Jason’s face went a peculiar shade of grey. ‘I…I don’t know. He took off when Ari got back.’
‘Try ringing him again,’ Ari said. ‘If the car crash is part of this…if she’s after him as well…’
Rafael’s phone rang and he fished it out of his pocket. Nolvene’s name flashed up on the screen and a terrible feeling of foreboding settled on his shoulders like a shroud.
She knew everything that happened at the manor, more so, he suspected, than anyone who lived there.
‘It’s Séraphine. I brought her breakfast up to her, but…Rafael, I’ve called Dr Marais. He’s on his way now.’
‘We’ll…I’ll be right there. Where is Laure? Could you find her for me?’ His sister could have phoned him. She was so thoughtless.
‘Of course.’ He heard Nolvene walking across the stone flags of the kitchen and from there into the hall and onto the carpets. But when she reached the dining room, she let out a gasp of surprise. ‘Oh now, where are they? The cars are still here.’
A sense of something dreadful swept over him. He saw it reflected in Ari’s face, and Jason rose to his feet again.
‘What cars?’
‘Laure’s and that nice young man from the gîte, Nicolas. They were having breakfast. He came looking for you, but you had already left. In a state he was, but your sister calmed him down. Where did they get to?’
‘Nolvene, just get Dr Marais in to see Mémé. I’ll be there in a few minutes. If you see either of them, get them to ring me.’ He hung up and met the concerned looks both Ari and Jason were directing at him. ‘We need to go to the manor, now. My great-aunt is ill. Nico was there with Laure, but now they’ve vanished. The mask is there. I have a bad feeling about this.’
He drove faster than he should have along the narrow road up to the manor, with Ari beside him and Jason in the back seat. No one said a word on the short trip, each one of them lost in their own fears.
Sure enough, Laure’s sleek little sports car was there, as was a truck which had seen better days. The doctor’s car, a new Citroën, was parked on the far side of the entrance.
Nolvene met him at the door, fussing as he came in. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing, Rafael, but it’s not like her.’
‘I know. Let me just go to see her.’
‘The doctor is in with her now.’
He took the stairs two at a time and ran to Mémé’s room. She looked very small and frail in her bed.
She blinked at him. ‘Rafi?’
The doctor was packing up his bag and gave him a curt nod. ‘Nothing too much to worry about, Monsieur du Lac,’ he said. ‘She slept poorly and is perhaps sickening with a cold. I’ve suggested she rest and keep warm, lots of liquids, and, of course, if she worsens ring me immediately. I’m just down the road, is that not so,madame?’
He smiled at her with genuine affection and Mémé waved him away. ‘Let me talk to my nephew. He’s drugged me, Rafael. Drugged me!’
‘A very mild sedative, as per your prescription,madame, nothing more.’
Rafael shook Dr Marais’s hand as he left and closed the door behind him.
Trying to make himself calm and reassuring, he sat on her bedside. ‘I’m here. Are you well?’
‘You heard him.’ She squinted at him. ‘He’s a child. His father, nowtherewas a doctor. He’d have you up and out walking in no time. But, yes, I am tired. I dreamed of them, of Fabien and his friend, poor Tristan. Of your father and my father, my brothers. Of Dahut…and I…All night, the Ankou stalked around this house. It took all that is in me to keep him out. Do you understand,chéri?’
‘Keep him out? What do you mean?’
Ankou. Simon. Here. A chill ran through him at the thought. Did Ari know? Had she sensed him or seen him? Was that why she’d left?
‘He cannot enter here.’ She sank back onto the pillow, her eyes closing, and he sat there, caught between rising and looking for help and an inability to leave her. ‘I will not allow it. You have the charm I gave you, do you not?’ Her protective charms and amulets… Given all he had seen, he was not about to mock them again. How did he know she hadn’t kept them safe? But at what price?
‘Yes, Mémé,’ he told her solemnly.
‘Show me.’
Luckily, there was one in his pocket. He shifted on the bed so he could take it out and show it to her. It seemed to satisfy her.
