by Agatha Frost
“Thank you for returning these.” Julia opened her hand. “We really appreciate you bringing them back to us.”
“I didn’t want them.” Flora shrugged, blinking her eyes repeatedly. “Didn’t feel right. They never belonged to me, did they?”
Flora looked at the empty plate as though willing more sandwiches to appear. Julia almost offered to make more, but if she did, she knew they would sit there all night while Flora ate everything in the kitchen.
“Where do you live?” Julia asked, consciously keeping her tone soft. “Where’s your home?”
“It’s in the woods.”
“You live in the woods?”
“My house is in the woods.” Flora nodded. “William loved the woods. He’d chase the birds for hours. Never caught one though. He wasn’t violent like that. Gloria hated cats, but she loved William.”
“You weren’t at Gloria’s funeral today.”
“Didn’t want to go.” Flora rubbed her nose with the back of her fingerless-gloved hand. “I’ve said my goodbyes to Gloria. She’ll understand. She was the only person who knew where I lived. People called her awful things, but she was kind. She’d bring me bags of food. She was good not to get anything that would go bad because she knew I didn’t have a fridge. She even gave me this coat.”
Julia stared at the pin-covered coat, which she had noticed was many sizes too big for her tiny frame during Flora’s first trip to the cottage.
“Can you show me where you live?” Julia asked.
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to see it.”
Flora squinted as she decided her answer. After a minute of consideration, she nodded. Julia stood up and lifted Mowgli off Flora’s lap. Flora seemed sad to lose her companion, but she stood up all the same. Julia placed Mowgli on the couch and walked into the hallway, nodding for Flora to follow.
“What about him?” Flora nodded at the dining room door. “He chased me.”
“He doesn’t need to know,” Julia responded with a wink. “Our little secret.”
Flora grinned the first genuine smile Julia had seen from her. Several of her teeth were missing, a true statement to her age, despite her childlike personality.
They set off along the winding path into the village. Julia knew Flora could run away at any moment if she wanted to, but Julia had a feeling she didn’t want to. It felt like they were on a treasure hunt, and Flora was leading them to the jackpot.
They walked around the village green, ignoring the bustling Christmas market. They bypassed the church and set off down the lane to the school. Halfway down the lane, Flora scrambled over the stone wall and waved for Julia to follow. They crossed the field and passed the spot where the bonfire had burned only days ago. Flora walked right through the black patch of charred grass where the fire had roared. Barker had been right; she was a nimble little thing. Julia almost had to jog to keep up with her speedy pace.
They entered Haworth Forest at the exact spot they had talked on the night of the bonfire. Julia suddenly realised where Flora had flitted off to when her back was turned.
Flora manoeuvred through the forest as though she was at one with the space. She hopped over fallen trees and ducked under low-hanging branches without looking. Julia tried her best to follow in her footsteps, but twigs and thorns scratched at her skin.
They walked for what felt a lifetime, until Julia began to wonder if Flora was leading her on a fool’s errand. She knew Haworth Forest was dense and spanned several miles, but it had to end eventually.
“Where are we going?” Julia called after Flora, who was way ahead.
Instead of replying verbally, Flora gestured for Julia to follow. Finally, the old woman slowed down. They walked for another minute before reaching a steep, muddy hill. At the top of the hill, Julia looked down at a rundown cottage. It had bricks missing from the walls, and parts of the roof were absent. Julia wondered if Flora was playing a trick on her, but the sprightly woman set off down the slope, bouncing from tree to tree. Julia attempted to copy her route, but she slipped several times, muddying her jeans in the process. When she reached the bottom of the slope, Flora had already withdrawn into the cottage.
As Julia crept towards the strange building, she suddenly remembered a story from her youth. Children at school had talked about a witch who lived in the forest in her own house, not unlike the lady from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. The children would scare each other by telling wild stories about the things she did to anyone who dared venture inside. Julia had always known it was nothing more than a tale, but it had kept her from exploring too far into the dense wood. It struck her that this was the furthest she had travelled, despite being born and raised in the village. Was Flora the witch from the story? All the best tales had an element of truth in them, after all.
Casting those silly thoughts from her mind, Julia walked towards the front door. It was inches shy of the ground and looked like it might rot off any second. She pushed on it, and its hinges screamed out for oil. What met Julia inside made her jaw drop.
Flora sat in an old rocking chair in the corner under a hole in the roof. Light streamed through, but a plastic sheet had been hung to protect the indoors from the elements. The glassless windows were boarded with wood, and leaves provided a carpet underfoot. A metal-framed bed topped with a thin mattress and scratchy-looking sheets stood near a portable fireplace that seemed to run on gas canisters.
It wasn’t the furniture that commanded Julia’s attention, however; it was the overwhelming number of items on display. She didn’t know where to cast her eyes first. An upturned milk crate was adorned with dozens of glass ornaments; another was topped with as many ticking clocks. Trinkets of gold and silver glistening in the light lined a shelving unit. Julia took a step in, wanting to see more.
Jewellery boxes of all shapes and sizes sat on the window ledge, each stuffed with handfuls of jewellery. There were even three bicycles, a pile of shoes, jars of buttons, and an empty pram. Some items looked worthless, while others looked like they held extreme value. A small clock sat with pride of place on another window ledge, and even though Julia wasn’t an expert when it came to style, she would have bet her life that it dated back to the Regency era.
“What is all this stuff?”
“My treasures,” Flora explained, her tone hinting that it should have been obvious.
“Did you steal all of this stuff?” Julia asked. “Flora, this is unbelievable.”
“It’s not stealing!” Flora snapped, her head shaking. “It’s taking. It’s different. I can’t help it. I see things, and I know I have to have them, and it doesn’t stop until I do.”
“What doesn’t stop?”
“The feeling.” She stamped her finger on her chest. “The compulsion. I’ve had it since I was a little girl. My mother called the feeling ‘the magpie’ inside of me. I’d take her things and hide them. I didn’t know why; it just made me feel good. It’s like they speak to me. They want me to have them.”
Julia was at a loss for words. She had never seen such a vast array of different items under one roof.
“And nobody knows you live here?” Julia asked. “People must walk out here.”
“Nobody ever does.” Flora shook her head. “Only Gloria knew, and now you do. It’s nobody’s business.”
“Do you have any power?” Julia asked, stepping further into the cluttered space. “Or water?”
Flora shook her head.
“How do you eat?”
“People feed me.” Flora kicked her feet off the edge of the rocking chair; they barely scraped the ground. “Gloria always made sure I ate when she saw me. And she brought me gas for the fire. She was a good woman. She looked after me.”
“Why do you have to live like this?” Julia crept forward and sat on the edge of the bed. It cried out under her weight, and the mattress felt damp to the core. “Surely the council could help you. What about your pension?”
“Never claimed it.” Flo
ra shrugged. “They kept trying to put me in places. They never wanted to help me, they just wanted to put me away. Timothy, my brother, wanted to put me away. He called me a ‘problem’. They kept sticking labels on me, saying I had ‘this’ and ‘that’. I knew it was all just a way to keep me being ‘Freaky Flora’, so I turned my back on them. I found this place, and I knew nobody lived here. I kept coming back and watching, but no one ever passed by.”
Julia’s heart broke for Flora. She was sure one of those labels had been ‘kleptomaniac’, but she didn’t want to push Flora over the edge, so she bit her tongue.
“Did you take the church items?” Julia asked calmly.
Flora nodded, her eyes dropping to the floor.
“Why?”
“They were my biggest treasures,” Flora said, a smile flicking momentarily across her lips. “They spoke to me for years, but I never touched them. I knew they were forbidden. They were the only items I’d ever resisted. It was a way of knowing that I was still okay. I still had control of the feeling. But then William died, and I lost control. When I woke up on the morning of your wedding, I knew I had to have them. They told me to stop resisting.”
“And Rita caught you.”
“She thought I was going to sell them!” Flora cried, casting her eyes around her home. “Why would I sell my treasures? They’re worth more than money.”
Julia joined Flora in looking around. She wanted to see things through her eyes, but it was a difficult task. She wondered if Flora recognised the irony of living in such extreme poverty while also being surrounded by items worth a fortune.
“Rita blackmailed me,” Flora continued, looking at Julia for the first time since they had ventured into the woods. “She demanded that I sell the stuff I took and give her half the money. When I refused, she said she’d call the police. I didn’t know what to do. I panicked.”
“So, you tried to poison her?” Julia prompted. “With arsenic?”
“I took it from a museum,” Flora explained. “Years ago. I didn’t think it was even real. I just wanted to teach her a lesson, so I sprinkled a few bits into her water when she was in the bathroom in the pub. People have never paid me any attention. I move around this village unseen. People always look the other way. It’s made it easy to find my treasures.”
“A few drops are all it takes,” Julia said with a sigh. “It’s extremely toxic to human beings.”
“I know that now.” Flora sniffled and wiped her nose. Tears flowed freely down her mucky cheeks. “I didn’t know what to do when Gloria took Rita’s water bottle. That wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. I tried to tell her, but she was getting in the zone for the performance. She batted me away and wouldn’t listen. She kept drinking it for her throat. When nothing happened, I thought it’d been a prop. I thought everything was going to be okay.”
“But then the coughing started.”
“I tried to warn her!” Flora sobbed. “She wouldn’t listen. She never listened.”
“Why did you come to see me?” Julia asked. “If you were behind Gloria’s death, why did you ask me to find the culprit?”
“Because they said you were the best!” Flora’s eyes looked deep into Julia’s. “They said you’d get to the bottom of it. I thought if you looked, you might find another reason that she died. Or, maybe, you’d figure out what Rita was doing to me, and you’d help. I was confused.”
Flora paused and inhaled. Rain began falling again, pattering on the plastic sheet covering the hole.
“Rita must have known it was you who killed Gloria,” Julia said. “What happened next?”
“She got worse!” Flora cried. “She kept telling me to sell the items or she’d tell everyone what I did. She didn’t even care that Gloria was dead. She thanked me. It was finally her time to take control. When she kicked me out of the choir in front of everyone, it was her way of sending me a message. But I wasn’t going to sell them! I couldn’t. They meant too much.”
“So, you stabbed Rita?”
“I didn’t want to.” Flora inhaled deeply. “I went to talk to her. I thought if I explained that they were my treasures, she’d understand I couldn’t sell them. She didn’t understand. She laughed at me. She called me ‘Freaky Flora’ over and over. It was like a chant. We were in the kitchen. I picked up a knife off the counter, and I pointed at her. She soon changed her tune. She backed away with her hands up. Part of me liked seeing her like that. She begged for her life, but I knew I’d gone too far. I needed to make it all stop. It was so easy. The knife just went in, and that was it. She dropped to the floor, and I ran.”
“Not before taking her jewellery,” Julia added softly. “They were Rita’s treasures.”
“She didn’t deserve them!” Flora spat. “A woman like that doesn’t deserve any nice things. I’d always known those pearls belonged to me, I’d just never had the opportunity before.”
Julia reached into her handbag and pulled out the pearls in their handkerchief. Flora’s eyes lit up.
“Why did you give them to Skye if they meant that much to you?”
“Skye was nice to me.” Flora smiled again. “I kept my distance because I knew her father had infected my name, but when it mattered, she was nice to me. She let me back into the choir. I shared them with her because I knew she’d treasure them as much as I did.”
Julia put the pearls away. She didn’t have the heart to tell Flora that Skye thought they were a cheap piece of costume jewellery.
“And Father David?” Julia prompted. “Why did you frame him?”
“I wanted all of this to go away,” Flora muttered, her eyes drifting down to her lap. “I thought killing Rita would make things stop, but I could feel the police closing in. I’m ashamed of what I did to him. I overheard him talking on the phone about owing money weeks ago. I knew I needed to give back the church treasures. They’d caused so much trouble. I didn’t want them anymore. I knew I should never have taken them, so I returned them.”
“With the arsenic, and a letter pushing the police to search his vestry.”
“I told you, I’m ashamed of that.” Flora wiped away more tears. “Father David is a good man. He was kind to me, but I did what I had to do. I regretted it the second I heard he’d been arrested, but it was too late. That’s why I was returning your rings to you. You’d been so kind to me, so I knew they didn’t belong to me. I wanted to do something right.”
Julia was grateful to have her rings back, but she didn’t like what had to come next. They sat in a comfortable silence as the minutes passed by. As Flora rocked back and forth in her chair, Julia hoped she was coming to terms with the consequences of her actions.
“You know you have to tell the truth to the police?” Julia explained gently, breaking the silence. “You need to tell them what you just told me, or Father David will suffer for what you did. They’ve already charged him, and that’s not fair, is it?”
Flora shook her head.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Flora asked in the timid voice of a child.
“I don’t know,” Julia admitted. “I honestly don’t know, but I hope they give you the help you need.”
They sat in silence again until the rain finally stopped. When it did, the clouds cleared, and the bright sun broke through the trees. It shone down on Flora through the gap in the roof. She leaned back in her chair and tilted her face up to the sunlight, a smile on her face. Julia let her sit there until the sun hid again. When it did, she stood up and walked over to the door. She opened it and waited for Flora to follow.
“I think I might have a problem,” Flora mumbled faintly as she climbed off the rocking chair. “Gloria was right. She was always right. She’d think this whole thing was so silly.” Flora shuffled to the door and looked up at Julia. “Will you come with me?”
“Of course.”
Flora reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver locket. Julia grabbed at her neck and realised the locket Jessie had given her to celebrate a year o
f being together wasn’t around her neck. She cast her mind back, but she couldn’t remember when she had last worn it; things had been so hectic.
“I found it down the side of your chair.” Flora explained as she dropped the locket into Julia’s hand. “All the best treasures are down there, you just need to remember to look.”
Julia accepted the locket and fastened it back around her neck. They climbed back up the muddy slope and set off through Haworth Forest. They walked in silence towards Flora’s fate. Julia had no idea what Flora was thinking about, but Julia was praying that the powers in charge of Flora’s fate treated her with some compassion.
Chapter Fifteen
Christmas Day
For the first time in her life, Julia spent Christmas morning at church. She sat at the back of the congregation and joined in with the hymns she knew. It was a cathartic and blissful experience, and by the end of the service, she was glad she had attended. She was also glad to be in attendance for Father David’s return as official vicar of St. Peter’s Church.
As people filed out of the church in an orderly line, Julia joined Father David at the front, where he was busy gathering his papers.
“Merry Christmas, Father.”
“And Merry Christmas to you, Julia!” He beamed from the pulpit. “I can’t tell you how happy I was to look out and see your face. I owe you my life.”
“I did what anyone would have done.”
“I’m not so sure.” His smile softened, and his eyes drifted away. “But thank God you saw the light. Thank God, indeed.”
“Did you enjoy your break?”
“I did!” Father David clapped his hands together. “After my official pardon and the apology from the police, some rest and recuperation were exactly what I needed! The Church was kind enough to allow me some time off, and I heard Father James did a splendid job in my absence. I spent a jubilant month on a beach in Lanzarote! I never thought I’d enjoy such a trip, but do you know what I realised while I was locked up for those few days? I realised I’d never had a holiday at the beach! I’d always go to cities, or to stays with friends in Wales. Contemplating a future behind bars made me re-evaluate life. I vowed to God that if I were given a second chance at freedom, I wouldn’t waste a second of it.”
