The Mask of the Enchantress (5 page)

The pump was a few yards from the church. To reach it I had to make my way past some of the oldest gravestones. I had read the inscriptions on them many times when we came out of church. People had been laid under them a long, long time ago. Some of the dates on them went back to the seventeenth century. I ran past them to the pump and vigorously began pumping the water and filling the pot.

As I did so I heard a sudden footstep. I looked over my shoulder. It had grown darker since Aunt Amelia and I entered the church. I felt a shiver run down my spine. I had the feeling that someone something was watching me.

I turned back to the pump. One had to work hard to get the water and it wasn easy working the pump with one hand and holding the jar with the other.

My hands were shaking. Don be silly, I said to myself. Why shouldn someone else come to the churchyard? Perhaps it was the vicar wife returning home to the vicarage or one of the devoted church workers who also had the idea of adorning the altar.

I had filled the jar too full. I tipped a little water out. Then I heard the sound again. I gasped with horror. A figure was standing there among the gravestones. I was sure it was a ghost who had risen from the tomb.

I gave a startled cry and ran as fast as I could to the church porch. The water in the jar slopped over and splashed down the front of my coat. But I had reached the sanctuary of the church.

There I paused for a moment to look over my shoulder. I could see no one.

Aunt Amelia was waiting impatiently at the altar.

ome along, come along,she said.

I handed the jar to her. My hands were wet and cold and I was shivering.

here not enough here,she scolded. hy, you careless girl, youe spilled it.

I stood firmly. t dark out there,I said stubbornly. Nothing would have induced me to go back to the pump.

suppose it will have to do,she said grudgingly. uewellyn, I don know why you can do things properly.

She arranged the leaves and we left the church. I kept very close to her as we crossed the graveyard and came out to the green.

ot what I should have liked for the altar,said Aunt Amelia. ut theyl have to do.

I could not sleep that night. I kept dozing and thinking I was at the pump in the graveyard. I imagined the ghost starting up from the ground and coming out to frighten people. It had certainly frightened me. I had always thought of ghosts as misty white transparent beings. When I came to think of it, as far as the gloom and my fear would allow me, this one had been fully dressed. It was a man, a very tall man in a shiny black hat. I hadn had time to notice very much else about him except the steadiness of his gaze. And that had been directed straight at me.

At last I slept and so deeply that I awoke late next morning.

Aunt Amelia surveyed me with a grim expression when I went down to breakfast. She had not given me a call. She never did. I was supposed to wake at the right time myself and get to school at the appointed hour. It was something to do with Discipline, for which Aunt Amelia had as great a reverence as she had for Respectability.

I was, consequently, late for school and Miss Brent, who believed the teaching of the necessity of Punctuality was as important as the three Rs, said that if I could not come on time I should stay behind for half an hour and write out the Creed before I left school.

It would mean, of course, that I shouldn have time to call on Matty.

The day passed and at three olock I was seated at my desk writing out believe in God the Father and when I came to onceivedsaying the little rhyme to myself, before E except after C,and I had finished it in twenty minutes. I then took it to Miss Brent sitting room upstairs, knocked on the door and handed it to her. She glanced through it, nodded and said: ou better be quick. Youl be home before dark. And, Suewellyn, do try to be on time. It bad manners not to be.

I said: es, Miss Brent,very meekly and ran off.

If I took the short cut across the churchyard, which would save a few minutes, I might just have time to look in on Matty and tell her about the ghost I had seen in the churchyard on the previous day. If I were late home I could tell Aunt Amelia I had been kept in to write believe.She would nod grimly and show her approval of Miss Brent action.

To go across the churchyard after the previous day experience seemed a little strange. But it was typical of mend perhaps this goes a little way to explain what happened laterhat the fact of my fear gave the churchyard special fascination for me. It was not quite dark. It had been a brighter day than yesterday and the sun was a great red ball on the horizon. I was afraid; I was tingling with a mixture of apprehension and excitement, but somehow I felt myself drawn almost involuntarily to the churchyard.

As soon as I entered it I called myself stupid for coming. Fear took a firm grip of me and I had a great desire to turn and run. But I wouldn. I would skirt the ancient part and make my way among the whiter stones whose inscriptions had not yet been obliterated by time and weather.

I was being followed. I knew it. I could hear the footsteps behind me. I started to run. Whoever was behind me was hurrying too.

How foolish of me to have come here. I was playing some game of bravado with myself. I had had my warning yesterday. How scared I had been then and Aunt Amelia had not been far away. I would only have had to get to her. And yet I had come back alone.

I could see the gray walls of the church. Whoever was following me was faster than I. Ithe was right at my heels.

I looked at the church door. I remembered hearing something about churches being a sanctuary because they were holy places. Evil spirits could not exist there.

I hesitated at the door of the church whether to go in or run?

A hand reached out and touched me.

I gave a little gasp.

hat the matter, little girl?said a musical and very friendly voice. here nothing to be afraid of, you know.

I swung round and faced him.

He was a very tall man and I noticed the black hat which he had worn yesterday. He was smiling. His eyes were dark brown and his face was not a bit as I imagined a ghost would be. It was a living man who confronted me. He took off his hat and bowed.

only wanted to talk to you,he went on.

ou were in the graveyard yesterday,I accused.

es,he said. like graveyards. I like reading the inscriptions on the tombs, do you?

I did, but I said nothing. I was trembling with fear.

hat pump was a bit stiff, wasn it?he went on. was coming to help you with it. You needed one to hold the jar while the other pumped. Don you agree?

es,I said.

how me the church, will you? I interested in old churches.

have to get home,I told him. late.

es, later than the others. Why?

was kept in to write the Creed.

I believe in God the Father.Do you believe, little girl?

f course I believe. Everybody believes.

o they? Then you know God will watch over you and protect you from all dangers and perils of the night even strangers in graveyards. Come along just for a moment. Show me the church. I believe they are rather proud of their stained glass windows here.

he vicar is,I replied. hey have been written about. He has a lot of cuttings. You can see them if you like. He would show them to you.

He was still holding my arm and drawing me towards the church door. He glanced cursorily at the notices in the porch about the various meetings.

I felt better inside the church. That air of sanctity restored my courage. I felt nothing terrible could happen here with the golden cross, and the stained glass windows portraying the life of Jesus in lovely reds, blues and gold.

t a beautiful church,he said.

es, but I must go. The vicar will show you round.

n a moment. And I had better see it in daylight.

t will soon be dark,I said, nd I

es, you must be home by dark. What is your name?

uewellyn,I told him.

hat a pretty and unusual name. What else?

uewellyn Campion.

He nodded as though my name pleased him.

nd you live at Crabtree Cottage?

ow did you know?

saw you go in there.

o you watched me before.

just happened to be near.

must go or my Aunt Amelia will be angry.

ou live with your Aunt Amelia, do you?

es.

here are your father and mother?

must go. The vicar will tell you about the church.

es, in a moment. Who was the lady who visited you two days ago?

know who you are,I said. oue the one who was angry about the fly.

es, that right. They told me she had only gone to Crabtree Cottage. She a most attractive lady. What is her name?

iss Anabel.

h, I see, and does she call to see you often?

es, she does.

Suddenly he took hold of my chin and looked into my face. I believed then that he was the Devil and that he was looking for the mole on my chin.

I said: know what youe looking for. Let me go. I must go home now. If you want to see the church ask the vicar.

uewellyn,he said. hat wrong? What am I looking for? Tell me?

t nothing to do with the Devil. It something youe born with. It like having a strawberry on your face when your mother fancied strawberries.

hat?he asked.

t nothing, I tell you. Lots of people have them. It only a mole.

t very nice,he said. ery nice indeed. Now, Suewellyn, youe been very kind to me and I am going to see you home.

I almost ran out of the church. He was beside me. We walked swiftly through the graveyard to the edge of the green.

ow, there Crabtree Cottage,he said. ou run along. Il watch from here until you are safely in. Good night, Suewellyn, and thanks for being so kind to me.

I ran.

As I was going to my room, Aunt Amelia came out of hers.

oue late,she said.

was kept in.

She nodded with a smile of satisfaction.

had to write out the Creed,I told her.

hatl teach you to lie abed,she commented.

I went to my room. I could not tell her about the stranger. It was all so odd. Why had he followed me? Why had he wanted me to show him the church? For when he was in it he seemed hardly interested in it. It was rather mystifying. At least I had not given way to my fear. I had braved the graveyard and discovered that the ghost was only a man after all.

I wondered if I should ever see him again.

I did not.

When I looked in on Matty the next day she told me that the gentleman had left the King William. Tom had carried his bag down for him to the fly; and he had gone off on the train traveling first class.

e was a real proper gentleman,said Matty, raveling first class and having all the best at the King William. John Jeffers don have many like him there, and he gave Tom a shilling for carrying his bags up and another for bringing them down. A regular gentleman.

I pondered whether to tell Matty about my encounter in the graveyard with that regular real proper gentleman.

I hesitated. I wasn quite sure about it myself. Perhaps Il tell her one day, but not yet no, not yet.

At the end of the week I had ceased to feel that vague apprehension which had come to me since I first saw the man in the graveyard. After all he had seemed kind in the church. He had one of the handsomest faces I had ever seen. He reminded me a little of Joel. His voice had been similar and he had smiled in the same way. He had been a visitor to the church and had thought that I, who lived in the village, could tell him something about it. That was all.

I knew he had not gone to the vicar the next day because it was the next morning he left.

It had been a cold day. Miss Brent had lighted a fire in the schoolroomven so, our fingers were cramped with cold and that was not good for our handwriting. We were all glad when three olock came and we could run home. I looked in on Matty, who was seated before a roaring fire. The kettle, which was covered with black soot, was on the hob and it would not be long before she was making her tea.

She welcomed me as she always did with her wheezy laugh which shook her plump body.

his is a day and a half,she said. ind coming straight in from the east. Even a dog wouldn go out on a day like this unless he had to.

I nestled at her feet and wished I could stay there all the evening. It would not be nearly so cozy in Crabtree Cottage. I knew there was a layer of dust on the mantelshelf and crumbs under Matty chair; but there was a coziness in these things which I missed at home. I thought of my icily cold bedroom, going up there to undress and walking carefully over the dangerously polished linoleum, and leaping into bed to shiver. Beside Matty fireplace was a stone hot water bottle which she took to bed with her.

Tom came in and said: ello, Granma.He nodded towards me. He was always shy of me.

in you wanted at King William?asked Matty.

ot hour off to myself before we get busy. Not that therel be much night like this.

h, you don get them fine gentlemen every day.

ish we did,said Tom.

I found myself telling them about the encounter in the graveyard. I had not meant to, but somehow it made me seem important to tell. Tom had carried his bags and had his shilling. I wanted them to know that I, too, had made his acquaintance.

is sort is always interested in churches and suchlike,said Tom.

Matty nodded. here was a man come down here once after the tombs he was. There he would sit down by Sir John Ecclestone graven image, and rub it off on a bit of paper. Oh yes, you get that sort.

hen I was kept in late I went home through the graveyard. He was there waiting.

aiting?echoed Tom. hat for?

don know. He wanted me to go into the church with him and I told him the vicar would tell him all he wanted to know.

h, Vicar would like that. Once he gets started on the arches and the windows you can stop him.

t was funny,I said. t was really as though he wanted to see me not the church.

Matty looked sharply at Tom.

om,she said sternly, told you to keep your eye on Suewellyn.