HDA - Ring of Destiny by Dawn Foster-Moore Chapter 5

Joe looked up from the stall he was mooching through and realized that Frank had moved away. Because of the crowds he couldn’t see immediately where he’d gone, and had to craned his neck to try and track him. He finally spotted his wayward brother who had obviously not realized he was leaving his younger sibling behind.

Joe called out to him, his voice echoing strangely in the confines of the large hall. As Frank glanced back the crowds shrank into the shadows, leaving just the two of them standing in the isle. Joe raised his hand as Frank did not seem to see him. Finally his brother looked straight at him and grinned in recognition.

Smiling back Joe went to walk towards him, but only managed a couple of steps before he found his path barred by Rob Randall, who slowly shook his head and waggled his finger in front of Joe’s face. Joe found he was totally mesmerized by the finger that seemed to grow in size, and watched hypnotized as it pointed over his shoulder.

Joe slowly turned to see what it was indicating to and saw that Alex was standing directly behind him. All at once Joe understood that Frank had not been looking at him at all, but had been looking at Alex the whole time, looking straight through him. Alex waved a hand and Frank saluted cheerfully back. The older Hardy brother and Alex approached each other, almost gliding, and came to rest next to Joe and Rob.

"Frank, what’s going on? Why are you ignoring me?" asked Joe, annoyed.

Frank and Alex looked at Joe and then at each other. "Do we know him?" they asked simultaneously.

"Who is this person?" asked Alex.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Bro," Frank replied and turned and addressed Joe directly, "get lost kid!" He and Alex turned abruptly away and stalked off, laughing.

Joe called out to his brother again. "Frank? Wait for me, don’t go, I don’t understand!" Alex and Frank continued to walk away laughing. Trying to run, Joe felt a strong hand seize his arm, holding him back. He pulled desperately against the iron like grip, but to no avail, Rob was just too strong for him and he couldn’t break free. To Joe’s surprise, Rob wasn’t even quivering as fought again him, just stood stock still with his arm out-stretched, his face expressionless.

Joe could still hear the harsh laughter from Frank and Alex as they moved into the distance, leaving him far behind. Horrified, Joe started to scream out his brother’s name, tears welling up and rolling freely down his cheeks, aware now that he had lost the only brother he had - Frank had chosen Alex over him. The laughter became louder and louder until he could no longer hear his own sobbing and screaming. Suddenly there was a loud slamming noise and Joe jumped.

He jerked upright in bed and for a moment was disorientated, not sure where he was. Gradually, reality kicked in and he remembered he was in Alex and Helen’s house. Trying not to cry he ran a shaky hand over his sweaty forehead and shivered, remembering every detail of the horrible nightmare. He quickly got a grip on himself and looked over at Frank’s bed, seeing it was empty and remade. He heard another slamming noise and realized what had woken him up - it was a car door outside. Getting out of bed on shaky legs, he went to the window and drew the curtain aside. Leaning out and looking left, he could just about see Frank, Rob and Alex in the BMW pulling away, he could also see they were laughing and realized his subconscious and imagination had been working overtime, concocting the horrible dream. "I wonder where they’re going?" he thought.

"Morning sleepyhead," greeted Helen as Joe entered the kitchen half an hour later.

"Where’s Frank gone?" he asked her.

"To the gym with Rob and Alex."

"Rats!" he said, disappointed. "I would’ve gone too, why didn’t Frank wake me?"

"They discussed that, but Frank said you hadn’t slept much on the plane, or yesterday, so he decided to let you have a lie in," she paused and her brow furrowed. "Are you okay, you look a little pale."

"Yeah, I’m fine. Didn’t sleep very well, that’s all." Joe suddenly realized his temples where throbbing. "Actually, I’ve got a bit of a headache."

"That’ll be a tension headache," she stated and regarded Joe thoughtfully for a couple of seconds. "Sorry Joe, I couldn’t help but overhear you nightmaring."

"Oh…you heard that?" he asked, embarrassed.

"Yes, you were a bit loud, but by the time I got upstairs, you’d stopped. Do you often have dreams like that?"

"Sometimes."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Well, I can at least fix the headache," she said. She pulled a stool over to the sink, climbed on and reached up to one of the top cupboards, pulling down a jar of painkillers.

Joe came forward and she put her hand on his shoulder as he lifted her down to the ground. She tipped two into his palm and he gratefully took the glass of water offered and downed them in one. "Thanks – and not just for the tablets."

"No problem - anytime. If you ever want to talk, you know where to find me."

Kiwi and Mark appeared in the back doorway. "Morning Joe," greeted the younger Randall brother. "Want to come play? We’re violently attacking each other."

"Okay," agreed Joe. "You know, in any other household, on any other vacation, this would seem very strange!"

Helen laughed out loud at his sarcasm. "I’m coming too." She announced, headed for the door.

Joe followed her with his eyes. "What? But you a…"

"I’m a what…" she interrupted, turning to him and looking up into his face "…girl?". She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Well…yeah," he answered, grimacing, wishing he kept his mouth shut.

"Right, this means war!" She hit him playfully in the stomach with the back of her hand. "Come on hard man, let’s see if you can beat the little girl shall we," she turned to the others, " and that goes for you two as well!" she added, brushing past Kiwi and Mark. She gave off a crackling, manic laugh, "Oh goodie, I can feel a male humiliation session coming on," she rubbed her hands together as she entered the garden.

"Blimey," groaned Kiwi, eyeing Joe, his eyes full of exasperation. "You really shouldn’t underestimate women Joe, now we’ve got no chance – well done honk mouth!"

"She’s a better swordsman then the rest of us put together - none of us can beat her, she’s going to make mince meat out of us!" agreed Mark.

"Sorry guys," said Joe, viewing with admiration Helen’s retreating back.

***

An hour later, everyone was seated in the dining room around the table eating a hearty breakfast.

"Okay, plan of action," began Rob, putting his ‘leader-of-a-small-band-of-warriors’ head on, "We’ll take two cars. Alex has a spare set of kit [clothes] for Frank and I have a set for Joe. The trip should take us around an hour, so we’d better move straight after eating".

They soon found themselves out in the driveway, pushing army kit bags into the trunks. Ten minutes later they were climbing aboard and they were off.

Alex’s BMW unsurprisingly led the whole way, but Rob’s aged Ford Estate valiantly kept pace for the majority of the journey, only falling back towards the end and arriving ten minutes after. "Still life in the old girl yet, eh Rob?" said Kiwi, tapping the hood. Rob snorted in reply and nodded.

Mark climbed gingerly from the back seat. "You need to get the rear suspension sorted, my back is killing me!" he bemoaned sourly to his brother and turned to Alex. "I’m traveling back with you Pal...no way am I getting into that rust bucket again!"

Frank and Joe saw a large building with people gathering out front and joined the end of queue along with the others. A few minutes later, the doors were opened and the public began streaming in.

"I’ll be back," said Rob, striding purposefully away.

"Where’s he going in such a hurry?" Frank asked Alex.

"He needs some leather for a new pair of shoes, if he gets there before anyone else, he’ll have the pick of the best."

"Is it that cut throat?" asked Joe surprised.

"Like the choice of words!" smiled Alex at Joe’s unintentional pun. "Yes, it can be cut throat when it comes to certain items, some are harder to come by than others."

They walked forward through to the hall area. Kiwi, who had also never been to the fayre before, whooped loudly and enthusiastically, and rushed straight to a table where there was laid out a large number of different period swords, Joe joined him. For the next couple of hours, they wandered about taking in the sights, occasionally stopping to purchase something, always bartering down the price.

There was a large choice of different periods on display, Viking, Saxon, Roman, Napoleonic, Roundheads and Cavaliers, First and Second World Warers and of course Norman. Everyone had separated into small groups or had wandered off. Joe had continued to accompany Kiwi and Mark, while Rob and Alex had earlier peeled away from the main group to go and look for hobnails and shoe soles.

Frank had stuck with Helen and helped her choose six metres of beautiful rust colored silk linen, from which she planned to construct a noble woman’s dress. Strangers, assuming Frank was Alex, constantly waylaid them to draw him into conversation and they had to keep explaining themselves. At first, they, found the situation mildly amusing, and a couple of times even allowed Alex’s acquaintances to believe it was Alex, but after a couple of hours, Frank and Helen had had enough and were ready for a rest. Pulling a cell-phone from her pocket she ‘rallied the troops’ and they pushed their way through the crowds to the cafeteria area. By the time they arrived at the rendezvous point, everyone else was waiting for them, having commandeered a large, round table.

Frank slumped down into a chair but found he couldn’t get his legs underneath because of all the large, interestingly shaped bundles piled beneath. "Someone’s spent a lot of money," he remarked.

"We always do. As it’s only held once a year you have to buy when you can. We’ve all been saving like misers for months," explained Mark.

"Frank, Joe and I will go get the drinks, what does everyone want?" asked Alex, winking at the Hardys conspiratorially. Everyone gave their orders and Frank, Joe and Alex rose from the table. It didn’t escape the Hardy brothers’ notice that the other remaining young men were acting decidedly shadily - nudging one another, winking and grinning. Helen seemed completely oblivious to these strange going-ons as she rummaged in her handbag.

Frank raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something, but Alex put a finger to his lips silencing him, and drew them away from the table.

"What’s going on?" asked Joe. "Is this some sort of initiation ceremony, where Frank and me get pelted with eggs or something?"

"Eh? - Nothing of the sort…you’re not very trusting are you?" remarked Alex, bemused. "The reason I dragged you away was so that I could ask you both a favor."

"Oh I see – the one you don’t want Helen knowing about?" asked Frank.

"How did you know that?" said Alex, very much surprised.

"Let’s just say the other guys are acting real subtle!"

Alex looked back at his friends. Kiwi and Mark were grinning inanely, giving the thumbs up sign and tipping their heads goofily in Helen’s direction. Rob was shaking his head and rolled his eyes at them. Helen glanced up and looked from Alex to them. Quickly, they put their hands down and gazed into the distance, feigning innocence. Alex groaned inwardly, "Yes, really subtle," he agreed, the corner of his mouth turned up.

"What’s the favor?" asked Joe as they reached the bar and stood in the queue.

"Well, for the past twelve months, Helen’s been working flat out getting our soft kit up to standard."

"She makes all the groups clothing?" asked Joe.

"Yes, and..." a waitress interrupted them, asking them for their order, Alex verbally gave her a list and continued, "…we’ve pooled our money and want to buy her something nice. Trouble is, we need to get her out of the way so we can go off and choose something."

"No problem," said Frank. "We’re the guys for the job."

Alex got his wallet out to pay the waitress, but Joe placed a restraining hand on his arm and paid the bill himself. The Hardys also insisted on contributing to the gift and handed Alex some notes.

"That’s really not necessary," he said, coloring up.

"We insist, you and Helen have taken us into your home and treated us like members of the family, we would have bought her something in the end anyway. At least this way we know she’ll get something she really likes."