Vengeance Child

‘The numbers are increasing.’ Victor was pleased. ‘And they’re a rare species of horseshoe bat.’

The boy grinned. ‘But no vampire bats.’

‘Thankfully not. If we wind up with vampires we’ll have to rename the place Dracula’s Castle and start selling garlic ice-cream.’

Jay paused to appreciate this perfect September evening. Birds swooped high overhead as they picked insects out of the sky for their evening meal. After a moment he said, ‘Tell me again what happened about the car in the dungeon.’

‘I’ve told you plenty, Jay. All that’s in the past.’

‘But when I wake up on a morning I sometimes think I’ve dreamt it. I know I’ve got to make it real in here.’ He touched the side of his head.

Victor watched the swallows, too, as he decided what should be told and what shouldn’t. ‘There was an epidemic on the island.’

‘Caused by Mayor Wilkes, not me.’

‘That’s right,’ Victor said. ‘You were in no way to blame.’

‘They said I caused things like that. Curses and bad stuff. They called me a “little witch”.’

‘But they don’t any longer, do they?’ The pair continued along the woodland path. A Saban Deer watched them from the shadows, its blue eyes like flashes of electricity. Victor shook his head. ‘No, it was Mayor Wilkes. He tried to infect the herd with disease. Instead of making the deer sick the virus mutated then infected us.’

‘How many died?’

‘Nine died of the illness. Though there were others who died accidentally, or simply vanished. Anyway, once the doctors knew the outbreak was a strain of gastro-enteritis they could fly in drugs to treat it. And those big shots of vitamin B we were given every day.’ Victor smiled. ‘It was a week before I could sit down without shouting ouch.’

‘Sometimes I dream that I see Mayor Wilkes lying on a kind of metal table and he’s all red here.’ Jay touched his chest. ‘Was that real?’

‘The night we found the car in the castle, Mayor Wilkes drowned.’ Victor omitted reference to the fact that Wilkes was found entangled in fishing lines the next morning. In his body were forty-eight steel hooks. One look at the man’s face told everyone that he’d died in terror. He also omitted mention that Ghorlan had finally been given her funeral. Or the days afterwards Victor had entered a dark despair that had been a long, uphill climb to emerge from.

As they crossed a meadow to the farm Jay scratched his head. ‘I worry I’ll have to leave White Cross. I get really scared.’

‘We’re running the farm as a place for children to stay as long as they want to.’

‘It’s a foster home?’

‘That’s the official title. But nobody can take you away from here if you don’t want to go. You can live here until you’re a grown-up. It’s your decision.’ Victor opened the gate. ‘I did warn Archer about that goat.’

Jay tutted; it was a typical boyish thing to do when someone of his age saw a younger one making an apparent mess of things. ‘Archer still likes Wilkes more than people, then Wilkes goes and eats his T-shirt.’

Archer was protesting, ‘No, Wilkes, let go, it’s mine.’ At last he pulled the garment free, then joined Victor and Jay for the walk back to the house. Archer folded his arms as he called back at the goat, ‘Do that again, Wilkes, and I’ll smack your bottom!’

‘Kids.’ Jay sighed. ‘Are you coming sailing with me later?’

‘All right.’ Archer examined the teeth marks in his sleeve. ‘But don’t splash me.’

After they entered the house Jay paused in front of the television, which showed footage of war in South-East Asia that left thousands of people facing famine.

Jay stared, his expression growing angrier by the second. ‘You know what? It’s wrong that governments don’t do enough to help all those who are going hungry.’ His voice grew deeper. ‘One day someone will come along and make the politicians pay; they’ll make them suffer for the bad things they’ve done.’ Fury set his eyes alight. ‘Maybe I . . . if I remember how . . .’

Archer cried, ‘Wilkes has followed us back!’

The goat trotted into the lounge to hungrily eye the sofa cushions.

‘Jay! Help me get him out . . . before he poops on something.’

As if by magic Jay’s anger vanished. Both boys laughed happily as they helped one another tug the recalcitrant, four-legged Wilkes out of the house. As the pair giggled, and shouted advice on the best way to get the goat back to his pen without it eating any soft furnishings, Victor walked down to the broad waters of the River Severn.

On evenings like this, when the sun was low and golden, it made silhouettes of figures on the shore. So, sometimes, he found himself thinking he saw Ghorlan waiting for him by the water’s edge.

Tonight, he saw a lone figure standing motionless on the shingle. The woman waited for him to approach before she softly spoke. ‘Lou always insisted that this island could change how people think.’ She smiled at him. ‘Six months ago I couldn’t have imagined my life would have changed so much. Especially that I’d be standing here, wearing a new ring on my finger.’

Victor smiled back. ‘Sometimes, every now and again, we really do get what we deserve.’ With that he kissed his wife . . . and he knew that everything was going to be all right.