Disclaimer: Disappointingly, the characters are still not mine
Notes: Apologies (again) for the delay; this time preparations for the Royal Cornwall Show are to blame :P Thanks to Ballettmaus for the help and suggestions with the chapter :)
Chapter 10
Standing in front of him, breathing rapidly, Lindsay teetered on the edge of control.
"What happened?" Don asked, keeping his voice calm and level, though the implications of Lindsay's words spun through his mind.
Lindsay shook her head. "I-I don't know exactly..." Shame crushed her features. "I fell- I fell asleep," she whispered, her eyes darting to him and Jennifer and away again. "After I finished my sewing, I felt so tired, and Lucy was playing so quietly and being so good... my eyes just closed. It was so hot..." She dashed at her eyes with the back of her hand.
"It's okay." Jennifer's hand stayed steady on Lindsay's shoulder as Lindsay bit her lip hard and screwed up her face to keep tears at bay. "We'll search for her. I guess she's gotten impatient and has started exploring without us, seeing as we've been a while," she said apologetically with a glance at Don who felt his cheeks heat.
Lindsay's trembling hands were clenched together as she spoke. "But she said she wanted to wait for you earlier and she knows she's not supposed to go out of my sight." With desperation starting to flare in her eyes, she continued, her voice becoming shriller with her insistence. "She knows she mustn't go off on her own, she's such a little girl still. And I've called and called and she's not answering."
"What Jennifer said makes sense – the temptation to explore got the better of her," Don said, shoving his hands into his pockets, guilt beginning to nibble at him for keeping Lucy waiting: minutes to them had probably distended into hours for the little girl.
Lindsay remained unconvinced. Clutching her face in her hands, she spun round, looking in every direction through the shrubbery. "Something's happened to her," she muttered. "What if she's fallen, what if she's hurt... what if she's been taken same as the other little girl..."
"Nothing's going to have happened to her," Don stamped down on her anxiety before it became hysteria. "She won't have gotten hurt and she won't have been taken. Listen, here's what we're going to do." He placed his arms round Lindsay's shoulders, feeling her trembling. "We spread out and hunt for her round the garden. She's only a kid, she won't have gotten far."
"Maybe she didn't even realise she'd gone out of sight," Jennifer said. "Probably she's found a little space somewhere and she's hiding out waiting for us to find her."
"Sounds reasonable to me." Don fixed his gaze on Lindsay as he spoke. "You know how fond she is of hidey-holes in the weirdest of places."
Lindsay bit her lip, dabbing at her eyes with a limp handkerchief before she became determined and nodded. "You're probably right. I'll go check and see if she's taken any of the babies with her, if she has, then she might have gone to make a camp with them."
"Good plan," Don said, following Lindsay as she led the way out of the shrubbery, glancing back to make sure Jennifer was behind them.
Pushing through the tangled briar patch of undergrowth, they all called Lucy's name with vigour, Lindsay's voice loudest of all. No answer forthcame, but Don did his best to ignore the worry clouding his mind and trudged on until they were out on the open lawn again.
The abandoned tea party was the first thing his gaze landed on – a heap of stuffed animals in a various whimsical attitudes. Lindsay hurried over and began to check them while Jennifer followed her and Don scanned the immediate area.
"Only one's missing," Lindsay said, squinting up at Don as he strode over. "Her favourite, Betty the bear, Danny got it from Hawaii for her when he was stationed there..." Her eyes brimmed with tears but she swiped them away and Don squeezed her shoulder.
"What's Danny going to say when he finds out I lost – I lost our daughter?" she said, her voice quavering with tears that refused to be quashed. "When I couldn't even manage to stay awake and keep her safe..."
"Beating yourself up isn't going to help," Don said, keeping a firm grip on her shoulder and Lindsay heaved a breath in, managing to produce a wobbling reply.
"I know, I know it's just..."
"Maybe Lucy's gone to show Betty round the gardens," Jennifer suggested, getting to her feet. "I used to have a favourite bear who I insisted on carrying round with me wherever we went. That bear's seen more of the world than a lot of humans have." She smiled and a brief tight smile came in return from Lindsay before the sound of someone hurrying down the porch steps caught their attention. As fast as she could move, Stella came across the lawn towards them, a questioning look on her face.
"What's going on?" Her gaze moved between them as she reached them, a little out of breath and one hand under her stomach, the other massaging her back. "Where's Lucy? I heard you calling her."
"We think," Don answered with a glance at Lindsay who had turned her head away from Stella. "We think she's on a mission to become the next Livingstone, or Stanley, whoever the explorer guy was, in the jungles of upstate New York."
"I see." Stella's comprehension was immediate as she nodded and glanced at Lindsay. "Then I'll join the search party." She directed her statement to her friend, laying a hand on her arm as Lindsay turned a distressed face towards her.
"No, Stella, you shouldn't..."
A twinge of discomfort passed over Stella's face though she almost succeeded in covering it with a short laugh. "Okay, I may be a little limited, and I'd hate to see Mac's face if he caught me out here searching in this heat, but I can still do something..." She tailed off, glancing back at the house in thought, before she turned back to them. "How about I keep watch indoors and have a look around while I'm at it? Lucy might have decided she wanted to take a look round the house - there are plenty of nooks and crannies to appeal to an adventurous little girl."
Don looked at her in surprise, and then concern, taking note again of how her hands had moved to the small of her back and the grimace that she could not prevent. "Are you okay, Stell?" he asked.
Stella frowned at him. "I'm fine, Don. It's just the baby moving around. He or she's pretty restless this afternoon."
"Is your back hurting you?" Jennifer asked, studying Stella.
"It's aching a bit," Stella admitted, giving Don a half-defiant look. "But no more than it has been for the past couple of days."
It was Don's turn to frown, even more so as he saw Jennifer's considering expression. "Well, take it easy indoors then," he said. "I don't want to face the wrath of Mac for having gotten you all agitated." His tone held a forced lightness and it was no small relief to him that Stella took her leave of them after pulling a face at him. As soon as she was up the steps of the porch and indoors, he turned his mind back to the task in hand, but before he could speak, Jennifer did.
"I think the three of us should radiate outwards, separately, so we're covering as much ground as possible, as quickly as possible."
Serious as the situation was, Don had to grin. "You and I are on the same wavelength. That was exactly what I was going to suggest."
"But I just happened to get there first." She smiled. "Great minds, huh?"
"Definitely in your case." Don smirked. "But that might be flattering me too much."
Jennifer grinned. "Don't underestimate yourself. You..."
"If you two could stop flirting for a moment, maybe we could do what's important and search for my missing daughter!" White-faced, Lindsay spun round leaving Don wincing as he saw Jennifer's scarlet cheeks.
Without a word and only a brief look at him, she moved away and began her portion of the search. It broke a sigh from Don and he wiped his forearm across his forehead, realising the humidity had increased to almost unbearable levels. The sky directly above them was covered with a blue-grey haze, shot through with blinding leams of sunlight. As Don gazed for a moment, the far distant mountains quivered and shimmered. It presaged thunder or he was very much mistaken.
Spurred on, he plunged into the cool of the undergrowth glad to escape the ruinous brilliance of the sky. Even burrowed into the thickets of plants left to run rampant, Don mopped his face and sweated so that his shirt clung to his back. The rose tucked into his buttonhole was torn out by brambles, the same that clawed at his shirt and ripped the skin on his hands. Muttering curses, he fought back and called Lucy over and over. Receiving no answer each time. He heard, in sequence, purely by chance, his calls followed by Lindsay's and Jennifer's. A call, a pause; no answer. Again and again they called and the still, sultry air held their voices and returned no other.
The story that he had told his friends yesterday began to bother Don, some small echo of superstition reaching him in the humid, almost unreal atmosphere that he had brought down the disappearance of Lucy by relating the tale. Grabbing a loose piece of wood, however, he slashed at the undergrowth and pushed on, grim and determined, thinking no more of lost babes.
"Lucy," he yelled, his throat parching. "Lucy!" He felt the pressure in his blood vessels and had to stop and cough, an unwelcome reminder of his convalescence. Groaning, he paused to suck in oxygen to his lungs, coughing again before he waded over to a clearing, where he leant his back against a tree to catch his breath. His pulse hammered in his temples and he panted for air.
When he heard his name called, it was so unexpected, he stood upright in one movement, and regretted it when his chest constricted again and he started to wheeze. Jennifer appeared through the bushes and into the clearing. Her hair fell round her face, tugged free from her ponytail and a scratch adorned her arm but the concern in her face was all for him.
Hurrying over to him, she clasped his arm. "Don, are you okay?"
Although he attempted to answer breezily, his feet betrayed him as he stumbled. Jennifer held on and he found himself with his back once more against a tree trunk, while she crouched in front of him.
"Clearly you're not okay. You need to rest for a few minutes and get your breath back," she said, studying his face with worried eyes. "I'm going to take a look through those trees," she indicated with a nod of her head, "I got a hunch she might be in there."
"I'll help..." he croaked before losing coherence in a hacking cough that left him gasping for breath and wiping his mouth. "Sorry," he managed to gasp and Jennifer pursed her lips, not losing the anxiety for him, the intenseness of which startled him.
"Don't apologise. Listen, speaking as a nurse, I think the best thing you can do is sit down here, okay?" Her hand took hold of his, the touch giving him comfort.
He nodded, offering her a few more words, "Be careful."
She smiled then. "Of course." And got to her feet, her hand sliding out of his, he missing the sensation as soon as it was gone.
Frustrated with himself, he watched as Jennifer stepped over tangles of snake-like tree roots, knotted, sinuous and dark, glistening with damp where the sun's heat had not penetrated. Into the grove of wide-girthed oaks and mountain ash she stepped and he watched until he couldn't bear to any longer. Heaving himself to his feet, Don shambled after her, his nose and mouth full of the moist air and the scents of sweet, rotten leaves and wood, mosquitoes whining round him.
"Jennifer!" the shout came from his mouth without any conscious thought; the images the surroundings had provoked in his imagination had caught him unawares. A flash of her red dress attracted him and he plunged towards it, almost crying out with relief when she answered him.
"I got – got a little spooked," he offered, seeing her enquiring expression and she nodded in understanding, a shiver passing over here.
"It is kind of spooky," she said, glancing round her. "I hope Lucy isn't scared."
Don shook his head. "She's a tough kid. Isn't much that scares her, believe me. I remember she got shut in the cellar accidentally not so long ago when I was round there. None of us realised she'd crept in there. She didn't turn a hair. Found her sitting on the steps waiting for us, cool as anything."
Jennifer smiled. "She's quite the adventurer."
"Takes after her parents." Don coughed, his breathing returning to normal levels at last and saw the uncomfortable expression on Jennifer's face which reminded him of Lindsay's earlier words.
"What about up here?" she said, her voice abrupt as she gestured to a crook-backed oak tree, a little way ahead of them, resting on an embankment of earth. Its reptile-like roots spread wide, gripping the uneven surface. Both approached it carefully and Don saw, as they climbed up, that beyond it the earth had crumbled away to form a deep pit with sheer, slippery sides.
"Watch your step," he warned as Jennifer climbed up further.
"Of course," was her reply as she pulled herself up to the top of the embankment, grasping a low branch as she crouched down and peered down.
A gasp broke from her and her head snapped round to Don. "I've found her. She's here."
Thank you for reading! I'd love to know what you think. Lily x