Chapter 25: Guilt

Scarlet burst through the door of the study in the windmill.

‘Where are they?’ she said, breathlessly. She was anxious, her face creased with worry.

‘You’re all out of breath, dear,’ said Eliza, who was tending to Wendle. ‘Is something the matter?’

‘Yes!’ Scarlet said, in between gulps of air.

‘Well sit yourself down love and I’ll get you a nice cup of tea.’ Eliza finished bandaging up Wendle as best she could and got to her feet.

‘Where are they?’ asked Scarlet, clearly distressed.

‘The Dragon-thingy wosname at Winterton Hall,’ said Eliza, ‘but don’t go worrying yerself, ‘cos something’s telling me to be wary. Me and Wendle here are going to leave soon in Hillary’s narrowboat Persephone.’

‘We’ve got to bring them back straightaway! Can’t you stop them?’

‘Calm down dear. They left ages ago. Why, whatever is the matter? Why the hurry?’

‘Because the goblins have stolen the Ivory Flute, Eliza!’

Eliza tried to steady herself by holding onto the lip of the table. ‘Oh dear me,’ she said, as if she was on the verge of fainting. ‘Terrible!’ She stood there for a moment as if trying to take it all in. ‘How? You knew about its history and ability, didn’t it occur to you how important and powerful it was? Didn’t you keep it safe and hidden, Scarlet?’ She looked to Scarlet as if for confirmation. ‘Did you keep it safe and hidden?’

Scarlet shook her head, miserably. ‘I put it under the bed.’ she muttered eventually.

‘What?! Under the bed?’ Eliza slapped her head in disbelief. ‘Whatever were you thinking dear child?’ She paused and shook her head. ‘Under the bed? Was that the safest place to put it? When I said safe, I meant hidden, secure, out of sight. Not under a bed of all places. To you a bed may be the safest place in the world, but let me tell you now that it is most certainly not. No.’

‘I didn’t think.’ moaned Scarlet, wretchedly. ‘Not at the time, anyway. There was so much going through my head, I just didn’t realise. You can’t believe how sorry I feel.’

Eliza stood up. ‘No matter.’ she said. ‘There’s no use worrying ‘bout things we can’t change. Much better to concentrate on trying to change the things we can. First we need to make sure that Hillary and Tobias are safe.’

‘But what do we do?’ asked Scarlet in desperation.

‘Well, there is one thing you could try,’ said Eliza, reaching into her pocket for her Tarot. She shuffled the deck and offered them to Scarlet.

‘Cut the deck three times and then pick a card.’ she said. ‘Any card.’

Scarlet looked bemused, but cut the deck three times as directed. Her shaking fingers hovered over the cards, and then finally, once she was happy with her choice, plucked it from the deck.

‘No.’ said Eliza. ‘Don’t show me yet. Lay it face down on the table there.’

Scarlet placed it on the table as directed.

‘Now turn it over.’ said Eliza.

Scarlet turned the frayed card over, and frowned at it. It was card number 0: The Fool. Eliza snorted. The print on the card showed a grinning man with a pack over his shoulder, and a dog dancing between his legs as he walked.

‘It doesn’t look so bad.’ muttered Scarlet.

Eliza smiled. ‘You think? Try looking at it again,’ she suggested.

Scarlet squinted at the card again. It was funny. Although nothing had changed, it seemed as if the man was just about to walk over the edge of a cliff.

‘Look with your eyes and not your head, girl.’ whispered Eliza.

Scarlet gasped. She hadn’t paid much attention to the image of the dog before, but now she noticed that its tail bled off the edge of the card. It seemed so obvious now that it was laughable.

‘The dog,’ she said, looking at Wendle. ‘It doesn’t have a tail!’

Wendle sculked off to his basket. ‘Huh, typical.’ he muttered.

‘What does it mean though, Eliza?’ asked Scarlet.

‘Wouldn’t we all like to know?’

Scarlet screwed her face up. ‘That’s not an answer,’ she said. ‘You must have some idea! If I didn’t know better, I’d say it looked like an accident was going to happen. Or worse.’ She suddenly looked up at Eliza, as something occured to her. ‘An ambush?’

Eliza sighed and tidied the cards away into their little velvet pouch. ‘Very good Scarlet. You see, you must learn to trust your instincts more.’

‘What do we do?’ sighed Scarlet.

‘It means, dear, that we do what we were going to do before, and go to Winterton Hall.’

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