Infinite Spring Read online

  “Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she? Scarlet woman!” Winnie turned her nose up. Anais stifled a giggle at Winnie’s terminology, but she had to agree on the sentiment. She’d liked Judith, but she couldn’t understand how anyone could be so cruel. To split up with Andrew was one thing, but to move on to his friend straight away was another. She lived thousands of miles away. What did she want with this family, anyway? Anais remembered how she had caught Rafe creeping through the house on his way to Judith’s room when she was staying at the house. This affair of theirs had been going on a lot longer than a few weeks.

  “Forget about them,” said Arcadia. “What about you two? How was Tenerife?”

  “It was good.” Aethelu smiled and reached across the table for Anais hand. We hiked up the summit of Mount Teide. It was pretty beautiful.”

  “Nice. I’m going to have to go and visit Ava and Alfred. It’s been a while since I went to Tenerife.”

  “Not enough sun in the South of France for you?” smirked Aethelu.

  “Actually, I took some photos. Would you like to see them?” Anais was up before giving them a chance to answer. She was ridiculously excited at the prospect of showing off her holiday snaps. She ran upstairs to her bedroom and scrabbled through her bag. The camera had fallen down to the bottom of the bag and had gotten mixed up in her clothes. She pulled it out and ran down stairs. She was stopped on the first floor by Alex, who just happened to be heading down towards the kitchen.

  She stopped suddenly, not sure what to say. It was Alex who broke the silence.

  “I didn’t know you would be back so soon. Is Aethelu with you?”

  “She’s in the kitchen with Winnie and Arcadia.”

  “I’m so sorry for what I did. I don’t know what made me say it.”

  Anais could see that he meant it, but it was not the first time he’d had to apologise to her for a similar thing. Earlier on in the year, he had proclaimed to everyone that Anais was carrying his baby. It was the truth, but she had only become pregnant to help find a cure to stop a virus that Jago was planning to unleash on the world. He’d made it sound like they were playing happy family.

  “It’s beginning to become a theme, Alex. You tell people something or other to make them think we are together and then you come and apologise.”

  “I know. I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’ve been thinking about it. I’m going to go away for a while. Just by myself. I don’t know where yet, but being here with you and not being able to have you is killing me.”

  Anais was shocked “You don’t need to leave. Nobody expects you to go. I don’t want you to go.”

  He looked sad. “I know. It’s just something I have to do. It won’t be forever. I just need some time to myself.”

  “But we need you. Jago is still running wild. You can’t leave.” Anais realised how unfair she was being by asking him to stay, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to lose him.

  “Nothing I can do will help you with Jago. We’ve been dealing with him for months. He’s always one step ahead of us, no matter what we do. He’s probably going to win. Hopefully, once he gets the Elixir, he’ll crawl back under the rock he came from.”

  “Don’t say that!”

  “What do you expect me to say? We have no clue who he is or where he is. He’s attacked half the family. He still has Sabine, if he hasn’t killed her yet. We don’t know where Abel and Amber are.”

  “Andrew has a couple of leads on that,” said Anais, clutching at straws.

  “Andrew hasn’t really got his heart in it. He’s too upset about Judith.”

  “Winnie told me that he’s putting a lot of effort into finding them.”

  “Well, all the more reason for me to go. You don’t need me here.”

  Anais was about to disagree that she did need him very much, but she knew how it would sound. She knew when she was beaten and it was probably for the best.

  “When will you go?”

  “I think Winnie would have a heart attack if I left this week. She’s been very strict about bed rest to recuperate. I was just getting my laptop to research some places, so I can decide where to go. I’ll probably go back to Audsley’s though. I enjoyed being a cowboy. Perhaps, she’ll let me work around the ranch.” He attempted a smile. “I’ll probably head off next week sometime.”

  “I’ll miss you.” Anais couldn’t help herself. She was beginning to tear up.

  “I’ll miss you, too.”

  Anais gave him a hug, holding him tight. He put the arm that wasn’t holding his laptop around her. Eventually, she broke away and headed downstairs. Before going down the spiral staircase, she wiped her eyes and blinked a few times. She didn’t want everyone wondering why she was crying, especially Aethelu.

  Winnie had sliced a cake in her absence and placed pieces on four plates. The hot chocolate seemed to have been topped up too.

  She sat back down at the table and took a bite out of the raspberry Victoria sponge. Jam and cream dribbled out of the side and landed on her plate.

  “You took your time,” said Arcadia. “Couldn’t you find your camera?”

  Anais was glad she was unable to talk as her mouth was full of cake, so she just nodded in the affirmative and passed over the camera.

  Arcadia pressed the on switch and then the review button. Anais could not see the screen so she waited patiently until it was her turn to have a look. It would be nice to see her holiday snaps again. She watched Arcadia’s expression as she scrolled through the pictures. She was smiling with the occasional laugh. She must be scrolling through them backwards. She was probably laughing at the pair of them pulling silly faces.

  “What’s this? Did you take pictures in the airport?”

  “Oh, I’d forgotten about those. I bought the shop model in the airport. You can just delete them.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want some snaps of random holidaymakers for your album?” Arcadia laughed and then her expression turned serious. She had seen something on one of the photos and was studying it intently.

  “What is it, Arcadia?” asked Aethelu.

  “Take a look at this photo.” She passed the camera to Aethelu who took a look.

  “It’s just a guy messing around with the camera at the airport. He was probably trying it out.”

  She passed the camera to Anais who also looked at the camera. It showed a picture of a young man grinning. It was obviously taken at the duty free shop where Anais had bought it.”

  “It’s just a tourist. I told you, they need to be deleted,” she put her hand up to press the delete button.

  “No!” Arcadia spoke so forcefully that Anais nearly dropped the camera. “Forget the guy. Look at the people in the background, more specifically, the girl in the green skirt and white blouse.”

  Anais looked past the grinning man and into the background. It showed the airport where a number of holidaymakers were milling around. She brought her focus to the woman that Arcadia had described.

  At first, she looked just like any other holidaymaker. Young, with long black hair, trim figure. It was then that it hit her, what Arcadia had been alluding to. She gasped in shock.

  “It’s Sabine!”

  Chapter Twenty Two

  “Pass it here,” said Aethelu urgently, “It can’t be.”

  Anais passed her the camera.

  “Are you both sure?” asked Winnie. “You’ve only seen a couple of photos of her that we managed to find on the internet. It seems awfully unlikely that she would be travelling through the local airport on the same day as you. Perhaps, it’s a girl who just looks like her.”

  “I don’t know, Mama. I think they are right. It’s a pretty good photo, even if she is in the background. Of course, there is one person who will be able to tell us,” Aethelu said.

  “James. I don’t want to upset him if we are wrong. It’s a huge coincidence. It just doesn’t seem possible that she’d be in the airport a couple of days ago. Why would she even be here?�
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  “I don’t know why she was there, but I can tell you that she wasn’t there on the same day as Anais. There is a date stamp on each photo. This one was taken a week ago. The camera was probably on display for a while. Do you want to see?”

  “No. I trust you all. I’ll put the kettle on. I think we are going to need more coffee!”

  Anais volunteered to go out to the surgery to fetch James.

  He was examining a vial of something when she entered. Aldrich was sat at his writing desk surrounded by notes and journals, furiously scribbling in one.

  “Anais, to what do we owe the pleasure?” said James turning around.

  “Can I just have a word?” Anais asked politely.

  “I’m afraid I’m kind of in the middle of something at the moment. Can it wait?”

  “Erm, not really. It’s important. We need you to see something in the kitchen.”

  Aldrich spoke. “It’s ok, James. I’ll finish up with that.” He didn’t look up from his journal but waved his hand as if to dismiss them both.

  “Ok, then.” James put the vial down and followed Anais back to the kitchen.

  Winnie put a huge mug of coffee and a large slice of cake in front of him and hovered behind biting her lip as he sat down.

  “This is quite a pleasure,” said James jovially. “I have to say, Winnie, I’ve never eaten so well in my entire life. I’ll be getting quite a belly.” He picked up a fork and speared a huge piece of cake. It was at this moment that Aethelu showed him the camera with the previewed photo of Sabine.

  James swallowed the cake and looked at the photo.

  “Who’s this young chap then?” he said, looking rather confused as to why he was being shown photos of strangers. Aethelu pressed the zoom in button and focussed on the girl in the background.

  James dropped his fork with a clatter and stared.

  “It can’t be. Where was this photo taken? Where is she?” He grabbed the camera from Aethelu and looked more closely.

  Anais answered him. “I bought the camera a couple of days ago at the local airport. I was in a rush and they only had the display model so I bought it. There are a number of photos before you get to mine that tourists have taken in the airport to test the camera.”

  “Is she on any more photos?” He started to scroll through all the photographs. Anais had been so shocked to see Sabine that she’d not thought to check the other photos. Aethelu had though.

  “We’ve checked through all of them. That’s the only one with her in it, although having you checking is a good idea. You may spot something we’ve missed.”

  He slowly flicked from one photo to the next, scrutinising each one. Eventually, he got back to the photos of Anais and Aethelu on Mount Teide, without finding any more of Sabine. He flicked back to the one with her in it and looked at it again. Tears began to form in the corner of his eyes.

  “I hoped she was alive, but I just didn’t know.”

  “The question is, where do we go from here?” asked Arcadia. “We know where she was last week, but we still don’t know where she is now.”

  “She was obviously flying somewhere. James, where would she go?”

  “She’d go home.”

  “That’s if she was alone. How do we know Jago wasn’t with her?” asked Aethelu.

  “There is an easy way to find out. James, what is your phone number?” Anais got out her phone.

  James repeated a number to her including the country code for Italy.

  After a number of clicks the phone started to ring. She put it on speakerphone, so they could all hear it. It rang once, twice, three times. She left it to ring until it became obvious that no one was going to pick it up. Eventually, she hung up. They all looked at each other, no one knowing what to say.

  “We should tell Andrew,” said Winnie. “Perhaps, he can locate her.”

  “Let’s give this one to Alex,” said Anais. “Andrew is fixated on finding Amber and Abel. Lets him keep at it. I think Alex would like something to do. I saw him on the stairs earlier and he said he was bored.”

  Aethelu raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

  “Fine,” said Arcadia. It sounds like a plan. “Alex can look into it.”

  “Will he be able to find her?” asked James.

  “He found you.” Aethelu took the camera from his hands and made her way up the spiral staircase.

  Later, Anais went to find Alex. She’d not seen Aethelu since she’d taken the camera, instead deciding to spend some time in her room, unpacking and reading. She was still on a high from her minibreak with Aethelu, but it was mixed with sadness and worry for James and Sabine.

  It didn’t take long to find Alex. He was still in the library with his laptop.

  “Hey,” she said, unsure of what else to say.

  Alex looked up from his computer.

  “Hey, yourself. Come to see what I’ve found out about Sabine?”

  “Yes. What have you got so far?” she sat in the high backed chair next to his.

  “Nada, zip, zilch.”

  “Nothing at all?”

  “No. I’ve checked all the flights that flew out that day and there isn’t a Sabine Cutter on any of them. She must have flown somewhere as she’d passed through security.”

  “Fake passport?”

  “Yep. I’ve looked at the time the photo was taken. I’ve discounted all the flights that had already left and all the ones that leave more than four hours from the time of the photo. We have flights going to Geneva, Belfast, London, Munich, Amsterdam, Barcelona. Seventeen in total for the four hour period after the photo was taken.”

  “Any going to Italy?”

  “I’m glad you asked. There is one. A flight to Rome leaving about three quarters of an hour after the photo was taken. I jumped on that one, too. I’ve managed to hack in and find the passenger list. No Sabine Cutter, but there are five women travelling alone within the right age bracket. Like you, she’s only got half ‘The Light.’ She’s obviously a lot older than you, but judging by her photos, she looks about mid-twenties to early thirties. Of course, we don’t know if she was travelling alone.”

  “So where does that leave us?”

  “You tell me. All I have is a list of names. No addresses in Florence. I could try tracking these women down, but I suspect that will only leave us with one woman with a fake name and false address. We already know where she lives.”

  “James said she’d go home.”

  “Sometimes, the most obvious option is the right one.”

  “You think so, too? She didn’t answer the phone when we called.”

  “She might have been out. She might have been told not to answer the phone. Who knows?”

  “Do you think we should go out there?”

  “I don’t see how it could hurt.”

  “Can you book some tickets for us?”

  “Us?”

  “Yeah, you, me, Aethelu and James.”

  “You want me to come with you?” Alex looked at her in surprise.

  “We need you and your laptop in case she isn’t there. I wouldn’t know how to do the things you do on it and I don’t want to have to rely on calling home every time we need help. The chances of her being at home are slim so we will need to figure out our next move once we are there.”

  “Ok. I’ll book four flights.” Rather than look defeated, he seemed rather excited by the prospect.

  Anais ran to tell James the news and told him to pack. He hugged Anais with tears in his eyes.

  “Thank you, thank you!” he said, and without waiting for an answer, bounded off to pack a bag.

  She found Aethelu in the studio. It felt strange to be back in there after so many weeks. She had never been happier than when she was here with Aethelu, but since the night they’d both been attacked by Jago, she’d not set foot in the place. The bed, which had been brought down to the ground floor, was now back on the mezzanine level and the blood from the attack had been scrubbed from the floor.
It looked just like it had when Anais first set foot in it. Aethelu was partially hidden by the easel in the middle of the room. She was painting one of her colourful abstract paintings that dotted the main house. It was in stark contrast to the last painting she had completed – a portrait of Anais for her Christmas present, months before.

  “It’s been a long time since I saw you paint.”

  Aethelu looked up. “It’s stress relief. I actually painted a lot whilst you were at August’s.”

  Anais looked around. She could see a number of painted canvasses stacked up on the floor ready to be hung. There was barely an inch of wall space left.

  “Where will you put them?”

  “I was thinking I might sell a few. James gave me the idea. He’s been admiring my stuff. He says that one day he will introduce me to the gallery owner in Florence.”

  “Actually, that’s why I’m here. That day might be sooner than you think. I’ve just left Alex and he thinks Sabine might have caught a flight to Rome. He’s booking tickets for us all to go tomorrow.”

  Aethelu put her paintbrush down. “Rome? Why would she go to Rome?”

  “It was the only flight to Italy in the right time period. He actually thinks she might have gone home. She could have caught a train from Rome.”

  “It sounds a bit far-fetched. Does he have anything concrete to go on?”

  “Not really, but he’s coming with us, so we can use James’s home as a base and search for her from there.”

  “Who else is coming?”

  “You, me, James and Alex.”

  Aethelu screwed her face up. “Does Alex have to come?”

  “Yes. He managed to hack into the flights passenger list. It didn’t help us any because she flew with a fake passport, but if he can do that, he can do anything. Please tell me you trust me.”

  “Of course, I do. I’m sorry. Come on. Help me pack up some canvases. I may as well take them with me. Florence! I’ve never been before. I know I shouldn’t be excited, but it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go.”

  “Remember why we are going though. We are looking for Sabine, not going on holiday.”