Part 35 (1/2)

'Where on earth have you been, child?' she said.

'Nowhere. Why?'

'You were gone. I didn't hear you come in. How did you come in without me hearing you?'

'You were dozing, probably,' said Uncle Maurice. He was standing by the back door, leaning against the wall so quietly that Tess hadn't noticed he was there. His face was grey and deeply lined, as though he had aged ten years in the last few hours.

'At least we have one of them,' said Aunt Deirdre. 'G.o.d forbid that we should lose my sister's child as well as our own.'

She was glaring at Uncle Maurice as she spoke, and then, as though Tess's presence had made her brave, she burst out, 'Please, Maurice. Please let's get the police in on this.'

Tess had been edging towards the bread-bin, but the anguish in her aunt's voice brought her to a standstill.

'Tell him, Tess,' she went on. 'Make him see sense. What's past is past, we know nothing of that. But what is happening here is a kidnap, isn't it? Surely you can see that? We need to call the police!'

Tess looked from her aunt to her uncle and back again. She had no idea what the reference to the past was about, but it was clear that Deirdre and Maurice understood each other perfectly.

'I've told you a hundred times, Deirdre,' said Uncle Maurice. 'The police can do no good here. They'd only be Wasting their time, just like before.'

'Before?' said Tess. 'What do you mean, ”before”?'

Aunt Deirdre shook her head, and there was a horrified expression on her face. 'You're mad, Maurice,' she said. 'I never thought the day would come when I'd hear myself say it. I always denied it, always. Even when others said it I refused to listen. But I believe them now, all right.'

A glimmer of fear crossed Aunt Deirdre's features as she spoke, but for once it was unfounded. Uncle Maurice had no anger left in him.

'They'll be home,' he said. 'Wait till you see.' And before she could answer, he stepped out through the door and walked away across the yard.

Aunt Deirdre stared at the place where he had been.

'What did you mean?' Tess asked. 'About the past.'

'Hush, child,' said Aunt Deirdre. 'Don't be worrying. Get yourself a bite to eat, there. You must be starved.'

Tess didn't need to be asked twice, but nor was she so easily put off track.

'Do other people really say that Uncle Maurice is mad?' she asked.

'That's enough about that, now,' said her aunt.

Tess pressed on. 'But why? Why would they say he was mad?'

Aunt Deirdre sighed deeply and then, as though her resistance had finally given way, the words began to pour out of her.

'I wouldn't have told you, child, but I can't see the harm in it now, to tell the truth. There was an awful tragedy here, you see. Awful.'

The hairs on Tess's neck stood up, but she b.u.t.tered bread calmly, willing her aunt to continue. She did.

'Your uncle had a twin brother. Declan was his name, and it's said that the two of them were so close that you rarely saw daylight between them. But Declan died, as I told you earlier.'

'How?' said Tess.

'That's the mystery,' said Aunt Deirdre. 'No one knows. He disappeared in the early hours of one morning and no trace was ever found of him.'

'They didn't find his body?'

'No. Nothing.'

'Then how do they know he died?'

'There was no other explanation,' said Aunt Deirdre. 'A boy can't just vanish into thin air, now, can he?'

Tess nodded in agreement.

'Where?' she said. 'Where did he disappear?'

'No one knows, for sure. All we know is that Maurice believed that he was in those woods, and for weeks afterwards he had to be carried out of them at night, otherwise he would never have left them at all. Calling his brother's name, he was. Convinced that Declan was in there and would come out.'

Aunt Deirdre stood up and moved around in an agitated way, putting on the kettle and emptying the teapot into the sink.

'There were even some who said ...' she stopped and stared at Tess vacantly, and it was as though her anxiety had brought her to the brink of madness as well.

'What did they say?' Tess asked, but Aunt Deirdre shook her head and turned to look out of the window, in the direction of the mountain. It was clear that she had said as much as she was going to.

But it didn't make sense. Why had Orla said that she would take Tess to meet Uncle Declan? How could she meet someone who was dead? And where did Kevin fit into the picture?

Tess found cheese in the fridge and made sandwiches, then took them up to her room, Far from making things clearer, her aunt's words had only made the mystery deeper and more frightening. It was almost as though history was repeating itself, with Uncle Maurice's own children vanis.h.i.+ng in the same way that his brother had. But if that was the case, why would he be so reluctant to call in the police? And who was it that whispered to her in the woods?

She sat on the bed and ate the sandwiches without enthusiasm. Afterwards, tired and dispirited, she threw herself on to the bed. Every mystery had a simple explanation, she knew that, and she was fed up of being thwarted in everything she tried to do. Miserably, she rolled on to her side and curled up like a baby.

She thought of the land again, the fresh, green beauty of the woods and the greed of the people who wanted to destroy it in order to line their own pockets. She didn't want to be an adult in a society like that, where no one cared about anything except money. She envisioned the world as a grey, barren place, where nothing lived except human beings and nothing grew except the food they ate. Like a plague on the earth; like locusts they destroyed everything before them, like locusts they could see no further than their own, immediate greed.

She wouldn't join them. Better to be an animal, even a greedy one like a pig or a rat. At least they didn't pretend to care. People were worse. People were hypocrites. A few tears ran down her nose and dripped on to the pillow.

Thoughts of Lizzie returned. If only she could see the old woman. She was sure that Lizzie would have the answer. She always did. But Lizzie lived two hundred miles away, and Tess couldn't think of any way of getting to her in time.

Her mind ran back over their last conversation. What was it that Lizzie had said? Something about ancestors.

Ancestors?

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tess laughed, struck by the image of old men in medieval attire roaming round in the landscape.

'Lizzie sends her regards,' she said to the empty room.

A sudden gust of wind rattled the window hard, and Tess flinched. There was something else that the old woman had said. What was it? Tess concentrated and, obligingly, the words came to her.

'Does we believe what we sees, or does we see what we believe?'