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‘Of course he is,’ he says. ‘It’s good to have him here.’
‘Shall we have our coffee outside?’ says Michelle. Nelson is rather surprised she hasn’t made a treacle pudding to round off the nostalgic meal.
Nelson had got out the patio furniture before supper. It would never occur to him to sit in the garden on his own and the steamer chairs were covered in cobwebs. Even now, Michelle dusts hers carefully with the sleeve of her cardigan. Nelson and Michelle drink their coffee while George and Bruno run laps of the lawn. It’s still very light. Nelson thinks of Judy reminding him that today is the summer solstice. Hordes of nutters will be descending on Stonehenge. He prays that Cathbad is amongst them, that this whole disappearance is one crazy druidical pilgrimage.
‘Are you all right, Harry? You’re looking very grim.’ He must be doing the face again.
‘Fine,’ says Nelson. ‘Who’s Adrian?’
Michelle sighs. Now we’re coming to it, thinks Nelson.
‘Mum’s boyfriend,’ says Michelle. ‘It seems strange to say boyfriend when they’re both in their seventies but that’s what she calls him. They’re like a couple of teenagers. It’s a bit much, actually.’
‘A bit much’, Nelson knows, is one of Michelle’s strongest terms of disapprobation, used for football hooligans, litter louts and people who don’t pick up their dogs’ poo. Presumably his affair with Ruth was ‘a bit much’.
‘A boyfriend?’ says Nelson, filled with a relief that he doesn’t like to analyse. ‘Good for Louise.’ Michelle’s mother, unlike his own, is a youthful-looking pensioner who drives a pink Fiat 500 and enjoys Pilates. Nelson is not surprised that she has an admirer.
‘I suppose so,’ says Michelle. ‘And he’s not a bad sort. He’s very nice with George. And Mum obviously adores him. It’s just, it makes it rather awkward being in the house with them. Like when the girls brought boyfriends home. But worse.’
Nelson can quite believe this. He never allowed the girls to share bedrooms with their boyfriends when they were younger, but he can’t really object now that Rebecca is living with Asif. For this reason, he’s never invited the couple to stay overnight, although Rebecca is always welcome to occupy her old room. On her own.
‘I want to come back,’ says Michelle.
Ruth opens her mouth to scream and drops the phone. Kate cannons into the back of her legs. Ruth scrabbles for the phone and, thank God, finds the soft rubber. The light is still on. With a shaking hand Ruth illuminates the white shape, grotesquely misshapen, missing a head, arms and legs.
‘It’s a rock,’ says Kate. And Ruth sees that she is right. It’s a piece of stone in the rough shape and size of a human torso. Was that why the miners left it down here, a petrified sacrifice, an offering to the gods? Or maybe it was just too heavy to carry. Ruth edges past. It’s wider here and easier to move but it’s impossible to stand upright. The air smells of damp chalk. She tries not to think of the weight of rock above them. There’s no sound now but their own breathing.
‘What’s that?’ says Kate. ‘That thing in the corner?’
A crumble of white, a shoe picked out in the beam of the torch.
‘Is it real?’ says Kate.
Ruth crawls closer. The body lies slumped against the wall. It’s definitely a flesh and blood human. It’s only when she gets closer and sees the long grey hair that she recognises Cathbad.
By ten o’clock it’s still not quite dark but Zoe is definitely worried. She keeps returning to the window, willing Ruth’s car to appear. But the road is empty, still spotlit by that strange, theatrical glow. Flint crosses the garden on a nocturnal mission. Derek, a more indoor creature, is lying on the chaise longue. The television flickers in the background, sound down.
Maybe Ruth is meeting friends? Maybe she’s with Judy? Maybe Cathbad has come home and they’re celebrating? Maybe Ruth is with Nelson? Zoe could ring Nelson. She has his number but something makes her hesitate. Although Zoe would never say so to Ruth, she distrusts Nelson. He’s Kate’s father but, as far as Zoe can see, only sees her when it’s convenient to him. For years, he stayed with his wife and allowed Ruth only measured fragments of his time. During lockdown, he broke the rules to visit. Zoe had been comforted by his presence– it was a frightening time in her life– whilst strongly disapproving of his actions.
Zoe sits at her window and waits.
The longest day.
Chapter 32
At first Ruth thinks that Cathbad is dead. He’s lying in such an awkward position, half slumped against the chalk wall. His chin is on his chest and his long grey mane is tangled across his face, like a corpse whose hair has continued to grow after death. But, when Ruth lowers her head, she can hear him breathing.
‘He’s all right,’ she says to Kate although, again, this is very far from the case.
‘Cathbad!’ Ruth touches his shoulder. ‘It’s Ruth.’
Cathbad’s eyes flicker open. ‘Hecate?’ he says.
This is Cathbad’s name for Kate but it’s also the name of the goddess of witchcraft. Ruth would rather not think about her just now. She’s aware of the dark caverns around them.It’s always a good thing to appease the gods.
‘It’s Ruth,’ she says again. ‘Ruth and Kate.’
‘Leo,’ says Cathbad. ‘Leo Ballard.’
