WE'RE DELIGHTED TODAY TO WELCOME BACK, AUTHOR CAROL KERRY-GREEN, WHO IS SHARING WITH US, CHAPTER 1 OF HER NOVEL, 'ROBIN IN WINTER' #RWRTeamBlog #ReadWriteRepeat

ROBIN IN WINTER

CHAPTER ONE

It was cold sitting on the bench outside the White Tower facing the river. Malik didn’t feel the cold as much as humans and he was content to sit and watch the Thames flow by. He looked over at Tower Bridge admiring its architecture. The bridge hadn’t even been thought of the last time he’d been in London. The whole city had grown again since he’d been away. Again.

He still remembered the first time he’d seen London, or Londinium as it was called then. He’d been a part of the Roman army stationed there in the first century AD. He’d pulled his horse up on the banks of the river, near to where London Bridge now stood, and looked across the water at the small settlement. He remembered returning a few hundred years later and being surprised by how much the place had deteriorated, since the departure of the Romans.

Other memories came thick and fast. Been held a prisoner in the very White Tower or Tower of London behind him. Fighting the Great Fire in 1666, watching the new St Paul’s Cathedral being built. Attending the royal court as an advisor. The Ice Fairs that used to be held on the Thames. He’d been living in the city in Whitechapel, and then other areas of London. His memories of the city were like slices of time spread out in front of him.

He listened to the sounds around him. He could hear the city waking up as traffic on the nearby roads became louder. He’d thought it had been bad in York when he was there, London had turned out to be a lot worse. He could only thank Robin, his old friend’s son for all the help he’d given him in becoming acclimatised to the modern era. Without him he’d have been completely lost.

Reaching into his pocket, he took out the smart phone Robin had gifted him. It had come with several lessons in how to use it. Malik had been fascinated by the possibilities the phone offered. He’d learned quickly. Opening it, he checked out their message stream, but nothing had been added since the day before. He grimaced. He’d been a right idiot to the young man. He was just thankful that he’d forgiven him for leaving York, without telling him he was going. He’d not even thought of it at the time, just taken with the necessity of returning to London, as soon as he could. That had been in December. It was now early January and a new year, he was thankful to still have the young man’s friendship.

His ears picked up the slight sound of footsteps. Footsteps Malik recognised. He smiled, but showed no sign that he knew the other vampire was there.

Niall appeared out of the early morning frost in front of Malik sitting on the bench overlooking the river. Malik stood up and met him as he reached him. They embraced and Malik hugged the younger vampire hard to him. He didn’t want to let go. Not now that he was back in his arms again.

“It really is you?” Niall whispered against his shoulder. Malik could feel tears on Niall’s cheek. He reached up and wiped them off gently with a finger.

He squeezed him harder, before letting go and sitting down next to him on the bench. He moved so he could see Niall and smiled widely at the man he had become. He remembered the young scamp of a boy he’d first met at the Frost Fair all those years ago.

*****

Malik strolled along the ice on the River Thames as he watched the vendors and food sellers calling their wares into the cold February day. No ships were sailing on the Thames now as the river had been frozen for weeks. He’d enjoyed an earlier frost fair the last time he’d been in London at the beginning of the century. Now nearing the end, he was here again.

He watched and took note of the people of all classes visiting the fair. From the ragged children who lived in the rookeries, to the middle classes who’d caught one of the coaches heading to the fair for a day out. Even the king had been rumoured to have visited the fair. Charles was getting older and Malik was unsure whether he’d be welcome if he showed his face at the palace in Whitehall. Charles had been a young boy last time Malik had seen him. Would he recognise him and wonder why his father’s old adviser still looked as young as he did?

As he wandered closer to one of the raucous bars that had been set up, with the intention of finding a meal, he felt a hand under his winter coat. Whirling round with his vampire speed, his hand shot out and captured that of a small ragamuffin boy.

The young lad was astonished that not only had Malik felt his attempt to pick his pocket, but he’d been able to catch him.

“Who are you?” He barked.

“N..nn. Niall, sir.” The boy had stuttered.

“Irish?”

“Yes sir.” The young lad answered, his already pale face had gone whiter. He was dressed in clothes that were too big for him, but looked as though they’d been of good quality when new.

Malik quickly took in his appearance, the pale face, the hollow cheeks and his too thin legs and arms sticking out from the layers of clothes. He wasn’t sure what it was about the young boy that made him take his hand and pull him over to one of the food vendors. He forked over a few pennies and bought the boy a warming meal.

Niall looked at him in astonishment that some one would do that for him, but he wolfed it down before Malik could change his mind. Then as quick as a flash he was gone, lost in the crowd. Malik shook his head and returned his attention to finding his own next meal.

Over the next few weeks, whenever he visited the frost fair, he spotted the young boy. Sometimes Niall was on his own, others with a group of other young boys who were as ragged as he was. He usually threw a few coins in their direction and watched as they scrambled across the ice for them.

One day he wasn’t amongst the crowd of boys, he walked up to them and handed them some coins.

“Where’s Niall?” he asked them.

“Dunno.” One of them answered. But another one just pointed behind him towards the rookeries, where he assumed they all lived.

“He didn’t get out of bed today.” The other boy said.

Malik looked behind them and threw the children hanging around him, a couple of extra coins. He didn’t know what made him head into the rookeries looking for the young scamp. He wasn’t really a sentimental man, his long years as a vampire had inured him to much of humanities suffering. But, this young lad…

It took him several hours and several coins in bribes, before he found Niall. He was lain on a pallet on the floor of a flophouse. The proprietor, an unpleasant man named Coughlin, had only let him in once he passed him a few pounds. Then the man couldn’t ingratiate himself enough.

Once Malik saw the state Niall was in, he scooped him up in his arms, and despite Coughlin’s protests, he strode out of the flop house with the young boy. Taking him to his own home, he called a physician he knew, who treated the boy for pneumonia. They were lucky that he’d got him when he did. He was lucky to be alive.

*****

Brought back to the present, he smiled at his son. Niall was still looking at him in disbelief that he was there.

“What happened?” Niall eventually asked. “All I know is from the short message Xisco… sorry Francis sent to say you were with him, and his family in York. It was only then that I felt able to reach out to you, using the Master link, once more. For the first time in over 150 years I managed to find you.”

Niall looked distraught at this. Malik could see his absence from his son’s life had caused him a lot of distress. He knew Niall would have been trying to reach out to his him. As his Sire, Malik could connect to any of his children when he meditated. Same as he could reach out to his own Master. He had kept himself to himself, when he first came back from the coma he’d been kept in. He’d been embarrassed, and had put off contacting Niall and his sister Esmé.

“It’s a long, and not very nice story.” He answered Niall’s question.

“I have all day.” The younger vampire answered.

Malik squeezed his hand. “Later.” He promised him, returning his own gaze to the river.

“I owe you my life Mal. Anything you tell me, anything. I don’t care.”

Malik nodded. “I know, it’s just… embarrassing.”

Niall nodded and sat back.

“How is Esmé?” Malik changed the subject, asking after his vampire daughter. Apart from Niall, she was the only other person he’d turned.

Niall laughed. “Esmé is well. She is looking forward to seeing you.”

“As I am her.” He stood up, just as his phone dinged with a message, from Robin.

Quickly he opened the phone to read the message, a look of puzzlement on his face.

“What is it?” Niall asked.

Malik held the phone out so Niall could read the message.

*****

Someone was here today asking for you. He seemed to know what had happened to you! None of us have talked about it with strangers. Falcon & Hugh saw him off, but I have a feeling he’ll be back.

*****

It was really dark outside the Wool Emporium at 8.10 am on a cold January morning. Robin Byrde flicked on the lights as he entered the shop from the stockroom, which was really a glorified corridor leading to the stairs and his apartment above. Making sure all the lights were on in the shop, he walked around and checked everything was ready for opening at nine.

Once he was sure everything was as it should be, he entered the small staff room at the back and set up the coffee machine, ready for the day ahead. Annabelle, one of his assistant’s, was on shift today and she hated it when he forgot to put the coffee on for her.

Everything was set up just as the sun was rising outside, not that you could actually see the sun at this time of year down Stonegate Arcade. It would be later in the day, before it peeped above the bookshop owned by his brother Falcon, opposite his shop.

Thinking about Falcon, he grabbed his keys, opened the door and locking it behind him, wandered across the paved area to the bookshop. He knocked on the door and Hugh, Falcon’s fiancé answered the door grinning at him.

“Morning, Rob.”

“Hi Hugh. Thought I’d pop across and pick up this months books’ before I started to put my boxes together.”

Hugh gestured for him to follow and he entered the shop. He waved at his niece Abbie, who was setting up the till and followed Hugh into the bookshop’s stock room. Which was way better organised than his was.

“No Falcon this morning?” he asked.

“Nope. He’s off on a job for Francis. I should be hearing from him later today.”

Robin nodded, Falcon and Hugh, plus a couple of Hugh’s friends worked for their father Francis Byrde at his Paranormal Investigation Business. It was not unusual for them to be busy with an investigation.

Hugh was pulling a large cardboard box towards him and using a penknife he pulled from his pocket, he slit the cardboard and opened the box. It was full of a new Urban Fantasy novel, one both he and Falcon had enjoyed reading. They were sending it out in their January book box. Robin sent out knitting boxes, crochet boxes and yarn boxes every month. He had a small but growing subscription service. In October he and Falcon had decided to experiment with sending out some joint boxes. They hadn’t really expected it to be popular, and had been surprised at the number of people who had taken them up on it.

“How many copies?” Hugh asked.

“Ten this month.” He replied holding his arms out for Hugh to pile them up on him.

“Come on,” Hugh went on. “I’ll help you across the way with them.”

Robin nodded and let Hugh take five of the hardbacks back from him. He groaned internally, but didn’t say anything to his future brother-in-law. He knew Hugh would be mortified if he accused him of babying him, as Falcon did.

Instead he let the other man carry some books across the arcade, and hold on to them whilst he opened the door with his keys. Hugh followed him in to the door. He stopped and put his spare hand on Robin’s arm.

“Hold it.” He said in a quiet voice. Robin looked up at him, then frowned and looked where Hugh was looking. He dropped the books in surprise.

He’d been gone ten minutes, fifteen at the most and the shop had been completely trashed in that time. Hugh thrust the other books into his arms and motioned for him to stay where he was. Robin put them on the floor with the others, tidying them into a neat pile. He watched whilst Hugh went to check out the rest of the shop.

Robin closed his eyes in disbelief and pulled his smart phone out of his pocket and called the police. After last spring and the issues with Swales, he was taking no chances.

By the time he’s reported the break-in and been assured that someone would be with him that morning, Hugh was back grim faced.

“No-one here,” he confirmed as he came back to him.

“I’ve called the police. Not sure if they’ll come, though they said they would.”

Hugh nodded and suggested Robin look around to see if anything was missing, whilst he checked the flat upstairs.

Robin walked around, frustrated at the mess the unknown person or people had caused in his shop and stockroom. He stopped by the front door and picked up the books and put them on the counter in the stock room. He’d already started getting organised to fill the boxes. Now they were scattered allover the room. He’d have to redo that.

Checking his watch he realised it was gone nine and Annabelle hadn’t turned up yet. Hoping she was okay, he decided to leave it a few more moments before texting her.

Just as he was wondering if he should begin tidying up, there was a knocking on the door and Hugh’s friend Jack Speight, grinned at him through the glass. He quickly opened the door and let him in.

“They’re sending the big guns I see.” He grinned at the other man. They had all become friendly with DC Speight after last year, and he’d become a part of their social circle. Both he and his husband joining them for family get togethers.

Jack laughed as he came in. “As soon as despatch caught your address, they contacted me.”

“Jack!” Hugh came back into the shop from the back area and greeted his friend. “You’ve come to see what’s happening?”

“Of course, big guy!” then he became serious as he looked around the shop.

“Anything missing?”

“Not that I’ve noticed.” Robin replied. “I was only across at the bookshop for about 15 minutes, the door was still locked when we got back.”

“No sign of forced entry on the back door.” Hugh reported to Jack. “I’ve checked the

windows and can’t see any of them have been disturbed.”

Jack retreated to the door and opened it for a young woman who was carrying her kit. He introduced the her as Selena from SOCO, and she began dusting the door and shop for fingerprints.

Robin watched for awhile as Jack and Hugh discussed possible scenarios. He took out his phone again and dialled Annabelle’s number. It was not like her, to not let him know she wasn’t coming in.

The phone rang and rang and he was about to give up when it was answered by Ben, Annabelle’s husband.

“Robin?” he answered. “God I’m sorry. Annabelle asked me to let you know she wouldn’t be in and I completely forgot.”

“That’s fine Ben. Is she okay?” he was relieved that Ben had answered. He’d been getting worried for her.

“She’s got the worst case of morning sickness I’ve ever seen.” Ben was saying. Robin knew she already had two children and they were expecting their third, in the early summer.

“Lot worse than for Robbie & Lauren.”

“Sorry to hear that Ben. Send her my love and tell her I’ll speak to her later today.”

He ended the call before turning back to watch what Selena was doing. She’d moved away from the front of the shop and was now in the stockroom.

“Jack? Am I okay to start sorting out in here?” He called out to where the policeman was in the back with Hugh. “I could do with opening as soon as I can.”

He’d already seen a couple of his regulars checking the shop out and walking away when they realised it was closed. Jack came back through and joined Robin amongst what looked like the wildest yarn bomb he’d ever seen.

“Yeah, doesn’t look like we’re going to get anything from fingerprints, whoever they were, they were careful.”

“Anything on the CCTV?” he asked Hugh, as he came back into the shop from outside. He’d gone over to the bookshop, to check their outside cameras.

“Nothing.” Hugh replied disgruntled. “I can see you leave, then both of us returning later. There’s not even that many people around at that time.”

Robin nodded, he knew it had been a slim chance that anything would be captured on the cameras. They would show the door to the shop, but the back door was out of sight. Perhaps it was time to get Ollie to put in more security, as he’d been threatening. He’d never considered it before, always thinking of his shop was as being a low risk, but after this morning…

Selena had finished up and shook her head at Jack before saying goodbye to the rest of them and leaving. Robin put a note on the door to say he’d been open later that morning. He looked around at the mess, then began picking balls of wool up. He could have really done with Annabelle’s help that morning.

*****

It took most of the day for Robin to get the shop back to how it had been that morning before the break in. Hugh had helped as much as he was able before he had to go off and join Falcon. His niece Abbie had called her sister Ella who normally worked at the café, but hadn’t been on shift that day, and she’d come in to help him sort things out.

He saw Ella out thanking her profusely and promised her one of the crochet boxes as a thank you. She’d grinned at him and kissed his cheek before waving bye and heading home. He switched off the coffee in the kitchen, chucking what was left in the pot out and washed it before setting it up for the next day. Just as he was washing the mugs up, he heard the door go and wiping his hands, he headed out to greet what he hoped would be his last customer of the day.

“Can I help?” he asked the man who was looking around the wool shop with a sneer on his face. He turned to face him and Robin got a look at the hard cold eyes staring back at him. He was a powerful looking man, heavy built but muscular if not too tall. He shivered, hoping he didn’t stay long.

“Where is he?”

“I’m sorry.” Robin replied. “Where’s who?”

“The vampire.”

That didn’t help much, he looked at the man and decided to play dumb. “I..I’m sorry? Vampires don’t exist, what are you talking about?”

“You don’t fool me boy! Where is he?” He began stalking towards Robin, who took a couple of steps back. “Where’s Malik!”

Robin gulped and trying not to look into the other man’s eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

“Oh, I think you do.” The man advanced on him again. The bell went on the door, and Robin was never more thankful to hear it, especially as it heralded Falcon and Hugh coming in.

“Are you okay?” Falcon asked him, looking at the large man standing in front of Robin. He shook his head.

The man had turned to face Falcon and Hugh. Robin was glad that his gaze was no longer on him.

Falcon opened the door and gestured with his other hand. “Unless you’re going to buy something I suggest you leave.”

The other man walked over to the door and strode through it, scowling. He turned and pinned Robin with his glare once more. “Tell Malik, Vasily wants to talk to him.”

**********

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COMING SOON: On Monday, 1st September, there will be NO blog post. On Wednesday, 3rd September, our guest author is Sarah Connell, who is sharing Chapter 6 of her novel 'Where Are You Now?'