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Peloryon House.
I arrived back indoors soaking wet and cold, but full of excitement. I’d done it!
‘Oh well done!’ Wren said, clapping her hands enthusiastically.
‘You’re dripping water on the carpet,’ Emrick observed, which was a bit rich considering he’d just brushed a load of toast crumbs onto it.
‘Go and dry off,’ Wren said cheerfully. ‘Now we know we can make the meeting in good time, we’d better plan exactly what we’re going to say to the Seelie Court.’
Chapter 52
Wulfram 1673
If we thought the weather had been bad in Cornwall it was nothing to what greeted us in Scotland. I honestly thought we were going to freeze to death when we arrived in the Highlands two days later, having left Emrick and Nightwing safely at home.
Phoenix had warned us that Scotland was a tumultuous place. It had been dragged into the English Civil War in the 1640s, mainly over the issue of religion. An English occupation of the country had only ended as recently as thirteen years ago, and there was a great deal of hostility and suspicion about Englishmen.
Luckily for us, he managed to make us all sound like Highlanders, which was a good job because Jon Culshaw I was not.
We’d arrived on the outskirts of Inverness and, having dismissed any thoughts of staying in an inn after our shocking experience in The Royal Oak, we decided to manifest that much talked about cabin, this time on an isolated stretch of Loch Ness.
‘It would be just our luck if Nessie popped up to say hello,’ I said glumly, although my spirits soon lifted when I saw how Phoenix had produced a small, rather desolate looking stone hut that would never draw attention on the outside but was like a luxury holiday lodge on the inside.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘No one will notice it, and if they do they’ll assume it’s been here for years. We’re safe.’
We were relieved to settle down and make ourselves comfortable and warm.
‘I have to say,’ I told Phoenix, ‘I have such admiration for you and for all the people who lived in these times. We’re so cosseted now, with our central heating and triple glazing, that I’m finding it impossible to cope with these low temperatures. I have no idea how you managed.’
‘To be honest,’ he said, ‘this has been as much of an eye-opener for me as it has for you. I was cosseted too. My father was wealthy and powerful, we had servants, a good home. I was fed well and kept warm. I never realised how ordinary people lived, or how much they must have suffered.’
He thanked me as I handed him a bowl of thick chicken soup and a plate of warm, crusty bread. I was quite proud of myself for having manifested those. I was improving. Okay, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but I was definitely getting better.
‘You know,’ he said, glancing over at Wren who was eating hungrily, ‘I think I’d like to do something about that.’
She smiled at him. ‘What would you like to do?’
‘I can’t save the world,’ he said with a slight shrug, ‘but what I saw in Polkayne touched me. Those poor children. Did you see how thin their clothes were? And the old man who took us to the island—his clothes were so patched I doubt they’d last much longer. He was so thin, and so grateful for ten shillings! I think, perhaps, I’d like to do something for the people of Polkayne. It was, after all, where my mother’s family came from. Maybe I could set up some poor relief. Maybe eventually a place of education for the children? Something anyway.’ He tore a piece of bread and dipped it in his soup. ‘Just thinking out loud really.’
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ I assured him. ‘You should definitely—’
I froze at a loud bang on the door.
We all looked nervously at each other.
‘Why would anyone be knocking on our door?’ Wren whispered.
‘Open up!’
I got to my feet and turned to Phoenix. ‘No one should have noticed anything odd about this place, right?’ I whispered.
He shook his head. ‘No one. We’d better change this into something more appropriate, though.’
He glanced around him and as he did, the stone hut became just that—a cold, unwelcoming hovel with a dirt floor and nothing but woollen blankets and a small fire to keep us warm.
He nodded at me, and I strode to the door.
Someone shouted, ‘Open up!’ again and there came another bang. Whoever it was wasn’t in any mood to be ignored.
