Johnny Swanson - Eleanor Updale [71]
Close up, the castle looked friendlier than it had from a distance. As well as the two big towers there were smaller turrets, sloping roofs, and all sorts of outbuildings joined together with walls and arches. The windows were wide, not at all like the arrow-slits Johnny had expected (and even hoped for). They made the place look more like a country house than a fortress. Through the glass, Johnny could see that the rooms had electric lights, and warm fires in the grates. He walked round the outside and looked out across the valley. At the back of the castle the ground fell away steeply, and Johnny could hear rushing water down below. There must be a river at the bottom. It was almost dark now. Nurses were wheeling beds and chairs inside from the gardens. Even in early January they believed in exposing their patients to fresh air whenever they could. The beds seemed rather short. The chairs were small. All at once Johnny realized that Craig-y-Nos was a children’s hospital. He was going to find it easier to blend in than he had expected.
Nevertheless, he was careful. He crouched in a corner of the courtyard, waiting for the nurses’ chatter to die away before risking going inside. He saw a child shuffling along in the shadow of the wall. Like him, she was trying not to be seen, but his eyes were drawn towards her at once because of her shoes. They were far too big for her and the laces were undone, so she couldn’t help making a clattering, dragging noise as she crossed the stone path to a back door. She wore a heavy coat over her pyjamas. That was the wrong size too. Its sleeves hung down past her hands, and the pockets were bulging. Johnny guessed that she’d been up to no good – that she’d borrowed someone else’s clothes to sneak outside from one of the wards, and wouldn’t want to be caught as she found her way back in. He followed several paces behind her, hoping that she would lead the way through parts of the building where no one would spot him either.
He tracked her from one corridor to another, past dormitories and treatment rooms, a laboratory, workshops and a kitchen. Through half-open doors he caught glimpses of nurses busying about their work, and he knew that sooner or later he was bound to be discovered, but he wanted to see as much of the hospital as he could before then, if only so that he could plan his route to make a quick getaway if he had to.
A sudden cry and a crash behind him made him instinctively spin round. Someone had dropped some plates. There was uproar in the kitchen, but the corridor was empty. He was safe. He hadn’t been seen. He turned back again. The girl had been startled by the smash as well, and she too had looked in the direction of the noise. Now she was staring at Johnny through her round glasses.
‘Who are you?’ she asked.
Johnny reached into his pocket for the J. W. Morgan envelope, ready with his explanation.
The girl interrupted: ‘I’ve seen you before somewhere …’
As she spoke, Johnny recognized her too. ‘Olwen?’ he asked. ‘What are you doing here? I’m Johnny. Johnny Swanson. You came to my school in Stambleton. I tried to find you …’
Olwen’s words came out in a rush of excited surprise. ‘You were nice to me there. You were the only one. Have you seen my family? Are they here too? I’ve been so worried. They don’t tell us anything in this place, you know. We might as well be in prison. We’re not allowed letters or anything like that. I’ve been hoping for so long that Mam and Dad would come to get me. Oh, what a relief that you’re here now. There’s nothing wrong with me, you know. My uncle should never have put me in here.’
Johnny was panicking. It was clear that Olwen didn’t know that her parents and sister were dead; even if she’d imagined the worst, she was frantically clinging to the idea that all was well. He knew he would