Wild Robert (7 page)

Heather thought and thought while they trailed behind the people who had been sheep and listened to Mum telling them things about the house. While she thought, she kept an eye on Robert, ready to grab his wrist if he showed any sign of spreading his hand out again, and she watched Mum quite as anxiously. She was glad to see that by the time they got to the Grand Saloon, Mum was explaining about the new fashion for Chinese decorations as if she had quite forgotten there had been sheep mixed with a fight in the Long Gallery. She was glad that Robert did not try to spread his hand out again. But she had not the foggiest idea what to do about him after this.

“This is boring,” Robert whispered as everyone trooped after Mum into Lady Mary’s music room. “Let us go to the watch-tower and find your father.”

“OK,” Heather said, rather relieved. The tower was probably a safe place, because she was fairly
sure Dad would not be there. Anyway, she thought, it would have to do.

They slipped away from the back of the tour. Heather took Robert the long way round to the tower, to be quite sure of not meeting any other people. “I think,” she said carefully, as they went, “it would be best if you let me speak to Dad first, before you talk to him. I know how to get him in the right mood. Suppose you were to keep out of sight. You could hide at the top of the tower.”

“A good place,” Robert agreed. “Is your father a witch-hater then?”

“More like someone who doesn’t believe in them,” Heather said.

Robert smiled, in a way that made Heather even less anxious for him to meet Dad. “I have met those, too, in my time,” he said.

“I’ll bring you some food and some blankets,” Heather said. That was the only thing to do, she thought. Keep Robert hidden and hope she could work something out.

“Now food would be very welcome,” Robert said.

They came clattering down the back stairs into the round room that had once been part of the castle. Heather hurried Robert to the tower stair. She had her hand on the red rope across it to unhook it, when Dad came hurrying through the round room the opposite way.

“Oh! Hi, Dad,” Heather said awkwardly.

“Hi, sunshine,” Dad said. “Don’t take your friend up the tower now. It’s nearly closing time.”

“
Is
it?” Heather said. She was very surprised. The day had simply raced by.

“Yes, I’m sorry to disappoint your friend,” Dad said, “but I wouldn’t like to lock you both in when I lock this part. I’ll be coming round with the keys in about ten minutes now.”

While Dad was speaking, Heather had a sideways glimpse of Robert’s hand spread out, and a tipping feeling. After that, however much she pushed her eyes sideways, all she could see was an empty stretch of whitewashed wall. “What friend?” she said, but inside she was saying frantically
Where is he
?
What has he done NOW?

Dad looked at the empty part of the wall and blinked. “How odd!” he said. “I could have sworn you had a friend with you. It even struck me he had a sort of Jacobean look. Anyway, I’ll see you at supper, sunshine.” And he rushed away.

As soon as he was out of sight, Heather unhooked the red rope and raced round and round up the tower steps. At the top, she sagged with relief. Robert was sitting in the place she liked to sit herself, with his hands clasped round his knees, staring out at the hills and the patches of wood all lit golden green as the sun began to go down.

“You spoke to your father?” he said.

“Well, I – er – not yet. He was in a hurry,” Heather explained.

“I left you alone to speak with him,” Robert said reproachfully. “Where is the food you promised?”

“Coming up soon,” Heather said. “But only if you stay
here
while I fetch it. You’re not to disappear like that again! You give me heart attacks!”

H
eather plunged back down the tower stairs, knowing she only had about ten minutes, and not trusting Robert to stay there longer than that anyway. She raced through the old kitchen and into the new small one and opened the fridge. Bother. Only spam there, apart from raw food for supper. Heather collected the spam and the last of the bread and hurtled off to the tourist shop to catch Mrs Mimms before she went home.

Mrs Mimms was clearing up, and she was very puzzled. “Something’s up today,” she said. “I don’t know! First there’s half the people went home in the middle of the afternoon, just when they usually want to come in here for their ice-creams and their tins of fizz. My takings are right down.”

“Oh, dear,” Heather said guiltily. “Is it very bad?”

“Only so-so,” Mrs Mimms said quite cheerfully. “It was a good morning, and Mr Mimms says most of them bought tickets to see round the house, even
though they didn’t use them. It makes you wonder what got into everyone.”

“Do you think something frightened everyone?” Heather suggested, picking up two packets of biscuits and a bag of peanuts.

“Could be,” said Mrs Mimms. “Mr Mimms says he kept getting complaints there were nudist boys chasing girls in nighties all over the woods. Someone came and told me that, too, and I told her not in
Castlemaine
. But someone else told your dad and he went out to look. He said
he
couldn’t see a thing.”

“Er – probably just some teenagers messing about,” Heather said, guiltily adding crisps and popcorn to her pile of food.

“Bound to be,” said Mrs Mimms. “Or people imagined it, like that new guide who swore to your dad there were sheep droppings all over the Long Gallery floor. Sheep, I told him. There’s been no sheep near here for fifty years now! Next thing, I said to him, you’ll be telling me you saw Wild Robert risen from his mound, treasure and all!”

Heather found her face had gone very hot. Knowing it must be bright red, she picked up a plastic bag labelled VISIT CASTLEMAINE and bent over it while she pushed her pile of food inside it. “Do you know all about Wild Robert then?” she asked.

“No more than most people in the village do,” Mrs Mimms said. “I’ve only lived here half my life, after all. If you want to know about that old story, you should ask your friend Janine. Her folks have been in this area for centuries. And why are you taking all that food, Heather, may I ask?”

“Our fridge is empty,” Heather said. “I didn’t get much lunch.”

“And you’re acting as odd as the rest!” Mrs Mimms said. “You wouldn’t believe the strange phone call I had a while back from Mrs McManus. Little as I like that woman, I think me and Mr Mimms better pop in on our way home and see if she’s all right.
Sounds off her rocker to me – and I don’t think I can let you have more than just one tin of coke, Heather.”

Heather took a packet of cupcakes as well as the coke and pelted to the tower, clutching the bag to her. She was very glad to find that Robert was still there, wistfully watching the sun march through a tower of cloud, down towards the hills. He smiled at Heather when she came panting to the top of the stairs, and nodded out towards the view.

“Don’t tell me,” he said. “None of this is Castlemaine land any longer. Right?”

“Only the house is now,” Heather said. She had not any breath to say more.

Robert spread his hand out towards the green landscape. Heather found she had stopped even
being able to pant. She thought she really might have a heart attack. “In my time,” Robert said, “everything a man could see from the top of this tower was Castlemaine land.” He took his hand back, sadly. “If I made it mine, it wouldn’t last,” he said. “Where is the food you promised?”

“Here,” gasped Heather. She was breathless with relief now.

Robert smiled quite heartily. “My hunger is three hundred and fifty years old. I feel like an empty rain barrel,” he said.

Heather had to leave as soon as she had given him the bag of food, for fear of getting locked up in the old castle when Dad did his rounds with the keys. She told herself that this would mean that Robert was safely locked up in the tower, where there was no one to turn into sheep or dogs, at least until tomorrow morning. The trouble was, she did not believe this. She was fairly sure Robert could easily burst the locked doors open if he wanted to. Or, if he did decide to stay in the tower, he could probably work any magic he wanted to from there. Heather just had to hope he would decide to stay there quietly until she had spoken to Dad. He seemed to trust her to do that. And this was another thing that made Heather uncomfortable, because she was still not sure what she was going to say to Dad.

At the moment, however, it was Mum she wanted to see. It took Heather a while to track Mum down. She found her, at last, in the small kitchen, starting to get supper ready. Heather at once began to help, without even being asked, so that she could go on keeping an eye on Mum.