Page 54 of Heart of the Wren
“What?” Bullseye’s arms dropped. “When?”
“It doesn’t matter when,” Carol said. “Beforethis.” She held up the plastic ring on her finger.
Bullseye took her hand in his. “Is this the best he could do?”
“I sort of did it on the spur of the moment,” Eddie said.
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Bullseye said.
Lorcan caught my eye and tilted his head towards the door. We both crept out to the hallway, closing the door behind us.
“Probably best to leave them to talk it out,” Lorcan said. “Will you come out with me to the sheep shed while I lock up?”
As I took my coat from the rack in the hallway, an object fell from my pocket, clacking against the unplugged telephone.
Lorcan stooped to pick it up by the pins. “What’s this?” He held a black cube, an inch long on each side.
I gritted my teeth. “Now, promise me you won’t get mad…”
Chapter 32
DARA
I FOLLOWED Lorcan out of the front door. The snow had already obscured Bullseye’s footprints. Lorcan thundered across the arched bridge and instead of going to the sheep shed, he stopped at my van, next to the brown bear door. Snow gathered half an inch thick on the roof. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Go on, then.”
I breathed deeply of the icy air. “The morning I arrived, I drove past the farm and I sensed an energy in the air. A kind of electric charge that made my hands and spine light up. So I stopped, turned around,and drove back. I didn’t know you then. I didn’t know who lived here, and I suspected they wouldn’t appreciate some stranger poking around their home. So, I, uh, I made sure to overheat the engine so it would conk out at your gate. And then I knocked on your door.”
Lorcan closed his eyes and lifted his head to the sky. Snowflakes landed on his beard.
“I thought I'd only be here for a few hours, at most,” I said. “But once I was here I could tell there was trouble brewing.” I held the black cube in my hand. “And when we went back to the van, I needed to make sure it wouldn’t start so I pulled this out and slipped it into my pocket. I kept meaning to hide it properly.”
Lorcan pointed to the van. “Put it back. The part. Put it back in.”
I opened the engine cover and replaced the radiator relay.
“Start it.” He wouldn’t look at me.
Swallowing hard, I slipped the key into the ignition. Nothing happened. I tried again. Still nothing. My armpits started to sweat.
“Keep going.” He stood by the driver’s side door.
On the third attempt, the engine spluttered to life.
He slammed the door closed, leaving me alone in the van. I gripped the wheel, uncertain what I was supposed to do. Did he want me to drive away? I flicked on the windscreen wipers to clear away some of the snow.
He walked slowly around the van, finally climbing into the passenger side.
We sat in silence while the engine idled. Every window in the van slowly fogged up.
“You faked the problems.” He brushed the snowflakes from his beard and rubbed his hands together to dry them. “And you didn’t tell me.”
“I meant to but in all the excitement, it sort of slipped my mind.” I kept both hands on the wheel.
“You faked the problems,” he said again, “because you wanted to help me?”
I turned to face him. “It’s all I wanted. I didn’t know you were going to invite me into your home. I would have been perfectly happy sleeping here in the van from the start. I didn’t know you were going to be so kind and generous, I didn’t know I was going to…”
“To what?”
