The Buried Circle - Jenni Mills [142]
I shook my head, shivering violently, tucking my frozen feet under me as I sat. He set Charlie’s skull down carefully on the end of the bench, and stripped off his dinner jacket to wrap round my shoulders over the white cloak.
‘You’ll catch your death,’ I said.
‘Nonsense.’ He gave an elaborate, theatrical shiver under his starched white shirt, and sat down next to me on the bench. ‘If Donald’s sensible, he’ll have fled to his billet in the caravan park. I’d have half killed the little sh–if he’d been near enough. As it was, seemed to me saving the find was more important. I was afraid you’d trip. Now, snuggle up because you’re absolutely right. I’m cold as charity.’ He put his arm round me, and hugged me against him. ‘We’ll give it five minutes for Cromley to exit the premises, then I’ll ask Waters to walk you home. You’re at the Lodge, aren’t you?’
I curled against him in the moonlight, wanting to be part of him. The Manor was a dark shadow against the sky, blacked-out and blank-eyed. For a second I thought I saw a gleam again from one of the upper windows, but perhaps I was mistaken, and there was no watcher.
‘Why did he do it?’ I asked.
‘He’s lost, Heartbreaker,’ said Mr Keiller. ‘First his damned uncle ruined him, now it’s the war. And Cocaine Bill’ He began to sing into my hair, a jazz song I’d heard before at a dance in Swindon.
‘Cocaine Bill, and Morphine Sue
Strolling down the avenue.
Honey, have a sniff, have a sniff on me,
Won’t you have a sniff on me.’
He pulled away, and looked down at me. Then his mouth touched mine, only for a moment, so quick I wondered after had it happened at all, and he pulled me to my feet. ‘Go and find your shoes,’ he said. ‘Time you were leaving, before I do something I’ll regret.’
I bent to pick up my evening shoes, lying on the path where I’d kicked them off, between the yew hedges. My lips were tingling, like there was electric in them. In the orchard, Mr Keiller was still singing as he strolled towards the house to put Charlie’s skull back safely in his study, and call for the butler.
‘All o’ you cokies is gonna be dead
If you don’t stop a-sniffin’ that stuff in your head.
Now where they went no one can tell
It might have been heaven or…’
I felt the lightest of pressures against the small of my back, no more than a pinprick, tracing a figure of eight against my kidneys. My knees locked and I could hear my breath coming in little snorts, like an animal’s when it’s dragged into the butcher’s pen. A hand snaked over my hip and under my belly.
‘So you finally made him kiss you,’ he whispered. ‘Though you don’t really understand the power you have, do you?’
‘You’re…sick,’ I said, straightening up slowly. ‘I don’t understand why he doesn’t see that. He always forgives you.’
Mr Cromley took hold of my arms, and turned me to face him, walking me back until I was against the curved wall. He slipped a hand under the hem of my dress and lifted it until I could feel woody stems of clematis prickling the backs of my knees. Then he let the hem of my dress fall back. He had that little bronze dagger in his hand.
‘What’s that for?’ I said.
‘You know what it’s for.’
‘I know it’s harder than what’s in your trousers.’
‘You’re very brave all of a sudden,’ he said. ‘Alec’s gone indoors.’
‘You wouldn’t dare hurt me,’ I said. ‘Because it matters to you that he forgives you, doesn’t it? You’re only trying to frighten me again.’
He used the dagger to push back my hair from my forehead. Then he ran it across my lips, cold and rough, where Alec had kissed me. ‘Don’t fool yourself,’ he said. ‘You see, this little knife goes with me wherever I go. Earthbound, or in the air, it’s my charm. And that’s how I shall be for you. Your special charm. I’m never going to leave you, Heartbreaker. Wherever