by Shaun Baines
It was too much of a coincidence, wasn’t it? Little Belton businesses were being picked off one by one and suddenly HMRC was interested in the Winnows. The reach of the Masterlys was long and wide-ranging. Holly suspected the worst. The Winnows were going to need help.
Checking the price tag, Holly fished for money in her purse. She found her emergency fiver and looked apologetically at Mr Winnow.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You can pay me the rest when you have it.”
But Holly was worried. She was worried about everyone.
Chapter Forty-Four
She’d returned the last of her clothes to the wardrobe. They’d stayed there for a painful five minutes before Holly removed them again. Filling her arms, she carried load after load to the washing machine downstairs. Deep clean cycle. Hottest possible setting. While her clothes were boiled, she cleaned her bedroom furniture. First with a light bleach solution and then with disinfectant. The air smelled like a swimming pool.
Holly’s arms ached and her feet were swollen. She longed for a shower to rinse away the feeling of an intruder in her house, but her body wouldn’t move. She slumped on the edge of her bed and stared at a wall.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway. Holly saw Derek in the doorway. He was dressed, which was something new, and his hair was combed.
Holly picked up The History of Northumberland and pretended to read.
She heard Derek huff from the doorway.
“I know you’re not talking to me,” he said, “and I don’t blame you. If I’d known Mr MacFarlene was going to go through our house, I would never have allowed him inside.”
Holly turned a page, slapping it into place.
“Did he take anything?” Derek asked.
“We have nothing worth taking.”
“I suppose what we had, we lost a long time ago.”
The truth of his remark stung and the words on the page blurred. Holly blinked back a tear, turning to a new chapter. She didn’t want it to be true.
“I’m sorry,” Derek said. “For everything.”
“Why didn’t you try harder, Derek? This could have worked.” Holly’s voice sounded small in her head, not really belonging to her anymore. “I could have done the same.”
The floorboard creaked again as Derek altered the weight in his stance. “We’re not all like you. Not everyone adapts so readily.”
“What are you saying?” Holly asked, her eyes narrowing. If her voice was unfamiliar before, she was finding it now.
“All your new friends. Disappearing for days at a time. This silly obsession you have with Callum.”
“Leave him out of this,” Holly said. “He has nothing to do with what you’ve done.”
“You’re twice his age,” Derek shouted.
Holly snorted hot air from her nostrils, her breathing coming in short blasts as she tried to control her anger. Cruel words formed in her mind, things she knew she’d never be able to take back. She wanted to say them. She wanted to scream them inches from Derek’s face until he withered under her disappointment, but she didn’t.
Derek was telling the truth. She had moved on quicker than he had. She’d had to, but the more time she’d spent in the village, the more she enjoyed it and the more she dreaded coming home.
And Callum was a part of that.
She returned to the book, forcing herself to read and calm down. It was only when she noted a particular word that her interest was piqued.
Star.
Derek sighed. “I didn’t come up here to argue with you.”
Holly studied a picture of a flower. It had five white petals with a faint green vein down the centre.
“I called my brother this morning,” Derek continued. “He’s starting his own business.”
The flower was unusual because it opened at night when it was pollinated by nocturnal insects. It had grown wild in the Northumberland hills, becoming part of local lore. It was said the flower was used by devil worshippers as a sleeping draught from which the recipient never woke.
“He wants me to be his partner,” Derek continued. “It means moving to Chiswick, but I said, yes.”
Holly’s stomach flipped and she held the book tightly to her chest.
“There’s no point in delaying the inevitable. I’m driving down today,” Derek said.
This was it, Holly thought. This was what they were after. Follow The Star. It seemed so obvious.
Holly jumped to her feet, spiralling in a circle, unsure where to start, but she knew she had to find Callum.
“Are you even listening to me?” Derek asked. “I’ve just said, I’m leaving you.”
Holly’s steps faltered on her way to the door. Derek was waiting for a response. His eyes bored into her. He looked angry. No, not angry. Exasperated. Alone. Her heart lurched. What had she done to him to make him look that way?
Even as the thought bubbled up in her mind, she knew she was about to do it again.
“Don’t leave,” she said.
“You don’t want me here. I’m getting in your way.”
“You’re not,” Holly said, squeezing past him through the door. “I want you to stay.”
Derek’s face lightened. “Really? But why?”
Holly swapped the heavy book from arm to arm. Callum needed to see it.
A hesitant smile appeared on Derek’s face, but Holly edged away.
By the front door, there was a bowl on the table where they kept their car keys.
They had one vehicle and Holly couldn’t let Derek take it.
Oh God, she thought. You deserve to be divorced.
“Just stay,” she said and hurtled down the stairs before Derek could stop her.
Holly snatched the keys. “I can save the village and I can save our marriage. Just give me time.”
“I need that car,” Derek shouted after her. “I’m going to Chiswick.”
She bolted from the house, jumping into their grumbly car and throwing the book on the passenger seat.
Holly fled toward Little Belton.
Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look back. But she did and found Derek watching her from the driveway, his figure shrinking the faster she went.
Holly parked as close to The Travelling Star as she could, but it wasn’t close enough. She ran along the high street and burst through its doors.
“Where’s Callum?” she asked in between gasps for air.
Big Gregg looked up from polishing a glass with his rag. “He’s in his room. What’s that you’ve got there?”
Holly lifted up The History of Northumberland so Big Gregg could see it.
“Not you as well,” he said. “Every bugger and their dog has a copy of that.”
“It’s not a book,” Holly said, grinning. “It’s our answer.”
She charged up the stairs to the hotel above. Coming to Callum’s room, she thought briefly of knocking before barging straight in.
Had she knocked, she realised later, she might not have been so shocked.
Chapter Forty-Five
Callum was by the window, his hands clasped behind his back. He had tidied his room after the break-in, returning it to normal. What remained of his animal pelts were folded neatly and toiletries stood like soldiers on a chipped mirrored cabinet. With everything in place, the room looked larger or it would have done if it wasn’t for the two people perched on the side of Callum’s bed.
Nancy and Arnold sat up on Holly’s entry. They stared at her and she stared back.
“They turned up five minutes ago,” Callum said.
“How did you get here?” Holly asked them.
Arnold tried to stand, but Nancy yanked him back.
“We followed Callum here,” Nancy said. “We had nowhere else to go, dear.”
Holly was fully aware that Callum was supposed to be following them, not the other way around, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up. She closed the door and looked for a seat. Holly desperately needed to sit down.
<
br /> “What do you want?” she asked.
“Bulbs,” Arnold said. “We need more bulbs.”
Nancy shot him a withering glance and he fell silent again.
Although Holly knew what the bulbs were, she didn’t understand their significance. She held tightly to her book, not yet ready to divulge her findings.
“I think we’re all on the same side,” Holly said. “We’re all trying to stop the Masterlys from destroying the village. Perhaps it’s time we joined forces.”
Nancy gave a curt nod. “When we talked on the estate, I thought the same, but I had to be sure. There’s too much at stake.”
“Either that or you just need a new place to stay,” Callum said. “Now that Mr MacFarlene is banged up in jail.”
“He’s not in jail, dear,” Nancy said. “He’s being questioned and he’ll be out soon enough.”
“How do you know that?”
Arnold’s hands flexing into fists. “He was set up.”
“We saw Mrs Masterly there,” Holly conceded. “She seemed to be directing operations.”
Nancy adjusted her many skirts, a frown etching deep into her brow. “We were working in the manor after Arnold stole the keys, but when we had to leave – ”
“Thanks to you two,” Arnold said, interrupting.
“Mr MacFarlene found us on his land. He was sympathetic. He stands to lose as much as anyone if the estate is developed so he gave us somewhere to stay.”
Holly recalled her encounter with Mrs Masterly outside of the hub. She’d been suspicious of Mr MacFarlene and the farmer had certainly been afraid of her.
“We swore him to secrecy,” Arnold said. “He was very committed to saving his farm.”
“He broke into my house,” Holly said, her temper flaring.
Nancy cast her eyes to the floor. “We do need more bulbs. We’d hoped you might have stashed some away. Either in this room or in yours, dear.”
“Why didn’t you talk to us?” Callum asked.
“Too dangerous,” Arnold said.
“We’d already brought Mr MacFarlene into the fold,” Nancy said. “We couldn’t risk widening our circle any further. There are enough rumours flying about this village as it is.”
“Will someone explain to me why these bleeding bulbs are so important please?” Callum asked, scratching his head.
Holly handed him the book. “Page 146,” she said, turning her attention back to Nancy. “You can’t buy these bulbs anywhere else, can you?”
Nancy and Arnold shuffled their feet, mud from their boots peppering the floor.
“Because you’re not supposed to have them,” Holly continued. “That’s why they were made to look like tinned salmon.”
Callum finished reading The History of Northumberland and slammed it shut with one hand. “No wonder Bryan couldn’t find those bulbs. The flower has been extinct for over two hundred years.”
“It’s not extinct,” Arnold said. “It’s endangered.”
“How would you know?” Callum asked. “You’re a headcase.”
Arnold bristled, but remained seated. “It’s my job to know. I do land surveys. Before any building work or redevelopment can take place, the authorities have to be sure specialised habitats aren’t about to be destroyed.”
“So, what happened?” Holly asked.
“The Masterlys put pressure on my brother to rush the process through. We fought about it, but my brother was always too greedy. Have you seen all those ugly, stuffed animals in his office? He didn’t think it was important and the ecology survey was never done.”
“Nancy had been pestering you for months about the proposal,” Holly said.
“I found an ally in her,” Arnold said. “We knew how far the Masterlys would go to secure their damned theme park so we decided to stop them.”
Holly picked at her fingernails. “Nancy decided to go missing to help you search for something, anything to block their plans.”
“A body called Natural England decides if a developer has their building plans approved,” Arnold said. “They have enforcement powers. They’d close the Masterlys down if they discovered due compensations hadn’t been carried.”
“The fact that a survey hadn’t been completed wasn’t enough,” Nancy said, placing a hand on Arnold’s knee. “If we’d based our objection on that, the Masterlys would simply produce one out of thin air. We had to find something special, something endangered, but the deer had grazed the land. What they didn’t eat, they trampled. Ecology is all about balance. When one species grows too dominant, it makes it difficult for all the rest.”
“Just like Arcadia Leisure,” Holly said to herself.
“When we lost the bulbs, we were desperate,” Arnold said.
“But you didn’t leave it there, did you? You bought sticklebacks from the Winnows,” Holly said, “hoping they might be a rare variety.”
Arnold nodded.
“You stole my furs in case they were from endangered mammals,” Callum said. “As if I’d do anything like that.”
“But there was nothing special about me,” Holly said. “Why follow me?”
“They were hedging their bets,” Callum said, waving the book. “Maybe hoping you kept snow leopards in your back garden.”
“When we found out you were looking for me,” Nancy said, “we thought it best to keep you on our radar.”
Arnold worried at his stubbled chin. “And you had our bulbs, of course.”
“They came from some sort of specialist collector,” Holly said. “Somewhere like Kew Gardens, but more open to bribery.”
Nancy and Arnold slid closer together and said nothing.
“You plant them in the estate,” Holly said, “and quicker than you can say protected heritage site of interest, the building work grinds to a halt.”
“We’re trying to save the village, dear,” Nancy said.
“By doing something illegal?” Holly asked.
She let the question hang in the air. Nancy and Arnold clearly thought of themselves as eco-warriors, defenders of the rural ways, but they were acting like criminals. Their hearts were in the right place, but it didn’t excuse them from breaking the law.
“You must have known what you were doing was a deception,” Holly said.
“What about the Masterlys?” Arnold said, his voice raised. “After everything they’ve done?”
“What have they done that was so bad?” Holly asked.
The atmosphere in the room cooled to freezing. Callum, Nancy and Arnold looked at her aghast.
“They’ve been underhand, manipulative and sly,” Holly said, “but they haven’t broken the law.”
Callum ran a hand through his hair. “What about Mr MacFarlene?”
“If what Arnold said is right, he’s been set up. Probably to stop him from doing something stupid. More stupid, I should say,” Holly said, remembering her wreckage of a bedroom. “All that took was a phone call from a concerned citizen. Nothing illegal in that.”
“But he’s a good man,” Arnold said.
Holly stared pointedly at Nancy. “What is illegal, though is tricking Mr Winnow into transporting bulbs for you.”
“I didn’t do that,” Nancy said.
“The Masterlys bankrupted Big Gregg,” Callum said, “and I’ve been evicted.”
Holly paced the floor. The room was too small and she only managed two steps in one direction before being forced to turn around. “I’m sorry, but all they did was what big business has been doing to the little people from day one. Manipulating the system and cashing the cheques.”
They fell silent, listening to the distant sound of chainsaws tearing the estate apart.
“I never knew it was called the Star of Northumberland,” Callum said quietly. “The flower. We got your note and we thought Follow the Star meant following a particular deer.”
“What note?” Nancy asked.
Callum paused, closing his eyes briefly before continuing. “It never made any sense.
By the time we caught up with the herd, whatever endangered species they’d eaten would already be falling from their back end.”
Holly winced, trying to scrub the image from her mind. “We thought it had something to do with this pub, but that didn’t make sense, either.
“On some level, Nancy, you must have known you were heading down the wrong path. That’s why you left the note on the Herald’s door. It was for Old Jack. You knew he’d move mountains for you. He was supposed to find the flower before you did anything silly, but I got the note. Not him.”
Hanging her head, Nancy gulped back a sob. “I can’t believe we’ve failed to save the estate.”
Arnold’s face grew ashen. “They’re going to win, after all.”
Holly sat next to them, keeping quiet. Whatever they’d done, they’d done it for the good of others. That should have meant something, but Holly knew that it didn’t. Good intentions paved the road to hell.
And in this case, they’d pave over Little Belton to make way for a car park.
The chainsaws died and Callum began whistling. He bent over to tighten his bootlaces and stood up with a grin.
“Callum?” Holly asked. “Are you alright?”
“Champion, thanks,” he said, putting on his wax jacket.
“Maybe this isn’t an appropriate time for whistling show tunes,” Holly said.
“I said, I didn’t know they were called the Star of Northumberland. Not that I didn’t know what they were.” Callum went to the door and opened it. “Are you coming?”
“What are you talking about?” Holly asked, beginning to get frustrated.
“I know every inch of this estate,” Callum said. “Better than anyone and I know where to find the flowers.”
Chapter Forty-Six
“My Dad showed me strange flowers when I was a kid,” Callum said from behind the wheel of the Defender. Bouncing along a cobbled path, the occupants held onto one another for support as they raced against a setting sun. Mountain shadows stretched like creeping fingers across the estate, closing it down for another night.
