At the House of the Magician (14 page)

I laughed, surprised.

‘Not many will do it,’ she said, ‘but ’tis worth a good deal, for as well as a silver coin, mourners always get given a new pair of leather gloves, black shoes and sometimes a cloak besides. And all we have to do is walk beside the corpse with a sombre face and shed a few tears. Once I was given an expensive piece of black lace to wear over my face which I sold after for sixpence.’

We approached Richmond and, the path beneath us
being sound, she took the horse into a canter. This made me rather afraid, for despite my new confidence it was a tall horse and the earth seemed a long way off.

‘We can get by now, for everyone but little Margaret is out at work,’ she continued, ‘and next year she will be able to come with me to funerals, for she has a bonny, sad face and I’ve taught her to cry on command.’

‘You’ve left out one of your jobs,’ I said. ‘For sometimes you make lavender wands.’

‘Sometimes I do,’ she said, and hesitated. ‘There’s something I must say on that … on the manner in which we met.’

‘Please don’t,’ I said, fearing she was going to begin apologising once more.

‘No, I must tell! It was one of my brothers, you see, who found your basket on the riverbank, and he brought it home to show us. Ma said we must take it to the constable and we were about to do so when I saw your bodice and skirt in there, and had a fancy to try them on – though I knew I shouldn’t have done so, and that it was very wrong of me.’

She faltered and I squeezed her arm to say that I understood.

‘And then, when I put them on they fitted me so perfectly with scarcely a tuck or a pin needed that even Ma said they must have been made for me, and my little brothers all said how comely I looked, and with my own gown being almost in tatters I decided …’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said, smiling as I thought of what I was planning. ‘My new mistress has seen that I’m fitted out and I now have four outfits all of my own!’

‘She’s kind to you, then?’

‘She is, though she’s still confined to bed and I rarely see her.’

‘And what of your famed master. What of Dr Dee?’

‘He is peculiar enough,’ I said, eager to tell someone of my life with the Dee family, ‘and the household is a strange one, for though ’tis rich in books and paintings – and the children have a monkey for a pet – until recently there has never been enough money to spend on things like food.’

‘How so?’

‘Well, because along with all the books he buys, Dr Dee collects strange things from other countries,
specimens
, and puts these things about his room, which is a library. Have you heard of an ally-gator?’

‘Never. What is one?’

‘A creature very like a dragon.’

‘He has one in the house?’ she said in alarm.

‘Two,’ I said. ‘But they are dead and stuffed. And more strange things, too: giant eggs and great bird’s nests, pearly shells as big as a man’s hat and tiny little horse-like creatures that swim in a tank of water.’

She turned to look at me wonderingly. ‘And does he use these things to do magick?’

‘So it is said,’ I replied, ‘but I’ve never seen any
performed.’ And I told her about Beth saying that it was only Mr Kelly who ever saw angels – and also about being mistaken for a wraith the first night I’d stayed at the house.

She laughed, then said, ‘They say that magicians seek to discover that elixir called
acqua vitae
.’

‘What do those words mean?’ I asked, very interested, for that was the expression, the very strange expression, I’d heard spoken by Dr Dee and Mr Kelly.

‘I believe they are Latin,’ Isabelle said, ‘and mean a magick liquid which will make the old young again. They say if you can only discover and drink it, ’twill give you eternal youth.’

‘I believe it was that very thing which the queen asked about,’ I said wonderingly.

The horse slowed down a little on some stony ground and Isabelle turned right round and looked at me. ‘You heard the queen speak of it?’

I nodded. ‘I will tell of the circumstances in a moment,’ I said. ‘She asked Dr Dee if he had yet prepared any.’

‘That may well be so, for they say she’s ageing fast and mislikes it very much, for she’s always adored having men admire her.’

We both considered this for a moment: the notion of the queen being vain, like an ordinary woman, and about her having cares concerning how she appeared to men.

‘And there is something more,’ I said. ‘Dr Dee let
her see a strange crystal ball of his, which is usually kept locked up.’

‘I’ve heard of that!’ Isabelle said. ‘When I’ve been working in the Green Man I’ve heard men discussing it.’

‘What do they say?’ I asked eagerly.

‘’Tis called a show-stone and they say miraculous things can be seen in’t.’

‘Well,’ I declared with some importance, ‘I have held the very object in my hand!’

She gasped.

‘I looked deep into it and saw …’ I hesitated; what was it that I’d seen? ‘A lot of blue and sparkling stones, and something like a flask, or a bottle.’

Startled, Isabelle pulled in the reins of the horse so that it almost stopped, then regarded me fearfully. ‘You saw something within it? You have the Sight?’

I shook my head quickly, for the question smacked of witchcraft and such talk was dangerous, even between friends. ‘I don’t think so,’ I said, ‘for I never had it before I came to the magician’s house.’ As I spoke, though, I remembered the strange feeling I’d had on approaching the dark house. Remembered, too, the dreams I’d sometimes had.

‘But Dr Dee must have the Sight,’ Isabelle said. ‘
He
must have magickal powers.’

I shrugged. ‘I’m certain that he’s exceeding clever,’ I said, ‘but I’m not sure that he has …’ And I told her the whole story of the queen’s visit to the house and
how I’d hidden in the fireplace and been discovered by her fool (who had called me pretty, I could not resist adding), about the gentleman who’d wanted to contact his daughter, and how I’d been asked to be a stand-in for her.

She listened intently to my story, asked questions which I did my best to answer, and our journey was almost done by the time I’d finished. ‘Would you have done what I would not?’ I asked at the end of it.

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. ‘I’d do much to possess two gold angels, but would
not
dress up as a dead corpse in a graveyard!’ she said and, laughing, pushed her heels into the horse’s flanks and we went on.

As we approached Hazelgrove I became much afeared, remembering my nightmare, but as we rode down the main street and I looked across to where our cottage stood, I saw the roof of it and was much relieved. It was still standing there, just as on the day I’d left.

I pointed it out to Isabelle. ‘’Tis very close – but I’d be obliged if you’d go the long way around by the church and across the green, so I can reassure myself that everything else is the same,’ I said.

Smiling a little, she said she was happy to go wherever I bade her.

As we entered the village I could see that the main street was busy and that a small crowd had gathered by the stocks in front of the church. Feeling a sudden
foreboding, I asked Isabelle to pull up the horse some distance away, then slipped down from its back and, after rubbing my aching limbs, walked quietly towards the church, keeping behind the trees as much as I could.

As I approached the stocks I saw that a man was being held there. His head had fallen to one side, his mouth gaped open, and the villagers had taken the opportunity to unload their rotten vegetables on to him, for his face was stained red and there were tomato skins and other foul things in his hair.

He cursed as he sat there, and spat at the ground and groaned – and yet I felt no sympathy for him, for I knew he was probably being justly punished for some wrong-doing. Besides, ’twas not the first time my father had been held so.

I watched him for a moment, and then I silently made my way back to where Isabelle stood beside the horse.

‘Someone you know?’ she asked, observing my face.

I nodded and told her, and asked if she’d mind if I went to my cottage on my own, for I knew Ma would be deeply ashamed of whatever Father had done, and ’twas not at all the right time to introduce Isabelle to her.

Ma was sitting on a stool outside the cottage, which I found very surprising, for the day was chill for October and a fine drizzle had started to fall. As I approached
her I became uneasy, for I saw from the way she sat, slumped, her shoulders drooping, that there was something very wrong.

She looked up, saw me and began to weep, not bursting out with sobs, but crying sad and hopeless tears, as if resuming some misery that had begun long before.

I sat down beside her, not caring that the grass was soaking wet.

‘Why are you out here?’ I asked. ‘Let’s go indoors and we can speak properly and you can tell me what’s happened.’ For I knew already that this must be more than my father being held in the stocks.

She shook her head. ‘I can’t go in there again,’ she said, shaking her head violently. ‘No, I cannot. ’Tis all gone. ’Tis hopeless.’

‘What d’you mean, all gone?’ I asked.

‘Quite, quite gone,’ was all she said.

I got up, went to the door of our cottage and looked in. And then I knew what she meant, for every last piece of the interior had been removed, right down to the window shutters. Our coffer, the table, every stool and utensil, the ladder which led to the bedroom, even the fire irons and the rusty old cauldron which had always hung over the fire were gone.

The sight was enough to bring tears to my own eyes, for although ours had never been a rich or happy home (and we had Father to thank for this) my brothers and sisters and I had some good times within its walls, and
Ma, despite everything she’d had to contend with, had ever done her best to keep us warm and fed and sheltered. Now the house was just a bleak and empty cell.

I stood there for a moment, then went back to Ma and asked her to tell me what had happened.

‘It was because of your father,’ she whispered.

‘Oh, I know ’tis he who must be behind it all,’ I said bitterly. ‘Who else
would
it be? But what did he do?’

‘Gambled all our money away, every last penny. And afterwards, sold everything in the cottage to pay the debts. He sold my clothes, he sold the window frames, he even sold the wood that I’d been collecting for our winter fires, but he still owed half the men in the Pig and Flute. And he also stole Sam Taylor’s sow and sold it at market and took the church poor box.’

‘Oh, Ma!’ I squeezed her shoulders, held her thin body to mine. ‘But what will happen now? What will you do?’

‘Your father will be let out of the stocks tomorrow, and then we’ve been told that we must go to a house of correction.’

‘No!’ I looked at her in dismay, remembering my dream.

She nodded, sighed. ‘’Tis all that remains for us.’

‘But
you
shouldn’t be punished! What have
you
done wrong?’

‘The rent on this cottage hasn’t been paid since summer, and Lord Ashe’s man means to repossess it.’
She began to cry again, rocking backwards and forwards on the stool. ‘The shame,’ she kept saying. ‘Oh, the shame of it!’

I gripped her shoulders. ‘Ma,’ I said, ‘you must try and be strong.’ I felt in my pocket but did not have any coin with me, not as much as a penny. ‘I’ll get some money and send it to you.’

‘You couldn’t get as much as your father owes!’

‘I’ll try,’ I said, hugging her. ‘I’ll get every penny I can. And in the meantime you must refuse to leave this cottage. Tell Lord Ashe’s man that someone in your family is sending you money this week.’

‘But you have not the means …’ She suddenly seemed to rally a little. ‘But Lucy, what are you doing here? Where have you come from?’

‘From a little way off,’ I said. ‘I live in Mortlake and I have a job as nursemaid in a big house.’

She raised a hand to touch my cheek. ‘My girl. You’ve got away from him as you should have done. Ah, I’m proud of you, Lucy. You ever were a canny child.’

I kissed her. ‘I’ll find the money. I’ll not let you down, Ma. I promise.’

She nodded and tried to smile, but I knew she didn’t believe me, so I hugged her once more and then fairly ran back to where Isabelle and the horse were waiting.

The journey back was a lot quicker, for the horse seemed to have been warmed up by its earlier jog and took off at a fair gallop all the way. For my part, I was
hardly bothered now about my safety and whether I might fall, just concerned that we should return as quickly as possible so that I could do what I had to.

Arriving back, I had a joyous reception from Beth and Merryl, for they seemed to think I might have gone for good, like their other nursemaids. Promising them that I’d tell them the tale of my journey home soon, I took Isabelle to my room and presented her with my apple-green bodice and skirt.

She looked at me, surprised and pleased. ‘Why are you giving me these?’

‘I was going to give you them anyway,’ I said. ‘But now I want you to take them in return for another trip to Hazelgrove.’

‘You want to go back?’ she asked, for I’d told her nothing of Ma’s dilemma, just said that she was in a bad way.

‘Not I,’ I said, ‘for I’d not be allowed the time from work. But if you happen to be exercising another horse …’

She nodded, wide-eyed. ‘I could be.’

‘Then there’s something I’d like you to take to Hazelgrove for me. Something which I hope to give you tomorrow, which will be of the utmost importance to my ma.’

‘Of course,’ she said, and folding and tucking the outfit under her arm, she kissed me goodbye, vowing she wouldn’t let me down.

I made Beth and Merryl ready for bed, telling a tall
tale of a ride in which I’d got lost in a deep forest, thwarted a highwayman and made friends with a great variety of talking animals. After that I washed my hands and face and made my way to the library, for Mistress Midge had told me that Dr Dee and Mr Kelly had been ensconced there all day. ‘And they have twice sent me out for mutton pasties and a jug of ale from the tavern,’ she added sourly.