The Passing Bell Tolls for Thee

38 The Victor

Smokey limped over on three legs, off hind leg held in the air. He licked her hand.

"Leg's dislocated," Geoff said.

"Poor Smokes," she said, rubbing his head and kissing his muzzle. He wagged his tail. "Let me put you in the buggy."

"I need to put his leg back in the joint."

"Shouldn't we try to get back first?"

"If I don't do it now, he'll likely need an operation to fix it."

April nodded and moved the dog over to Geoff.

"Hold him steady. We don't need a dog bite on top of everything else."

She slipped one arm behind his forelegs and one in front of his hind legs, trying to be careful his injured rear leg. Smokey whined. April tightened her grip and nodded to Geoff.

Geoff's good arm moved the leg. Smokey struggled to get away, but April hung on. The leg snapped back in the joint and Smokey barked.

Smokey relaxed, panting, and April loosened her grip. She nuzzled his ear. "Good Smokes." Smokey licked her face.

"Careful. He might bite if something else hurts. Needs to be examined."

April nodded and led Smokey slowly to the buggy. She helped him in with care. He lay down and looked up at her, panting hard. She rooted in the buggy and returned to Geoff with a half-full water bottle and a first aid kit.

"What happened to your arm?" she asked.

"Might be broken, or fractured."

April found gauze in the kit and helped him bind the injured arm so it was stable. She soaked a gauze pad in water and gently wiped his face.

She examined his face. "You look bad," she said.

"Is that any way to talk to the man who just risked life and limb, and maybe, soul, for you?"

She smiled a small, tender smile. "It's the way to talk to the man I love when he's my hero."

He put his good arm around her and kissed her. "I love you, too, April Waverly, Mistress of Oakton, or American expatriate, or whatever you are."

He shifted and pulled a thermos from under him. He turned it over in his good hand and set it on the stone. He smiled at her, and she began to relax from the dangers of the night. "You're full of surprises. I didn't know you were so good at fighting with a thermos."

"TV stunt work. I was mostly a dead victim, or the one who got slimed, but the crew showed me some fighting techniques. I brained a bad guy once with a jar of mayo. Much like a thermos."

Geoff grinned and kissed her again. "Ow. My arm." His phone rang. "Cress," he said. "Yes, dear? ...Some injuries, my arm may be broken...Ben Muir is dead...Police are on their way. ...No, don't come to Oakton till we talk with the police. April and I need go to hospital...Yes, Tom should come; we'll need to call Ben's parents...thanks, again, Cress, you saved us. Bye."

He looked at her and brushed a strand of hair off her face. "Can you wait a bit for the police? Or do you need to return now?"

"I can stay, if you can." She got up trying not to move Geoff's arm. "Do you want to sit in the buggy?"

He nodded and she helped him up. Once on his feet, he was able to walk to the buggy and sit. He twisted to look at Smokey. The dog saw him looking and his tail thumped the floor of the buggy. "Poor Smokey. We'll get you to the vet right away."

"I'm going to look for the key to the buggy. I think they're in Ben's pocket." She knelt by the body, but before she could look, headlights shone in the clearing and a golf buggy burred up the path. She hurried back to Geoff.

"Who could that be?" Geoff asked.

"It's the other buggy. Bill, probably."

Bill drove the buggy into the clearing and stopped when the lights revealed Ben's body. He got out, and Estelle got out of the passenger side.

"Is he dead?" Estelle asked.

April nodded, then, realizing they couldn't see her, said, "Yes."

Estelle took a flashlight and looked around the clearing at Ben's corpse, Smokey lying in the back of the buggy and whimpering. April dirty with twigs in her hair, and the bandage on Geoff's arm. She walked over to King's Oak, shone the light on Hydd's bell, and touched it gently.

She looked from one to the other. "I put the cash for the house in the save, and the bell was missing. Did Mr. Muir take it?"

"He brought it here," April said.

Estelle nodded, then her shoulders slumped. She looked around the clearing again and then at them. She straightened up, beginning to smile. "Did Hydd come?"

"You wouldn't believe me," April said.

"She's the druid priestess," Geoff said.

April nodded toward the tree where the bell hung in a branch. "Ben rang it." April said. "Three times."

Estelle nodded slowly. "And did the horned man come?"

"Yes. Hydd came." Geoff said. "Sometimes he was the horned man, sometimes he was a great horned stag."

Estelle's lips thinned. "That was the monster. She looked at Ben's body. "Did Hydd take him?"

"He stabbed him with his antlers, killing him."

She watched them for a moment. "We heard St. Duncan's bell ringing."

"I called Cress and begged her to ring the bell," said Geoff.

"Saved you," was all Estelle said. She was silent, shaking her head. "Ben had nothing to do with this. The legend, that Drew Francis Ramsey was reborn time and again must be true."

"Not quite," said April. "Drew said he transferred to Ben's body. I don't know what happened to Ben.

Estelle said, "He would have gone into Sir Drew's body. That's explains why Mr. Muir wanted the old Master sedated. Then he couldn't tell me. We druids might have put an end to it." She nodded. "We'll bless the clearing next grove. Finish this, so nothing else shows up."

"Ben—Mr. Ramsay, actually, said something about taking me as his next vessel, as he'd taken Ramseys for hundreds of years."

Estelle nodded. "Not reincarnation. Transfer." She looked at April closely. "Hydd did not transfer souls without a sacrifice, a human soul."

April sighed. "Sir Drew said Mark Musselwhite was the sacrifice."

"Poor man. All for a few pounds."

Bill had stayed at the other buggy. Estelle waved him over. "My Bill is Church of England, not a druid. He wouldn't talk about this, just let me do my duty. What we King's Oak druids did for centuries, ever since Hydd stole the evil power from the old spirits."

Bill walked up. "Did anyone call the police?"

"Yes, they're on the way," said Geoff.

"Someone should go meet them, bring them here. Police car can't drive into the clearing."

"You go, Bill. I'll stay," said Estelle. "It's safe here now, just a clearing in the woods."