Inspired by Enid Blyton. Five – Adventure on Islay Island, is a 40,000 word picturesque murder mystery adventure with a cryptographic twist to the plot.
Students Avery, Emily, James and their cousin Sunniva were all set for a summer of sun, sand and lashings of marijuana by the beach, but when their Uncle Heston is found murdered in the study it's clear that an old fashioned adventure is in progress.
As James put it "I rather think the only way we're going to get through this with our sanity intact is by the virtue of a copious amount of weed".
Together with their beloved dog Skye - they must find and protect their late Uncles' revolutionary invention; prove the innocence of their Aunt Megan to the police; avoid being murdered, and satisfy their munchies all at once!
Copyright 2018 by Janette Fraser (Bethsheba Ashe). All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the copyright holder. All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. ISBN-13: 978-1983643019.
[Map of the Island]
Chapter One - The Adventure Begins.
"Mum, are we going to the summer house in a few weeks?" said Avery, at the breakfast-table. "May we go as usual?"
"No, I'm afraid not" said his mother with a little frown. "The finances have been so tight that we've had to sublet it this year. There's been so much to do lately…" she trailed off vaguely, as she brought them a fresh plate of bacon.
The crispy rashers prevented any immediate expressions of disappointment from her three grown children. Still, they'd been looking forward to getting away this year to their cozy little bungalow at Torquay. It was a hop, skip and a jump from the beach, and it had a good pub nearby, and their smoking supplies were practically guaranteed. James looked the most put out of the three.
He was thinking of last summer. They'd been wasted on a daily basis for weeks on cheap cider and home grown cannabis and they'd all went home a few pounds heavier from their beach side barbecues. James wasn't naturally academic and he'd had to work harder than his brother and sister to keep up with his course-work. Lately he'd been feeling tight, like a coiled up spring, after sleep deprived months filled with extended concentration. In James's opinion, the summer house was the only way to properly relax and destress after two terms of Uni. His boffin brother Avery was fascinated by the more mind expanding effects of the herb, while his nerdy sister Emily was just a pure opportunist for a good time.
"Cheer up," said their Mum's long term partner Vernon as he checked his Forex trades on his phone. "I'm sure you'll find somewhere else just as good. Anyway," continued Vernon - without looking up from his phone "your Mum and I won't be able to go with you this year… hasn't she told you?"
"No!" said Emily. "Oh Mum, why not? It's nothing serious, is it?"
"No Emily, it's nothing bad. Vernon wants me to go to Ireland with him for a bit of time alone to ourselves" said her Mum brightly. "We're buggering off for some 'quality time'. You know we never really had a honeymoon, so…" she shrugged and looked vague again, before reaching for her coffee.
There was a mixture of sympathy and disguised consternation around the table at this news. "Now that you can't go to Torquay" said their Mum "I don't know what we're going to do."
Emily looked pointedly at Vernon who was tapping on his phone "Just a romantic trip for you and Vernon…" she said dryly.
Vernon was oblivious to this family byplay but a cloud passed over her mother's face and she suddenly looked quietly determined. Avery winked at his sister who hid her smile behind an overly straight face. James guffawed at her expression but recovered when he saw his mother's suddenly frosty look. Even Vernon looked up from his phone for a moment to see what was going on.
"Hmm. What?" he said, but they ignored him and ate.
Emily's Mum had once shouted at him "You're married to your phone! Not me!" He'd looked hurt at the accusation. "That's just how people work these days…" he'd said.
"I hope we're not stuck in bloody London for the summer" said Avery with uncommon feeling.
"Why don't they go and visit your brother?" suggested Vernon, as he cracked his boiled egg. "It's not as if he's short on space at that farm of his."
They looked at one another, wondering where this idea had come from. Emily thought their Uncle Heston was a bit of an enigma. He didn't post to Facebook very often and they'd only seen him once or twice when they were kids. Her cousin, Sunn had said that he had some sort of management job in IT. He could be depended on for presents at birthdays and Christmas, but he didn't seem to have the remotest interested in them. Emily had thought when she was small that he might not like children much, but that had been through the eyes of a child. She realized by now that her Uncle just really didn't know how to relate to kids which made him overly-formal and distant.
She remembered him as a tall man that that wore an almost perpetual frown of concentration. Over the years this had caused his brow to furrow and his eyes to adopt a slight squint. It had made him look much older than he probably was, and that impression was cemented by the slight stoop to his shoulders caused from incorrect posture. Like Vernon, he had seemed to spend every waking hour glued to his phone. He lived by the sea with Megan and Sunniva in Northumberland. She didn't know much else about him.
"Heston?" said their Mother, startled. "Whatever made you think of him?"
"Well," said Vernon, "I ran into Heston's wife in Kensington the other day. She said his firm Cisco had let him go after their recent downsizing. They relocated most of their European operations to Brussels a few months ago, and they had a place for him but Megan didn't want to move. She didn't want to leave her family she said, but now I don't think things are going too well for them financially."
"How so?" asked Sue as she munched on toast "I thought they were loaded?"
"On paper perhaps," said Vernon raising his eyebrows "but you see the equity is all tied up in the land, so Megan says the farm barely breaks even and she was thinking of taking borders during the holidays."
He paused to scoop out the last of his egg onto his toast and took a bite as she waited.
"Their old house is by the sea, you know" he continued "so I was thinking it might be just the thing for our three wombles."
"It might, yes" agreed Sue from over her shoulder as she moved used plates over to the sink.
"Megan's a nice woman and a good cook from what I can judge by her Facebook" Vernon told her.
"Hmmm" their mother hummed thoughtfully and chewed her lip. "It would be nice for them to get to know their cousin too. Sunniva is 20 now, isn't she? She's the same age as James."
"Sunn? Oh she's pretty cool!" said Emily. "She's on my friends list.
"It must be … " James thought "fourteen years since we last saw her?" said James. Why isn't she going to Uni, Em?"
"But she is James!" said Emily in surprise. "Mostly she helps out on the farm, but she's enrolled in Open University."
He thought about her Facebooks posts and remembered that his cousin was wholly obsessed with traditional cryptography. He didn't pretend to understand a tenth of a quarter of what she was doing but it looked interesting, and Emily liked that sort of thing. What he couldn't work out was; where did she get the time?
"Your Aunt Megan felt a bit of company would do Sunniva good" said Vernon, over his phone. He pressed a few buttons and Avery's cell buzzed in his pocked. "I've sent you Megan's number. Why not give her a call and see if she's let the rooms yet? And you could let Sunniva know on Facebook too."
"I suppose it's better than being cooped up in dusty old London" said James in an extremely dubiously tone.
"It would solve our problem" said Sue to Vernon with a smile that he never saw, because the market streaming over his phone had claimed all of his attention.
"But we won't know anyone!" objected James with inarticulate despair.
"Its fine, James" said Emily firmly. "Sunn grows her own."
"Oh" stopped James in the face of that fact.
There was a small silence. His face brightened, before he glanced slightly guiltily at his mother's back and carefully let the matter drop.
Her progeny googled the farm on their phones and swapped pictures. It was about a mile from Bamburgh castle overlooking a beach with fine yellow sand, huge dunes and rock pools.
The ratings were excellent. Avery read them a review about the place. "A powerful, strategic castle on top of volcanic rocks, keeping a look out over the untamed North Sea! I have never seen a castle as mesmerizing as this one."
"I can almost feel the wind in my hair and smell the salt on the sea breeze" said Emily dreamily.
"That's true" said their Mum to Avery. "Your Aunt Megan grew up there and wouldn't leave it for anything."
James laughed suddenly. "Have you seen the nightclub?" He showed them a picture of a thatched Tudor building painted black and white. "How peculiar!" noted Avery.
"It's over 300 miles away but shouldn't be too expensive with your student rail cards" said Vernon before he turned his attention to Sue. "It's also half the cost of what we're charging for the Summer House this year" he told her "so there'll be more spending money for everyone."
"Well, they'll like that!" she said, pleased.
"It seems just the right place to goof off for a few weeks" said Avery. "Ok – I'll give Aunt Megan a ring after I have more coffee. It'll be nice to explore somewhere new and meet our cousin."
Their Mum dashed off for her shift at the charity store as they leisurely finished breakfast. Vernon retreated to his study to study his stock options. Emily and James cleaned up the table as Avery phoned Megan from the hall.
"I hope Sunniva has enough weed for us all!" said James quietly.
"She calls herself Sunn" said Emily as she dried the plates. "I don't think she likes her name 'Sunniva'. She's a year older than I am, the same age as you, James - and a year younger than Avery, and she's a stoner. She should fit right in with us."
Avery returned after ten minutes and they knew by his smile that he had fixed it up.
"That's settled," he said. "Aunt Megan is delighted about it. She said it will be good for Sunn to have company because she's rather introverted and goes off by herself a lot. But we'll be expected to spend most of our days out of doors as long as the weather is good because Uncle Heston is deep into programming some new thing and he won't appreciate being disturbed."
"That suits us" said James. "We'll take our tents too and we can sleep out when the weathers fine. Wouldn't it be cool to have a party at the beach? Avery, when are we going?"
"This weekend, so we have four days to wash and pack" said Avery. "There's nothing much to get ready. A few changes of clothing, bathing trunks and shorts, and Aunt Megan says we can borrow their camping gear so we don't even need to bother with tents. I think we should take our carbon filtered straws and our solar panels though."
"I can't wait to change full time into my summer clothes" she Emily. "My poor legs look like milk bottles" she said, looking down at them. "I have to wear trousers otherwise it's too cold in the lecture theatres but I'm tired of it. It will be lovely to wear shorts and a bikini and go hiking and climbing and bathing again."
"Will you miss Michael?" asked Avery innocently but he looked at her intently.
The smile on her face faded. "I don't think so" she said quietly. "I think a holiday is just what I need."
Avery growled "For a bright boy he's been remarkably stupid. You know that, right?"
His sister looked away and began a minute examination of the view outside of their sash window. The sight of her orderly Mother's garden flowers and their tidy little square lawn seemed to sooth her.
"Do you remember when James two timed that little Indian girl in fifth grade?" said Avery, before pouring another coffee and filling up the corners with a sweet almond pastry that his mother made herself.
James looked confused but Emily nodded, remembering how little Charita Kumar had ended things by throwing a brick wrapped with a break up note through her brothers' window. This appeared to make a precedent for the girls at school because that very same year, Lisa Watkins had done exactly the same thing to him. Mum and Vernon had been furious of course.
James turned red with embarrassment. He changed the subject at once.
"You know, I never thought you would get on with Sunniva. You're such a girly girl, and she's … well – she's not" he said, throwing it out there with feigned nonchalance.
Emily frowned at that. "So?" she said. "I like dresses and nice clothes and makeup but I don't spend all of my time talking about them."
"No – you spend all your time in the bathroom" teased her brother, who shared the bathroom with her when they were at home.
"I'm not even going to take my makeup" declared Emily.
"That will make more space for your exfoliant scrub and your body lotion and your magic hair oil and your… your products!" teased James.
The four days went by in a flash of anticipation. Their mum Sue and Vernon left for Ireland on the Thursday. By Friday, James had earned himself a split lip and a black eye over the Michael matter but neither Emily nor Avery mentioned it. James looked rather pleased with himself and donned his pork pie hat and a pair of dark glasses for the rest of the day as they finalized packing.
Avery awoke early on Saturday morning and threw back the curtains to flood his little attic room with sunlight. It felt hot to the skin even at this early hour, and he smiled in satisfaction. It was going to be a beautiful day. Setting out on a sunny day seemed to set the right tone for the holiday. After a thorough shower he made his way downstairs and fed their cat. Mrs Miggins purred as she ate while Avery set about making a picnic for their lunch.
Next he rustled up some breakfast and left it to warm on the hotplate as he laid the kitchen table. There was no sound from the bedrooms of his brother and sister. Their bags were packed and waiting in the hall so he let them sleep off their hangovers. He congratulated himself on turning in early last night with a book.
He stashed this in his backpack, checked their train tickets and the bus time table. At last, he decided he couldn't wait around any longer and headed upstairs to wake Emily and James with their coffee.
James's room was dubbed by the entire family as 'the pit' and their mother had refused to enter it for the last 6 months so Avery was surprised to find it was actually tidy. He shook his brother and got a grunt for his efforts so he set his alarm to go off in 10 minutes.
Emily was already sitting up and stretching in the next room. Her hair was mussed with sleep but she didn't look as if she'd overindulged. His sister was a beautiful woman, he knew objectively, but he was glad she wasn't vain about it. She was kind and generous, and he was very proud of her. She could have turned bitter after their parent's divorce but she hadn't. She'd just dug in deeper with her school work and had earned herself 6 A levels and a math scholarship to Cambridge.
"Avery – you're an angel!" she exclaimed as he handed her the cup.
"Here's looking at you, kid" he said in a terrible Bogart imitation. He sat on the side of her bed. "Do you know James has finally tidied his room?" he asked her.
She gave a small hiccup of a giggle. "He did it last week after Cathy Wallace agreed to date him."
"Did he? Ah! The sly old dog!" said Avery. "And did you have a good night, last night?"
"Not bad" she admitted "we went for a curry at the Raj, but I came home after the second round. I wanted to save my money for the hols."
"Don't worry about cash" he reassured her. "Vernon said he'd had a good week with the Market and he's left us a wad of good time money."
"Oh goodie!" she exclaimed "well – you look after it for us, Avery. I wouldn't quite trust James not to blow it all on girls".
"He's not quite that bad you know" he defended his brother.
"Hmm. Not quite…" she agreed with a smile. "Do I smell breakfast? I'm ravenous!"
They started off soon after their bacon and eggs, leaving the keys with their elderly neighbor who had agreed to feed Mrs Miggins and caught the bus to Kings Cross station. The bus made slow but steady time along the crowded London roads, and they made the 10 am train with plenty of time. They were soon installed at the back of the carriage headed to Berwick upon Tweed. The train seemed to take forever to leave London but as they left the city behind it accelerated, and soon they were right into the open countryside. The rolling English landscape of neat fields and hedgerows, gave way to moorland and heath the farther North they went.
Avery read, Emily chatted to her friends on Facebook and James slept off the rest of his hangover.
"Are we picnicking soon?" asked Emily, feeling hungry all of a sudden.
"Not until half past one after we get off" said Avery "it's only twelve o'clock now and the train company doesn't like their passengers eating their own food". He pointed to a sign.
"That's mean!" declared Emily. "What about if you're poor and you can't afford to buy lunch from them?"
"Then it's tough for you, I guess" shrugged Avery.
Emily brooded about this for a while so Avery handed her some chocolate and dug out 3 bottles of cider from his backpack. He woke James for "a hair of the dog that bit him" and she and the boys munched happily, watching the hills, woods and fields speed by. The ticket inspector said nothing about the cider bottles. As young people went, they seemed to be a quiet, tidy and good natured lot, and he had no desire to cause them any trouble if they weren't looking for it.
Berwick upon Tweed was only 2 miles away from the Scottish border and they had their picnic in a little woodland park next door to the station. James was ravenous now that he'd shaken off the worst of the drink, and they finished their meal off by sharing a joint. Passers-by ignored the trio. Emily gave her bread to the ducks.
"Gods!" declared James as he stretched away his tensions. "England is so civilized these days now they've legalized it!"
"God's yes!" affirmed Avery, pulling his sunhat down over his eyes in a doze.
They almost relaxed for too long in the park and barely caught the X18 bus to Bamburgh. The bus was old and rickety and sounded to Emily as if it threatened to come apart each time they bumped over a pot-hole in the dusty little b roads that connected the villages.
"What time shall we be at Aunt Megan's?" asked Emily.
"She's picking us up from the Lord Crewe hotel at 4 pm so we have an hour to explore the village first" Avery told her.
"We must watch out for the sea," said James. "I can smell it somewhere near!"
He was right. The bus suddenly topped a hill and there below them was the village and the castle, and not too far after that was the shining blue sea, calm and smooth in the afternoon sun. Emily and James gave a yell.
"There it is!"
"Oh wow! What a marvelous castle! And look at the sea!"
The village had one main street that was dotted with white painted gift shops selling ice cream, a delicatessen, a bakery, a butcher, a greengrocer, two pubs and a hotel. Hanging baskets of flowers adorned the little doorways and a rose garden surrounded a well in the center by an old fashioned band stand. Day trippers and tourists in shorts and Ray-Bans walked among the sprinklers licking their ice creams and small children laughed and played on an antique merry go round. Above it all the castle dominated the village with the afternoon sun sparkling off its tiny windows, and arctic terns and gulls swooped among its turrets.
"We shan't have time to visit the beach this afternoon" Avery warned Emily "Megan says it's farther than it looks".
"Okay" she agreed "does anyone live in the castle?" she wondered.
"How old is it?" asked James.
"Don't you people google?" asked Avery incredulously.
"Yes, and I found out that Janet Street Porter once said that Bamburgh Castle and its surroundings deserves to be described as Britain's finest view" said Emily "and now I see why! This is better than Torquay by a long shot – even if there are no palm trees here! But Wikipedia didn't say if anyone lives there."
"Well to answer your question first, Emily" said Avery "the castle is owned by the Armstrong family and much of it is now let as private apartments. Lord and Lady Armstrong live there during the winter when the castle is closed to the public - except for the Castle hospital of course."
"And James" he continued "there has apparently been a castle on top of that huge volcanic rock since 547 AD and probably earlier. It was first built by the native Britons, but that castle was knocked down and rebuilt by the Normans around 1000 AD and after that it was owned by Edward II. There's also been an old 'hidden' hospital there since 1772."
"Nice!" said James as he eyed up a particularly pretty tourist girl in a thin cotton print dress.
Emily left James and Avery smoking in the park. "I just have a couple of errands to do for Aunt Megan!" she explained and popped into the butchers and then the greengrocers. She returned with two brown paper bags – one full of strawberries "for later" she said firmly, and the other one…
"Mmmm… what is that delicious smell?" asked James.
"Belly pork!" answered Emily. "Aunt Megan says it's famous around here. They slow cook it in the shop overnight and it always sells out before lunch time, but the butcher put some aside for us after Aunt Megan telephoned him. Dig in!"
The meat was as tender as the skin was crispy and they finished it all – eating it with their fingers straight out of the packet, their faces smeared with grease.
"Superb!" noted Avery in satisfaction. Emily offered round wipes from her well stocked backpack.
"It looks like there's a beer garden at the back of that pub" noted James.
"Well spotted James. Yes, that's where Aunt Megan suggested she pick us up" smiled Emily.
It was dark in the pub after the bright sunshine outside. The main room was paneled in dark oak and wooden beams supported a low hanging ceiling.
There was a large fireplace in the center of the pub which was empty today, but Emily thought it must be very welcome in the winters that Aunt Megan had mentioned could be extremely harsh so far up North.
They ordered 3 pints of Aspell Cider and emerged into a sheltered beer garden. Ivy hung down the ancient high walls and large lilac Phlox plants were set in the borders. The tables rested upon a thick mossy lawn festooned with daisies, buttercups and tiny blue periwinkles. Emily thought she detected a faint whiff of night scented stock on the air although it was really too early in the day to tell.
"Magical" she said.
"I want to live here when I'm older" said James.
"Let's make a pact" said Avery. "When we've all finished university and had successful careers we'll come back here and buy a house together in the village."
"I just meant - I could live in this beer garden, but Ok" said James flippantly.
Emily laughed.
Aunt Megan arrived as they were finishing off their cider. She was a small, plump woman with kindly eyes and rosy cheeks and the little clan liked her at once.
"Hello! Welcome to Bamburgh! Hello! It's lovely to see you all – in the flesh so to speak! Archibald dear – you've grown as tall as my father! And James – you are the spit of your father as a young man! Emily dear - you are twice as pretty as your facebook pictures!" she said, kissing all three in turn.
Emily pointed at her brother Archibald, "we call him Avery now, Aunt Megan" said Emily, laughing at Avery's' sudden scowl. "What on earth for dear?" asked her Aunt in mock surprise "it's James that's the carrot top!" James pretended to scowl, but then laughed with Avery and Emily at the old family joke. After they had loaded their bags into the car, they said goodbye to bonnie little village of Bamburgh and set off to Rose cottage.
End of Chapter One.
Chapter Two - The Family Mystery.
Thank you for reading the first chapter of FIVE - Adventure on Islay Island. I hope you enjoyed this sample from the full published work, and I would be very interested in hearing your feedback & reviews.
- Bethsheba Ashe (2018).