The Darkness Within

by Alanna Knight

  ‘What happened to you, Sven?’ Emily asked. ‘You were looking after them.’

  Now that the panic was over, he said calmly, ‘I had something to do with the motor car in Kirkwall and as I was returning, one of the Stromness fishermen was in difficulties so I went to help him. I went to the sea cave by the shore route but it took longer than I expected. I didn’t realise the storm would overtake us so completely and by the time I raced into the cave …’ He paused. ‘I looked inside, shouted, but they weren’t there. I was relieved. I guessed they had left without waiting for me.’

  He looked up at them. ‘I didn’t know what to do.’ He was troubled, staring at his fingernails as if they might provide an answer. ‘I am so sorry to have put you through all this anxiety. I realise it was all my fault.’

  Emily smiled at him. ‘You tried to do someone a good deed and let’s be thankful it all worked out right in the end and Magnus found a way out.’

  She was anxious not to extend Sven’s misery and guilt more than was absolutely necessary; his white face told them that he fully realised that the children might have drowned. Because of her emotional feelings towards him she tried to remain calm, but Rose had no reason for sparing him.

  ‘You were supposed to be taking care of them, not letting them out of your sight. You were to take them to Skara Brae,’ she repeated.

  He regarded her coldly and gave Emily an appealing glance. ‘I have already told you. They were determined to go to the sea cave. There was nothing I could do about that.’

  Rose laughed harshly. ‘You are a man; they are children.’

  Emily said: ‘You can’t blame Sven. I know Magnus can be very determined.’

  Rose swung round on her, ‘So it is your son’s fault that my wee girl nearly drowned.’

  Faro put a restraining hand on her arm. Sven might have looked upset but she looked as if she had not yet emerged from the nightmare of the past hours, and he wondered if it would haunt her for ever. He had been making his own assessment, angry and scared, and although more in control than his two daughters, he felt that there was much in Sven’s conduct needing a fuller explanation.

  So did Rose. She was angry, she had questions and wanted answers. ‘What were you doing in Kirkwall that was so important?’

  ‘As I have already told you, I am always aware that safety must be taken with the motor car. As Mr Faro knows only too well, there have been problems lately and if you remember I couldn’t get it started just now.’

  ‘More safety for the car than the two children,’ Rose interrupted angrily.

  Emily was watching him, the closed-in expression. She felt somehow that he was lying and whatever had led him not to wait and to head so urgently into Kirkwall had something to do with a girl who, according to local gossip, he might be courting. Was her dream of a happy ending with Sven to be a mere infatuation? She was too old for him, and according to Millie’s whisper only this morning, this rival was a young and pretty girl. He was probably wildly in love and had seized the opportunity of an hour together. She felt suddenly sickened by what she was imagining.

  Her father, the most reasonable one of the three, was regarding the faces of his two daughters: Rose angry and tearful, Emily staring at Sven, bewildered, sad.

  ‘I think we have gone far enough with this.’

  He stood up, put both hands on the table. ‘I am hungry; we seem to have missed a meal somewhere. As for you, Sven, whatever your excuse, you are still guilty of abandoning two young children whose safety was your responsibility.’

  They had forgotten about Mary Faro, who would be back from Hopescarth any time now and he added to Rose and Emily: ‘I think it would be advisable to keep this from your grandmother as much as possible.’

  ‘Agreed,’ said Emily with a shudder. ‘I’ll tell Magnus that they are not to tell her about this adventure in the sea cave and if he asks why, I’ll tell him that grown-ups sometimes don’t see things in the same light as people of his age, and that she would get very upset.’

  Of course, it was impossible to keep it secret. The children were so eager to tell her the story, although being Mary, she suspected that Magnus was exaggerating the details. It was however serious enough for her to say to Emily, ‘That young fellow was to blame. He should never have let them out of his sight and we should be grateful to the Lord that we didn’t have two peedie bairns’ drowned bodies brought home.’

  Emily shuddered. ‘Oh, don’t say such things, Gran.’ Her own thoughts of what might have been and of Rose having to tell Jack about his beloved wee girl were too dreadful to contemplate.

  Although she didn’t sleep much that night, Rose’s terrors were not apparently shared by Meg, who climbed in beside her the next morning as usual for their pre-breakfast cuddle, the way they started the day at home in Edinburgh.

  Rose stroked her hair and asked: ‘No ill effects from yesterday?’

  ‘Yesterday?’ Meg sounded surprised, as if the terror of the sea cave had never existed. But that was childhood’s reactions to what were the big deals in the grown-up world. ‘Oh, you mean in the cave. Oh, well, we knew Sven had gone off in the motor car and left us to it and when he didn’t appear and the sea was coming in at such a rate it was up to our waists, we knew we were cut off so we had to find a place to climb out.’ She smiled. ‘Magnus was wonderful, Mam, he found this ledge and there was just a gleam of daylight far above our heads, so he dragged me over, through the water and pushed me up. I was to go first because I’m smaller than him.’ She shuddered. ‘I’ve never been so scared in my life. It was so slippery I was sure I’d lose my footing and fall back into the water on top of him and we would both drown. He kept shouting to me to hold on. He made me cling on for dear life.’

  She paused. ‘So I did just that and I prayed, Mam, just like the nuns tell us at school. It worked cos I managed to wriggle through, but he was stuck there. I started screaming for help then – then this old shepherd came along and we got him out.’

  She was silent, frowning. ‘He saved Magnus’s life, no doubt about that. Although he seemed very old and frail with his shepherd’s crook, he was very strong. I suppose they have to be, rescuing sheep from the snow and so forth.’

  ‘We’d like to thank him, your aunty and me. I hope we can find him.’

  Rose had a strange feeling that proved right. He would not be found. No one in the area would have heard of him.

  Meg continued: ‘He had one of those sheepdogs and it just sat there, watching and waiting. Anyway, once he made sure that Magnus wasn’t hurt they just vanished.’ She shrugged. There was a moment’s silence as if she was searching for the right words then she took Rose’s hand and held it tightly.

  ‘Mam, I think he … he was sent.’

  Stillness seemed to have entered the room. A tap at the door and Magnus came in, smiling. Rose held out her arms and he ran over to the bed and put his arms around both of them. For Magnus, always ready for the next adventure, the perils of the sea cave were forgotten. He wanted to know all about Edinburgh.

  Mary, however, was still curious about yesterday’s drama that she had missed. After breakfast, she got Rose aside and wanted more details, and Rose realised that Emily, perhaps for Sven’s sake, had made it sound a lot lighter than it was in reality.

  Mary sniffed and repeated what she had said to Emily. ‘It was all the fault of that Sven. He should never have let those two bairns out of his sight.’

  With their return to Edinburgh imminent, Rose was looking forward to being home again, missing Jack and Thane and wondering what, if any, cases were waiting for her, prospective clients with problems to solve.

  As for Faro, seated in his favourite spot at Erland’s telescope in the study window, he would be sorry to leave Orkney with mysteries unsolved: the unfinished story of Mr Minton washed overboard from the royal yacht; the real identity of Mr Smith; then there was the Yesnaby garden with all its ancient secrets; he wasn’t sure that Erland himself hadn’t been a bit of a mystery
. There seemed a lot of missing threads there, and during this visit it had occurred to him that his daughter knew surprisingly little of the man she had married or his activities abroad.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Later that day one truth emerged with one less mystery left unsolved for Faro and Rose as well as for Sergeant Hatton. A solution that was in everyone’s best interests, including ending Mary Faro’s imagined wave of terror.

  Flett’s daily vigil in the hospital had been rewarded. The victim, Jimmy, had sat up, groaned and was more than ready to answer questions to reveal his attacker’s identity.

  ‘There was no murderous intent. It’s all what you might call a storm in a teacup,’ Flett came to tell them.

  They gave a sigh of relief as he added: ‘This was what we call a domestic incident. Two young chaps after the same lass and her leading them both on. Finally, when they were at the inn, the two lads came to harsh words. Jimmy went out and Dave, still angry and having far too much drink taken, hit him harder than he meant to.’ Flett sighed. ‘Dave is a big, strong lad, a bit of a bruiser, and Jimmy insisted that I did not arrest him, that he had provoked the fight. He and Dave had always been great chums, he had thought about it and now realised too late that it was the lass’s fault. She was to blame and she wasn’t worth causing trouble between two pals.’

  And that was the end of it as far as the police were concerned, and the sergeant would now be able to cross off the supposed attacks on the two young men by virtue of Dr Randall’s assessment of Archie Toft’s medical condition.

  Flett went on, ‘There’s still this other business about Mr Smith, of course.’ And turning to Faro, ‘Your suggestion of a connection with the royal yacht, sir. Well, that puts the matter right out of the island police’s hands. Sergeant has passed your comments on and we expect to hear no more; it will all be dealt with by them tightly sealed forces of government security.’

  Faro and Rose exchanged a glance with Emily. At least they wouldn’t be leaving with Mary in a constant state of anxiety about a murderer on the loose, looking for more victims and prowling around outside the downstairs windows.

  As they gathered round the kitchen table that evening, Emily asked Faro and Rose whether they had made a booking at the shipping office to take them to Leith, adding that she had been thinking.

  ‘Thinking? What about?’ Rose asked.

  Emily smiled at them excitedly. ‘I’ve decided, if you are agreeable, Rose, that I would like to come back with you to Edinburgh. I feel like a change of scene.’

  Rose gave a shout of delight, got up and hugged her. ‘That is a marvellous idea. I’ve been hoping you and Magnus would come with us and there’s masses of room in Solomon’s Tower.’

  ‘Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much?’

  Rose gave a passing thought to those dark rooms up the worn stone spiral staircase. Empty, dusty rooms that hadn’t been slept in, she guessed, since the previous tenant Sir Hedley’s long occupancy and that would account for almost a century.

  ‘Dear Em, you are welcome to stay as long as you like. What about Magnus?’

  Emily smiled. ‘No need to worry about him, he has always had a tutor, and he is not due until September. Erland thought that was best until next year, when he is eleven, then he intended he should go to public school in Scotland, probably Fettes in Edinburgh. I can perhaps make enquiries and arrange it while we are with you.’

  Magnus had greeted his mother’s suggestion with delight.

  He wanted to know all about Edinburgh. He loved history and they could assure him that there was plenty of that around. Solomon’s Tower was in the very heart of it, close to Holyrood Palace and the many places associated not only with Mary Queen of Scots (his heroine) but also with Bonnie Prince Charlie. When plans for their departure were being finalised, he was constantly waylaying Faro and Rose – what about this, or that?

  ‘He treats us like an encyclopaedia,’ she laughed.

  ‘At least we should be flattered as the source of all knowledge,’ Faro replied.

  Rose was sure Jack would be delighted at the prospect of having Emily and Magnus to stay. Meg’s school term was looming on the horizon and, of course, there was Thane waiting to welcome them.

  Faro, too, was enjoying the unexpected chance of spending more time with his seldom seen Emily and this new grandson, with whom he had already forged a special bond, and he had written to Imogen hoping that she would join them in Edinburgh, at Solomon’s Tower.

  Rose sighed happily. How would Magnus take to Thane? As for Emily, she would certainly enjoy Edinburgh’s famous Princes Street.

  But for Emily, there was only one problem. She sighed gloomily.

  ‘What about Alice?’

  Heads turned in her direction. ‘Alice?’ They had all forgotten Alice Yesnaby, the remote umpteenth cousin from Aberdeen whose longed-for visit was to have been around the same week as Erland’s funeral. Shocked and grief-stricken, Emily had written to her and was daily awaiting a reply, vaguely aware of Alice’s possible arrival at the back of her mind, and among more vital and urgent matters needing attention now that she and Magnus would be leaving for Edinburgh, the calamity as well as the embarrassment should she just walk in.

  Explaining this dire situation to the family, before they could make any obvious comments or suggestions, she added: ‘I know what you are all thinking but there is worse to come.’ She shook her head.

  ‘I decided to send a telegram but I seem to have mislaid Erland’s address book. Sven said he was sure he saw it on my desk but it isn’t there.’ She groaned. ‘There are so many papers all stacked up. I found her last card to Erland but her address isn’t on it. Afterwards, she wrote to him about her plans. I remember, he was pleased at the thought of meeting another Yesnaby. He passed her letter over for me to read. I scanned it but I wasn’t all that interested.’ She sighed. ‘Now I’ve searched but I can’t find it anywhere. I’m hopeless about losing things. I vaguely remember the address, some strange-sounding place on the outskirts of Aberdeen, and as Yesnaby is such an unusual name, maybe I should send that telegram anyway and tell her that we are leaving.’

  She regarded them anxiously. ‘You know, that I haven’t had any reply makes me suspect that she has already left. It’s such a long way to come and maybe she has friends in the Highlands where she might break her journey.’ Pausing for a moment, she went on, ‘I asked Sven for his advice; he thinks a telegram would be a good idea. Sven has been quite wonderful, dealing with this enormous correspondence from abroad, mostly business acquaintances. He’s been keeping a lookout for one with an Aberdeen postmark from Alice and every day all he has to report is: “Nothing yet”.’

  It was a serious problem that Emily had put to them. ‘What are we going to do? What if she didn’t get my letter and intends to just arrive, walk in without warning and finds that we have left and Gran tells her we have all gone to Edinburgh for a holiday. What will she think of Erland’s wife then?’ she groaned.

  Rose thought for a moment. ‘There is one solution: let’s presume she is still in Aberdeen and hasn’t got your letter, write to her again and tell her that as you are coming to Edinburgh with the family, we’ll be delighted to see her there.’

  Emily frowned. ‘There are a lot of “ifs” but that might possibly work. Thanks, Rose, but if she accepts, isn’t that putting a bit much on you?’

  Rose shrugged. ‘Not at all, and better than having her come all the tortuous way to Orkney and finding no Yesnabys at home.’

  Emily’s frown deepened. ‘But will you have room for her?’

  Rose smiled. ‘Solomon’s Tower is vast, so many rooms that are never used.’ And cutting short Emily’s murmurs about inconvenience and so forth, she went on: ‘How old is she, anyway?’

  Emily shook her head. ‘I have not the slightest idea. I know absolutely nothing about her. I suppose Erland must have told me at some time, but I can’t remember. I probably wasn’t listening, but I imagine she might be mi
ddle-aged because William was quite a bit older.’

  ‘If that is so, then she’ll probably be delighted to be spared the long journey to Orkney, especially as Edinburgh has so much to offer.’

  ‘Except that is maybe not quite what she was wanting,’ said Emily. ‘Probably more interested in seeing the ancient home of the Yesnabys.’

  She disappeared upstairs and returned a few moments later, triumphantly turning the pages of Erland’s well-worn address book. ‘Found it at last, under a heap of old magazines I must have moved off the desk. Thank goodness. I got the address almost right, so we can get in touch with her. I’ll write and let her know our change of plans. Sven can post it in Kirkwall. Meanwhile, let’s just pray she isn’t already on her way.’

  With the problem of Alice Yesnaby taken care of as much as was possible in the circumstances, the next on the list was Mary Faro. The suggestion that she might enjoy a short holiday, a pleasant change of scene, in Edinburgh, was met with a shudder of disapproval. While declining the offer more or less politely, she said later to Faro that much as she loved him and her dear family, and she was so happy to have had the chance to see Rose again, she did not like Edinburgh, which was putting it mildly.

  Faro found it extraordinary that after nearly seventy years since the loss of his policeman father in an accident involving a runaway cab on the Mound, she still held the city responsible for his death.

  Guessing her son’s thoughts, she leant up and stroked his face. ‘I know you understand, but it isn’t just Edinburgh any more, either.’ A deep sigh, a sad look. ‘Dearest Jeremy, don’t you realise, with all that intuition of yours, that your mother is just a wee bit too old to make long journeys any more?’

  ‘Nonsense, Ma,’ was the reply. ‘You are as fit as a woman half your age.’

  But even saying the words and ignoring the shake of her head, he knew what his mother had said was true. It was a long journey from Kirkwall to Leith, where Jack would be waiting for them, but it was often a tricky crossing over rough seas, the straits between Orkney and the mainland of Scotland were notorious. Seasickness was frequent, the feeling that death would be too good was bad enough for the young, but the consequences for a woman well over ninety might be fatal.