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28.2: INTERESTED PARTIES (part 2)

"One moment," Elizabeth said. She leaned close to Harriet once more, scrutinising her face. Her question, when it came, was not what Harriet expected.

"Have we... met?"

Harriet gaped at her. "Um, no. No. I think I'd remember that."

"Hmm." Elizabeth pursed her lips. "You do look so familiar."

"You probably considered feeding on her once," Pim volunteered, casually evoking a near-death experience. Harriet was forming a severe dislike for Rupert's cousin. Not that Pim would care.

"I daresay you're right, my dear." Elizabeth dismissed it with an elegant wave of her hand. "There are so many Middlers, after all, and they all look so very similar."

Harriet bristled. A few minutes ago she'd been scared stiff by these vampires, but her fright was fast being replaced by annoyance. The nicest person here is Rupert's father and he's still busy pretending to be a bat. She determined to lead them on a merry chase, these arrogant vampiresses-and hoped that she'd come up with a more solid plan as she went.

"Come along, Edmund," Elizabeth called to her husband. "This Middler's going to take us to Rupert."

And I'm fed up with being called a Middler like that. Though I suppose the names humans call vampires are a lot worse.

"Rupert, you say?" Edmund glided over to them. "Search party, to the horses!"

"We don't have any horses, darling," Elizabeth sighed. Then she gasped. "Edmund, where is your cloak?"

"My cloak...?" Edmund turned in a full circle before determining that the garment was truly missing. "Oops."

"You're lucky that these trees grow so close," Elizabeth scolded. "You'd be frazzled, else."

"Sizzling like a sausage!" contributed Edmund.

"Indeed. Now where have you left it?"

They looked around. There was no cloak in sight.

"Oh, Edmund," Elizabeth said. "What have you done with it? You need that cloak, darling."

Edmund scratched his head. "You know, wife, I really cannot recall. Not a clue. Not a marble. Not a wisp of a memory."

"Pim," Elizabeth ordered. "Go and help Edmund find his cloak. I shall watch the Middler."

"Oh, Aunt Lizzie-"

"Do as I say."

Pim harrumphed, darted a look at Harriet that promised, I will make your life miserable just as soon as I've done my chores, and stomped off with Edmund. After a minute-a very long, uncomfortable minute for Harriet, pinned under Elizabeth's steely regard-Pim let out a shout.

"Aunt Lizzie!"

"What is it?" Elizabeth demanded. "Have you found it?"

"Aunt Lizzie!"

Elizabeth whirled round. "Night's shades, what is the matter?"

Pim appeared from behind a nearby thicket and rushed up to them. "Aunt Lizzie! My cloak... It's gone!"

"Your cloak?" Elizabeth began, incredulous, then paused when she saw her niece was telling the truth: Pim was clad in her lacy dress and nothing more. "What have you done with it?"

"Nothing! I was just standing there-I mean, I was searching really hard-and then whoosh! It was gone."

"Don't be ridiculous, child. Your cloak cannot simply vanish. It's heavy-duty weave, goblin-made. If this is some prank that you and Edmund have cooked up, then now is hardly the time-"

Whoosh!

Harriet watched in amazement as, in an instant, Elizabeth's cloak was whipped from her back, snapping upwards and disappearing in a flurry of black fabric.

"What in Night's dark halls...?" All three vampires strained their eyes upwards, but all there was to see were the branches and leaves enmeshed above them.

Whoosh!

A dark shape rocketed past, the suggestion of a cloak flapping in its wake.

"Get it!" Elizabeth cried. "It's got our cloaks!" The vampires took to the air and launched themselves after the mysterious apparition. Then...

Whoosh! The dark form hurtled past behind them.

"There!" Pim yelled, swerving in pursuit. Edmund followed her, cackling in glee at this new game.

Harriet stood transfixed by this bizarre spectacle, her eyes flickering to and fro as the vampires swooped and banked and raced after their prey.

Whoosh!

Then Harriet wasn't watching Rupert's family any more. Instead she was hurtling through the forest at a petrifying speed, borne aloft by something behind her. The only thing she could say for sure about it was that it could travel very, very fast indeed. Foliage passed in a blur on either side as whatever carried her careened through the trees. Harriet's eyeballs were watering and her stomach was doing flips. This was, if anything, worse than the broomstick.

Then, as abruptly as it began, the flight was over. Harriet found herself planted back on her feet, teetering as the world span about her.

"Here," someone said, and pushed something into Harriet's hand.

"What...?" Harriet asked.

"Head for the light, over there." A hand was pointing, but everything was spinning so much that Harriet couldn't focus on it. "The edge of the forest. They won't be able to follow you there."

Harriet caught her breath. "Who... What... are you?" she stammered.

A pause. "An interested party," the voice said.

Harriet's sight settled a little and the figure came into focus. It was a figure-like so many she encountered nowadays, it seemed-wrapped in a black cloak, with the hood up to hide its features.

"Interested in what?"

A hand reached out-a gloved hand-and touched Harriet's cheek, then drew back quickly, as though it had done something forbidden. "Hurry now," the figure said. "I'll keep them occupied."

The black-cloaked form withdrew.

"Wait!" cried Harriet. "Please! Who are you?"

Whoosh!

Too late: Harriet was alone in the wood. But no, not alone. For, as the last of her dizziness cleared, Harriet realised that what had been placed in her hand was the end of a leash, and that at the other end of it was Juggalug. The banshee was still gagged, but he waggled his ears at Harriet in delight. And here, also, was Rupert-at last-pulling himself out of her pocket and gesturing all sorts of queries and thanks to her.

"All together again," breathed Harriet. She collected herself. "Well, we'd better get out of here then." And she took off through the wood, sprinting towards the daylight that shone, finally, brilliantly, through the trees ahead.