Page 105 of The Midnight Secret

‘...There’s something we need to tell you.’

‘He can’t fight all of us,’ David said, his eyes blazing as the men gathered around him.

He could, Jayne thought to herself, looking at them too. They weren’t a large group: Sholto, Donald, Angus and Fin. Jayne wasn’t convinced the earl, MacLeod or the minister could really be counted on for fighting prowess, but at least they represented authority and made up numbers.

She watched from her perch on the wall. Effie had given a comprehensive and clear account of what she knew to be true, and there was nothing Jayne could do to change those facts. Norman had been exposed at last for what he really was.

David kept glancing over at her, though he was leading the chase, powered by a rage that long predated today’s revelations. Several of the villagers had caught sight of Norman already heading over to Glen Bay. The men had agreed to head over to the inky pool and confront him there; he was a big man, and an angry one too, but even he, they believed, couldn’t overpower nine others. They had Effie’s rope for immobilizing him. He could be stowed in the hold until theywere back on the mainland, and then they would call the police for his arrest.

‘Onwards, then!’ David cried, leading the march towards the Am Blaid ridge. Only Mad Annie and Mhairi – who wasn’t taking any risks – hung back as they started up the steep slope. They covered the ground quickly and easily; eight months in a gently undulating landscape couldn’t undo the muscle memory that came from decades of hiking this ground, not to mention ancestral heritage. They were fit and strong, the inclines familiar beneath their bare feet, and the village men, along with Sholto, quickly pulled ahead of the earl, MacLeod and the minister.

Effie, beside Jayne, kept throwing her concerned looks as they strode out, as if she expected Jayne to sink to the ground at any moment.

‘I see him,’ Angus said as they reached the saddle of the ridge. He pointed out the white dot of Norman’s shirt, bright against the grass. ‘There.’

Jayne looked down on the glen. MacLeod’s brown-fleeced ancient-breed sheep now grazed the slopes and it looked a very different scene to that of a year prior. Even here in this remote outpost in the Atlantic, life moved on, it seemed.

She caught sight of her husband striding forth, unaware as yet of the chase. She thought of his coming rage as her betrayal was revealed to him – a secret not kept after all. But now she knew that the blows he was saving for her would never land.

David turned back. ‘Stay here,’ he commanded the women, but his eyes were upon her alone.

‘Not likely,’ Effie muttered, going wide as the village men streamed down the other side of the ridge, coming for Norman fast and breaking into a run. They wanted the element ofsurprise. It would be far easier to overpower Norman if he didn’t see their approach.

Jayne ran after them too.

The inky pool was set below a rocky outcrop on the far north-westerly side of the bowl. It couldn’t be seen from above, as the bluffs dropped away out of sight so that the moor seemed to extend in an unbroken sweep down to the sea. But the villagers knew it well. They could find their way there in the dark if required.

It had been clever of Effie to hide the horn there, Jayne thought. The cleits were the obvious hiding nooks and, even though there were two thousand of them or thereabouts, Frank and Norman between them would have been able to cover enough ground in those final few days and nights to find the horn. Jayne could imagine their growing anger and mistrust of one another on that final night, as the last cleit had given them nothing.

She watched as the gap was steadily closed on her husband – David was in the lead, Angus close behind – and felt her heart pound ever harder, knowing this was their goodbye. Not face to face, but at a remove. Norman would never hurt her again.

He was coming round to the bluff now and she saw him stop and look down into the inky pool, trying to perceive the horn from a height. For several moments he stood still, his head moving from side to side as he studied the dark depths for a lighter spot.

Suddenly his body became taut, alert as a hunting dog pointing towards its quarry. He moved sharply sideways. Had he found it? He straightened abruptly and she recognized his delight – she could read him, even at a distance. Norman was readying himself to claim what he’d come for.

This was his final victory, she thought, watching as David and Angus advanced. They were perhaps a hundred feet away now, speeding silently over the grass. They were hunters, all of them – Norman too, for he turned suddenly, detecting the lion stares trained on his back.

‘Halt there, Norman!’ David cried. ‘Don’t go any further!’

Norman froze as he saw their number heading for him. As he sawherracing over the grass and realized the game was up.

There was only one person he didn’t see.

He began to laugh, a maniacal laugh that became a roar as he railed up at the heavens. Jayne stopped in her tracks at the scale of the rage within him now that he didn’t need to be quiet any more. Now that he didn’t need to hide what he really was.

How had she survived him?

‘Don’t do anything foolish, now, Norman!’ Angus warned as he took up the flank. He was the only islander close enough in size to match Norman one on one.

Norman watched as the other men spread out, taking their positions on the moor. He couldn’t get past them to reach the boats, and behind him there were only cliffs. It was over. His threats towards her and Effie had failed and he’d been exposed. There was no getting off this island. There was no way out of this.

‘Just give it up, Norman. We know everything,’ David panted, slowing to a walk now. He was less than six feet away from his foe – the man who had denied him twice over: first Molly, then Jayne herself. ‘We know what you did. You killed Frank.’

Jayne saw the look of surprise that crossed her husband’s face, but it was only momentary. He was still calculating a getaway.

‘And what doyouintend to do, David?’ Norman jibed, seeing that David was unafraid. ‘You’re going to be the one to stop me, are y’?’

‘Aye.’

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