Not in stables. Checking cider barn and orchards. Let us know if you find them.
She hadn’t.
Elspeth was gone. And so was Ben. And Tina was starting to believe the timing of their disappearance and her standing up to her fellow forgers was not a coincidence.
If this involved Ernest or Frank, what did they want from her? Or was it just revenge for alerting potential buyers to the value of the loving cup?
She strode back to the house where she met William and Hamish in the entrance hall, a group of spaniels milling round their legs. William shooed the dogs outside. ‘I’ll just get Molly; she must be in with Pen, the naughty rascal. Come inside, might as well be warm.’
William led the way to the drawing room where Penelope sat with her feet curled up underneath her on the sofa, a magazine in her hands. Despite the studied elegance, Christina couldn’t help but notice she was still on page one. ‘Found them?’ she asked, peering up over her reading glasses.
‘Not yet. I just came to fetch Molly,’ said William. ‘Thought the dogs could help me search the woods.’
‘No Molly in here,’ said Penelope, letting out a theatrical sigh. ‘Isn’t she with the others?’
‘No’ said William.His eyes suddenly lit up as something seemed to occur to him, a spark of excitement crossing his face, then he started fiddling with his phone.
Before Penelope could reply, William looked up from his screen. ‘Got ‘em!’ he shouted. ‘Pen, find a map while I get the Landy! Meet you out the front!’ Hamish shot out after him, and Tina, confused but full of adrenaline, watched as Penelope’s expression sharpened with rare purpose; she leaped off the sofa and rummaged through drawers, scattering envelopes and leaflets onto the carpet. ‘Somewhere in here – aha!’ She tossed a folded Ordnance Survey map at Tina.
Tina caught it mid-air and bolted out of the room, her feet slapping against the wooden floor of the panelled corridor. Outside, a battered Land Rover sat idling, its ancient exhaust coughing out clouds of fumes. William stood rigid beside it, as if standing to attention, phone in hand, Hamish at his side like aloyal batman.
‘Map!’ William bellowed the moment he saw the women.
Tina held it out, and he snatched it like a hawk diving for prey. He threw it onto the car’s bonnet and leaned over, his finger jabbing at the lines and contours, alternating glances between the map and the glowing screen of his phone. He spoke with a clipped voice, his jaw tight. ‘Come on! I think they’re in New Wood!’
His shoes crunched on gravel as he spun around, tore open the door, and leaped into the driver’s seat. Tina and Hamish scrambled in after him, barely shutting their doors before the vehicle took off, tyres screaming and spitting pebbles as they peeled away from the house, leaving Penelope standing in the porch waving them off with her fingers crossed. William sped across the open parkland, slamming Tina back into her seat, then jostling her like a swinging pendulum as the headlights bounced wildly with every rut and rise in the ground.
‘New Wood?’ she shouted over the noise.
‘Planted in 1815 to commemorate Waterloo,’ William barked, his eyes fixed on the horizon. ‘Quickest route is across the park, so hold tight!’
Tina gripped the dashboard as the Land Rover pitched forward and bounced violently. Her breath hitched as they hit a ridge. The trees ahead loomed like blackened beasts etched against the deepening dusk. A hare exploded from the undergrowth and darted across their path, disappearing like smoke.
Behind her, Hamish clung onto the back of her seat. ‘What makes you think they’re in New Wood?’ he asked.
‘I fitted Molly’s collar with a tracker,’ he said grimly, ‘and it’s pinging from New Wood. She’s Ben’s favourite dog and though she’s a bloody mischievous little monster, she wouldn’t go that far on her own. Why they’ve gone there? No clue.’
‘It’s the play,’ Hamish said suddenly.
‘Eh?’
‘As You Like It. It’s set in a forest. Elspeth’s obsessed with it right now. I bet they’ve gone full method.’
Tina didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Then she heard it – a sharp bark, high and frantic, somewhere ahead.
‘There!’ she shouted, pointing.
The headlights swung to catch a blur of black and white – a spaniel hurtling toward them, ears flapping like torn flag pennants. William slammed on the brakes. Clods of grass and mud sprayed up. He opened the door, and the dog launched herself into his lap, tail wagging so fiercely it was just a blur.
‘Where are they, old girl?’ he asked, stroking her.
Molly whined and twisted in his arms, trying to leap back out toward the trees again.
And then Tina saw them.
‘There!’ she gasped. ‘Elspeth!’
