Otis squeaked and flew towards him, his little arms outstretched. Hugo raised his hand and opened his palm; the brownies landed on it and hugged his fingers. My glow of happiness only increased.
‘How did you get here? How long have you been here?’ I was still amazed – and I had so many questions. ‘Is Gordon alright?’
‘Gordon’s fine. He was knocked about a bit and had to spend a night in hospital, but there’s no lasting damage.’ Hugo drew in a long breath. ‘It takes a lot to scare me, Daisy, but when that explosion happened and I ran in and you weren’t there…’ He inhaled deeply. ‘I thought you were gone for good. Don’t ever do that again.’
I met his blue eyes. ‘I didn’t plan to vanish,’ I whispered. ‘What happened to Athair?’
The warmth in Hugo’s eyes disappeared. ‘Itwashim dressed as a postal worker, then?’ I nodded. ‘You know he’swearing the same face now, and that he’s staying in that damned castle?’
I swallowed and nodded again.
Hugo exhaled. ‘He scarpered pretty quickly after the magical explosion in 2024. He’d already gone by the time I was out of the Jeep and at Gordon’s front door.’
So nobody else had been hurt. That was good.
‘We searched for you,’ Hugo continued, ‘and got help for Gordon. He couldn’t explain what had happened for several hours. It wasn’t … nice.’ His voice cracked. Hester and Otis tightened their grip on his fingers while I wrapped my arms around him once more.
‘Gordon recovered enough to talk and told us what the golden skull does,’ he went on. ‘I’ll admit I took some convincing.’ He gave a baffled shrug. ‘Time travel? It’s crazy.’
I smiled faintly. ‘Imagine how we felt.’
Hugo gently nudged the brownies away and cupped my face in both hands. ‘It must have been awful.’ He paused and a teasing glint lit his eyes. ‘Especially because I wasn’t around to save you.’
I curled my lip and he laughed. ‘Once Gordon was discharged from hospital, he reset the skull and sent me to join you. I arrived right after you did, but you’d already run off and there was a very angry woman throwing plates. I figured that you wouldn’t be able to resist showing up at Lady Rose’s door so I came here to wait for you.’ His tone was gently chiding. ‘You took longer to get here than I thought you would.’
Hester bristled. ‘Daisy was busy killing a posse of vampires, a nasty fiend and then inventing Vamp Spray.’
Hugo blinked. ‘Huh?’
‘I’ll explain later.’ I nodded towards the castle. ‘How did you know Athair would be holed up here? If he spotted you sneaking around…’
His mouth flattened. ‘I followed him here from the Assigney mansion yesterday. This is Culcreuch Castle. It’s not far from Pemberville, but I’ve never been here before – I thought it had been abandoned in the sixties. Apparently I was wrong.’
Oh. I looked again at the imposing building and wondered if Athair was still hiding there thirty years from now. Had he been this close to Pemberville Castle – and me – all this time?
‘I waited until Athair left today,’ Hugo said, ‘then I thought I’d snoop around to see if I could find anything useful. He wasn’t away for long, so I couldn’t do much. I’m assuming you did the same and followed him from the Assigney mansion?’
‘I’ve not been to see Lady Rose yet.’ I eyed him. ‘I followed Athair here from Pemberville Castle.’
Hugo stiffened. ‘You were at Pemberville?’ He pulled back. ‘And Athair was there? With my parents?’ He scanned my face.
‘And you,’ Hester chirped cheerfully. ‘You’re a cute toddler, Hugo.’
He stared first at her and then at me.
‘She’s not lying.’ I tried to smile. ‘Athair has told your parents that he’s Lady Rose’s doctor. He wants them to persuade her to leave her house and take some air.’
A muscle throbbed in Hugo’s jaw. ‘If he tries to hurt them…’
‘I don’t think he will. He seemed more concerned about using them to get to Rose.’ I gazed at him questioningly. ‘You’ve not been to see your parents? You’re not curious to meet them and find out what they were like when they were younger?’
A growl rumbled in his chest. ‘Desperately so, but I can’t risk it. Even if my father didn’t recognise me, Mum would spot me in a heartbeat.’
I was surprised. ‘Are you sure she’d recognise you? I could see the resemblance between you, but I know the truth. She wouldn’t have a clue.’
‘She might not understand it, but she’d know it was me.Mothers are like that.’ He shook his head. ‘It would become far too messy, no matter how much I’d like to see them.’
I squeezed his hand. ‘What about Lady Rose?’ I asked. ‘Have you spoken to her?’
