doing things we were soon finished, and Harriet began laying out food for us to take on the journey, as well as a portable stove with two small bottles of gas and a several boxes of matches.

“I know you shouldn’t be gone more than a day or two,” she said as I looked at the growing pile, “but Emily told me what happened when you went to get her so it’s better to be prepared.”

I couldn’t argue with that and so began to carry things out to the car, packing them as neatly as I could in the boot. The final tally included a pair of sleeping bags, a small tent, several large bottles of water, food for several days or more if we rationed it, and a rucksack full of anything else Harriet could think of that we might need. Even if we ended up having to ditch the car, something that didn’t bear thinking about, I reckoned that we would be able to fit most of it in the rucksack and Emily’s Bergen, which was now half empty and packed on top of everything else.

I’d just finished stowing the maps in the back of the car when Emily and Ralph came into view, his broad arm around her shoulder as she tucked herself into his chest.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, “I promise you.”

He shook his head, his face a swelter of different emotions, ranging from fear to anger and making several stops in between. He caught sight of me then and stopped, stepping away from Emily and motioning me to one side.

I’ll admit I was a little nervous. I was beginning to like Ralph, but in many ways he was still a mystery and often more than threatening.

He took me by the shoulder and steered me firmly out of earshot of the others, only stopping when we reached the fence at the edge of the yard.

“Two things,” he said without preamble. “First, bring her back safe.”

I nodded, but he poked me in the shoulder hard enough to bruise.

“I mean it, not a scratch. If anything happens to her then I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe,” I promised, “but to be honest she’s more likely to be the one keeping me alive.”

“Aye, you’ve got the right of that.”

“What’s the second thing?” I asked, rubbing my shoulder.

He looked down at the ground and then back up at me.

“No funny business. I know she’s a grown woman and all, but she’s still my daughter, and if you try anything…”

I gave a nervous laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure she’d break me in two the first time I tried to so much as hold her hand. I think you’re ok there.”

“That’s as may be, but I still need to know she’s travelling with an honourable man.”

Something in his words stung me and I bit back.

“I was honourable enough not to leave you yesterday when I could have done; I think I’m honourable enough not to pursue something that’s not wanted!”

Ralph had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Right, well then. Good luck, and come back quick. You’ll be taking one of the shotguns and a box of cartridges with you, but if you’re clever you’ll let her do any shooting that needs to be done.”

He led me back across the yard, filling my ears with last minute instructions. When we reached the car Harriet gave me a quick hug, then a longer one for Emily before she got into the driver’s side and I the other.

Ralph reconnected the battery and the car started first time, the noise shattering the peace of the yard and setting Maggie to barking.

“Come back safe!” Harriet called as we pulled away, and I watched her and Ralph in the mirror, standing with their hands clasped together, until we crested the hill and the landscape hid them from view.