Grinvill's Tin

12: Prisoners

Hamish yanked the handle again, peering first through the keyhole and then through the door crack.

'What the...' he turned to Erica. 'She's locked us in - the key's still in there – and the bolt's been slid across.'

Erica was at the windows, seeing if they could get out through them, but it was impossible: they had external shutters locked tight from the outside of the house.

'She must be absolutely mad!' Erica exclaimed. 'Why on earth would she want to keep us here!'

She went over to the door and started to bang on it and call out. There was no reply. Hamish took over, but after a few minutes he gave up too.

'It's no use. She's not coming. What're we going to do? What if she keeps us in here all night?'

'What if, indeed, eh?' echoed a voice suddenly from the other side of the door. 'All night, oh yis, all night. What a good idea!'

'Is that you, Mrs Withy? I think there's been a mistake. We can't open the door – could you let us out please?'

Hamish tested out a measured approach, but the response was spiteful laughter and a sound of something being dragged up to the door. Hamish peered through the crack again. Squinting, he could just see Mrs Withy settling herself down on a wooden chair.

'Let you out? Oh, how risonable that sounds!' said Mrs Withy. 'But it ent!' she continued, in a high and frightening voice. 'Not risonable at all! Yew think that ye're so clever, looking for a passage to Lorna. Oh yes! Don't be shocked! I saw yew two setting off, scuttling off down that road to the sea. So sure! So cocky! Well, I saw everything. EVERYTHING, I tell you. And I warn yew, no good will come of it at all!'

Hamish took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm. How did she know that they had been trying to find Lorna? But had she really seen everything, or was she just bluffing?

'Lorna! What do you know about Lorna? There isn't really such a place is there?'

'Humph...' Mrs Withy grunted, a little taken off guard. 'Yew tell me, my dears...'

'Of course there isn't!' tried Hamish, desperately hoping she hadn't actually seen them walking along the path to the island.

'Weel, ah know ye're meddlin where you shouldn't be! I'm going to keep yew in this room. It's for yeer own good.'

'But you can't keep us here!' exclaimed Erica. 'That's kidnapping us.'

'Don't worry about that, I can awright!' Mrs Withy replied. 'I can and I will!'

And with a further trill of amusement she got up from her chair and walked away.

Erica walked across the room to search in her jacket pockets. Her throat was tight. She felt like screaming but kept her voice steady. 'What right has she got to lock us up like this? Hamish, please tell me you've got your mobile! I haven't got mine.'

'Yes, but I think it'll be out of power,' Hamish muttered.

'Check!' she said, 'Quickly!'

Hamish pulled his phone out, but flung the bag on the floor when he saw that he'd been right. It had been hours since they'd left their house early that morning, and the phone's battery was useless.

'Why didn't I charge it up again when we got home! How stupid I was!' He scowled at his phone  and rattled at the windows and doors all over again.

'We have to get out,' he said, quietly. 'If Mrs Withy knows about Lorna, and she doesn't want us to go back to help save it, it can only mean one thing – that Incarna's power is spreading here to Orkney – our home! I bet Mrs Withy's somehow in Incarna's power – she certainly knows a lot about the Finfolk and seems to think they like her...'