‘It’s a great fair,’ I agree.
‘It is, isn’t it. Now Marcia tells me you need beds for the night.’
‘Is there some kind of lodgings or a guest house?’ asks Luc. ‘We can pay for our board.’
‘I’m sure you can, but we wouldn’t hear of it. Marcia’s already said you’re to stay at the lodge house. We have plenty of space. That’s settled. Bit embarrassing, can’t remember your names. Did I hear one of you say you were a Donovan? Eddie Donovan’s relation perchance?’
‘I’m Lucas, his son.’
‘What did I tell you, Marcia!’ The Mayor pounds the table with his fist and our tea jumps out of our cups.
‘Aubrey! For goodness sake, watch what you’re doing. You’re making a terrible mess.’ Marcia takes the linen napkin from her lap and starts blotting up the spilt tea.
‘Yes, sorry, clumsy.’ The Mayor looks chastened. ‘But what a small world. He’s due here in October in an advisory capacity. We have trading links with Melksham. Mayor Turnbull recommended the fellow. Wonderful, wonderful.’
‘And you, m’dear?’ asks Marcia. ‘Your name? You must excuse our awful memories. So much going on today …’
‘Riley Culpepper.’
‘Oh.’ She looks mortified. ‘Oh, my dear,’ she says. ‘Terrible, terrible business. I’m so sorry.’
‘Eh? What’s that?’ the Mayor says.
‘You know, Aubrey. Don’t be dense.’ She turns to him and unsubtly drops her voice. ‘That terrible business about the girl from the Talbot Woods perimeter. We had a picture delivered from the Guards. Of the killer.’
My cheeks flush and for one terrible moment I think I’m going to cry. I’ve been coming to terms with everything, slowly. But sometimes, when people take me unawares, it just sends me over the edge. I swallow hard, willing the tears to stay unshed, but I can’t prevent one from running down my cheek. I’m horrified and embarrassed.
‘Oh, my dear, your poor sister. I am so terribly sorry,’ says the Mayor.
‘Thank you,’ I say.
‘Would you like a hug?’ asks Marcia, looking very awkward, but obviously trying hard to be consoling. Her worried expression makes me smile and stems the unwelcome rush of emotion.
‘I’m fine,’ I say. I notice Luc has put his arm around me, and I wish it was just the two of us again.
‘So I don’t suppose anyone fitting Ron Chambers’ description has passed through here?’ I ask, pulling myself together.
‘Not that we’re aware of, I’m afraid,’ says the Mayor. ‘But if he was driving, he would have passed outside these walls. Those awful boys outside have only just set up their Toll this week, so he would have driven by unobstructed. Let me contact Luis, our Chief of Security. Do you know if this Chambers fellow was on foot or horseback?’
‘Actually, he stole my Mother’s AV, so I guess he would still have been in that,’ I reply.
‘A thief to boot. What a ghastly character,’ says Marcia.
Twenty minutes later, a small, compact man in uniform is standing to attention next to us in the tea tent.
‘Please do sit down, Luis,’ says Marcia. He sits at the end of the table and opens a red hardback log book.
We all lean in to look at this book where they record all vehicle and foot traffic that passes by their borders. Scanning down, Luis sees an entry that could well relate to Chambers. It states that a dark-coloured AV skirted the walls at 02.10 on the fifteenth of July. The vehicle could very possibly have been Ma’s stolen AV. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see who was driving, but there weren’t any passengers noted.
‘Do your parents know where you are?’ says Marcia suddenly, looking from me to Luc with a piercing stare.
Our hesitation gives us away.
‘You silly children! They must be out of their minds with worry. If my two had done anything like that ... Come with me, we’re going to contact them right this minute.’
Luc and I look at each other in a panic. I’m not mentally prepared to speak to my father just yet and guess from Luc’s expression, neither is he.
‘Could we contact them later?’ I ask. ‘Pa will be at work, and Ma isn’t very well.’
‘I hope you don’t expect me to believe your parents would rather be working or sleeping, than hearing their child is in fact safe and sound and not dead in a ditch!’ Marcia’s voice becomes shrill and people are beginning to stare.
‘Shall I …’ Luis makes an exiting motion with his hands.
‘I should if I were you,’ Aubrey replies. ‘Thank you, dear fellow. Now, Marcia, let’s all calm down. We’ll contact the parents after the fair. You two run along for a bit and we’ll meet by the bridge at six, if it’s alright with you.’
‘But, Aubs …’
‘Now, Marcia, a couple of hours won’t make any difference.’ He winks at us as we hastily leave the tea tent.
Aubrey and Marcia Rowbotham live in Lowstone Castle Lodge House, a beautiful dwelling, constructed from the same creamy stone of the nearby Castle. Like a mini castle itself, it’s circular with four turrets and a tiny drawbridge.
We are now in The Rowbothams’ well-used study, sitting in front of Chippenham’s only radio communications device, listening to Luc’s mother crying through the static. It’s terrible and Luc is really shaken up by it. Marcia Rowbotham stands next to us with her arms folded across her massive chest. I hate her for making us do it, but a part of me is a little bit grateful because, without her, our parents would still be in their hellish limbo of our making.
Guilty doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel. Our initial reason for making the trip, now seems flimsy and feeble - a stupid and childish thing to have done, especially as we’ve gained nothing in the way of information.
Luc’s father and my Uncle Tom are on Security business in Southampton with the two choppers and will be with us within the hour. Pa is on his way back from Hook Island and doesn’t even know Luc and I have been located. Luc’s mother is waiting at our house in the Talbot Woods Perimeter, so she can tell Pa as soon as he returns.
And so, just like that, our adventure is coming to an end. It’s a shock to realise we’re going home and I can’t believe we’ve been on the road for just nine days. It feels like a lifetime between now and that first early morning when we left the Perimeter.
Chapter Forty One
Riley
*
Luc and I stand shivering on the Rowbothams’ terrace. They’ve tactfully left us alone while we contemplate just how bad our imminent family reunion will be. We hear the helicopters before we see them. And now there’s no escaping the serious trouble we’re in.
‘Jesus Christ, Luc!’ Eddie shouts in his deep baritone, as he descends from one of the helicopters. They’ve set down in the litter-strewn field where the Autumn Fair was held only hours ago. He looks like an angry giant as he strides across the grass towards us. We walk hesitantly to meet him.
‘What the bloody hell have you two idiots been playing at?’ He hooks Luc’s head in his arm and pulls him towards his body in a bone-crushing embrace. Then he draws me to his chest with his other arm. ‘You’re a pair of bloody nightmares. Don’t you ever, ever put us through anything like that ever again.’
I catch sight of Uncle Tom behind him and he steps forward, sweeps me up in his arms and kisses the top of my head.
‘What’ve you done, Riley?’ He tips up my head and looks at me with disappointment in his eyes.
I look down and flush with shame.
‘Your poor mother is hysterical and your Pa is angry like you wouldn’t believe. We’ve been worried sick about the two of you. I honestly thought you were more sensible than this. It was a thoughtless, cruel thing to do.’
‘I’m really sorry, Uncle Tom. I was so angry about Skye and I didn’t think anyone would miss me that much.’
‘Now I know you don’t believe that. Sounds a bit like self-pity to me. Come on, let’s take you to your Ma, she’s dying to see you.’
Eddie has finished bear-hugging Luc and has reverted to angry-mode.
‘Right, Luc, I want you in that copter now. Your mother needs to see you pronto. Richard!’ he calls to one of his guards. ‘You and Marco drive my wife’s AV back to Bournemouth. Jerry, take Luc in the copter and hover back over the AV - make sure they don’t run into any trouble.’ He turns to look at me. ‘Riley, you’re coming with me to your grandparents’ house. Your mother’s having a nervous breakdown over you.’
‘Dad, I can’t go back without Riley, we’re …’
‘I don’t even want to hear it, Luc. Now get in that copter and I’ll see you later, at home. Tom, can you get Riley settled in the other one? I’ve just got to see the Mayor and thank him for dealing with these two. Let's hope Bonnie and Clyde here, haven’t completely ballsed-up my meeting next month. I’ll be fifteen minutes or so.’
I realise I’m not even going to get the chance to kiss Luc goodbye. I look at him and we smile a promise that I hug to myself. And then he’s taken off and away into the summer night sky.
*
On the short flight, I contemplate my situation. I started this trip with the clear intention of avenging Skye’s murder, but I haven’t even made a dent into locating Chambers. My reasons for leaving the Perimeter now sound feeble, even to my ears, so I know my parents won’t be at all impressed with my explanations. I’ve had the adventure of my life, but the conclusion is missing and out there in the English countryside Ron Chambers has escaped justice and is probably laughing at his good fortune.
Despite the deafening whirr of blades and judder of the engine, I fell asleep on Uncle Tom's shoulder and now he’s gently shaking me awake.
‘Riley, darling, wake up. We’re here.’
I open my eyes, disorientated. When the helicopter door opens, I feel the cold north wind hit me like a slap in the face. It feels as though it’s turned from an Indian summer to an early winter, missing out autumn altogether, and I start shivering. Eddie places a blanket around my shoulders and leads me along a narrow lane bordered with hedgerows and tall trees. It opens up onto a small cul-de-sac with a turning circle in front of five medium-sized detached houses.
My grandparents live in the Uley Perimeter, established by Pa and Eddie at around the same time ours was built. There’s nothing strange in the fact I’ve never visited them here before. Even helicopter travel holds its dangers and, as I said before, Pa has never been happy to let Skye or me travel outside the perimeter fence.
Our grandparents usually visit us once a year, when they use either Pa's or Eddie Donovan's chopper for the journey. If not for the copters, they wouldn’t be able to visit at all, because road-safety has a whole new meaning these days, as I can now testify.
I stand in front of Grandma and Grandpa’s house; an ordinary-looking Cotswold stone building with a sloping roof and a small chimney. Its wide front lawn runs straight on to the pavement with no fence or hedge to screen it from the road or the other properties. They are all there in the doorway, waiting. My uncles, Oliver and David, my grandparents and Ma, who now runs across the grass towards me.
She squeezes me so tightly and kisses me all over my face and hair, white-faced and crying.
‘I thought I’d lost you too,’ she weeps. ‘I couldn’t have borne it. I love you so much, my darling, darling girl. My baby.’ Then I’m completely enveloped, as my uncles and grandparents come to greet me.
‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,’ I sob.
‘Hush, you’re safe now, that’s all that matters,’ Grandpa soothes.
Eddie Donovan stands to one side of us, tactfully waiting until the initial emotion of our reunion has simmered down.
‘I’ll be heading back now, Eleanor. You take care.’
‘Eddie, thank you for bringing my baby back safe.’ Ma kisses his cheek and they hug briefly.
We wave goodbye to him as the copter spins upwards and away.
Uncle Tom, Ma and I follow everybody else into the brightly lit house. Ma looks meaningfully at her brother and he stares back at her with an unreadable expression. Then Ma leads me through to the cramped sitting room where I get the biggest shock of my life. For there, sitting on the edge of a faded terracotta sofa, in my grandparents’ house, sits a person I have never met, but whose face is tangled up in my brain like a tumour. He looks up at me with a nervous smile.
It is Ron Chambers.
‘You,’ is all I can whisper.
‘I think it’s about time you found out the truth,’ says Ma quietly, looking at my stunned expression.
Chapter Forty Two
Eleanor
*
Tom and I sat in the kitchen while he told me Connor’s story. It broke my heart to hear it. I cast my mind back all those years ago, to when Connor had been taken by the soldiers from my parents’ house. I remembered the heartbreaking terror of it all. The not knowing. And now, after all this time, I was finally going to find out what had happened to him.
The soldiers had put him into one of the convoy vehicles along with several other prisoners. They were taken to Portsmouth. Once there, Connor had been briefly interrogated, thrown into jail and left to stew for almost six months, without charge.
During a spitefully cold February, they released him with no explanation. His camper van had disappeared, he had no money and he had no means of contacting anybody for help.
Weak and disorientated, his first thought was to get home to Ripon to see his parents and build some long-overdue bridges. But Ripon was miles away and he didn’t know how he would get there, other than walk. Another option was to try to make his way up to Gloucestershire, back to me.
After four months of struggling on foot in freezing conditions through newly hostile territories, he reached Uley in rags, starving and barely alive. It may have been June when he arrived, but summer was slow to arrive that year.
By the time Connor reached his destination, Eddie Donovan had been hard at work and the Uley Perimeter had been sealed off from the outside world. Guards patrolled constantly and a large impenetrable set of iron gates kept the undesirables out. Connor was understandably wary of approaching the guards and lacked the energy for any sort of confrontation in his present state. The possibility of being arrested again was one he couldn't face.
He decided to pay a visit to Abigail Robbins’ mansion, set a couple of miles outside the Perimeter fence. He didn’t particularly relish the thought of seeing her, as he was pretty sure she was partially responsible for what happened to him. But he was out of other options. Anyway, maybe she could shed some light on why Uley and its inhabitants were now behind bars.
Abigail herself opened the door and Connor hardly recognised her. She was plastered in make-up, wearing next-to-nothing and she shook uncontrollably.
‘Connor? What are you doing here? You were arrested. You look awful, skinnier than ever.’
‘They let me go. What happened to you?’ He didn't wait for a reply. ‘How can I get into Uley?’
She laughed, a dry, hollow sound. ‘You won’t get in there. No one can. It’s only for the privileged few. They‘ve barricaded themselves in and left the rest of us to rot.’
‘Where’s Eleanor?’
‘You mean you haven’t heard?’ She smiled a mean smile. ‘She married Johnny Culpepper. She didn’t hang around after you left. Legged it down to sunny Bournemouth. Now she’s lording it up with her rich husband.’ She paused to gauge his reaction and was disappointed to see none. ‘Poor baby. Did you think she’d wait for you?’
Connor felt sick. He didn’t know whether to believe her or not.
‘Now I, on the other hand, am much better suited to you,’ she said. ‘I’ve got a new profession - I’m a tart, a hooker, a prostitute, whatever you want to call it. I can do you a really good deal, Connor.’ She put a hand up to his cheek and stroked it wistfully.
‘Where are your parents, Abi?’ he asked, holding her wrist and pushing her hand away.
‘Shot. They are quite dea
d. I live here now while my darling friend Eleanor gets to live a wonderful new life with her wonderful family. If it wasn’t for me, she’d never even have met Johnny Culpepper. Now tell me, is that fair?’
‘No,’ said Connor as he backed away from her pathetic figure. She was crying now, slumped in the doorway. Another girl came to try and help her up. The girl shouted at him.
‘What’ve you done to her?’ Then she yelled, ‘Earl! There’s a tramp at the door. I think he’s done something to Abi.’
Connor ran.
He spent the next six years drifting from town to town and from job to job. He didn’t have the energy to return to Ripon. After Uley, he was too afraid of what he might find there. He put all thoughts of people he once knew, out of his tired mind and concentrated on surviving.
One day, he had the good fortune to be kicked in the leg by a beautiful black horse with a white star on its nose. He lay in the dirt on the compound floor, willing the horse to finish him off, but instead he looked up to see the concerned face of a grey-haired man.
‘You alright, son? I think Cleo got you good and proper. Let’s ‘ave a look at that leg. Mmmm, nasty. We’ll get you to the doc.’
‘I can’t afford ...’
‘Tut, I’ll sort you out. If it wasn’t for this temperamental mare, you wouldn’t be bleeding all over the ground would you.’
Connor gratefully let the kind man place him on the horse and lead him across the compound to the surgery. He was seen within the hour and accepted the offer of temporary lodgings with the man, by way of compensation.
Corby Chambers and his wife Irene were a kindly couple in their mid-sixties. As a qualified electrician, Corby was desperately busy. Luck and natural progression led to Connor becoming his apprentice.
And so, over the next four years, he settled contentedly in the newly walled compound of Bath, where he worked as an electrician’s mate, soon becoming proficient enough to branch out on his own. He eventually left the Bath Compound with many fond memories and having made several good friends, but it was now time to move on.
Outside - a post-apocalyptic novel Page 20
