Page 54 of The Snow Witch

Emory…

Emory blinked, looking around for her, peering towards the window where he imagined she stood outside, watching him…

His momentary lapse was enough for his brother to wriggle free. Emory was still looking over at the window, trying to see her.

‘Meg—’

Then he felt a crack, and a pain shot through his face as his brother’s fist connected with his cheekbone, hard enough to spin Emory around so he was facing Charles.

‘Never do that to me again,’ hissed Charles, his voice hoarse as his face blurred in front of Emory’s eyes ‘Or you will regret it. You are a bastard, remember? The Devil alone knows where you came from and I let you stay here out of the goodness of my heart. You should be careful, brother. The witch has gone; nobody will ever know anything different to what I tell them. Is that clear? Nicholson did a good job. She was a dangerous woman. She deserved to die.’ He raised his fist again and punched Emory one more time for good measure.

It was Emory’s turn to slide down the wall, half-conscious. As the darkness swallowed him up, he saw his brother storm off, and he saw Meggie’s concerned face leaning over him, felt her gentle fingers running down the side of his face…

He closed his eyes and gave himself up to the darkness and to her touch.

35

NOW

Jake was calf-deep in snow. Everyone on the site had been taken unaware by the amount of snow dumped there overnight.

The site was bang in the middle of the Hadrian’s Wall Walk. The views were stunning out across the fields – on a clear, warm, sunny day, you could trace the people walking along the dip of the hill.

On a day like today, it was not such a wonderful place to be. But there was a café on site, and, fuelled by cooked breakfasts and the promise of hot coffee afterwards, as many people as possible were out with shovels, making pathways and clearing a way out of the place to help everyone.

Jake now knew what the flashing lights in the sky had been the other night: thundersnow. Someone had mentioned it – apparently, it was a rare phenomenon.

‘First time I’ve seen it,’ said the young man who told him. ‘Impressive.’

‘So I wasn’t dreaming it?’ Jake asked.

‘Nah. It was real.’

Jake felt better that the snow and the lightning were real, but that didn’t explain the woman standing in it. He would just have to push the image to one side and hope that she had been a trick of the lightning.

His phone rang, and he paused to fish it out of his pocket and answer it, tearing his gloves off with his teeth as he struggled to swipe the screen.

‘Violet! Hello.’

‘You’re muffled,’ said Violet.

‘Glove in my mouth. Hang on.’

‘Most people put gloves on their hands.’

‘Funny.’

‘I thought so. Do you need rescuing?’

Jake looked around and saw the team of people digging and shovelling. It would be so easy to tell Violet that he’d meet her on the main road, and she could pick him up, but…

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, genuinely meaning it. ‘Don’t really feel like I can slope off right now. Everyone is out clearing the site.’

‘Oh, okay.’

‘Where were you thinking of going? What’s on your itinerary?’

‘I’m not really sure – maybe Newbrough. It wasn’t in my original plan today, to be honest, but I think I kind of want to look at her cottage again…’ Her voice trailed off.