Endless Winter (Guardians of The Light)

by J Armitage

  Anais dropped down with a handful of napkins to help the woman clean up.

  “I’m awfully sorry about your coat. Here, have a wet wipe.” She grabbed a pack out of her other pocket, expertly pulled a wet wipe out and handed it to Anais.

  Anais dabbed at the stain on her coat. “It’s ok, don’t worry. I’m sure it will come out in the wash. She smiled at the woman to show she was sincere. “He’s a cutie, Tyler. How old is he?”

  The woman finally finished cleaning up the mess from the floor. She picked up the sticky cone which Tyler had discarded. “Two and a half. He’s a bit of a whirlwind. I’m sorry again.”

  “We are going to have our own so we’ll have to get used to it.” Alex gave a big grin to the woman.

  “Oh you are pregnant! Congratulations” Her attention then turned to her two year old who was now shrieking further down the restaurant because he had no ice cream left and wanted another one. “Please excuse me.” And with that she left.

  Anais looked at Alex. “Why did you say that?”

  “What? That you were pregnant?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well you are aren’t you? What else was I supposed to say?”

  “You didn’t really need to say anything.” She was irritated with him but she wasn’t really sure why. He was just telling the truth after all.

  The waitress appeared with cutlery and condiments which stopped her from saying anything further.

  When the meals finally appeared they ate in silence. Anais was mad at Alex for telling a stranger she was pregnant and he was mad with her for being upset about it.

  Eventually Alex finished his steak and broke the silence. “I’m sorry. I won’t tell anyone else until you are ready.”

  “We don’t even know if I am pregnant yet. Can we at least wait until we get a positive pregnancy test before we start shouting it from the hills?”

  “Oh So I’m allowed to shout it from the hills then?” He grinned at her.

  His smile was infectious and she smiled back.

  “Ok let’s forget about it” she decided now was the time to ask Alex about picking up her father’s journals. There was something else she wanted to do too.

  “Alex, I need to go somewhere before we go home.”

  “Mama was expecting us home soon. We’ve already been out longer than she expected.”

  “Can I borrow your phone?”

  “Ok” he said uncertainly and passed it over to her.

  She made a show of dialling the house phone. As it started to ring she pressed the hang up button discretely so that Alex couldn’t see.

  “Hello. Oh Hi Winnie” She paused, feeling foolish talking to a dead line. “Yes we are fine. Alex has just taken me out for dinner.” Another pause “I have a few errands to do before coming home. We’ll be a few more hours. Is that ok? Yes. Ok see you later then bye. She pretended to hang up.

  “See, its fine.”

  An astonished look appeared on Alex’s face as he held out his hand for his phone.

  “Toilet,” she said as she quickly exited the booth and ran to the pubs ladies, taking Alex’s phone with her.

  She quickly typed a message to Winnie into the phone.

  Hi. It’s Anais. Alex is taking me to get some stuff of my dad’s from storage. Back late. Sorry

  She looked under A for Astrid in the mobiles phone book. When she didn’t find it there she looked through the W’s for Winnie or Winifred. Finding neither she ran down the whole list, finally finding her under M for Mama. She pressed send and waited for the inevitable response. She didn’t have to wait long. Within seconds the phone beeped alerting her to a new text message.

  Anais, you need to rest!! Please come home now. You can get your fathers things at a later date. Love Winnie.

  She loved how Winnie signed off a text message like she would a letter but she couldn’t leave the message for Alex to read. She pressed delete and turned the phone off for good measure.

  When she got back to the table she handed Alex the phone back.

  “It must have run out of batteries,” she explained.

  He looked confused but to Anais relief accepted it and put it back in his pocket.

  He’d already paid the bill so they both headed back to the Range Rover.

  “Ok,” Said Alex turning to her “Where are we going?”

  “Just drive back into York centre. I’ll direct you from there.”

  He followed her directions and after ten minutes he pulled up outside a stationery shop.

  “Please wait for me here,” said Anais as she hopped out of the car. She didn’t go into the stationery shop as Alex had expected. Instead she pressed the button of an intercom next to a door to the right of the shop. She was buzzed in and Alex saw her walking up some stairs before the door closed behind her.

  Written on the door in was the name Orme, Wood and Galey solicitors.

  He wondered why she wanted to visit a solicitor. He would ask when she returned. He sat back and put the car radio on.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Anais waited in the drab reception for Mr Galey, her father’s solicitor. The pink haired receptionist called through to let him know she was here and then went back to typing. The reception was painted in grey with a grey carpet making it feel very dreary. Someone had brought in an acid green sofa to counteract the boring walls. Probably the receptionist thought Anais.

  “Anais!” Mr Galey came out and held out his hand. He greeted her as if he’d known her for years although she’d only met him the one time, a few weeks after her parents had died. She’d been drunk at the time. She scrabbled around her brain for his name. Finally it came to her.

  “Peter.” She smiled and shook his hand. He took her through to his equally grey office. In his late thirties he was much younger than the other partners which Anais was glad about. His bright ginger hair stood out against the grey walls and Anais wondered if having a bright hair colour was written in the contract to work here. Unlike The receptionists, Peter’s hair was naturally this bright. His suit favoured the walls colour rather than the hair end of the spectrum. It too was grey and dull. His face however was bright and he was doing a passable impression of being pleased to see her.

  “Well now Anais, You are looking a lot better these days. Life treating you well?”

  “Yes, thank you. I came about my parents will.”

  “Mmm. I have a copy right here. Let me see.”

  He gazed down at his copy of the document.

  “Ah yes. It says that you are entitled to everything as you were the only surviving heir and family member. As I’m aware there have been no claims by any other parties to refute this. Is there a problem?”

  “Yes. Well no, not as such but if you read further you’ll see that all my parents money including the profits from our house in Los Angeles was put in trust for me. If they had bought a house in this country then it would now belong to me, but they died before they had time. We were only renting when they died.”

  “I see, Oh dear. That must have been hard for you. Are you still in the rented house?” He seemed genuinely concerned.

  “No. I couldn’t afford to keep it on. All the money went straight into the trust but I’ve not been able to get it.”

  “Ah, oh dear.”

  “Don’t worry” she said quickly, she didn’t want this to turn into a sob story. “I’ve now got a place to live and I’m doing ok. I was just wondering when I can get my parents money, my money?”

  Peter once again looked down at his papers.

  “It looks like you’ve already been given a small portion of it.”

  “Yes but it only covers the fees for keeping our furniture in storage. We had a lot of it shipped over from the US.”

  “Couldn’t you move the furniture to your new place?”

  She hadn’t thought of that. There was certainly space at the manor for all her stuff. That, however was not the point.

  “Possibly but I want the rest.”


  “Unfortunately the will states it is in trust until you turn twenty years old.”

  She was nineteen now. Her birthday wasn’t until the beginning of November.

  “Is there any way I could get it now. I’ll be twenty soon.”

  “I’m sorry. I can only go by your parents’ wishes when they wrote the will out.”

  “My father didn’t expect to die!” she shouted.

  “Well none of us do at such a young age do we? I’m very sorry. A lump sum will be deposited into your account the day you turn twenty. Until then I’m afraid there is nothing I can do.”

  She thanked him and made her way back down to Alex. She couldn’t put her finger on why she wanted her money so badly. She’d not given it much thought before today. It was partly Alex telling that woman about her being pregnant. ‘We are going to have a baby’ he’d said. He made it sound like they were any other couple starting a family but they weren’t. She had started to feel trapped at the manor even before Alex had said anything. The cameras and the constant checking up on her were beginning to get to her. She’d been thinking about moving out for a couple of weeks. Probably since Aethelu left. Alex’s statement earlier had only made her mind up for her. Unfortunately she needed money to move out and it looked like that was now being denied her for the next nine months at least. Nine months until she turned twenty. She patted her stomach and wondered what kind of birthday it was going to be.

  When she left the solicitors she was surprised to find Alex had gone. She waited for a few minutes wondering what to do when the familiar Range Rover came round the corner and pulled up.

  “Sorry about that,” said Alex as Anais stepped in and fastened her seatbelt. “I was illegally parked and I spotted a traffic warden heading my way. I’ve been circling the block for the last ten minutes. Did you get what you needed?”

  “Not really.” She didn’t elaborate and Alex was good enough not to push it even though he must have been curious.

  “Home then?” He enquired

  “Not yet. Just one more stop. I promise”

  He didn’t look happy about it but he pulled away from the curb.

  Anais managed to get them lost on the way to the storage facility. It was months ago since she’d dumped all her parents’ belongings there and she’d had no reason to go back there since. Eventually they had to pull over to ask for directions. She knew that she could easily look it up on Alex’s phone but as she’d told him the battery was flat that option was not viable.

  Since the storage facility was on an industrial estate, it took a few attempts before they found someone who knew where it was.

  This time she let Alex come with her. The receptionist was reading a newspaper when they entered. He quickly put it down and smiled at the pair.

  “How can I help you?” He was not much older than Anais was but had not yet got over his teenage acne. A name badge pinned to his chest read ‘Rhys’

  “Hi Rhys. I’ve come to get something from my locker.” Anais said brightly

  “Ok what number is it?”

  “4027”

  He tapped something into his computer.

  “Here it is, not exactly a locker though. It’s one of our larger storage rooms. Hockley right?”

  “Yes. Thank you”

  “Oh pardon me, I was supposed to ask you your name. It’s only my third day here. Sorry. Can I see some identification instead?”

  Anais Laughed. “Don’t worry.” She pulled out her purse and opened it to get out her driving licence. It was American and didn’t have her photo on but she hoped he’d accept it.

  Thankfully he did and ushered them through. It was a massive warehouse and they passed streets and alleys of storage units. It was like being in a maze but thankfully the units were ordered in a logical way. All the 1000 numbers were small units, with 2000 being bigger and so on. All the units numbered 4000 like the one Anais had rented were the biggest and could easily fit Augusts range rover in twice. All the 4000 numbers were situated on the ground floor which made it easier to track it down.

  When she got to the huge garage style door of 4027 she pulled out a key and turned it in the lock. The door was electric and opened automatically for her, clanking noisily as it lifted.

  Inside the room were hundreds of cardboard boxes piled floor to ceiling, none of them labelled. She wished she’d done a better job of packing up but she’d been drunk when she’d moved all her stuff in here. She’d paid a couple of college kids with a van to help her transport it all here. They’d obviously just piled it up as thoughtlessly as she had packed it as there was no order to the place at all. Furniture from her house in England which had been bought new intermingled with the antique furniture they had had shipped over from the US. Some of the boxes had arrived from Los Angeles after her parents had died and she’d never got round to opening them and they’d been stashed here with all her other stuff.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Alex asked her stepping carefully into the unit.

  “Books, journals, my father’s diaries. He wrote hundreds of them. They can’t be that hard to find” But even as she said it she knew it wasn’t true. It could take them hours to sift through all the boxes.

  “Ok” Alex opened the first box which was filled with pots and pans. “Nope! Next” he closed the box and moved it to one side.

  “Just a minute” He ran off in the direction of the reception returning minutes later with a permanent marker. Taking the lid off he wrote ‘KITCHEN’ on the box he had just opened. Anais moved to another box and opened it. It had books in it but none of them were her father’s journals. They were novels belonging to her mother. She borrowed the pen and wrote ‘Books’ on the side before adding ‘Novels’ underneath. One day she would come back and sort this whole place out. She earmarked the novels for a charity shop.

  Box after box they went through, labelling as they went. Alex was also piling them up in some kind of order. Everything for the kitchen was neatly piled in one corner whilst ‘Living room’ boxes rested next to them.

  Finding a box of her mother’s clothes made her tear up a little but she managed to hold it back. She was also beginning to feel a bit dizzy with the bending and stretching she was having to do. Alex noticed she was looking a bit peaky and ran to get her a drink from the vending machine in the reception. He came back with two cans of coke and they both sat and drank and had a rest for a few minutes. Alex ordered her to stay sat down while he went through the boxes. They had already been there three hours with no joy and Anais didn’t want to slow it down but she admitted to herself that she needed the rest so she obeyed him. Thankfully it only took a few more boxes until Alex finally hit jackpot.

  A box filled with journals. They were covered identically in green leather with A.H. stamped in gold on the cover.

  She realised that she’d seen those initials already today then she remembered Alex’s initialled handkerchief. They all had the same initials, Alex Hyde, Aethelu Hyde, Alistair Hockley, and Anais Hockley. It must get very confusing when the postman delivered a letter. She wondered if Andrew had a surname beginning with ‘H’ too. She hoped for his sake he didn’t.

  “Right I need the whole box taking. Can you carry it for me?”

  Alex looked at her “It won’t fit in the car. The boot and back seats are already filled with boxes of books from the shop. I can’t fit another box in”

  “Oh” That made things difficult. Anais thought for a few seconds and then came up with a solution. “Can’t we just swap a box? Leave one of Winnie’s here and take this one instead?”

  “No. I promised Winnie I’d bring her books home and we have put her out enough as it is today.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you were in the solicitors I checked my phone. I knew I had charged it recently. Sure enough when I turned it on it had nearly full battery. Imagine my surprise when Mama called and told me that she’d texted you to come home. She seemed to have no recollection of speaking with
you earlier.”

  “Oh I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying to you. What did you say?” She felt awful for lying to Alex.

  “Don’t worry. I figured it must be important for you to lie about it. I told her we’d be home in a few hours and not to worry because you were safe with me.”

  “Thank you. You are a real friend.” she stood up from the box and gave him a hug. She didn’t deserve him.

  “Ok pal,” said Alex sheepishly “What are we going to do with the Journals?”

  She quickly searched through the box hoping that what she was looking for was in this box. She flicked through eight or nine of the books until she found what she was looking for. A journal dated the year her mother was pregnant with her. She held onto it as she closed the box and wrote ‘Journals’ on the side. She put her key in the lock and the shutters came down, once again shutting her old life away. They made their way out of the maze of units and were once again in the cold winter air. It had darkened considerably since they had been in the storage facility although it was only about five o’clock.

  Anais had only taken a few steps before she began to feel dizzy. Ahead, Alex was unlocking the car and hadn’t noticed her stopping.

  The world began to spin and before she blacked out she managed to shout “Alex.”

  He spun round just as Anais legs gave out beneath her and she came crashing to the ground.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  What could have only been seconds later; she came round to find Alex above her with a concerned look on his face.

  “Are you ok?” He helped her to her feet.

  “I think we should get you to the hospital just in case.”

  “That’s not necessary, I’m fine, honest.”

  “I really think you should be checked out.”

  “I can’t go to the hospital remember? Eternal blood group and all. I’ll have Aldric look at me when we get home.”