Nobody voiced their worries aloud but we were all thinking the same thing: if it was Athair who was lurking around the castle, he was strong enough to break through the ward surrounding the Bone Zone and attack us when we were at our most vulnerable. The fact that Hugo wrapped his arms tightly around me and refused to let go even when he fell asleep, indicated his state of mind just as my inability to sleep indicated mine. It was a rare night indeed when sleep eluded me.
Dawn still came relatively early to Scotland, even though the summer solstice was weeks behind us. The Bone Zone was a windowless room but my body clock had adjusted sufficiently for me to know when the sun was rising without needing to see any glowing rays of sunshine or to look at my watch.
I extricated myself from Hugo, stood up and stretched before I walked to the long table and located his phone. Something about the photos he’d shown us last night was niggling at me; there was something I’d seen that felt peculiar. Unfortunately I wasn’t sure what it was.
I was as familiar with the password to Hugo’s phone as I was with his body, from the faint silvery scar on his hip where he’d fallen during his first official treasure hunt to the perfect curve of his impressively tanned arse. Even so, I turned and held it up with a questioning look. He nodded from the cocoon of the sleeping bag where he was watching me. I inputted the password, unlocked the phone and located the photos.
I paused at the map of the British Isles, zoomed in to peer more closely and then zoomed out to get a view of the whole thing. Thirty-two places around the country had been numbered neatly in black ink. Had Athair done that? And if so, why? I nibbled my bottom lip and squinted harder. Hmm.
‘What is it, Daisy?’ Slim asked softly.
I jumped, surprised to hear his voice. When I looked around, I realised that everybody was awake and watching me; clearly I wasn’t the only person who had struggled to sleep.
‘I don’t know. Maybe nothing.’ I turned the phone around. ‘Rizwan, you said you were getting this printed out and enlarged?’
Rizwan was already wriggling out of his sleeping bag. ‘I’ll do it now.’
‘I didn’t mean do itrightnow. It’s still early. After breakfast is fine.’
‘It’s no problem. I’ll do it now.’
Now I felt guilty that I’d hauled him out of bed. ‘In that case,’ I said, ‘I’ll nip to the kitchen and get coffee on for everyone.’
‘And bacon rolls?’ Becky asked hopefully.
I looked at the group and grinned at their expressions. It might have been a difficult night but if everyone had an appetite then things weren’t that bad.
‘I’ll help,’ Hugo said, finally sitting up.
Becky groaned. ‘What?’ he frowned at her. ‘You don’t like my cooking?’
‘It’s not that.’
‘What then? I can’t leave Daisy to go to the kitchen alone,’ he protested. ‘Our intruder might still be out there.’
Nothing had attempted to breach the ward surrounding the Bone Zone, and there had been no more sounds of anyone lurking inside the castle. I was beginning to think there was nobody out there; I was certainly hoping that was the case.
Becky mumbled something inaudible so Hester translated. ‘Hugo, if you go with Daisy, it’ll be hours before we get so much as a crumb for breakfast. The two of you will get distracted and start canoodling over the bacon…’ Otis pulled a face ‘…and we’ll be lucky if we get any food before noon.’
I felt my cheeks start to warm but Hugo only winked. Miriam stood up. ‘I’ll go with them,’ she said.
‘We don’t need a chaperone,’ Hugo told her.
I looked at the raised eyebrows; apparently we did. I blushed harder, suddenly remembering the previous week when Hugo and I had wandered off ostensibly to make tea for them all and returned three hours later without a single hot beverage in our hands.
‘You’d never catch me acting like that,’ Hester proclaimed loudly.
‘Give me a hot young man and I would,’ Miriam said with a wink.
‘Me too,’ Becky agreed.
Slim nodded. ‘Me three.’
Hester rolled her eyes. ‘You lot have no sense of decorum.’
‘Come on,’ I nodded at Hugo and Miriam. ‘Let’s get breakfast sorted and make sure the castle is intruder free along the way.’ I injected a firm note into my voice. ‘We’ll be no longer than twenty minutes. As you’re all so wide awake, let’s see what the rest of you can accomplish in that time.’
‘Trying to cover up your embarrassment with authority?’ Hugo enquired.
