Colton Manor (8 page)

The keys! Ursula had been so preoc
cupied that morning she could not even remember what she’d done with them when she left the real estate agency. She looked through her bag, hoping she’d slipped them in there, but they weren’t there. She turned her bag upside down and dumped the entire contents on the floor, not caring that Tom and Bonnie saw the mess of pens, tissues, bus tickets, tampons, coins and lip-gloss that came flying out. There was still no sign of the keys Yvette had given her.

“Maybe you left them in the car,” said
Bonnie.

“Maybe.
I’ll go down and have a look.” She tore down the stairs and across the drive, hurriedly opening the glove box, but after pulling everything out she had to face the fact that the keys weren’t there either. She tried to remember the last time she’d had them in her hand and she realised it was at the library when she was talking to the young woman at the front desk. She must have left them in the archives.

Ursula cur
sed out loud as she made her way back to the house. She couldn’t help looking up at the window of her studio, but thankfully there was no one looking down at her this time. She gave a sigh of relief, but just as she stepped onto the porch the front door swayed and then closed with a loud bang, causing her to jump. There was very little breeze that night and the door was heavy.

Her heart was pounding as
she pushed the door open again, but there was nothing there, just the empty foyer. Bonnie’s worried face appeared at the top of the stairs.

“What was that?”

“The door just closed.”

“By itself?”

“The wind must have pushed it.” She did not want to entertain any other possibilities at that moment when all their focus had to be on Damien.

“Did you find the keys?”

“No,” she said, climbing the stairs. “I think I left them at the library.”

“Oh dear, w
hat are we going to do now?” Bonnie glanced anxiously from Ursula to Tom and back again.

“We could call the po
lice,” said Tom, “but it will take them time to get here, and I’m starting to get very worried about Damien. You’re right, this is not like him at all. I think we should break it down ourselves.”

“
I agree,” said Ursula. “This is an emergency. Damien wouldn’t stay in there and ignore us if there was nothing wrong.” Bonnie just nodded.

“Okay, then, stand back,” said Tom g
rimly. Ursula and Bonnie stood together as Tom swung his leg back then then proceeded to kick the door as hard as he could. The first kick did nothing at all, but the second one cracked the wood, and with the third kick the lock gave way completely. The door flew open and hit the wall with a bang.

The first thing Ur
sula noticed was the sweaty smell that permeated the room, much like a gym locker room. She found the light and switched it on, and for a few seconds they all just stared at the still figure on the bed, not wanting to take a closer look in case their worst fears were realised. It was Bonnie who made the first move, stepping towards him and putting her hand on his forehead.

“He’s got a fever
. Tom you call a doctor, and Ursula you get some cold water and towels, and see if you can find a thermometer.” After the first wave of relief that he was not dead passed Ursula quickly busied herself following Bonnie’s orders. The towels and cold water were easy but she couldn’t find a thermometer anywhere.

“How bad is it?” she asked when
she finally sat down beside Bonnie on the bed.

“I don’t know,”
Bonnie shrugged. “It’s hard to tell without taking his temperature. I don’t have much to go by except my kids. They were also running a fever this week, but I don’t think it was this high. I wish the doctor would hurry up.” She glanced towards the door as Damien stirred and moaned.

“Where’s Tom?”
asked Ursula.

“He’s downstairs waiting for the doctor. He hates being around sick people and couldn’t get out of here fast enough.
I told him to make himself useful and clean up the vase you knocked over.”

It seemed like an eternity before the doctor finally arrived.
He was a kind looking older man with shaggy white eyebrows. He set his bag down on the bedside table and looked down at Damien, and for the first time since they’d kicked the door in Damien’s eyes fluttered open for a few seconds

“Well, that is a good sign,” said the doctor.
“Do you have any idea how long he’s been ill for?”

“We went out for dinner last night and he was okay
then. I think I heard him moving around this morning but I’m not completely sure.”

“
Seems he’s had a very high fever, but it’s broken now. Can you hear me Damien?” Damien muttered something and twisted his head to look at the three of them standing over him.

“What’s going on?”
he said.

“You’ve just ha
d a bit of a fever, but it’s all under control now,” replied the doctor in a soothing voice.

“Does he need to go to hospital?” asked
Bonnie. The doctor glanced at the thermometer in his hand.

“No, I don’t think that will be necessary
. His temperature is not dangerously high anymore. The best thing he can do is stay where he is. He just needs to rest and build up his fluids. This bug has been going around for the past few weeks. Most people complain of exhaustion and aches and pains as well as a high fever.” Ursula remembered Damien mentioning how bad he felt when he got up the previous day.

“Could something like this cause a person to hallucinate and act in ways that are out of character for them?” she asked.

“When a high temperature is involved people can do all sorts of strange things.”

“What about before they
know they’re sick?”

The do
ctor looked at her with curiosity. “It could take a few days to come on. It’s possible.” Was it possible Damien had just been coming down with a fever, that’s why he’d walked in his sleep and why he couldn’t remember it? Was he wandering around in a fever-induced state when he tried to get into her room? It still didn’t explain why there seemed to have been two people in the house that morning, but that could just have been her overactive imagination playing tricks on her.

She glanced across at
Bonnie expecting her to also be relieved, but she still looked worried. “Are you sure you’ll be okay here with him, Ursula? It’s a big burden to look after someone you hardly know. Maybe he’d be better off in hospital.”

“How long will he be sick for?”
she asked the doctor.

“Most people recover in a day or two. I can call in tomorrow to make sure he’s ok
ay, but I’ll ring an ambulance now if you like.” For a moment Ursula was undecided. Bonnie was right, it was a big responsibility to look after him till he got better, maybe he would be better off in hospital. At that moment Damien opened his eyes again and tried to pull himself to a sitting position.

“
Hey guys, I can hear every word you’re saying. I really don’t want to be a burden to you, Ursula, so if you want me to go to hospital it’s okay with me.”

His
colour was returning and he sounded so much like his normal self that Ursula made a snap decision. “No, really, that’s fine. You can stay here tonight and we’ll see how you’re feeling tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” He smiled
up at her and her stomach felt like it was full of butterflies.

“Okay then,
that’s settled,” said Bonnie, springing back into action. “I’ll get Tom to help you into a fresh pair of pyjamas, Damien, while I change the sheets. Then we’ll sort out something for you to eat and drink. I’ll come over first thing in the morning to see how you are. How does that sound, Ursula?”

“That sounds great
,” she replied, glad that Bonnie had taken charge. She had no idea how to look after a sick person and she didn’t relish the thought of having to feed him or help him get dressed, no matter how sexy he was.

Forty minutes later she waved goodbye to
Bonnie and Tom as they disappeared down the drive. Upstairs Damien was sleeping soundly after eating some soup Bonnie had whipped up for him, and he had looked very peaceful when they’d last checked in on him. Ursula told herself again that it was just the fever that had caused Damien to act so strangely, but it did not give her as much comfort now that she was alone with him. As she watched the darkness swallow the car’s taillights she had to fight the feeling of dread that came over her at the thought of going back inside. The house behind her felt like a dark, malevolent presence, watching and waiting. She regretted her spur-of-the-moment decision to let him stay, because all she wanted to do now was get out of there and go somewhere she would feel safe.

Mentally shaking herself for bei
ng so silly she turned around and made an effort not to look up at the window on the second floor as she stepped onto the porch. It was far too early to go to bed, and she went into the kitchen to fix herself some dinner. She was too unsettled to cook so she settled on a microwave meal from the freezer. The door to the cellar was firmly closed and she had no desire to open it. Tom had gone down there and he said as far as he could tell nothing had been disturbed.

She tried to eat her dinner
in the kitchen but found that the sight of the cellar door brought back too many bad memories. She took her plate into the lounge instead, and for a while she flicked through the channels but there was nothing on to capture her interest. After finishing her dinner she went upstairs to her studio, pausing for a minute outside Damien’s door. It was open and she could hear him breathing steadily in the darkness.

In her studio Ursula
sat down in front of her easel to do some painting, but she wasn’t in the right mood for it. Abandoning her canvas she picked up her sketch pad and placed it on the easel as she played around with some colours and shapes. She usually loved letting her mind run wild to create whatever it wanted,  but tonight it seemed there was very little going on in the depths of her subconscious. She’d never had any trouble with inspiration before, she was always brimming over with too many ideas to put on paper, but ever since she’d come to Colton Manor she’d struggled with her work. With a sigh she put her paint brush down and stretched her arms above her head. It looked like it was going to be a very early night.

****

“You can’t hide from me forever.” The loud voice shattered the silence, causing Ursula to sit up in bed with a start, her heart pounding in her chest. It had sounded so close, as if the person was standing right outside her door. Surely Damien wasn't hallucinating again. The doctor had said the worst of the fever was over and he’d given him some sleeping pills to ensure he didn’t stir for the rest of the night. She couldn’t go through this again.

Pulling her mobile
phone from the bedside table she crept to the door and pressed her ear against it, feeling very glad she’d taken the precaution of locking her door before she went to bed. She could hear nothing from outside, just the ticking of the clock downstairs and the normal creaks and groans of an old house at night. It seemed an age had passed before she worked up the courage to turn the key and step out into the hall.

Damien
’s door was still open, and as she nervously hovered on the threshold of his room she could hear him breathing as steadily as he had the last time she’d checked on him. In the dim light he still had one arm flung over his head and he didn’t seem to have changed positions since then.  Whatever she had heard in the hall, it couldn’t have been him.

As she s
tood there contemplating what she should do, Ursula suddenly remembered she’d heard this voice before. So much had happened in the last few days that she’d almost forgotten that she’d been woken from a deep sleep by a man’s voice in her room in the early hours on the same day Bonnie showed up to warn her about the house. She’d tried to convince herself then that it was nothing but a dream, and perhaps that’s all it was this time too. She went back into her room, locking the door carefully behind her just to be on the safe side. She expected that it would take her a very long time to fall back asleep, but as she climbed into bed she was overcome with a feeling of deep exhaustion and she was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

Chapter Six

When she awoke
in the morning Ursula still felt exhausted and it took a real effort to get out of bed. She’d had a few strange dreams, including one that she was a child again and she was being chased through a labyrinth by a dark shadow. As she frantically tried to find a way out of the maze she came across two other frightened little girls. For some reason they began playing the game Ring Around the Rosie, holding hands and turning in circles until she was dizzy. As they turned faster and faster what looked like sparks of electricity began to fly off them. When they shadow tried to reach out for them there was a loud bang like an explosion and then it just melted away right before their eyes.

She was surprised
when she checked the time on her phone to see that it was well after ten o’clock. She was usually an early riser and she’d gone to bed very early the night before. Despite her rude awakening during the night she should have felt more rested, but all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed.