Page 220 of The Running Grave

Robin’s tracksuit bottoms were soaked in the warm red liquid. She got slowly to her feet, her nostrils full of the ferrous smell of Lin’s blood, as Penny came creeping back into the bathroom, her eyes wide.

‘What happened to her?’ she whispered.

‘I think she tried to give herself a miscarriage,’ said Robin, who felt nauseated.

‘Oh,’ said Penny. ‘I didn’t know what to do. I just saw the blood under the door…’

The ramifications of what had just happened were hitting Robin. She wondered whether Lin was going to die, whether Zhou was competent to deal with the emergency. She also knew she’d reacted to the crisis as Robin Ellacott, not as Rowena Ellis, shouting at Zhou and ignoring his orders, pushing Taio away, siding with the girl who’d tried to abort her baby. Then there was her admission she knew Lin had eaten plants…

‘Dr Zhou told me to help you clean up,’ said Penny timidly.

‘It’s fine,’ said Robin, who very much wanted to be left alone. ‘I can do it.’

‘No,’ said Penny, who looked queasy but determined, ‘he told me to… you really yelled at him,’ she added nervously.

‘I was just shocked,’ said Robin.

‘I know… but he is the doctor.’

Robin said nothing, but went to get one of the stiff, rough towels the women used after showers, spread it over the blood and began to mop it up, all the while wondering how on earth she going to explain that she knew Lin had had those plants, without admitting she’d been in the woods where they grew, at night.

Imitating Robin, Penny too fetched a towel to soak up the blood. When most of it was mopped up, Robin dropped the stained towel into the laundry basket, went to get a fresh one and ran it under the cold water tap. As she did so, she glanced up at the high windows over the sinks again. Her heart hammered almost painfully as she imagined leaving immediately. She’d just heard the first indication that Will Edensor might be having doubts about the church, but she had no idea how to talk her way out of the trouble she’d now surely landed herself in. If only she could get rid of Penny, she might be able to climb out of one of those windows and drop down on the other side of the building, out of sight of the courtyard; then she could run for the woods while the higher-ups were distracted by Lin, raise the alarm and get an ambulance to the farm. That, surely, was the right thing to do. Her time was up.

She returned to the mess on the floor with her wet towel and began wiping up the last traces of blood.

‘Go to dinner,’ she told Penny. ‘I’ll finish up here, it’s nearly done.’

‘OK,’ said Penny, getting to her feet. ‘I hope you don’t get in trouble.’

‘Thanks,’ said Robin.

She waited until Penny’s footsteps had died away, then got up, threw the wet towel into the laundry basket too, and had taken two strides towards the sink when a white figure appeared in the doorway.

‘Papa J wants to see you,’ said Louise Pirbright.

73

We find ourselves close to the commander of darkness…

The I Ching or Book of Changes

‘I haven’t finished,’ said Robin stupidly, pointing at the floor, which was still faintly pink.

‘I’ll send someone else to do it,’ said Louise. She was holding her hands in front of her, nervously interlocking her swollen-jointed fingers. ‘You’d better come.’

It took a moment for Robin to make her trembling legs behave. She followed Louise out of the bathroom and through the deserted dormitory. For a brief moment, she contemplated breaking away, sprinting down the passage between the dormitories and climbing over the five-bar gate, but she had no confidence that she’d make the woods without being caught: there were too many people in the courtyard, some of them grouped around Daiyu’s pool to make the usual obeisance, others heading for the dining hall.

Louise and Robin, too, paused at the pool. When Robin said, ‘The Drowned Prophet will bless all who worship her,’ she felt her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. Having daubed her forehead with water, she followed Louise towards the dragon-carved doors of the farmhouse.

Inside, they passed the scarlet-carpeted staircase, then stopped at a shiny black door on the left-hand side of the hall. Louise knocked.

‘Come,’ said Jonathan Wace’s voice.

Louise opened the door, indicated that Robin should walk inside and then closed the door behind her.

The room Robin entered was large and very beautiful. Unlike Mazu’s study, there was no clutter here. The walls were covered in peacock blue fabric, against which figures of ivory and silver, most of them Chinese, stood in graceful, modern shelving cabinets, in pools of carefully directed light. A fire burned beneath a modern surround of white marble. In front of this, on a black leather couch, sat Jonathan Wace, alone, eating off a low black lacquer table that was laden with various dishes.

‘Aha,’ said Wace, smiling as he set down his knife and fork and got to his feet. ‘Rowena.’