Diamonds Fall (11 page)

She could tell Billy was worried about her but Annabel felt sure it was just some small ailment. She'd heard babies were sick all the time.

The following day Genevieve was even more restless.

Billy and Annabel had had next to no sleep, desperate to soothe her so that her cries would not be heard.

Her temperature had increased at an alarming rate.

Billy was frantic. He bathed her repeatedly to bring down her fever, feeding her as much as she would take which, in her current state, wasn't a lot. Her little limbs kicked out, thrashing against the illness she had no understanding of.

She needed medicine but Annabel had no idea how to acquire it. She searched desperately for Daniel or Patsy but they didn't seem to be anywhere. She even asked the villagers where they were but they refused to answer. Frustrated she let out a scream towards the sky, pulling at her hair like she was deranged. A few eyes looked her way but quickly bent back to their work when she looked towards them.

Just as the darkness was once more beginning to descend over the horizon Annabel remembered the den. She took off at a run. Holding her skirt above her knees, regardless of who was watching, she darted through the trees. Her legs burnt, her lungs drawing in deep, rasping breaths as she pushed herself beyond her physical limit. Finally reaching the bank, after taking several wrong turns, she slowed to a walk in order to gain her bearings. She noticed him almost immediately. Daniel looked up, alarm crossing his features. He clambered to his feet, his ankle still visibly weak.

"What do you want?" he spat, his voice full of fury.

"I need help." Her voice sounded foreign as it fought to gain purchase over her lungs, sucking desperately at the air around her.

"I can't give it. Find Patsy."

"I can't, I can't find her. Please."

He tried to walk away but his ankle gave out, forcing him back against the bank.

"Goddamn it Anna, why me? Why did ya `ave to mess wi' me?"

Annabel hated the defeated look in his eyes as he ran a hand through his dishevelled hair.

"Is my life not bad enough?" he concluded.

"Daniel I-" She wiped a tear from her cheek in frustration. "I didn't want to mess you around, I've never even met this man I'm meant to marry. I - us - it felt good."

He laughed without humour. "Yeah, sure."

"Stop being so defeatist Daniel! You're the most amazing person I have ever met and I am a selfish, vain, pretentious mess! I'm horrible and I know it, you and I both know you can do better than me." Daniel laughed again, looking back up at her.

"This isn't about us Daniel, please. I promise I will explain it all later. Can you help me for Genevieve's sake, she's sick and I don't know what to do. I'm useless in every situation here. I hate it - I won't have her die because of my own incompetence - please."

She was practically begging now, but she saw his eyes when she mentioned Genevieve and knew he would help.

"What can I do?" he asked, once more trying to stand, this time succeeding, albeit slightly shakily.

"She needs medicine, I don't know what type but she isn't well. Is there anything here that can help her? Just tell me where it is and I'll go get it myself. You're still too weak, it will be quicker if I go."

Daniel considered this, running a worried hand back through his hair. "There's a wooden box under Mama's bed. He dunno `bout it. What's Jen got?"

"I - I don't know, she's really hot and she's breathing really strangely. Um, she's been sick a few times, can't keep any food down longer than an hour."

"Patsy had summit like that. She was older, I dunno what it'll do to Jen. We used a green bottle, don' even know if it's still good but it's worth a shot."

"Thank you," Annabel muttered.

Seeing Daniel so worried the ache to touch him grew too much. She closed the distance between them and kissed him quickly on the cheek. Before she could see the expression on his face she ran back towards the house.

In her haste, Annabel had forgotten to come up with a plan. There was no time to be worried so she hesitated for only a few seconds before taking a deep breath and entering the house. Her naive mind, so accustomed to simply taking what she wanted, thought she could simply walk in, find the medicine and return it the next day without being seen.

The first step happened smoothly. She managed to get into the house without detection, making her way into the second room, which turned out to be a cramped, stuffy bedroom. There was only one bed, the mattress made of straw and the frame made badly from roughly chopped wood. It looked as if it had been broken several times.

The floor was covered in small, moth eaten blankets.

Wrinkling her nose against the pungent scent of stale sweat and alcohol, a slightly diluted version of Trevor's body odour, Annabel stepped over the blankets as carefully as she could. Reaching the bed she knelt down, assuming this was where Daniel's parents slept. There was a strong odour of urine coming from the stained sheets, making Annabel gag. She pushed the neck of her dress over her nose but her face was now slick with her own sweat so it wouldn't stay up.

Holding her breath and slithering beneath the bed, Annabel located the wooden box in the very back corner behind several more bundled up blankets, clothes and empty bottles. Her fingers shook slightly as she rifled through the trinkets, pulling out the green bottle with ease. She allowed herself a small smile at her achievement, experiencing a true pang of pride. She had achieved something likely to benefit another, completely on her own.

Annabel had just emerged from under the bed when she felt a hand seize her shoulder and twist her around. Pain shot through her shoulder blade as she was shoved to the floor.

She screamed as a calloused hand covered her mouth...just like the first time. She heaved at the smell of him so close to her.

"The rich girl stealing from my bedroom," he hissed. She could feel his excitement at the idea of the upper class girl driven into this ultimate form of submission.

Trevor used his free hand to start pulling up Annabel's dress. At the feel of his hand on her legs a flash of anger burst through her, such as she had never felt before.

With this sudden explosion of emotion Annabel kicked out with as much strength as she possessed, which was considerably more than when she had first arrived a few weeks ago. She connected with the place she knew would hurt him the most and he let out a high pitched yell of pain. Smirking in a way that twisted her face into an almost grotesque ugliness, Annabel clambered to her feet and seized up a rusting bucket being used as a chamber pot. It was almost too heavy to carry but her anger spurred her onwards. The contents sloshed onto the floor as she threw her arm back. When she brought it forwards there was the clang of metal colliding with bone and a spray of blood leapt out of Trevor's split skull, splattering Annabel's milky white face scarlet. She kept hitting him in a mad frenzy until another strong hand grabbed her wrist. She whirled around, about to inflict the same injury on her new attacker when she came across a pair of vivid hazel eyes. Her fingers slackened and the pot thudded to the ground, the sound muffled by the straw.

"Daniel," she whispered still caught up in a trance. Her breathing was coming out heavy, her blood pounding behind her temples. Annabel's legs gave out beneath her and Daniel, as if the move had been choreographed, caught her in his arms just before she could hit the ground.

He still didn't possess the strength to actually lift her so Daniel lowered her feet carefully onto the floor where they helped each other to walk out the door. Glancing back over Daniel's shoulder as they both stumbled outside Annabel could see Trevor's ghostly white face, contrasted dramatically by an alarming amount of deep scarlet blood. Its shine was almost beautifully in the dim, smokey light.

When they reached the stable Daniel helped Annabel onto the straw, in the exact same place he had laid her before. The memory stirred Annabel back into life.

"How - how's Jen?" she asked.

Nobody answered. Billy was hunched over the tiny baby whose cries had now stopped, her breathing heavy and laboured.

"I - I got the medicine," Annabel stuttered removing the small green bottle from her sleeve where she had managed to conceal it.

Billy grinned, placing Genevieve down as Daniel approached him. His limp was still bad. His entire body lurched as if he would fall with every step, his face a constant grimace of pain.

Annabel gave him a weak smile of thanks but he kept his eyes locked on the baby.

"How do I give it to her?" Annabel asked, holding the medicine out to Daniel who took the bottle from her hands, still avoiding her gaze.

He put a few drops of the ointment on his finger and fed it into Genevieve's mouth. He did this three times and then put the cork back in the bottle, burying it in the straw beneath them.

"An' now we wait," he said, sitting back and stretching his legs out in front of him. His ankle clicked as he moved it.

Annabel noticed he had sat as far away from her as he could.

"Daniel," she crawled closer to him, her limbs still weak from shock. "Please can we talk?"

He looked at her properly for the first time in days, his eyes widened as he took in her blood splattered face. A single drop slid down her cheek like a crimson tear.

"I...let me explain everything from the beginning Daniel, please."

His features, whilst worried, were still set in anger. His eyes fixated themselves on the ceiling as he slowly nodded.

Ignoring the fact that Billy was sat beside them, Annabel told Daniel about her entire life, from her upbringing to her betrothal and everything in between.

"I was supposed to meet him the day I got taken here. There was to be a big ball where it was going to be announced. The engagement isn't even official. For all I know he's already married to someone else by now."

Hedging her bets, Annabel inched ever so slightly closer and placed her fingers around Daniel's.

"I love you," she whispered, putting as much force and meaning behind those words as she could. "I've never said that to anyone before but I say it with all my heart. When I'm with you I feel safe, happier than I've ever felt before. You don't change me, or want me to be someone that I'm not, you simply make me better. I can't even explain it, I'm putting this terribly. I don't know what the future holds. I don't know how we will be together. All I know is we will be. I love you, so much I can barely stand it."

Without shifting his gaze from the cobwebbed ceiling Daniel's fingers tightened, giving Annabel's hand a small squeeze. Unannounced, a single sob escaped her lips in relief.

That night Daniel and Annabel stayed awake, watching Genevieve sleep. Billy fell asleep within minutes, exhausted after his sleepless night. After about an hour of listening to Billy's low snores, Daniel finally looked at Annabel, the sparkle of his hazel eyes just visible in the gloom.

"You okay?" he asked. Annabel nodded.

Very slowly he withdrew his hand from inside Annabel's and cupped it around her cheek. She closed her eyes, absorbing only the feel of him.

"Are you mad at Patsy?" he whispered.

Annabel shook her head. She had realised almost immediately it wasn't the young girl's fault. She was looking out for her brother, who had been hurt by love before. The fault was not Patsy's but Annabel's, she had been the betrayer. She couldn't stay mad at Patsy anyway, in fact, she probably loved her even more for her loyalty to her siblings.

"Everything will be alright in the morning," he muttered, repeating the very words she had told him only days previously, in this very spot.

Subconsciously Annabel shuffled closer to Daniel. Resting her head upon his shoulder she closed her eyes and listened to the regulating breath of Genevieve beside her. None of them spared so much as a thought to Trevor, lying dead only a few feet away.

It was just as she had given into her body's need for sleep when the noise began.

At first Annabel thought she must surely be dreaming. There was an almighty scream of anguish followed by a single pair of running feet that quickly turned into a stampede. The floor rumbled as the sounds of fear melted effortlessly into laughter. There were screeches of merriment and disbelief.

Slowly Annabel raised herself to her feet as the noise continued to increase. She poked her head out the door as Patsy, who had come in at some point during the evening, crept up to her side.

"Wha's goin' on?" she asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"I don't know. It sounds like a festivalºI mean, not that I've ever been to one, they're not-"

"Festival? Wha's tha?"

"Oh um...a celebration."

Patsy continued to look a little confused so the two women snuck outside, closing the door behind them so Billy and Daniel wouldn't wake. Emerging beside the house, keeping to the shadows so they wouldn't be seen, they caught sight of what looked like all the inhabitants of the village gathered in the square. There was a bonfire blazing in the centre with people dancing around it, holding bottles of liquor that sloshed over the sides to make marks on the muddy ground. The strangest thing of all was that every single person wore a smile. They giddily clapped each other on the back like old friends, forgetting everything in their joy. Annabel and Patsy simply looked on perplexed, until a silhouetted figure stumbled out of the house directly beside the stable. The figure was much more intoxicated than the other people, his broad build barely able to hold itself up. Annabel's heart jumped into her mouth as the man turned towards her. His face flickered with the bright orange light from the fire, tears shining on his deranged features...it was Tom.

His eyes jumped between the two females staring at him from the shadows and his nostrils flared, mucus running into his stupefied mouth.

Before he spoke a word Annabel knew he had found Trevor.

Tom stood motionless for a while, staring at them, the firelight casting shadows around him. The absence of his father at his side made him look as if he were missing a vital part of himself, like looking at a man with no limbs. He stumbled forwards and Annabel caught the smell of alcohol on his breath so strongly she gagged.

"You," he slurred, pointing somewhere slightly to the left of Annabel. "You did this!"

She shook her head.

"What - what was me? What's happened?"

She tried to feign some kind of concern, making her voice sound fake to her own ears.

"YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!"

Spit flew from Tom's mouth and landed on Annabel's skin. She fought as hard as she could to keep the revulsion off her face.

"N - no I don't." She straightened up, reaching for his raw, calloused hand. "T - tell me what happened."

"YOU KNOW YA BITCH, GE'OFF ME!"

He shook her off so violently she was forced back, dropping his hand as quickly as she could. Patsy looked on at the exchange with wide eyed wonder, clenching her fists and frowning. Her eyes kept darting towards the door of the stable, dreading the awakening of her brothers.

"Please Tom, let me h-help you," Annabel stammered, her mouth was so dry her tongue stuck to the roof.

"'E's dead!" Tom screamed.

"H-how?" she asked, although she already knew the answer to that.

"You did summit, you must'a."

"With what Tom?"

Tom was getting really angry now.

"I'll tell your people. Tell `em you're a mad woman! You'll be ruined," he hissed.

Somehow this was more menacing than if he had shouted, however the absurdity of his words made Annabel laugh out loud. The reaction surprised even herself.

"You think people would believe you over me? I'm from one of the most powerful families in the entire world and you - you're nothing, less than nothing."

She employed her best scornful tone, one she was well rehearsed at using. The effect had obviously been good as he staggered back a step as if she had slapped him.

"I'll show ya who's nothing!"

As quick as a flash his hand came up and he grabbed a fist full of Annabel's hair. A high pitched shriek left her mouth. Patsy jumped forward, hitting every part of her brother as Annabel was dragged down onto the ground. Despite the young girl's efforts, her brother was too intoxicated on alcohol and grief to feel physical pain.

Still holding onto Annabel's hair, Tom dragged her into the small, smokey house bathed almost completely in darkness. He threw her down at the foot of the bed, beneath which she had stolen the medicine just hours earlier. There were still blood stains, partly dried and congealed into large clots, on the sheets and floor.

Tom bent down, grabbing her chin, and tilted it up roughly so she was forced to look upon Trevor's face. His skin was pale, his eyes unfocused and lifeless.

"Look whacha did! Look at `im!"

Tears were now racing themselves into his rough beard as he stumbled, falling against the wall. He looked up at her through hazy eyes, trembling with an anger so great it looked as if he would explode with it. Eventually the alcohol took its full hold over him and he slid down to the floor, crying disgustingly into his hands with great, gulping sobs.

Before he could come to his senses, Annabel got to her feet and fled the room.

When she reached the kitchen Tom's mother was bent over the fire, stirring at the pot so violently the thin stew leapt out, sizzling as the drops landed on the burning embers. Looking up she directed a look of undiluted hatred in Annabel's direction.

"Witch!" she spat. "You've ruined my `usband an' my son!"

Annabel shook her head. "No...me and Daniel..."

"You stupid? I don' care `bout `im, ya ruined Tom. He were the only true child o' mine."

Annabel's mouth fell open with a small pop.

"Are you...joking? Can you not see the terror that Trevor and Tom place on everyone else in this God forsaken village? You need to wake up woman and realise their suffering is far from overdue."

The old woman stood up, so quickly Annabel would have missed it if she'd blinked, and struck her hand hard across Annabel's cheek. She stumbled back, stunned.

"Your other children are beautiful, why do you refuse to see that?" Annabel retorted when she regained the ability to speak.

"Wha', girls an' idiots? I shoulda drowned `em soon as they were born."

"Your ignorance will leave you in the shadows whilst the rest of them bloom into the fantastic people they are. I'll see to that if it's the last thing I ever do." Annabel turned towards the door in disgust to see Daniel standing just inside the threshold, staring at his mother with a dumb founded expression on his face.

"Drowned? I've only ever tried to `elp you. I stayed in this hell for you," he murmured stepping closer to his mother, brushing his fingers against Annabel's hand as he walked past. "I've `unted your food since I could walk, taken your beatings wi'out battin' an eye cuz you're my mother and I wanted to help you."

"Daniel," she soothed, reaching up her hand to rest on his arm, her expression still distant and uncaring. "We can't live wi'out food. Ya gunna let your family starve?"

He scoffed. "You don' care if ya never see me again, you jus' want me to keep gettin' your food? Screw you. Listen Mama...the whole village is celebrating his accident."

"Accident! She did this!"

"How? Look at `er, how could she have hit someone hard enough to do that much damage?" Daniel left a dramatic pause, as if he had rehearsed the whole thing in his head. "It was me."

Daniel grabbed Annabel's hand and without so much as a breath, walked back to the stable. Once inside he immediately burst out laughing. Annabel looked on a little worried.

"You were amazing!" he exclaimed, placing a hand on either side of Annabel's face and kissing her hard on the mouth.

"Daniel, wait." Annabel said, trying to make him think straight. "You - you took the blame for me, why would you do that? Tom will kill you."

"Cuz I love you Anna, cuz I bloody love you." He laughed again, picking her up and spinning her around with a look of ecstasy on his face.

"We'll run away," he said as he put her back down. "Now."

Daniel had a serious look on his face as he gazed deeply into Annabel's eyes, searching for something.

"It's too risky."

"So's stayin'! The village's so busy, we could go without bein' noticed. We gotta go now Anna!"

"H-how?"

"We'll take the horses. Billy an' Patsy on one, you an' me on the other."

"That'd be really inconspicuous, wouldn't it?"

"I don' even know wha' tha' means." Daniel bent his head to kiss her again, "but it'll work. I feel lucky."

"We still need...we can't just...a plan of some sort. I don't know what to do, I've never-"

"How'd ya get `ere? Wha' can ya remember?" Daniel asked, his serious expression back in place.

"Um...I'm not sure, I was unconscious and they blindfolded me. Um, we - we followed the stream I think but like I said, I only remember bits of it. I'm sorry."

"Nah, tha' good. We follow the stream."

The idea of having a plan, even with all the risks, sent a thrill of anticipation through Annabel's body. "I'm going home. Am I really going home?"

"No Anna, we're goin' home."

Daniel released Annabel now and began to pace across the floor. The straw crunched beneath his feet.

Annabel rushed up the ladder. Bending down to reach her hand in the small space between the bed and the wall, she pulled out the ornate hair comb and the carving Daniel had made for her. She wrapped them in a strip of her unworn nightgown and secured them inside the bodice of her dress.

Once she had done this she folded up the patchwork blanket made for her by Patsy, bringing it down to the ground floor, knowing they would need it to keep warm during the cold nights they would have to spend in the forest.

"Yes, tha's a good idea." Daniel mused looking at the blanket in her hands. "We won' be able to light fires, not for longer than it takes to cook, the smoke'd make us easier to find if anyone's followin' and they will be when they know we're gone. You're worth a lot o' money."

Annabel nodded. She hadn't given that a thought. It was at that moment that Patsy came back through the door looking flustered. She had disappeared when Tom had dragged Annabel into the house but no one knew where she had gone.

"Mama jus' saw me." She looked panicked. "She said Daniel killed Papa and that Tom'd kill `im when he woke up."

"Patsy we're leaving," Daniel said, taking her hand. "Tonight...now. Anna says we gotta follow the stream, we'll take the horses and jus' go while the village is so busy, we can sneak away wi'out bein' seen. We gotta try, we got nothin' left in this place."

Patsy grinned, then frowned.

"Wha' about the boys?"

"What boys?" Annabel asked.

"Hetty's boys. I can' leave `em."

Patsy's face was stern, only her eyes gave away her desperation to run. Annabel thought on her feet, going with the first idea she had.

"When we get back, it will only be a few days, I will tell my people where the village is. I will have the boys rescued. They can live with me too or I can pay for them to be looked after somewhere elseºwhatever you want to do. My family is powerful Patsy but we cannot help them from here. I know it's hard but we have to leave them, just for a few days. Tom won't hurt his sons, they mean everything to him."

Patsy opened her mouth as if to protest but closed it again and nodded, bending to fold up Billy's blanket as well.

"If someone sees us, we'll all ge' killed." Patsy whispered.

"We'll be killed if we stay. I can feel it Patsy, the violence that's shadowed our lives has peaked, it's now or never." Daniel placed a hand on his sister's shoulder. Patsy nodded again and set the neatly folded blanket down beside Annabel's, seeing the truth in Daniel's anxious words.

"We'll need food," she said. "And Billy."

"I'll get `im." Daniel said, swiftly climbing the ladder as Patsy began to heave a cracked, creaking saddle onto the closest of the horses.

Annabel could hear Daniel treading across the rafters overhead before Billy's gentle voice started up. Billy emerged just as the horses had finished being tacked.

"Wha' Billy need to know?" he asked, confused.

"We're leavin' Billy. We're going to take the `orses and Jen to the big `ouse, Anna's house. We'll be far away from Trevor and Tom, we can make money an' - an' eat meat for dinner every night! Jen'll be safe to do everythin' she wants to do." Patsy explained.

Billy's eyes lit up and his face split into the most beautiful smile. "Horses come?"

Daniel nodded, squeezing his elder brother's hand. "We leave now bu' listen, we mus' be very very quiet okay? It's dangerous we're leavin', no-one mus' know. A secret."

"Yeah secret, shh." Billy put his finger to his lips and all of them grinned, giddy at the idea of their imminent rebellion.

Patsy snuck out for a last ditch attempt to gather what supplies they could, coming back with a stale loaf of bread and a water bottle made from what looked like a cows stomach. Daniel looked up, disbelief in his eyes.

"Where did you get that?" he asked, incredulous.

"Stole it. It were on a horse by the blacksmiths." Patsy shifted her feet guiltily whilst Daniel continued to look from her to the bottle and back as if she held an entire fortune in her hands, instead of the mangy looking container. He filled it with milk for the baby then strapped the blankets and supplies onto the saddles. A pair of trousers were thrown in Annabel's direction.

"Why are you giving me these?" she asked, looking at Daniel.

"You can't ride proper in a dress." He laughed at her expression and so, to avoid argument, Annabel slipped the trousers under her dress. Daniel passed her a knife and she reluctantly made a large slit up the front of her dress so she would have the room to ride properly.

"You okay?" Daniel asked once she was finished, standing awkwardly in the middle of the floor.