‘No problem.’
There was a chorus of goodbyes before Hugo ended the call. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, when he saw my expression. ‘The Primes have been here before. We’ve had lots of treasure hunts that began with smoky whispers and eventually led to great success. This hunt will be even more successful.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘What makes you think that?’
‘Because this time the two of us are working together. We won’t fail – we are the greatest hunters Britain has ever seen.’
I grinned. ‘Even when we don’t have the foggiest idea what we’re hunting for.’
Otis pumped the air. ‘Go, team!’
A slim figure caught my eye and I looked up in time to see Amy push open the park gate and head towards us. I waved at her. ‘We found her necklace,’ I said. ‘That’s not nothing, either.’
Hugo grunted in response then leaned back against the bench and draped an arm around my shoulders as we watched the teenager approach. ‘Top o’ the morning to ye!’ she called in a mock Irish accent.
I glanced at my watch: it was past noon but I wasn’t so old that I didn’t recall what it was like to be a teenager: any time before 3pm had felt like morning when I was seventeen years old.
I smiled at her but Hugo was less welcoming. ‘You should have told us about the spider, Amy,’ he chided.
Her eyes widened. ‘What do you mean? I did tell you. You said spiders didn’t bother you. In fact,’ she said, ‘I believe I specifically said the wordshugeandspider.I didn’t lie, not even by omission.’
Hester spiralled a metre into the air and closed the gap between them. While her wings beat behind her, she thrust out her hand towards Amy. ‘I like your style,’ she proclaimed gravely. ‘I like it a lot. Shake my hand.’
If Amy was taken aback by Hester’s actions, she didn’t show it; she simply inclined her head like a queen and extended her pinkie to the little brownie. Hester smacked her lips in satisfaction and, with some awkwardness, managed to grab hold of the tip of Amy’s fingers and shake it.
Hugo muttered something inaudible under his breath. ‘Stop that,’ I told him. ‘Amy reminds me of you.’
He snorted. ‘Rubbish. She’s far more like you than me.’
Amy glanced at us and we snapped our mouths closed like two guilty school kids. She pulled her hand back from Hester. ‘Can I assume from your complaint about spiders that you didn’t manage to find my necklace?’ She sounded resigned to our failure.
‘Don’t worry, we found it.’ I reached into my pocket and carefully withdrew the necklace, stood up and handed it over. ‘Here you go.’
To my astonishment, Amy’s eyes filled with tears. She bit her lip, obviously trying desperately to hold them back then she gave up and let them trickle down her cheeks. ‘Thank you,’ she gulped. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘The clasp is broken,’ I told her. ‘You should get it fixed before you wear it again.’
She sniffed loudly. ‘I will.’ Her fingers tightened around it and she gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘I know it’s silly to react like this over such a simple object but it belonged to my gran. It was a present from her before she died.’
I offered her a gentle smile. ‘There’s nothing wrong with being attached to objects, especially when they remind us of the people we love.’
‘Thank you.’ She sniffed again and rubbed her eyes. ‘For a high elf, I guess you’re not so bad.’
‘See?’ Hugo said. ‘I’d never say anything like that. She’s definitely more like you than like me.’
My smile grew. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
Amy dropped her gaze and her smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. ‘Unfortunately, I’m not sure that I managed to keep my side of the bargain,’ she said, guiltily. ‘I spoke to everyone I could think of about the Staffordshire Hoard but even the old biddies who’ve lived here all their lives had nothing to offer. I tried the church – the vicar likes to yap about the parishrecords and how wonderful they are. Apparently they date back to the sixteenth century, but he wouldn’t let me look at them and he said they only list births, deaths and marriages.’
I was impressed. Given the vague information we’d given her and the limited time she’d had, Amy had put considerable effort into the search. ‘Thanks for trying,’ I said. ‘It was always a long shot.’ My desire to find Athair’s supposed treasure had never been strong and it was diminishing by the second; we had far more important matters to deal with.
Amy wasn’t finished. ‘The only real lead I could come up with is the old witch’s cottage. You might find something there.’
I paused, genuinely surprised. ‘Go on.’
She looked awkward. ‘There’s not much to tell. It’s about half a mile that way,’ she waved a hand vaguely. ‘It’s been falling down for years but nobody’s done anything about it. Some people say it’s cursed and anyone who demolishes it will receive seven generations of bad luck. I don’t think that’s true, but nobody is willing to test the theory.’
I couldn’t suppress my interest and clearly Hugo felt the same. ‘Why do you think there might be something there?’ he asked.
