Alex Preston - The Revelations

Marcus sat down next to Mouse and felt his friend’s leg jittering beneath the table. He gently put his hand on Mouse’s knee. Marcus could smell body odour, vegetation, coffee. The bags under Mouse’s bulging eyes reached down his cheeks.

‘You know Philip went home?’

Mouse took a sip of coffee.

‘Did he?’ He shrugged. ‘It’s a shame, but there’s always a few who get freaked out. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much. I always thought he was a bit flaky.’

They sat together in silence as the house slowly woke around them. They heard doors banging and voices and then Mrs Millman came bustling into the room.

‘Well then you two, sitting here in the dark. Let’s have some lights on and I’ll make bacon and eggs for you both.’

The light surprised Mouse and he turned quickly away from Marcus. The smell of the rashers sizzling on the stove brought down most of the Course members. Abby was wearing one of Marcus’s jumpers over her pyjamas and helped Mrs Millman to serve breakfast. She sat down next to Marcus.

‘I wonder where the old folks are?’ she whispered to him. ‘I can understand Lee having a lie-in, but David and Sally went to bed really early.’

Marcus was about to speak but took a mouthful of bacon instead. After a while the Earl and David came into the room together. David hadn’t shaved and the stubble made his face look grey and drawn. Marcus wondered if they had carried on drinking after leaving the younger members the night before.

‘Morning, guys.’ David clapped his hands together as he sat down. ‘Doesn’t this look splendid? Thanks so much, Mrs Millman.’

After breakfast the Course members went up to their rooms to change for the morning service. Marcus shaved in the small sink, trying not to look too hard into the age-spotted mirror. Abby sang under her breath as she dressed. He watched her move around the room. She stood in a white bra and passed a deodorant stick under her arms, reached across him to wet her toothbrush under the tap and stood looking out of the window as she brushed her teeth. Finally, she pulled on a shirt and a red pullover and came up behind Marcus as he finished shaving. She hugged him from behind, reaching around to stroke his smooth damp cheek with one hand.

‘I should go and wake Lee. It isn’t like her to sleep in: she’s usually the first one up.’

He waited and listened as Abby went out of the room. He heard Lee’s door squeak as it opened and he realised that he had heard the same sound repeatedly in the night — it brought back the dry-mouth panic of his nightmares. Abby came back in.

‘She’s not there. Maybe she went down to the chapel early. I tried her phone but it went straight to voicemail.’

They walked down the stairs together. The Earl and Mouse were talking in the centre of the entrance hall. Mouse watched them descend with a thin smile on his lips. The Earl turned towards them.

‘Young Mouse and I were discussing the paintings here. I bought them on Cork Street over the years. No idea who they are or who painted them. Unless it says on the frame, of course. They come, I suppose, from country-house clear-outs; I like to think of them as my family. Who knows, some of them might be.’

They made their way out into the damp morning air and down to the chapel. The Earl walked beside Marcus, leaning towards him conspiratorially.

‘I don’t know if you heard me last night telling Neil about this uranium mine in Azerbaijan. Astonishing money to be made out there. And some useful tax loopholes to exploit. Let me know if you’d like to put a bit of cash in. Wouldn’t have to be a lot. I like to throw a bone the way of you youngsters every so often. . ’

Marcus hardly heard him, mumbled something, and then let the Earl’s long strides carry him on ahead. Marcus stopped at the entrance to the church and looked back up at the huge house. Smoke drifted from the high chimneys, rooks squabbled on the roof. He made out the window to Lee’s room. The glass reflected the grey streaks of the sky. Abby called his name and he walked through the dark archway and into the chapel.

Lee wasn’t inside. Marcus and Abby walked to the stage where Mouse was already sitting behind his drum kit, spinning his sticks and making rat-a-tat noises with his mouth. David and Sally Nightingale were sitting in the front pew, both of their heads bowed in prayer. The Earl made his way in to sit beside them. Abby and Marcus sat on the edge of the stage. She took his hand and whispered to him.

‘Where’s Lee? We can’t play some of the songs without her. It’s really very bad of her not to turn up.’

The remaining Course members filed into the church and David walked slowly up to the stage. Marcus thought he detected a slight limp as the priest climbed up behind the lectern.

‘Welcome, all of you. I hope there aren’t too many sore heads. The Retreat will be formally over after this service, but we’ll all be around to chat, to answer questions, to have a cup of coffee afterwards. Now let us pray.’

The service dragged by. Marcus felt as if he was watching it from a great distance, that time was being spooled out terribly slowly. Each time he looked at his watch he couldn’t believe that only three or four minutes had passed since his last surreptitious glance. David insisted on the Sunday service being a formal Holy Communion, and the Earl and Sally acted as sacristans, preparing the bread and wine. Marcus knew how different the words of the service would sound to the new members now that they were fully initiated: charged with extraordinary meaning and significance, no longer the repetition of stale prayers but rich with the promise of greater revelation. He looked over at Abby, whose mouth hung eagerly open, as if inhaling the words, preparing for the joy of Communion. The twins sat in the front row, beaming, barely able to keep their heads lowered during the prayers. Only Maki looked bored. Marcus saw her flicking through the pages of the hymnal, a sad smile on her lips. The band played songs that they knew well enough to cover Lee’s absence and then the service was over and the Course members filed out into the grey morning.

Mouse offered Marcus a cigarette and they walked over to the edge of the woods, looking down through the trees to the lake. Abby, continuing up the hill towards the house, called down to them.

‘I’m going to find Lee. What time are you thinking of heading home? We should probably offer to stick around and help clear up. We might even get a bite to eat.’

Marcus drew on his cigarette.

‘I think I’d like to get back. Let’s head off as soon as we can without being rude. You OK with that, Mouse?’

‘Sure, grand. I’m going to sleep all the way home.’

They stood and smoked. Mouse had picked up a stick and was tracing patterns in the ground with it. Marcus tried to read something in the runes that Mouse left in the red earth at his feet, but lost himself in the snaking furrows. He found a stone and threw it as hard as he could towards the lake. It landed well short, plunging down through the canopy of trees, sending a pair of jackdaws up squawking into the sky. He saw Abby standing at the back door as he came up towards the house. She scurried down towards them.

‘I think she’s gone. I think Lee has left like Philip did. Her handbag is gone. Some of her clothes, too. We should tell David. Will you come with me?’

Marcus, feeling suddenly sick, ground his cigarette out in the damp grass.

‘Sure, I’ll come.’

The Nightingales were packing in their room when the three friends knocked on the door.

‘Come in!’ David’s voice was husky. He was standing over the bed folding a pair of identical white shirts. ‘Hi, guys. How can I help?’