The Bonehill Curse Read Free Page B

hurried after him. The figure began to widen the distance between them, then suddenly swerved into the woods that lined one side of the road. At the same time, Ness’s nightdress tangled itself around her left leg again, sending her spiralling to the ground. Struggling to her feet, she swept the dirt from her nightclothes and plunged into the shadows of the woods.
    Darkness pressed in on Ness. Here and there, shafts of moonlight formed pillars between the tree trunks, illuminating small clearings but deepening the gloom around them. Brambles snagged at her nightdress. Ness stopped and shivered. She suddenly became aware of the cold, the thin soles of her slippers. The stranger couldn’t be far away – hiding in the dark, knife at the ready. A twig snapped behind her.
    ‘I know you’re out there,’ Ness said. Her voice sounded brittle and dry. She tried to keep it calm. ‘Why don’t you come out and fight?’
    Silence. Ness stood holding her breath, but nothing moved.
    Suddenly feeling vulnerable, she glanced around. The woods looked different at night but she knew she wasn’t far from Morris’s cottage. Hugging herself, she waded through the undergrowth towards her safe haven.
    Sergeant Major Morris was standing on the roof of his cottage when Ness arrived. He was holding a telescope to one eye and staring out across the tops of the trees.
    ‘Major Morris?’ Ness called up. ‘It’s me. What are you looking at?’
    Morris didn’t seem to hear her at first but then lowered the telescope and blinked down at her. ‘Ah, Nick, back again? I’m not sure what it is just yet,’ he said, sounding troubled. ‘A sail . . .’
    ‘A sail?’ Ness frowned.
    ‘Mmm,’ Morris muttered, beckoning her to join him.
    Ness clambered up the ladder that leaned against the side of the cottage and Morris handed her the telescope. She squinted through it at the distant moonlit horizon. Little stood out against the blue and silver shadows of the marshes – only a few birds flying past.
    Ness shrugged but Morris gently nudged the telescope a little to her right. She could just make out a tall prow and a triangular sail poking above the black silhouettes of the reed beds that lined the marsh.
    ‘I’ve not seen that kind of sail before,’ Morris said. ‘Not round these parts.’
    ‘It doesn’t look like a barge,’ Ness said. ‘Too small.’
    ‘Looks foreign to me,’ Morris murmured. ‘Could be trouble.’ He climbed down and strode into the cottage.
    ‘Trouble?’ Ness said, following him. ‘I wonder if it has anything to do with the intruder in our room.’
    Morris stopped dead. ‘Intruder?’ he said without turning round.
    ‘Yes,’ Ness said warily, remembering his strange outburst earlier that night. ‘Someone was sneaking around our dormitory. He had a strange scarf covering his face and a curved knife. He looked foreign to me.’
    ‘What happened?’ Morris turned, his face pale.
    ‘I saw him off.’ Ness couldn’t help grinning. ‘I chased him into the woods – that’s how I came to be here.’
    ‘Good lad,’ Morris said, patting Ness on the shoulder, but he didn’t smile back. ‘What would he be after, I wonder?’
    Ness shrugged. ‘Can’t think,’ she said. ‘I haven’t anything worth stealing. It’s all very odd. First that solicitor yesterday, then –’
    ‘Solicitor?’ Morris said, his face twitching.
    ‘Yes, from Uncle Carlos,’ Ness said. ‘He sent me some old bottle. It looks horrible –’
    ‘Carlos? A bottle?’ Morris barked, grabbing Ness by the wrist with an iron grip.
    ‘Yes. Ow! Major Morris, you’re hurting me!’
    Morris yanked her so close she could see the silver stubble on his chin, a fleck of spit on his lip. ‘Where’s the bottle now? Where?’
    ‘At the dormitory,’ Ness cried, becoming afraid as she noticed his wide eyes and trembling hand. ‘Why? What’s so special about an empty bottle?’
    Before Morris could reply, the door crashed open.
    ‘There he