Lyn shook her head. ‘There’s no hurry. They need the break. There’s nothing wrong in the work shop, is there?’
‘No. That’s all fine. You’ll be staying on here on your own then, until they get back?’
Lyn nodded. ‘Try and look a bit more pleased about it.’
He gave a tight little laugh. ‘I’m very pleased. I don’t like being up here, even outside, on my own. I was just thinking about those kids.’ He gestured towards Tom with his head. ‘I don’t like to think of them up here. Things happen to kids in this house.’
‘Oh please. Not that again.’ Lyn stopped. The night before, after giving them their drinks she had put the boys back to bed. Then she had switched on the baby alarm in Ned’s room, and threading the wire under the door had put the speaker in her own. She had not liked locking the door on the baby, but the key was not going to leave her person. She had threaded it on a piece of ribbon and hung it round her own neck. The rest of the night had been peaceful, but this morning – she chewed her lip again at the memory – this morning when she let herself into the room to the contented sound of Ned’s gurgling away to himself in his cot, she had found him playing with a small wooden elephant that she did not remember ever having seen before in her life.
‘Something wrong?’ Ever alert, Jimbo had noticed her sudden silence.
She shook her head.
‘Right.’ He plainly wasn’t going to press her. Standing up he drained his mug. ‘I’d best be getting on.’
‘What about your toast?’
‘I’ll take it with me, if that’s all right.’ He scraped some honey onto it and turned towards the door, stopping at the last moment to turn back to her for a second. ‘You sure you’re all right?’
‘I told you!’
‘Yes. Right.’
She stood silently for several seconds after he had gone, then she shrugged and shook her head.
Tom looked up at her for a moment and stopped chewing. He wondered why Aunty Lyn hadn’t noticed the woman standing behind her; it was the woman who had carried Ned up to the attic and then beckoned him to follow. She hadn’t seen the tin man last night either. He took another solemn bite out of his toast finger. If she wasn’t frightened he supposed it must be all right.
‘You don’t usually come home dinner time. What’s the matter boy?’ Jimbo’s father was reading the Mirror at the kitchen table amid a litter of take-away containers from the night before.
‘I want to talk to Nat. You got her number?’
‘You leave your sister alone, Jim. She doesn’t need you ringing her at work.’
‘She said I could any time. And this is important. They’ve got problems up at the Hall, and I reckon she should come over and speak to them.’
‘Oh no. Now you keep your nose out of all that. If I think you mean what I think you mean – ’
‘Dad. Listen. It’s bad. Those kids are in danger. That Lyn doesn’t have a clue. She wouldn’t see a tractor if it drove through her kitchen wall and ploughed up her breakfast dishes. With Luke and Joss away, it’s up to me.’
‘Luke and Joss, is it.’ His father put on a la-di-da voice. ‘They say you could call them that?’
‘Course. Shut up, Dad. Just tell me where the number is.’ Jimbo was riffling through the pile of old newspapers and notes on the kitchen counter beside the phone.
‘Up there. Pinned on the wall.’
‘Right.’ His face grim, Jimbo began to dial.
‘Nat, that you? Can you talk? It’s important.’ He glared at his father who was lounging back in his chair listening. ‘Listen, I reckon you need to come back here and talk to the Grants up at the Hall. Things are bad there again.’
He listened intently for a few seconds. ‘Yes. Joss has seen him; and the little boy. Reverend Gower came back to try and do something and he ended up dead. It’s only a matter of time before someone else gets killed. I reckon you’re the only one who can help.’
He scowled at his father who was shaking his head, looking up at the ceiling. ‘Yes. Joss will listen to you. She’s really nice. Luke doesn’t believe what’s in front of his nose and that Lyn who looks after the kids is as thick as two planks. It’s up to you. Reckon you can come home this weekend? Great!’ He beamed at the phone. ‘See you then.’
‘Your sister’s got better things to do than come back here and interfere with things that don’t concern her.’
‘No she ain’t. She’s pleased to help. You should be proud of her, Dad, not ashamed.’
‘I’m not ashamed.’
‘You are. And you called her a witch. That’s stupid. And sexist.’ Jim grinned. ‘Even I know that. Now, what you got for dinner? I’m starving.’
Janet had seen Lyn walking towards the village with the children in the double buggy as she was making her way up to the church to do the flowers. She frowned. She hadn’t realised they were back. Lyn looked very tired, and little Tom, she could see from the car as she drove past waving, was fast asleep. Neither of them saw her. Intent on her own thoughts Lyn was pushing the buggy across the village green, her head down, her steps weary, plodding in the direction of the village shop. She could catch them there after she had checked the church and topped up the vases with water.