Page 50 of Skullduggery
Oh God.
‘You know what?’ I said, dissembling quickly. ‘I think the diary error was probably mine. Let’s reschedule the appointment for another day.’
‘We’ve got time now,’ Lord Pemberville said. ‘There’s no need for that.’
I was already backing towards the door and waving at Otis and Hester to come out from behind the armour. ‘I have other appointments today. Another time will be fine.’
The housekeeper coughed gently. ‘You don’thave any more spare time until next week,’ she said to the Pembervilles. ‘Not until Tuesday.’
Before there could be any further discussion, I jumped in. ‘Tuesday it is! Two o’clock?’ Without waiting for an answer, I burbled, ‘I’ll see you then. Thank you so much!’ I reached the door and ran outside, leaving it ajar.
Lord Pemberville’s words drifted to my ears. ‘What a very peculiar woman.’ I grimaced.
A sleek black car, which had been parked outside with the other vehicles, was already on its way down the long driveway leading to the main road. I gritted my teeth in annoyance.
‘Daisy,’ Otis hissed. ‘What’s going on? What are you doing?’
‘Yeah,’ Hester said. ‘I thought you wanted to talk to them. Why are we leaving?’
‘You know that was Athair,’ I said. I turned towards the other vehicles, marched to the nearest one and tried the door. It was locked. ‘He’s pretending to be Lady Rose’s doctor. He was talking to the Pembervilles about her.’
‘Sohe’sthe one who murdered her,’ Hester said.
‘Or who’saboutto murder her,’ Otis added darkly. ‘The Pembervilles are in the clear.’
It wasn’t evidence that would stand up in court, but it was enough to satisfy me. ‘Exactly.’ I tried another car door; it was also locked. ‘We need to follow Athair and find out where he’s going.’
Behind the hulking silver body of a Rolls Royce that I knew Hugo wouldn’t be caught dead in, I spotted a motorbike. Excellent: I had form with motorbikes. While old and battered, this one had clearly been well-cared for. There was an interesting collection of stickers plastered to its body, and I snorted mildly at the one that proclaimed proudly:Elves Do It With Magic.
‘Are you crazy?’ Otis shrieked. ‘Follow a fiend? Followthatfiend? Do you have a death wish?’
‘We need to find out what he’s up to if we’re going to stop him hurting Lady Rose,’ I said. ‘The hunter needs to become the hunted. Now, help me find the keys for this thing.’
As Otis flapped his wings and glared at me, Hester grinned. ‘Steal the bike! Catch the fiend who we think is your dad! Brilliant. I think I know where the keys are – there’s a small table beside the stairs with several keys on it.’
‘Go get them!’ I urged. ‘We don’t have much time to catch up to him.’
She was already zipping towards the castle. Otis stared at me with a morose expression. ‘It’s alright,’ I tried to reassure him. ‘He won’t kill us.’
‘He’s a fiend, Daisy. Killing is what his kind does best. He obviously doesn’t know that you’re probably his daughter.’
I shook my head. ‘If he’d killed us in 1994, he’d have mentioned it when we met him in the future.’
‘Only if the future is immutable. We still don’t know what effect our time travel will have on future events.’
I met his anxious gaze. ‘We can’t let him go, Otis. We can’t pretend we don’t know what will happen.’
He folded his arms. ‘We don’tknowwhat will happen, Daisy. That’s the point.’
‘We know enough.’
Hester reappeared, flapping towards us and clutching a key that was almost the same size as she was. ‘Here!’ she shouted. ‘I’ve got it!’
I sucked in a breath. Yahtzee. I grinned. ‘Then let’s go.’
I wassure that it was as illegal to ride a motorbike without a helmet in 1994 as it was in 2024, but there wasn’t one on thebike and I possessed neither the time nor the opportunity to find one. I had to throw caution – and my hair – to the wind.
I revved hard and set off in pursuit of Athair’s car. Unfortunately, although I reached the end of the drive in record time, there was no way of telling whether he had turned left or right.
