I wonder if it is that strange old woman again? She mused, slightly annoyed that the woman hadn’t stopped to help her in the first place. If it is, I am going to give her a piece of my mind because she has made no attempt to tell me how to get out. I am stuck, so she can go and warn someone else if she isn’t prepared to show someone how to get home.
When the source of the noise did appear out of the gloom, however, Estelle truly wished she hadn’t seen it. Her gasp locked in her throat when she saw someone’s head and shoulders emerge out of the gloom. It was difficult to tell if it was a man or a woman because of the hood they had pulled over their face; a tall pointed hood of a kind she had never seen before. It was disturbing to say the very least, and not just because the figure seemed to glide through the undergrowth without making a sound.
Estelle glanced around warily, wondering if he, or she, was alone or if there were more about to appear.
Are they looking for me? The relief that swept through her at the thought that they might be was almost overwhelming. She opened her mouth to speak, but snapped it closed again without uttering a word. She knew instinctively that the deathly silence around her was a warning. Whoever this person was, they were not looking for her – or anybody else for that matter. They weren’t calling out her name, as they would have done if they were trying to find her. Instead, very much like the old woman earlier, this person didn’t make a sound either.
What are they doing here then? Who are they? Why were they dressed like that?
Her initial relief at seeing another person vanished in an instant. Estelle found no comfort in the knowledge that someone else was in the woods with her, not now that she had seen them and what they were wearing. In fact, they looked sinister and not in the least inclined to be friendly either.
Whoever they are, I have no intention of waiting around to meet with them, she thought desperately. Not if they are anything like that old woman. She had been frightening enough in the daylight.
She shivered and began to walk again. It was only when she stumbled over something she couldn’t see on the forest floor that she realised the hooded figure had been moving through the woods, in the thick fog made denser by the darkness of the night, with nothing to light their way. They hadn’t been carrying a lantern but had still managed to glide through the woods without making a sound.
They must be used to the area and used a path. A path. A huge wave of relief swept through her and she studied her surroundings once more. There has to be a path around here somewhere.
As quietly as she could, Estelle began to search for it while going in the direction the cloaked figure had just appeared from.
There has to be a path around somewhere, there just has to be.
The thought of staying in the woods was just so prohibitive that Estelle couldn’t even bring herself to contemplate finding somewhere to sit to wait until morning. She had to forge a path in one direction and keep going until she broke free of the woods and could find her way home. If she was quiet, she could hopefully avoid happening across anybody else, especially someone dressed in a cloak, who glided through the woods in complete silence.
With a shiver, she gathered her shawl around her shoulders, tightened her fingers on her basket, and began to move forward. She hadn’t gone far when the faint sound of a footstep behind her broke into her thoughts. With her back to a tree, she paused and waited, and only just managed to stifle her gasp when a light suddenly materialised out of the fog a few feet away to her left. Her eyes widened as she watched it move silently past her and disappear into the gloom. She had no idea which was worse, the thought that several people were moving silently through the woods, or watching a lantern being carried through the air by an unseen hand.
“It can’t be a ghost,” she mouthed, too afraid to voice the words. “Please, don’t let it be a ghost.”
Aware that she wouldn’t reach safety standing talking to herself, she began to move forward again. Suddenly, the distinctive sound of hushed whispering filtered through the dank fog. She paused to listen carefully, but the words were unintelligible. Motionless, she listened hard. Whoever it was sounded like they were moving about because they slowly grew louder and snippets of their conversation filtered through the night toward her.
“Is everyone coming tonight?” a man whispered, his voice hushed and furtive.
“Yes. I have made it clear they are expected for this very special occasion,” someone else replied, their voice silken. There was a hint of calculation in it that Estelle didn’t like.
“Good. That makes twelve of us all told. That should be enough. Hopefully, we can summon the Great Master. We are about due,” the man replied. Estelle couldn’t see them but suspected that the man was nodding.
“Let’s wait for the others and then we can begin.”
Estelle’s panic rose as she glanced worriedly around her. She had a mental image of the woods around her becoming alive with solitary figures gliding around with lanterns. It was truly terrifying. Whoever this ‘Great Master’ was, she had no intention of meeting him.
I don’t want to know what they could have to do at those ruins, or the old woman’s house for that matter. Was this why she was warning me away from the woods? Maybe she didn’t want me to bear witness to what they are doing. Another, quite sinister voice, taunted: Maybe she didn’t want you to be one of their victims.
Whatever the reason for the old woman’s words of caution, Estelle now knew she had to do whatever it took to get free of the wretched place once and for all. She waited until the lantern was about to disappear and stepped onto the narrow path the newest arrival had just walked only walked in the opposite direction. Without a candle to light her way her progress was slow but she didn’t stop or dare to look back.
“Wait! Who’s there?” A man’s voice shouted suddenly from behind her.
When that commanding voice broke the silence, it lashed at her furiously and left her in little doubt as to the owner’s fury. Her gasp was loud even to her own ears. She looked behind her and cried out loud when she saw several hooded figures charging toward her. Unable to stop to think, Estelle spun on her heel and raced through the trees. Without a lantern, it was too dark to see any path. She had no choice but to forge a way forward and hope it took her where she needed to go.
Her lungs began to burn. It was difficult to tell if the swirling of the world around her was because of her head, or the fog, leaves, and branches, but she daren’t stop.
She didn’t stop. Not even when she finally burst out of the trees and found herself on a narrow strip of winding road she recognised immediately. The swiftness of her flight, though, meant that she didn’t have time to slow down or stop when she stumbled out into the middle of the road, far too late to jump out of the way when she heard the loud rumbling of carriage wheels behind her. She whirled around, her eyes wide with horror. Her scream locked in her throat when her stunned gaze met the wild eyes of two horses charging at breakneck speed toward her.
She never felt the heavy thud when they ploughed into her and knocked her high into the air. There was no sensation of falling when she was propelled downward in a tangle of arms and legs. Nor did she feel any pain when she was slammed into the hard ground with such brutal force that she was rendered unconscious once more.
“Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God,” Myles cursed when the horses reared up in violent protest at having something beneath their hooves that shouldn’t be there.
With all of his might, he hauled back on the reins.
“I have hit her. I have hit her,” he chanted as he threw himself off the curricle and began to search for the woman on the floor somewhere.