Annwyn and St Mark's Bones: BOOK III

By Jo-Anne McDougall

WHAT MAKES A HERO STRONG? THE VILLAIN.

Aaron Annwyn is determined to destroy the Secret Society that has ruled his life for the past few years. The demands placed upon him have harmed his relationships and strained his psyche. Can Diana, his co-conspirator until now, be trusted? Or should he depend on Sasha, a beautiful computer guru, with whom he begins a relationship?

Regardless, his resolve is now greater than ever to defeat the powerful adversary, starting with his handler Jake. To be close enough to accomplish this, he accepts another mission that takes him to medieval Venice with a seemingly impossible task. Will he succeed and survive long enough for justice to prevail?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9781035827091

Jo-Anne McDougall

Jo-Anne McDougall is a graduate of the Universities of Queensland and New England. Most of her career has been spent in secondary school education. She is married, has two sons, and lives on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Her interests in travel, old books and conspiracy theories have led her to be passionate about delving into inexplicable mysteries. Her interweaving of history and fiction within a modern, time-shifting background engages young adults through page-turning tales. Her first two novels of the series, Annwyn and the Ship of Solomon and Annwyn and the Marble Tears, showcase her talent for capturing the reader’s interest from start to finish.

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About the Author

Jo-Anne McDougall is a graduate of the Universities of Queensland and New England. Most of her career has been spent in secondary school education. She is married, has two sons, and lives on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Her interests in travel, old books and conspiracy theories have led her to be passionate about delving into inexplicable mysteries. Her interweaving of history and fiction within a modern, time-shifting background engages young adults through page-turning tales. Her first two novels of the series, Annwyn and the Ship of Solomon and Annwyn and the Marble Tears, showcase her talent for capturing the reader’s interest from start to finish.

Dedication

To Scott and David

Copyright Information ©

Jo-Anne McDougall 2024

The right of Jo-Anne McDougall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035827084 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035827091 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

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Acknowledgement

I would like to recognise the Tourist Board of Venice, which enabled me to visit and research the Clock Tower (from the inside) and the Doge’s Palace, so that I would represent them accurately in my novel.

To my informative guide at St Mark’s Basilica, Venice, I say thank you for the tour of the Cathedral and Museum. I learnt much about the history of the church that has made Venice famous.

The story of St Mark’s relics, which lie in the sarcophagus and how they found their way to Venice, was an enthralling history told to me by a priest at the Basilica. Thank you for enriching my knowledge of the Saint.

Thank you to my neighbour and friend, Ken Waddington, for patiently proof reading my manuscript and offering continuing support and suggestions.

To my husband, Malcolm, I give heartfelt thanks for his endless encouragement and constant rereading of my text. His suggestions for plot development and resolution were invaluable.

Prologue

Venice, 5 April 1500

I made my way slowly to the coffin—pay it no attention. My stomach tightened as my eyes focussed downwards onto the broom that slipped in the sweat of my hands. Sweep, sweep.

St Mark’s bone fragments were concealed in the tattered pocket of my cloak as they had been for days. I just needed an opportunity to place them inside the purple, discoloured fabric surrounding the remains, an impossibility unless it was left unattended. I watched Milo as he leant over the side of the stone casket, gently adjusting the cloth contained in its hull.

Quegli stupide uccelli! Milo stood and waved his arms like opposing windmills at some pigeons which had made their way inside the Basilica and were roosting in a window sill not far from us. They fluttered their wings and cried as they carried on the sacred mating ritual. Their shit will fall on the marble. Aaron, climb that ladder and dislodge them.

Per favoure, Signor. I do not like heights, I pleaded.

Very well. Start cleaning up their mess. I will clear them. The Doge will be here soon to inspect our progress. We must be ready.

Milo moved away in the direction of the scaffolding, leaving the sacred casket unattended. This could be it. My chance. The other tradesmen were sitting in the breezeway of the nave. I swept closer until I was within easy reach of the coffin. I looked around once more as I slipped my hand on the fragile bones in my pocket.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a reflection in the only clear panel of a stained-glass window, the unmistakable silhouette of the Doge. He stood still and almost totally obscured by a column—I had missed him. My hand came away from the relics and back onto the broom as I moved to the white bird excrement on the floor. My heart pounded in my chest. I had nearly been caught. All the planning would have been for nothing.‌

Part I

Bitter

Months Previously

Cardiff, 24 December, Present Day, 11.30 pm

The whimpering came from Lili’s room. Everyone had turned in and no one stirred as I made my way down the hallway lit only by the dim street glow through the sky light. I twisted the doorknob and pushed it slightly away to see her sobbing, enough just to hear. Her body stiffened and her teeth clenched as she puffed and fought for breath. She yelled but only a whimper came from her slender, paralysed body.

I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder. Lili, wake up. You’re having a nightmare. She sprang up in bed, panting and fighting her bedsheets. You okay?

She looked through me, her glazed witch like eyes burning into me. Then she shook her head as she inhaled a long breath. Happens all the time. She gasped deeply, forcing air through her lungs.

Nightmares are the worst. Come into the snug for a while. I’m having trouble sleeping, too.

She didn’t say anything as she moved her legs over the side of the bed and I draped her dressing gown around tiny goose-bumped shoulders. She followed me and slumped into the rocking chair as I shut the sliding door to keep us quietly tucked away from the rest of the family.

How long has this been going on? I asked, falling onto the sofa bed, assigned to me since Gran had moved in for the holidays.

About a year. Started last Christmas at Botham. She pulled her dressing gown around her hips and shivered tucking her legs under her body.

Did something happen? I tried to remember what she’d been doing at Botham Castle. I was preoccupied in those days, living partly in the present and partly in the 5th century on the Grail assignment.

Yeah, my whole world changed, she snapped before closing her eyes and resting her head back into the rocker. She used her elbows to start swaying the old chair.

What?

She stopped the motion and looked back at me. Remember when we came home, you got really sick? Weird, crazy. I overheard Mum and Dad talking about you having to see that psycho doctor. No one would tell me anything. They were always whispering and then you met Diana and you were fine for a while. And then you weren’t and they’d whisper again.

She turned as white as a sheet and looked through me as she recalled the events.

Wow, sorry, Lil. I didn’t know.

Everyone thinks I’m too young or stupid to hear the truth about what’s going on. I’ll be 14 soon.

Lil, no one thinks you’re stupid. Guess Mum and Dad were just worried about me. I got depression. Another night, another lie.

You’re doing it too. Not trusting me. Her pupils had narrowed in anger now and she glared at me as if cursing me. She began rocking again but this time out of anger, not for solace.

Okay. What do you want to know? Ask me anything. I felt guilty and had to calm her down before she woke everyone.

That secret girlfriend of yours. The one we never met. Dindraney. What happened to her? Is that why you got sick? Was it my fault for finding your diary and blurting it out about her?

This must have been on her mind for months, her guilt gnawing away at her.

No, we just broke up. Nothing to do with you. How could I tell her that Dindraney was Diana and for a while, I was heart-broken, believing she’d died in the sixth century? Lili already thought I was nuts. None of the break up was your fault and certainly nothing to do with you finding my diary. We were already in a bad place. Only because the Society of St Josephus was controlling our every move. She couldn’t know that.

She lowered her voice and stopped moving. What about this year? You and Diana were happy together and then you weren’t. You don’t realise how many times Mum and Dad talk about you. They stop whenever I’d come into the room. What’s wrong? Are you dying or something? Is that why Diana doesn’t want to be your girlfriend anymore?

Hell. I never realised how much my life impacted Lili’s. Now I couldn’t say Diana and I fell out because I cheated on her with Lucrezia, a beautiful woman from medieval Milan that I’d fallen for on my second mission with the SSJ. If I did, she’d scream and wake Mum.

I was never dying, Lil. I bit my lip, shaking my head.

And then the police. They ransacked your room and Rory was screaming about a file. And the next day I was shunted off to Gran’s and Dad said not to worry about the raid. Forget it happened. How could I?

That was just a misunderstanding.

She wasn’t even listening to my answers but kept firing questions.

And why has that Sasha has been around here nearly every day lately? She doesn’t strike me as Miss Aboveboard. So, are you into drugs or something with her? She was spilling her soul. The floodgates had been opened and there was no stopping her.

Sasha may look like a punk but she’d never touch drugs. She won’t even have any alcohol. Her parents were both drunks and she’s got no other family—just acts tough for image. She eats organic when she can afford it. She’s straight.

Why do you spend so much time with her? She’s obviously not your girlfriend. You don’t look at her that way.

I didn’t think Lili had ever noticed anything about Sasha and me together.

Sasha is helping me with IT. She’s a nerd. Caught me up a year’s worth in weeks. We’re just friends. I teach her art—it’s a barter thing. I couldn’t tell her how I was cultivating the relationship in case Sasha’s huge computer brain could help me crack the SSJ time travel codes.

So, you’re not dying or into drugs and I won’t come out of my room someday to find the military racing down the hall after you?

Guarantee it. How could I guarantee that? Interpol might be chasing me one day if I couldn’t get free from the group.

Well, why doesn’t anyone talk to me in this family? Lili’s shoulders relaxed and the tension drained from her body as she sighed. She looked like she’d been to confession and would happily say her Hail Mary’s.

Reckon we should have. No secrets from now on. I lied.

My life had been a secret ever since I stumbled on the worm hole and fell into the hands of the SSJ. All would be over soon. Even if I failed at exposing the group, I’d get myself and Diana away from them. Only prayed Diana had been honest with me about wanting out.

We hadn’t had much time to plan before Paula asked her to fly back home to New York with her, to help her. She was a mess after Rory disappeared but I was surprised they’d stayed with her mum as long as they did.

One more thing. Tell me the truth about the police raid, she pleaded.

Look, that’s simple. I went to Rory’s study to sign a going away card. Remember he was transferred back to San Diego at short notice? Anyway, I pulled out some stuff from my backpack trying to find the envelope and when I put my gear back in, one of the files on his desk got in too. A top-secret one—Navy business. He suspected I stole it, so set the dogs on me.

Why not just give it back when the MPs came?

I panicked, so I took off. Thought I may be arrested. I didn’t think clearly.

In fact, I thought clearly enough to get out before I’d have a protracted time in jail. I wouldn’t mention the file was on Dad’s days in the forces, with a fabricated dossier showing a connection to spying. Rory had planned to use it to blackmail me if I ever tried to expose the activities of the Society.

I couldn’t tell her about the other info I’d snatched showing the decorated Commander Rory Anderson was trading weapons on the black market to Muslim militia. I had wanted to use that to bring down the SSJ, but Rory had been the only casualty. Both the Navy and the SSJ hushed that up.

I moved over to be beside her and put my arm around her shoulders giving her a light squeeze. Go back to bed. It’s nearly midnight. No more nightmares. And ask me, Lil, if you want to clear up something. I wouldn’t tell her anything but she could ask and I would placate her with fiction.

Okay. And. Well. Sorry we haven’t always got on. You’re not too bad as a brother really.

I haven’t always been the best, Lil. I’ll try harder. I’d been an ordinary brother. I had no option. I was trapped into deception.

Cardiff, 25 December, Present Day, 2 am

Sleep wasn’t never going to be easy after that conversation. The Santa lights on the roof across the road didn’t help. As I reached across from the couch trying to grab the drapes in an attempt to overlap the fabric, I remembered the night Lili had mentioned—Military Police cars parked at strategic positions at either end of our road. I’d noticed them just in time to escape.

I dozed in a haze of mixed dreams of my time in the 15th century. Lucrezia was standing at the top of a hill in Ferrara. Every time I walked closer, she would disappear. And there she was again and I’d quicken my pace. Then I was wrapping a wax figure into linen cloth but when I looked down, it was my body. I was being suffocated while Jake and Rory looked on, Leonardo not hearing my cries for help.

*

Well, that sofa must be more comfortable than I thought, Dad said as I walked into the kitchen and looked up at the clock.

Gran and Mum were peeling vegetables and Dad was passing around coffee.

Would have had to wake you soon. We need to tidy up the snug, Mum said. Jake and Diana are coming over for Christmas lunch.

Diana? Is she back? Didn’t know.

Got in last night. Dad handed me a mug. Thought she’d tell you. Anyway, Jake texted me Merry Xmas before. Asked them over. Thought you’d want to catch up with Diana. It’s been weeks since she went to New York.

Good, Dad. Yeah, sure. I took the coffee and headed back to the snug.

How cosy that would be. Jake, a chief in the SSJ ripping a Christmas cracker with two junior associates who were seeking to undermine the Society of St Josephus—not that Diana and I had a plan yet.

Dad followed me through to the fire. Hope you don’t mind, Aaron.

No, Dad. It’s just that I thought you and Jake wouldn’t be close after what I found out about Rory.

He was just caught up in the middle. He wasn’t batting for Rory.

I turned to see Lili standing in the doorway holding a gold star destined for the top of the tree.

Middle of what? she asked.

I knew in that split second, I had to tell her something. You know Lili, the night the police came looking for me. Jake was with Rory, but he wasn’t after me. He’d just been at Rory’s place when they noticed a file was missing and since I’d been in his study—you know the rest.

Dad showed surprise that I was saying anything, but he hadn’t heard our conversation in the middle of the night. For Lil’s sake, I couldn’t totally lie to her. And it was what Dad thought. He didn’t know both Rory and Jake were high officials in the SSJ. To him, they had all just been mates from the yacht club.

She said nothing as she looked as if she was processing that information as to whether it was plausible or not.

Here, give the star over. I can reach higher.

*

I watched the clock anticipating the knock. Finally, just before noon, the doorbell rang.

I’ll get it, I called as I came from the snug and opened the door.

Merry Christmas, Aaron, Jake said handing me a bottle of champagne before staring into my eyes. Every time he looked at me, he teleported a warning a mile long, connecting with my soul and shaking me to the core. But I concealed my fear with false bravado.

Come in. Merry Christmas. I turned away from him and gently kissed Diana on her smooth velvety lips. Her hair had changed, shorter and straighter. It was over between us now but seeing her again made part of me miss the love we’d had.

Welcome, you two, Mum called from the kitchen. Come in and close that door. I can feel the draught from here.

Dad came through the hallway. Merry Christmas, Hudsons. Just opened a lager. Interested Jake?

Hudsons! That jarred. Diana might be posing as his niece but they had very little in common; at least I hoped not.

Won’t say no. Festive season, Jake replied.

Merry Christmas, Diana said as Dad kissed her on the cheek.

I handed Dad the champagne and they walked towards the kitchen. I turned back to Diana, indicating the hallway.

We can talk in Lili’s room. She’s just gone over to Margaret’s for a while to take her a present. Gran’s taken over my room.

She nodded and followed me. We went in and pulled the door.

How was New York? Sad, I suppose?

Very. Sorry I didn’t text much. Thought it best not to write things down about the Society.

Understand.

Paula wouldn’t even leave her mother’s apartment for the first while. I dreaded every day I turned on the news in case Rory surfaced somewhere. You still think he’s alive?

Don’t think we’ll ever find out. But for Paula’s sake, I’m glad she can still hold her dad up as a hero. I’d bet the Navy doesn’t know the truth. The SSJ would have staged the disappearance as a cover up after I exposed one of their own was smuggling out weapons to a foreign power.

Diana didn’t look shocked about the smuggling. She should have. When she left for New York, she said that Rory and Jake were fighting about lost files and she pretended she had no knowledge of what they exposed. If she knew all along, why wasn’t she up front with me?

Paula so misses him. Jenifer went back to work after a week and I made Paula go with me for coffee every morning. But she’d just sit and cry. Tense time. And bad timing just when you and I were starting to work things out.

All I’d worked out was not to be sucked in again.

Still want out of the SSJ?

Of course, but I have to be careful. They have the power to send me back to my death.

That seemed a step backwards on her last resolve to expose the whole corrupt time-travelling syndicate. Her words seemed not only to lack conviction, but to be a parrot-like repetition of Jake’s. She looked at me in a way I thought meant she was summing up my response. Jake is not such a bad guy really, but he does control me.

How can you say that in the one sentence? He is bad, they all are. Rory wasn’t trading arms independently. It was an SSJ operation.

How can you be sure?

We saw Lili coming up the driveway. She’d want her room back and I couldn’t look as if I was whispering after my promise to be open with her.

We’d better go back to the others, I said.

Yes, your Mum will wonder why I haven’t said hello.

Lili’s arrival had saved her from any further disclosure. She clearly wanted this conversation to end.

*

Thanks for a wonderful day, Kate, Jake said as a cab arrived to take them home. I’ll pick up the car in the morning.

I’ll bring it over if you like, Jake. Coming over to see Diana anyway.

Much appreciated, Aaron. He took his keys and placed them in my hand. Again, that stare into my eyes. No one else noticed it, but I saw Diana’s glance go between us, summing up our tentative relationship.

Cardiff, 26 December, Present Day

It was late morning when we sat scattered around the snug as Mum opened her birthday presents.

What a year we’ve all had, she said. Can’t believe only twelve months ago my birthday breakfast was at Botham Castle.

I looked at Lili as her body stiffened. Not good memories. The start of my black dog weeks and no one to share my grief with. The Holy Grail mission had been a success for the Society but the loss of Dindraney had sent me into a spiral of gloom and depression.

We sat in silence for a moment. I was sure everyone was recalling my breakdown from different angles. The mere mention of the last Christmas brought some shudders from all of us. Mum was probably sorry she’d brought it up.

From then on, my movements had been controlled by the SSJ—at least until I got the dirt on Rory—my tenuous key to freedom. But I wanted more than that now. I wanted to bring them to their knees.

Well, as I stated a year ago, Dad said, things have a way of working themselves out.

How wrong was he? I’d sold my soul to the followers of St Josephus in order for them to save Dindraney from her fate on the Ship of Solomon. I had been blackmailed into staying with them, Dindraney had been wrenched forward from the fifth century and recreated as Diana, Jake’s niece.

An awkward silence echoed through the room. The walls were coming in on me. Had to get out for a while. I stood from the couch and stirred the logs in the fireplace. "Have to take Jake’s car back, Mum. I’ll catch up with