Chapter two: The Meeting.
Jane stepped off the train and looked around the small village station. Nobody else had got off. Suddenly she realised that apart from this village she had no idea where Will lived
She looked around nervously, she had felt uneasy all journey, with a tingle between her shoulder blades, as if someone had been watching her, the feeling didn't ease now. She glanced over her shoulder, looking in vain for someone, but no one was there. The station master left his little office and came up to her
"Are you alright dear?"
"Yes thank you, I'm fine. It's just… do you know where Will Stanton lives?" it was a sensible question she thought to herself, People in a village this small must
know everyone else in the village.
"Up at the old vicarage you want to go midear." He began to rattle off a long series on instructions, which Jane tried to fasten in her mind. She thanked the man, shouldered her rucksack and headed off up the street.
Will was anxious. There was something in the air that worried at his senses, like a hound at its prey. He had awoken this morning with the frightening yet exciting inexplicable knowledge that he would be needed again as an Old One. Briefly he wondered if he would be reunited with Bran, Jane and the others, he would look forward to seeing them all again. But this was not what agitated him so. It was that he hadn't heard from his master Merriman. The Old One within him was prepared for the conflict between the Light and the Dark, but the fifteen year old wanted the reassurance of having his master behind him. Although in the last great battle with the Dark, the Six; himself, Bran, Pendragon's son, Jane, Merriman, Simon and Barney, with the help of John Rolands, a worker on his Uncle David's farm in Wales, had defeated the Dark, it was not killed, merely put out of time and gravely wounded. When the evil within a few men's hearts grew greater, the Dark would have a foothold back into this world. Will had not expected it to come so soon however, but many more years into the future. He shook his head restlessly and finished dressing. Because Mary was away he had to, as the youngest member of the Stanton family take over her chores. He stepped outside and shoved his hands deep into his pockets, walking over to the shed where the animal feed was kept he struggled to keep the worry to the back of his mind. He strolled over to the rabbit hutch and picked up his favourite; Chelsea. He loved living in this old house. He remembered faintly, from when he was younger the fun times he had playing with the animals when they had converted the old vicarage and it's large gardens into a small farm, with chickens and other small animals. He poured the feed into the hen run and watched the hens fight for the grain. He smiled and looked around as his older sister Barbara called for him to help with tea. With one final glance at the chickens he walked back into the house.
Jane walked down the main street, past the village green and the church; occasionally she was greeted by a look, or a nod from a passer-by. Eventually, when she was confused and lost in the seemingly endless maze of small side streets and alleys she crossed the road and asked a boy, who looked a couple of years older than her who had just emerged from a small, brightly coloured shop,
"Excuse me. Do you know how to get to the old vicarage?"
"I should think so!" the boy turned and smiled at her quizzically.
"Well the station master did tell me the way," Jane admitted, "but I've got this far and now I'm lost." She stuck out her hand "My name's Jane." The boy shook her hand cheerfully
"Paul. So tell me, why do you want to visit the old vicarage?" he asked as they began walking
"I'm visiting someone I know that lives there." She said truthfully
"Oh, who's that?" He asked good-naturedly
"Will Stanton." Paul smiled at that
"Why do you want to see Will?"
"I need to pass on a message from a…" she struggled for the right words, "mutual friend."
"Can you give it to one of his brothers?"
"Not really, it's sort of private. Why? Do you know his brothers?" All thorough this conversation they had been walking down long cobbled streets which looked like they had been walked on for hundreds of years.
"Very well. I am his brother. Or rather," he amended, "one of them."
"Oh," Jane said, feeling rather foolish. Paul saved her from further embarrassment by opening the gate of a large, old house and ushering her through. He led the way up a well-tended path, through a large neat garden and unlocked the wooden front door. He grinned jokingly at Jane as he gestured her to follow him through the hall. He shrugged off his coat as he went. As they passed the stairs he yelled up them
"Will! There's someone here to see you." The cry echoed around the house's stone and timber walls as an answering call came down, resounding just as the first had
"Coming!"
A friendly looking woman, Will and Paul's mother Jane supposed, came out of another room.
"Paul don't yell so." She said placidly "Did you get the sausages?"
"Yes," Paul lifted a package from a small table where he'd put it earlier.
"Thank you dear, just put in the kitchen please."
"Okay Mum. See you." He said to Jane. Mrs Stanton put her hand out saying to Jane
"So you've come to see our Will have you?" Jane shook her hand and, sensing an explanation was needed for who she was and why she was visiting Will now, she launched into the story she had thought up on the train.
"Yes, We met in Wales Mrs Stanton, through a local boy called Bran. My brothers and I grew to be friends with both of them, and as I am on holiday and my parents are visiting friends and said they would be passing near here, I jumped at the opportunity to see how Will was doing. I probably should have called first I know..." Jane was cut off mid apology.
"Not at all my dear." She took Jane's arm and led her into a room filled with chairs, and with a warm fire crackling in the grate. As Paul passed by the doorway, heading towards the stairs she called "Paul! Go and see what is taking Will so long please?" When Jane thought about it, it was obvious that Paul as one of Will's older brothers, remembering that he had said he was the youngest of the family. A sudden thumping sound came into the lounge as Jane sat at Mrs Stanton's command and politely refused a biscuit although gratefully accepting a drink.
Will burst into the room, looking around for the figure he hoped to see, that of a tall man, with white eyebrows and hair, with a strong face and twinkling ice blue eyes. Instead he was greeted with the sight of a girl dressed in jeans and a shirt, with long brown hair and dark eyes,
"Jane!" the shock of seeing her pulled the startled word out of his mouth. She stood too. She was slightly taller than what she remembered, but still with the slight, willowy build he remembered, he hair was down instead of in her usual ponytail. She was still about half a head shorter than him, for he too had grown over the past year.