Envoys Of The Vow

Chapter 4

By the time Misty had been washed off and rugged up Sara was nearly back to normal.  The experience at the church had been firmly banished to the back of her mind.  She could not bring herself to think about it while she was still outside with the last of the day draining from the sky.  She had turned on every light in the yard so no pools of darkness remained.  The only problem was that when she had finished she had to switch them all off again letting the darkness curl back around her like a suffocating blanket.  Her heart hammered in her chest trying to throw her into panic.

A short drive linked the yard to the house and she was grateful that her mum had let the dogs out to see her earlier.  The two border terriers where jostling and playing round her feet.  They seemed calm and happy which settled her mind a little as they would pick up on any lurking dangers. 

As she walked back down to the house Gus let out a sharp bark.  Sara's heart jumped painfully in her chest but Gus then ran forward towards the five bar gate at the very end of the drive in a friendly greeting that reassured her it would only be one of the mothers here to collect a child late or maybe Julie her mother’s best friend who also kept her horses at the yard. 

 As Sara approached the gate her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness after the glare of the drives floodlights.  She squinted to see who Gus was so merrily saying hello to.  Grumpily she thought, make much more of a fuss of him and you will end up having a legendary Gussie workout which entailed the poor unsuspecting victim being wrestled to the floor and jumped all over by a manic beige dog that is no more than a foot high!

 "Hi" a rich male voice said making her jump again for the second time in as many minutes.  She had been sure it was Julie.  She walked over her eyes now accustomed to the darkness and saw a man standing at the gate but having not come in.  She took in his appearance as neatly groomed in a t shirt and jeans, a bit skinny for his height.

 "Hi, can I help you?" She asked still trying to work out if she had met him before, maybe it was a husband of one of the inebriated mothers.

 "I was just looking for Melissa” he shifted from foot to foot looking sheepish "She left her bag in my car and I wanted to return it"

 Melissa was one of the older girls that had arrived years before and never left now she was eighteen and a complete nightmare of hormones and men trouble.  A very pretty girl that needed to find her niche in life she was prone to choosing her men based on traits that the other girls liked rather than finding out what she actually wanted in a man.  It was as if she needed the others to like him so she did not have to make any decisions for herself.

 "Ah I see, I think she may have gone home already but if you would like to come in I can see if she is in the house with mum?"  It always sounded strange asking people to come into the house as the doors were never locked and everyone just walked in.  The dogs would only ever bark if someone actually knocked on the door.

 "I'm Sara by the way" she held her hand out to shake which he took with a strange grin on his face.

 "I sort of guessed that.  I've heard quite a lot about you."  He continued grinning which would be annoying to most people but Sara's personality immediately jumped to nervousness that he was making fun of her in some way.

 "I'm Jonathan Rowe it is nice to finally meet you” again her nervousness flared, who had said what exactly about her.

 Glad of the distraction from the fear in her heart they went into the house with Gus still doing back flips at his feet while Bows was being snootily aloof as always.

 * * *

 The old farmhouse kitchen was warm and cozy.  The large range cooker was emanating the smells of another dinner that has been scorched round the edges thanks to Anne's lack of cooking skill.  Her dad had just made a tea, which was hardly strange as he drank about fifty per day, so kettle was still hot.