Daniel half expected to be on the receiving end of a phone call from Zoe at the crack of dawn the next day, but in the event it was Lorna who rang when he was on his way to work after a quick leg-stretch with Taz on the moors.
‘Daniel? It’s Lorna. Zoe’s gone!’
‘Gone where?’ Daniel asked with a sinking sensation as he pulled his car in to the side of the road. He had a horrible feeling he already knew the answer.
‘I don’t know. We had a huge row last night and she stomped off to her room but this morning she’s not there and her bed hasn’t been slept in. I’m worried she’s gone off to be with that Traveller boy but I don’t know where he lives or anything …’ She paused. ‘You don’t know where she is, do you? She mentioned you last night. Said you’d been helping her. Daniel, what’s been going on?’
Daniel sidestepped the question. ‘Can I ask what the row was about?’ he enquired cautiously. He needed to know how the land lay before he offered any information.
‘I suppose so. It was one of those stupid things that escalated out of all proportion. I’d discovered that some jewellery of mine was missing and I asked her if she’d borrowed it. She seemed to think I was accusing her of stealing it and then Stephen stuck his oar in. It was pretty awful but I never thought for a moment that she’d do something like this!’
‘Look, I don’t know where she’s gone, for sure, but I have an idea,’ Daniel said. ‘Sit tight and I’ll be over as soon as I can. Just got to square it with Fred.’
Daniel reached the gates to Abbots Farm in just under half an hour, entered the security code and drove on down to the house, where he saw a gleaming black BMW parked alongside Lorna’s 4x4. Looking at the number plate, he raised an eyebrow. Stephen Myers was doing OK for himself, then, or at least wanted the world to think he was.
Parking his battered Mercedes alongside it, he headed for the front door. It opened before he could lift the brass knocker; Lorna had evidently been watching for him.
‘Daniel. Come in. Go through to the kitchen. Stephen’s in there,’ she added in a lower tone as Daniel passed her in the hallway.
In the kitchen, Daniel found Stephen Myers sat at the head of the table, sideways on, with his legs stuck out and crossed at the ankle. Of a similar age to himself, he was of average height, as far as Daniel could judge, and wore dark brown corduroys and a classic beige fine check shirt over a body that carried a fair few pounds of unnecessary weight. His hair was mid-brown, thick and straight, with a fringe that flopped over his forehead and he looked across at Daniel with confrontation already in his eyes.
‘Hi. Daniel Whelan,’ Daniel said. ‘You must be Harvey’s son.’
‘Stephen,’ the other man confirmed. ‘So you’re the one who’s been encouraging Zoe in all that silly nonsense with the Traveller boy.’
‘Stephen, that’s not fair!’ Lorna exclaimed, following Daniel into the room.
‘Isn’t it? From what the little madam said, that’s exactly what he’s been doing.’
‘The only thing I’ve encouraged her to do is come clean to you,’ Daniel told Lorna. ‘Unfortunately, she wasn’t ready to do that.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me yourself?’ Lorna said reproachfully. ‘I wish you had, Daniel. She’s only a kid.’
‘I know, and I wanted to, but the only reason she opened up to me at all was because she trusted me not to tell. She made it very clear at the outset that if I didn’t help her, she had every intention of going it alone.’
‘You let a schoolgirl blackmail you?’ Stephen put in scornfully. ‘You’re supposed to be the responsible adult in this. And how come she told you in the first place? It makes me wonder what your angle is.’
‘No angle,’ Daniel said, keeping a tight rein on his temper. ‘She knew from Lorna that I used to be in the police force, that’s all.’
‘Oh yes, I heard about that. You got thrown out, didn’t you?’
‘Stephen, stop it!’ Lorna said sharply.
Daniel chose to ignore him, addressing Lorna instead.
‘I knew you had a lot on your mind and I thought if there was a chance we could sort out Zoe’s problem without adding to your worries, then it seemed worth trying. For what it’s worth, I was intending to speak to you today, Lorna, with or without Zoe’s cooperation.’
‘Easy to say that now,’ Stephen observed with a sneer, and Daniel began to fully sympathize with Zoe’s dislike of her stepbrother.
‘What exactly did Zoe tell you, last night?’ he asked, turning away from Stephen to address Lorna, once more.
‘How about you tell us what you know?’ Stephen interjected.
‘Well, it was all a bit garbled, really,’ Lorna told Daniel, also choosing to ignore her stepson. ‘She was in a bit of a mood to start with and then, when I asked her about my mother’s rings, she blew up at me and started crying and shouting. There were a lot of things said that would have been better left unsaid on both sides, but basically she said she’d only borrowed the rings. The thing is she wouldn’t tell me what she’d done with them – just kept saying I’d get them back in due course and that it was all right because you were helping her. I couldn’t make sense of it all and I have to say, Stephen didn’t help a lot.’ This last was added with a speaking glance at her stepson.
‘It wasn’t me! She was being bloody rude!’ he protested.
‘I know she was. But you were winding her up even more,’ Lorna told him.
‘I think I should explain, at this point, that I had no idea the rings were yours,’ Daniel said. ‘If I had, I’d never have agreed to help her. Zoe told me they’d been left to her by her grandmother.’
‘Well, technically speaking, they will be hers, one day,’ Lorna said. ‘I told her that when they came to me, but she really had no right to take them now. But what’s she done with them? Please don’t tell me she’s sold them …’
‘Not quite. Apparently she took them to a pawnbroker.’
‘She’s too young,’ Stephen put in, glaring at Daniel accusingly. ‘You must have helped her.’
‘She’d already done it by the time she told me,’ he replied evenly.
Lorna groaned. ‘Oh God! I suppose that boy helped her. He’d be old enough. Daniel, what’s going on? Do you know? Where is she now?’
Daniel made a face. ‘I hope I’m wrong but I’m very much afraid she might be on her way to Wales,’ he said.
‘Wales?’ Lorna exclaimed, horrified. ‘You’re not serious! What for?’
‘Chasing after her boyfriend, obviously,’ Stephen said. ‘Probably got herself knocked up and he’s run scared!’
‘Oh God, no!’ Stricken, Lorna looked to Daniel for reassurance.
‘No, it’s not that,’ Daniel said. ‘But I think she probably has gone after him.’
‘How? She can’t drive.’
‘Well, from what she told me, she’s no stranger to hitchhiking,’ Daniel said.
‘Hitchhiking? Zo? Oh God! You think you know your own kid,’ Lorna said, rubbing her face and eyes distractedly. ‘How could she be so stupid? It’s those Travellers, isn’t it? That’s where she’s been getting these ideas from. I should have kept a closer eye on her. Oh God, Daniel! What are we going to do? Where in Wales, do you know?’
‘Somewhere in Brecon, she said. She wanted me to take her last night but I said no.’
‘Pity you didn’t think to let us know then,’ Stephen said, sniping.
‘As it happens, you’re right,’ Daniel admitted. ‘But it never occurred to me that she would jump the gun and set off on her own. I don’t think that was her plan.’
‘Until we had that row. Oh, I wish you’d told me,’ Lorna said, running her fingers through her hair. ‘But the thing is, what are we going to do now? I’ve tried ringing her but she won’t answer her phone.’
‘Get the police onto her, I would,’ Stephen stated.
Lorna looked at Daniel. ‘Should I? It seems a bit extreme. What would they do if they found her?’
‘Take her to the nearest station and call you,’ Daniel said. ‘But you’d have to provide them with a recent picture so they’d know who they were looking for.’
‘She’d be so embarrassed and as mad as fire,’ Lorna said.
‘Serve her right,’ came the predictable response from her stepson.
‘I think a better idea, if you agree to it, would be for me to go after her,’ Daniel suggested. ‘If she has been hitchhiking, she may not have got far. There’s not so many people will stop these days.’
‘Except the wrong type,’ Zoe’s mother said darkly.
‘Actually,’ Daniel said then, ‘let me try ringing her. She was expecting me to call this morning and if she’s struggling or regretting her actions, she might just see me as salvation.’
Stephen muttered something disparaging and, glancing in his direction, Daniel said he’d make the call outside.
Standing on the gravel by Lorna’s front door, he found Zoe’s number and rang it. Quite prepared for her to take her time in answering it, he was surprised when she did so straight away.
‘Daniel. Thank God! I thought it was going to be Mum again. You’ll never guess where I am.’
‘On your way to Wales, I imagine,’ Daniel said dampeningly.
‘Oh. Mum called you.’
‘She did. And I have to say, if you were looking for a way to turn her against Shane once and for all, you’ve found it. Congratulations!’
‘But you should have heard them last night,’ she protested. ‘Stephen, especially, going on and on. They wouldn’t let me explain. What was I supposed to do?’
Act like a grown up and not a spoilt child, Daniel thought, but didn’t say it. After all, he’d had a bellyful of Stephen Myers in the last half-hour himself.
‘Was Mum terribly worried?’ Zoe wanted to know.
‘What do you think? Look, where are you, exactly? I’ll come and find you. How far have you got?’
‘I’m not coming back until I’ve seen Shane,’ Zoe stated.
‘We’ll talk about that when I get there. Where are you?’
‘I’m in Wales,’ she said with an unmistakable touch of pride. ‘A place called Pontypool. But now I can’t find anyone to take me to Merthyr Tydfil. They’re all going to Cardiff or Abergavenny.’
‘Well, stay where you are,’ Daniel told her. ‘Your mum’s talking about calling the police and Stephen is encouraging her.’
‘The police?’ Zoe sounded shocked.
‘Yes, you know – navy uniforms, flashing lights …’
‘Oh God, no! It’s not funny! Don’t let them, Daniel, please!’
‘Well, if you promise to stay where you are until I get there, I’ll do my best to stop the cavalry,’ he said.
‘All right. But you will come straight away …’
‘Yeah, I’ll be on my way in a few minutes. You realize you’ve probably got me the sack, don’t you? I’m supposed to be working. My boss is seriously unhappy.’ It wasn’t quite true. Fred had been – if not overjoyed – then at least understanding, but he didn’t think laying on a little guilt would do the girl any harm.
Lorna was jubilant when he went back inside to report his success. Stephen merely scowled.
‘Will you really go and fetch her? Are you sure? Thank you so much!’ Zoe’s mother said.
‘I feel a bit responsible,’ Daniel said ruefully. ‘Inadvertently.’
‘Irresponsible, if you ask me,’ Stephen remarked.
‘Well, I might as well get going,’ Daniel said with a reassuring smile in Lorna’s direction. ‘Don’t worry, I can be there in a couple of hours and she’s promised to stay put till I arrive. The threat of being picked up by the police saw to that.’
He headed for the door, pausing as he passed close to Stephen, who was on his feet now, putting more water in the kettle.
‘You, my friend,’ Daniel said, in a low but pleasant tone, ‘are becoming quite tedious! Just saying …’
Stephen turned round, glowering, but Daniel merely continued on his way.
Lorna caught up with him as he reached his car.
‘Sorry about Stephen – he’s insufferable at times. But thank you so much, Daniel. I really don’t understand all that stuff about the horse, though. She could have had a horse any time, if she’d wanted it. I mean, she did have one until she outgrew it a couple of years ago and then, with uni on the horizon …’
‘Yeah, look, it’s a long story, which I’ll make sure Zoe tells you in full when she gets back. And by the way – you’re not in any way responsible for Stephen, so there’s no need to apologize, and pain in the backside or not, I’m glad he’s here with you. Presumably you’ve still heard nothing from Harvey?’
She shook her head.
‘Well, hopefully no news is good news,’ Daniel said. ‘What have you told Stephen?’
‘Just the basics, no details – not that I know much more, myself. He knows you and Taz scared the men off, though. You’d think he might be grateful.’
‘Hmm. Not his sort. OK. Bye for now and keep your chin up. I’ll ring you when I catch up with Zoe.’
It began to rain as Daniel was driving across the Severn Bridge and when he reached Pontypool, just before midday, another phone call to Zoe pinpointed her position as in the museum tearooms.
He found her at a corner table, apparently deep in conversation with an elderly couple at the adjacent one. The couple got up to leave as Daniel arrived, smiling and thanking him as he stood aside to let them pass.
‘Glad to see you’ve not been too lonely,’ he observed drily as he slid into a seat opposite Zoe.
‘They were sweet,’ she told him. ‘Eric and Kay. Would you believe they come from Devon, too? You come all this way and sit next to someone who lives just down the road.’ The dark circles under her eyes were more pronounced but she looked otherwise unaffected by her overnight travel.
‘Well, would you believe I’ve just driven all the way from Devon, too?’ Daniel asked in tones of amazement.
‘You didn’t have to,’ she said sulkiness creeping into her voice. ‘I was doing OK.’
‘So it wasn’t you who said, “I can’t find anyone to take me to Merthyr Tydfil. They’re all going to Cardiff,” when I spoke to you earlier?’
‘I would have done eventually.’
‘Gee, thanks, Daniel, for dropping everything and driving a hundred and fifty miles to come to my rescue,’ he said.
‘Mum sent you to take me back. Well, I’m not going,’ she stated, looking mulish. ‘I’ve come this far and I’m not stopping now.’
‘Nobody sent me, I offered. But your mum was very grateful. Have you any idea how worried she was?’
‘I was going to ring her, once I’d found Shane.’
‘And done what? Forced him to sell the horse and give you the money? Joined him on the road? What exactly was your big plan?’
Zoe’s gaze shifted upwards, over his shoulder and Daniel turned to find a pleasant-looking woman poised with a notepad and pen.
‘Oh, coffee, please. A large one.’ He glanced across at Zoe, who had an empty cup in front of her. ‘You?’
‘Not at the moment, thanks,’ she said, then when the waitress had turned away, ‘I’ve already had four. I’ve been here most of the morning. Well, since it started raining, anyway.’
‘We may as well eat something,’ Daniel said. ‘We’ve got a long drive ahead of us.’
Zoe’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
‘Merthyr’s not that far,’ she said, watching him closely.
‘Devon, on the other hand is nearly three hours away,’ he pointed out.
‘No! I’m not going back with you!’ she declared. ‘Not when I’ve got this close. You can’t make me!’
‘Keep your voice down.’
‘Please, Daniel. We could be there in half an hour and still be home in daylight. Mum need never know.’
‘I think you’ll find your mum’s going to want to know everything. You’re going to have a lot of explaining to do when you get home. And anyway, that news footage was from three days ago, they could be anywhere by now.’
‘But close. They won’t have gone far,’ she asserted.
‘You don’t know that.’
She leaned forward across the table and said in a low voice, ‘If you try to force me to go back I’ll scream for help and say you’re trying to abduct me.’
The waitress arrived with Daniel’s coffee, supremely unaware of the tension at the table.
‘Will there be anything else?’
‘In a minute, maybe. Thanks.’
‘Certainly.’ The waitress lingered, her head on one side, apparently surveying the floor between the table and the wall. ‘We don’t usually allow dogs unless they are guide dogs,’ she commented quietly.
‘He’s an assistance dog,’ Daniel responded, equally quietly, with an innocent smile. ‘And it’s very wet outside …’
‘Ah. That’s all right then,’ she said with a twinkle. ‘Just as long as he stays under the table where I can’t see him …’
As she moved on to clear the next table, Daniel turned back to Zoe, who was sitting back in her chair eyeing him with hostility. ‘If you’re going to be childish, I’ll take you to the nearest police station, myself, and get them to call your mum.’
Zoe’s shoulders slumped. All of a sudden she looked tired and very young.
‘Please, Daniel! You know how important this is. Can’t we at least try and find Shane while we’re here, otherwise it’s all been a waste of everyone’s time.’
Daniel took a mouthful of hot coffee and sighed appreciatively; it was his first since six o’clock that morning. He was aware that Zoe was waiting for his response and thought it wouldn’t do her any harm to wait.
‘Please, Daniel?’
‘You know I’m supposed to be working this morning,’ he said after a long moment. ‘My boss has got someone off sick already. I’ve left him short-handed.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I’d have brought you myself, this afternoon, if you’d waited.’
‘I wasn’t sure you meant it, I mean people say stuff like that when they just want to shut you up.’
‘Yeah, well, that too,’ he admitted. ‘But knowing you it wouldn’t have worked for long. However, I would have insisted you told your mum before we set off – speaking of which, I should ring her and let her know you’re OK.’
‘Now? Do we have to? Couldn’t we wait until we’ve had a chance to look for Shane?’
‘No! How can you even suggest that when your mum’s half out of her mind with worry?’
‘I didn’t mean to frighten her – well, maybe I did, a bit, to start with,’ she amended. ‘It was Stephen. It was bad enough having Mum mad at me but then he comes along and starts sticking his bloody nose in! I mean, what right does he think he has? He’s not even my brother – he’s no relation at all – but he just kept on and on carping at me. He makes me want to …’
‘Spit?’ Daniel suggested. ‘I met him this morning. We didn’t exactly hit it off.’
‘You’ll know what I mean, then,’ she said triumphantly. ‘He treats me like a child. He’s so bloody patronizing. It just winds me up so much.’
‘I do sympathize. But running off in the middle of the night isn’t exactly mature, is it?’ He put his hands up. ‘No, don’t spark off at me – I’m not the enemy. Look, I’ll text your mum and then we’ll have something to eat, because even if you’re not hungry, I am. Afterwards, I’ll take you to Merthyr Tydfil and we’ll have a look around but if the trail runs cold I’m taking you home. We’re not going to spend hours chasing all over Wales looking for them. OK?’
Zoe’s face lit with a flashing smile.
‘Thank you! Thank you soooo much!’ she said. ‘Shall I get the waitress back? I’m starving!’
With lunch out of the way, the journey to Merthyr Tydfil took a little over half an hour. As they drew closer, Zoe became progressively quieter and Daniel guessed that a measure of anxiety as to her reception was beginning to kick in.
Her apprehension, if that was what it was, was somewhat premature, however. There was no sign of the Travellers anywhere in or around the former steel-working town. Enquiries at a couple of businesses and pubs revealed that they had indeed moved on three days previously, after being turned off an overnight camp in a car park and a second one on some common land at the edge of the town. It was the opinion of all that they little cared where the Travellers had gone, so long as they didn’t come back any time soon.
One worker at the supermarket, more open-minded than most, gave it as her opinion that the group would head into the Brecon Beacons.
‘They’ve stocked up well, so I should imagine they’ll go somewhere to get some peace and quiet,’ she said. ‘They’re not so bad, really.’
‘You’d be in the minority round here with those views,’ Daniel told her, paying for his own small basket of provisions.
‘I know, but my grandmother was a Traveller,’ she explained. ‘She settled down, eventually, but she always said that a little respect would go a long way to improving the situation. If you treat people like dirt, how can you expect them to behave?’
Back in the car, Zoe was encouraged by his report, but he was forced to dampen her spirits.
‘Have you any idea how big an area the National Park covers?’ he asked. ‘And if they’ve hidden themselves away from the park authorities, we haven’t a hope of finding them.’
‘But we can’t turn back now!’
Daniel looked at his watch.
‘It’s three o’clock, near enough. I’ll give it till the light starts to fade, then we go back, OK?’
Zoe nodded but Daniel wasn’t fooled by her apparent compliance. He had a strong suspicion that she wouldn’t give in gracefully if Shane had still not been found by the time darkness fell.
In the event, their luck was in. The Travellers’ convoy hadn’t gone unnoticed and by turning back onto the Heads of the Valleys Road and asking at every petrol station, hostelry and business they came to, Daniel was eventually able to gauge roughly where they had left the main road and headed north into open country. He chose at random one of the smaller roads heading that way and, shortly after, an even smaller road that dwindled into a stony track that ran on for a mile or more with a hedge and fields on one side and the open moor on the other.
Having bottomed out the Mercedes a couple of times on the uneven surface, he was searching for a place to turn when they saw a wisp of smoke curling up from behind the shoulder of a hill a little way ahead.
‘There!’ Zoe exclaimed, pointing. ‘Smoke! That must be them.’
‘It’s possible,’ Daniel said, not sure whether to be glad or sorry. He’d embarked on the quest to satisfy the girl, with little anticipation of it proving successful. The possibility that it might be about to threatened to open a whole new can of worms.
‘Well, who else would it be?’ she demanded.
‘Campers?’ Daniel suggested, but in reality, the volume of smoke indicated something a little larger than the average campfire. He slowed the car to a halt and in the back, Taz, who had greeted the sight of open moorland with restless excitement, began to whine and pant loudly.
‘Why are you stopping?’
‘So that we don’t suddenly find ourselves in the middle of them with no plan of action,’ he said, pulling the handbrake on and turning to look at her. ‘Do you have one?’
‘Well … Not exactly. Do we need one?’ she said, shrugging, and Daniel was forced to revise his earlier suspicions that she might doubt her reception.
‘OK. Well, what are you going to say, then? Are you expecting Shane to welcome you with open arms? He might do – I have no idea about that – but I’ve got a strong suspicion that his father won’t, and you can’t just rock up and say you happened to be passing.’
Zoe looked at him, chewing the inside of her lip, thoughtfully.
‘I’ll just have to tell him the truth,’ she said after a moment. ‘I’ll say Mum has found out about the rings and I need to get them back from the pawnbroker. He’s probably forgotten the deadline’s next week.’
If Daniel had any doubts on this front, he tactfully kept them to himself, saying only, ‘Did Shane know the rings didn’t really belong to you?’
She flashed him an uncertain look.
‘Mum told you about that, did she?’
‘She did. Just when were you going to tell me? You put me in a very difficult position.’
‘I didn’t think you’d agree to help me if you knew,’ she confessed.
‘You got that right.’
‘But they were going to be mine, one day.’
‘Not any time soon. And don’t skip the question: did you tell Shane they weren’t yours?’
‘No. He wouldn’t have taken the money if I had.’
Daniel sighed. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear that, at least. It seems he has better moral fibre than you have, not that that is any great recommendation.’
‘I just wanted to help him.’
‘Yeah, I get that, but you have to draw the line somewhere. If helping someone else means you get into trouble yourself, you need to stop and think very hard. After all, if he really does love you, he wouldn’t want you to do that and he’s not going to love you any less just because you can’t lend him money.’
Zoe flushed darkly. ‘You think I’m trying to buy his love! That’s so not true!’
‘No. I’m saying it’s natural to want to help someone you love but sometimes you just have to accept that the best you can do is be there for them. Oh, God! Listen to me,’ he said, shaking his head disgustedly, ‘Now you’ve got me dishing out relationship advice!’
‘You’re not married?’
‘Used to be.’
‘Children?’
‘A boy. Nine-year-old. Drew.’
‘What happened?’
‘We drifted apart.’ The hell we did! he thought wryly. The truth was that Amanda had legged it as fast as she could in the other direction when his career had gone pear-shaped. He shook off the unpleasant memories. ‘Anyway, this isn’t about me, this is about you and Shane and the money. So how do you want to play it?’
Zoe pursed her lips. ‘By ear?’
Daniel looked at her for a long moment, then shrugged. He hadn’t any better ideas.
‘OK. Let’s do it, then.’
As they set off again, they passed, parked by a field gate on their left, three two-horse trailers. Daniel slowed the car to look. They appeared to be in fairly good condition and all had tow-bar locks fitted. Through the gate he could see two coloured ponies grazing on the lush grass of the field and wondered if the landowner had any idea they were there. He sighed to himself as he changed gear and continued. It looked as though they had indeed found their quarry.
The track continued over the rise and then curved round the inside of a bowl-shaped hollow. At the bottom the heather cleared to leave a broad swathe of green turf alongside a stream on which were parked maybe a dozen caravans and an assortment of other vehicles. Driving slowly down the track towards them, Daniel couldn’t see many people about, and their eventual arrival was heralded only by the barking of a number of dogs, some of which came forward to mill around the car as it drew to a halt.
‘Where is everyone?’ Zoe asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Daniel said, somewhat unnecessarily. He opened the car door and most of the dogs shied away before renewing their barking from a distance. One or two came closer, ears flattened and tails wagging. He scratched one behind the ears as he took a moment to scan the area and in the car behind him, Taz went crazy at the proximity of the other dogs.
The camp wasn’t quite as deserted as it had at first seemed. On the stream side of one of the caravans was the fire that was responsible for the smoke they had seen, and around it sat a number of people, mainly women and children. Several of the youngsters approached the car, keeping behind the line of barking dogs, and after a moment or two one of the women by the fire stood up and looked his way.
Daniel started to make his way over, hoping the dogs would allow his movement, and although they didn’t stop barking they gave way, circling around so that they all moved together. A hand tucked under his arm and he found Zoe at his side.
The standing woman spoke when he was ten or fifteen feet away. Middle-aged, as far as Daniel could tell, she had dark hair, lined olive skin and magnificent eyes that were as close to black as he’d ever seen. She wore a long skirt with a lacy cardigan over a vest top, and a conspicuous amount of heavy gold jewellery.
‘You lookin’ for someone?’ she enquired, eyeing the newcomers with some reserve.
‘Shane Brennan. He’s my boyfriend,’ Zoe stated, stepping forward, and Daniel sighed inwardly. That was subtlety out the window, then. But at least he supposed it had cleared the air.
The woman’s gaze sharpened.
‘Is he now?’ she replied, tilting her head to one side. ‘You’d be Zoe, then. He’s spoken about you.’
There was a murmur of agreement from the other women and Zoe shot Daniel a look of triumph.
‘Has he? Is he here?’ she asked eagerly, but the woman wasn’t about to be hurried.
‘Oh yes, we’ve all heard about his little “Country Girl”,’ she said with a wry smile and several of the onlookers chuckled. Of ages ranging from teenage to very elderly, their mode of dress varied accordingly from traditional to that really only suitable for a nightclub.
‘But where is he? Is he here?’ Zoe repeated, looking round at the vans, from one or two of which other people were beginning to emerge, including a couple of older men. It seemed, however, that they were content to let the woman do the talking. Daniel wondered if the woman who had spoken was perhaps a kind of matriarch, possibly married to the leader of the group.
‘You’ve come a long way, I’m thinking,’ the woman said then, but before Zoe could give vent to her growing frustration, one of the other women stood up and faced them. Dressed in a clinging minidress with fringed boots, she was nearer Zoe’s age and undeniably attractive.
‘Shame you’ve wasted your time then,’ she said staring boldly at Zoe, who returned her look with no less hauteur.
‘Why would you say that?’ she demanded.
‘Cos he’s among his own kind now, ain’t he? And he ain’t going nowhere, any time soon!’
‘Be quiet, Jade!’ the first woman snapped and the girl pouted, tossing her thick mane of curly, reddish dyed hair like an actress studying for Carmen.
‘I’m sorry, my dear,’ the older woman said. ‘He’s not here at the moment. I’ll tell him you called, maybe.’
‘But where is he? And when will he be back?’ Zoe wanted to know.
‘They’m trying the ponies out,’ another of the women said, and earned herself a glare from the first speaker.
‘Couldn’t say when they’ll be back. Mayn’t be for a long while,’ she said, turning back to Daniel and Zoe. ‘Best go home. There’s those that won’t make you welcome.’
‘We’ll wait,’ Zoe declared, with a defiant look at the girl called Jade.
‘No, we won’t,’ Daniel said decisively. He smiled and thanked the older woman and, taking Zoe’s arm in a firm grip, turned her away from the group by the fire.
A rough semicircle of curious children and dogs wavered and gave way before them as Daniel steered his companion back towards the car.
‘What are you doing?’ she hissed furiously. ‘We know he’ll be back later. Why can’t we wait?’
‘Because, A – they don’t want us to, and, B – we haven’t got time.’
‘I’m not giving up now,’ she stated. ‘Not now we’ve come this far.’
‘I didn’t suppose you would,’ he said drily, propelling her to the passenger door. In the car he had to speak sharply to Taz, who was still giving voice to his indignation, before saying to Zoe as he started the engine, ‘If they’ve taken the horses out somewhere, presumably in harness, they hopefully won’t be far away. Somewhere on the roads around here, I imagine. Let’s go and see if we can find them. If we don’t, we can always come back here as a last resort if we have time.’
Zoe didn’t look happy but made no further protest as Daniel turned the car around and drove back up the rough track and over the rise.
It was a little over half an hour before they came across the Traveller men and their ponies, and with light levels starting to drop under grey skies that promised further rain, the meeting was very nearly catastrophic.