Ellen Blake Destined To Return

62 - Golden coin

The young boys didn't have time to consider that running was inappropriate for a place of worship, especially one as magnificent and important as St Paul's. They ran up to the three teenagers standing beneath the dome and Thomas tried to babble whilst catching his breath.

'Mister! Mister,' said Thomas, in his London accent. 'They're coming.'

'Who's coming?' asked Aaron, with a good idea, but not wanting to believe it.

'Those men,' said Thomas, taking a couple of gulps of air. 'The strange ones. The one you said to look out for. They're coming to the cathedral.'

Brook soon re-appeared after hearing the running and raised voices.

'What's happened?'

'Thomas said that Victor is on his way. I'll get Ellen and we'd better start looking for the right pipe.'

'Hold your horses,' Brook said to Aaron, then looked at the older of the two boys.

'Thomas? Are you Thomas?'

Thomas nodded enthusiastically.

'How long ago did you see these people?'

'Five, maybe ten minutes ago,' he replied. 'They came along, just as you said. I was finishing my last song for the day. They asked if we'd seen four teenagers and I shook my head.'

'That's one positive,' said Brook. 'They still don't realise that I'm with you. Then what happened?'

'They must have believed me because they were about to walk off. But then the shorter man looked down in my cap, on the floor, and pulled something out of it.'

'Please don't tell me it was the scrap of paper I left you?' asked Aaron, now feeling foolish for leaving it.

'No. I'd already put that in my pocket. I don't know what that is though. But no, it was a coin that he grabbed. Even though it was dull, it was shinier and different in shape from all the other coins. Anyway he looked at it, right close up, and then got angry. He was yelling at us, saying that we were lying. I said we weren't and that we hadn't seen any teenagers and he kept shouting. He was asking how we had this golden-looking coin in the hat? He was really scary.'

'Are you alright?' asked Marianne. 'They didn't hurt you, did they?'

'I'm fine, but the short man got this big guy to grab Wilf and he held him upside down by the ankle. Wilf was petrified and crying and the short man pulled me like this.'

Thomas demonstrated how Victor had clasped at his clothes around his neck.

'He got right up close to me and started screaming into my face. His breath stank something rotten. It was foul. He asked me again if I'd seen you lot and if I didn't tell the truth his friend would hurt Wilf. So I said I had seen you not that many minutes before and he then asked the direction you'd taken. So I pointed to a different road. One that was two streets away from the one you went down. He then completely changed. He released his grip on me, brushed me down, told the other guy to lower Wilf and politely said thank you. They then went off at a trot down the wrong road. As soon as they were out of sight Wilf and I ran straight here, to warn you. I'm sorry I told them, but there's no way I was going to let them hurt my brother.'

Aaron put a grateful hand on Thomas's shoulder.

'Thank you for doing that for us and honestly I'm really sorry you got dragged into this. And you, Wilf, sorry that man scared you.'

Brook looked at the two sets of pipe organs and then to the main doors at the west entrance.

'I think we might need a change of plan,' she said. 'There's no way you'll get up there onto both of those organs and find the correct pipes, safely before they get here. For all we know they could have doubled back, not trusting these guys and followed them. I think we'd be better off getting out of here, hiding somewhere safe and then returning once Victor's been and gone. That will give you more time to find the right pipes.'

She led them all over to the room with the curtained doorway, behind which Ellen was changing.

'Ellen, are you decent? Are you almost ready?'

'Just a sec.'

Copyright © Dean Constable 2016