The Mask of the Enchantress (3 page)

Miss Anabel asked me questions about Crabtree Cottage and Aunt Amelia and Uncle William. Many of them she had asked before and I realized that she was asking them again so that he could hear the answers. He listened attentively and every now and then nodded.

The food was delicious, or perhaps I was so enchanted that I found everything different from everyday life. There was chicken, crusty bread and some sort of pickle which I had never tasted before.

hy,said Miss Anabel, uewellyn has the wishbone.She picked up the bone on my plate and held it up. ome on, Suewellyn, pull with me. If you get the bigger half you can have a wish.

hree wishes,said the man.

t only one, Joel, you know,replied Miss Anabel.

oday it three,he retorted. t a special birthday. Had you forgotten that?

f course it a special day.

o special wishes. Now for the contest.

ou know what you have to do, Suewellyn,said Miss Anabel. She picked up the bone. ou twist your little finger round that side, and I twist mine round this side, and we pull. The one who gets the bigger bit gets the wish.

ish three times,said Joel.

here one condition,said Miss Anabel. ou must not tell your wishes. Ready?

We curled our little fingers about the bone. There was a crack. The bone had broken and I cried out in delight, for the larger part was in my hand.

t Suewellyn,cried Miss Anabel.

hut your eyes and make your wishes,said Joel.

So I sat back holding the bone in my hand and asked myself what I wanted most of all. I wanted this day to last forever, but it would be silly to wish for that because nothing, not even chicken bones, could make that come true. I was thinking hard. What I had always wanted was a father and mother; and before I had realized it I had wished for thatut not just any father and mother. I wanted a father like Joel and a mother like Miss Anabel. There was my second wish gone. I did not want to have to live in Crabtree Cottage. I wanted to live with my own father and mother.

The three wishes were made.

I opened my eyes. They were both watching me intently.

ave you made your wishes?asked Miss Anabel.

I nodded and pressed my lips together. It was very important that they should come true.

We then ate tarts with cherry jam in them, and they were delicious, and as I bit into the sweet tart I thought there could not be greater happiness than this.

Joel asked me if I rode.

I told him I did not.

he ought to,he said, looking at Miss Anabel.

could speak to your Aunt Amelia,said Miss Anabel.

Joel stood up and held out a hand to me. ome and see how you like it,he said.

I went with him to his horse; he lifted me up and put me on it.

He walked the horse through the trees. I thought it was the most thrilling moment of my life. Then suddenly he leaped up behind me and we started going quickly. We came through the trees in the woods and out to a field. The horse cantered and galloped and I thought for one moment: Perhaps he is the Devil and he has come to take me away.

But oddly enough I did not care. I wanted him to take me away. I wanted to stay with him and Miss Anabel for the rest of my life. I did not care if he was the Devil. If Aunt Amelia and Uncle William were saints I preferred the Devil. I had a feeling that Miss Anabel would not be far away from where he was, and if I were with one I would be with the other.

But that exciting ride came to an end and the horse was going slowly again through the trees to the clearing where Janet was packing up the remains of the picnic and putting the hamper into the dogcart.

Joel dismounted and lifted me down.

I was indescribably sad because I knew that my visit to the enchanted forest with its distant castle was over. It was like a beautiful dream from which I was trying hard not to wake up. But I knew I should.

He lifted me in his arms and kissed me. I put my arms about his neck. I said: t was a lovely ride.

have never enjoyed a ride more,he said.

Miss Anabel was looking at us as though she did not know whether or laugh or cry but, being Miss Anabel, she laughed.

He mounted his horse and followed us to the dogcart. Miss Anabel and I got in. He went off in one direction and we went off in another to the station.

We alighted there.

on forget to meet my train, Janet,Miss Anabel said.

It was a sad reminder that the day was almost over, that I would soon be back in Crabtree Cottage and this day events would move into the past. We sat side by side in the train, holding hands tightly as though we would never let go. How the train rushed on! How I wanted to hold it back! The wheels were laughing at me, saying: oon be back! Soon be back!over and over again.

When we were nearly there Miss Anabel put her arm round me and said: hat did you wish, Suewellyn?

h, I mustn tell,I cried. f I did they would never come true and I couldn bear that.

ere they such important wishes then?

I nodded.

She was silent for a while and then she said: t not quite true that you mustn tell anyone. You can tell one person. That if you want to and if you whisper, it won make any difference about the wishes coming true.

I was glad. It is very comforting to be able to share things and there was no one I wanted to share with more than Miss Anabel.

So I said: wished for a father and mother first. Then I wanted you and Joel to be them; and after that I wanted us all to be together.

She did not speak for a long time and I wondered whether she was rather sorry I had told her.

We had come to the station. The fly was waiting for us, and in a very short time we were at Crabtree Cottage. It looked more dismal than ever now that I had been in the magic forest and seen the enchanted castle.

Miss Anabel kissed me and said: must hurry to catch my train.She still looked as though she were going to cry although she was smiling. I listened to the clop-clop of horseshoofs which were carrying her away.

There were two parcels in my room which Miss Anabel had left for me. One contained a dress of blue silk with ribbons on it. It was the prettiest dress I had ever seen and it was Miss Anabel birthday gift to me. There was a book about horses in the other parcel and I knew this was from Joel.

Oh, what a wonderful birthday! But the sad thing about wonderful occasions was that they made the days which followed seem more drab.

Aunt Amelia comment to Uncle William on the outing was: nsettling!

Perhaps she was right.

For the next few weeks I lived in a dream. I kept peeping at the blue dress, which was hung in my cupboard. I had not worn it. It was most unsuitable, said Aunt Amelia; and I had come to the conclusion that she was right. It was too beautiful to be worn. It was just to be looked at. At school Miss Brent said: hat come over you, Suewellyn? Youe very inattentive these days.

Anthony Felton said that I went to covens at night and took off all my clothes and danced round and round and kissed Farmer Mills goat.

on be silly,I told him; and I think the others agreed that he was romancing. Aunt Amelia would never have allowed me to go out at night and take off my clothes, which was indecent, and to kiss a goat would be unhealthy.

I read as much as I could of the book about horses. It was a little advanced for me; but I was always hoping that one day Miss Anabel would come again and I would be taken to the enchanted forest. I should want to know something about horses by the time I met Joel again. Then I thought how foolish I was not to have wished for something which would have been easy to grantike perhaps another day in the forest, instead of a father and mother. Fathers and mothers had to be married. They were not in the least like Miss Anabel and Joel.

I grew interested in horses. Anthony Felton had a pony and I begged him to allow me to ride on it. At first he laughed me to scorn, and then I think it occurred to him that if I tried to ride I should surely fall off and that would be great fun. So I was taken to the paddock adjoining the manor house and I mounted Anthony pony and rode round the field. It was a miracle that I was not thrown off. I kept thinking of Joel and imagined he was watching me. I wanted so much to shine in his eyes.

Anthony was very disappointed and wouldn let me ride his pony after that.

It was November when Miss Anabel came again. She was paler and thinner. She told me she had been ill; she had had pleurisy and that was why she had not come before.

t was only that which kept me away,she told me.

re we going to the forest again?I asked.

She shook her head, rather sadly, I thought.

id you enjoy that?she asked eagerly.

I clasped my hands together and nodded. There were not enough words to convey how much I had enjoyed it.

She was silent, looking a little sad, and I said: t was a wonderful castle. It didn look like a real one. I think it is one of those which are not there sometimes. Though there was that girl with the boys and they went into it. And there was the horse. I rode on that horse. We galloped on it. It was exciting.

ou liked it all so much, Suewellyn?

es, I liked it better than anything I have ever done.

Later I heard her talking to Aunt Amelia.

o,Aunt Amelia said, do not, Miss Anabel. Where would we keep it? We could not be in a position to afford such a thing. There would be more talk than there already is, and there is enough now, I can tell you.

t would be so good for her.

t would cause talk. I don think Mr. Planter would agree to it. There are limits, Miss Anabel. And in a place like this There are your visits for one thing. In these cases there are not usually visits.

h, I know, I know, Amelia. But youl be paid well.

t not a question of money. It a question of appearances. In a place like this

ll right then. Leave it for a bit. Only I like her to ride and she would love it.

It was all very mysterious. I knew that Miss Anabel wanted to give me a pony for Christmas and Aunt Amelia would not allow it.

I was so angry. I should have wished for a pony. That would have been sensible. I had just been silly and wished for what was not possible.

Miss Anabel went away, but I knew she would come again soon, although I heard Aunt Amelia telling her not to come too often. It looked bad.

I asked Anthony Felton to let me have another ride on his pony, but he refused. hy should I?he asked.

ecause I nearly had one,I answered.

hat do you mean? How could you nearly have one?

nearly had one,I insisted.

I imagined riding out past the Felton paddock on a pony which was far handsomer than Anthony Felton and I was so angry and frustrated that I hated Anthony and Aunt Amelia. I couldn tell Aunt Amelia this but I could tell Anthony and I did.

oue a witch and a bastard,he said, nd it a terrible thing to be both.

Matty Grey no longer sat outside her cottage. It was too cold.

hat wind cutting right across the green blows itself into my bones,she said. t bad for me screws.Her screws were her rheumatism, and in the winter they were so bad that she could not stray from the fire. he old screws is getting me today,she used to say. o joke, they ain. Still, Toml make me a nice fire, and what nicer than a good wood fire? And when there a kettle singing on the hob well, you couldn get nearer the angels in heaven, I say.

I made a habit of going into Matty cottage when I came home from school. It could not be for long because Aunt Amelia must not know of these visits. She would not have approved. We were etter classthan Matty. It was rather complicated, for although we were not on the level of the doctor and the parson, who themselves were not quite up to the rank of squire, we were some way above Matty.

Matty would get me to cut a slice of bread from the big cottage loaf. he bottom half, ducks.And I would put it on a long toasting fork which Tom uncle had made at the forge, and hold it before the fire until it was a golden brown.

good strong cup of tea and a nice thick slice of good brown toast; your own fireside and the wind whistling outside and you shut away from it all I don reckon there could be better than that.

I didn agree with Matty. There could be an enchanted forest, a cloth spread on the grass; there could be chicken wishbones and two beautiful people who were different from anyone I knew. There could be an enchanted castle seen through the trees and a horse on which to gallop.

hat you thinking about, young Suewellyn?asked Matty.

t depends,I said, n you. Perhaps some people wouldn want toast and strong tea. They might like picnics in forests.

ow that what I mean to say. It what you fancy, eh? Well, this is my fancy. Now you tell me yours.

And before I realized it I was telling her. She listened. nd you saw that forest, did you? And you saw this castle? And you was took there, was you? I know, it was by the lady who comes.

atty,I said excitedly, id you know that if you break a wishbone and get the bigger half you can have three wishes?

h yes, that an old trick, that is. When we was little now and then we have a bird a regular treat that was. There be the plucking and the stuffing and when it was done a regular fight between us little ns for the wishbone.

id you ever wish? Did your wishes come true?

She was silent for a while and then she said: es. I reckon I had a good life. Yes, I reckon my wishes come true.

o you think mine will?

es, I reckon so. One of these days itl all come right for you. She a mighty pretty lady what comes to see you.

he beautiful,I said. nd he

ho he, dearie?

I thought: I talking to much. I mustn even to Matty. I had a fear that if I talked I would discover that it had not really happened and that I had only dreamed it.

h, nothing,I said.

oue burning the toast. Never mind. Scrape that black off in the sink.

I scraped the burned part from the broad and buttered it. I made and poured out the tea. Then I sat for a while watching the pictures in the fire. I saw the wood there glowing red and blue and yellow. And there was the castle.