The Witch Watch (3 page)

“No, except that it looks like it was all written by one hand.”

“Well, those four upstairs will swing for their part in all this. So we have something to show for our efforts here.”

“Yes,” Alice said without looking up from the book. “Now we just need to track down that abomination.”

Gilbert stepped off the carriage and smoothed out his uniform. While he enjoyed London immensely, he was always glad to return to Rothersby. As the carriage pulled away, he looked up the hill towards the house and was surprised to see a plump young man trying to push a trunk up the path with limited success.

“Gilbert dear!” Mother called. She was standing a few steps ahead of the young man. “You came home just in time! Do help poor Leland.” She was wearing a broad white hat to protect her from the sun and securing it in place with one hand to protect it from the vigorous spring wind.

Gilbert strode up the path to where Leland had given up on pushing the trunk and taken to sitting on it. Gilbert vaguely recognized him as a neighbor, although he couldn’t recall the family name. He was short (although everyone seemed at least a little short to Gilbert) and was wearing an ill-fitting brown tweed suit. Around his neck was a red bow tie, which rose and fell as he heaved for air.

“Mother, I have some good news for you,” Gilbert said cheerfully.

“And I have news for you, but it can wait. Help Leland with my new chest before it kills him.”

“I’ll take one side, you take the other,” Leland said as he moved himself into place.

Gilbert frowned. He would rather do this job alone. Not wanting to be rude (Mother would make a fuss if he was rude to a neighbor) he moved into position and lifted up his side. It was challenging to keep it steady, mostly due to the fact that Leland was ready to buckle under the weight. Gilbert was willing to take more of the weight for himself, but their stark height differential made this difficult. Eventually they took slow, faltering steps towards the house.

“Gilbert, I received a letter from your sister in America. It seems they’re expecting their first child this fall.” She hovered nearby, supervising their work as if she expected they would dash her treasure to the ground at the earliest opportunity.

“Ruby and what’s-his-name are starting a family?” Gilbert remarked in wonder.

“Yes. Your sister,
eight years
your junior, is now married, settled, and having children. And she’s very curious as to whether you’ve met anyone or are moving in the direction of marriage yourself.”

“I’m sure her curiosity is minuscule compared to yours, mother. But no, I did not miraculously court, wed, and impregnate a girl while I was in London this weekend.”

“Don’t be vulgar!” She lightly swatted him on the shoulder. Gilbert suspected her lenience was for the benefit of her trunk, and not his arm.

There was some confusion as they reached the steps. Gilbert and Leland both tried to go first, then they both tried to steer the other up first, and then they sort of staggered around in a circle. It was really hurting Gilbert’s back to carry the trunk while bending down to Leland’s height and while trying to correct for the boy’s hopeless vacillating.

Finally Gilbert was done being polite.

“Here.” He hoisted the burden away from Leland and placed the weight against his own chest.

Leland stood there dumbly, lost for what to do next.

“The
door,
if you please!” Gilbert growled.

Leland hurried up the steps and hauled the door open, then stood in the way, then figured out where to place himself so that Gilbert could enter.

“This means you’re going to be an uncle!” Mother called after him as he went inside. “At last,” she muttered a few moments later.

“Please tell me this isn’t destined for the upstairs,” he said.

“Sitting room,” she instructed as she followed them in. “And do be careful with it.”

The trunk landed in the proper room with a thud. “So what’s the good news?” Gilbert asked innocently.

“You know very well I just told you the good news!” she scolded.

“That strikes me as terrible news,” he said, maintaining the pretense. “Now you will redouble your efforts to marry me off.”

“I just want to see that you manage to produce grandchildren before I leave this world.”

“Stop being silly, Mother. You aren’t leaving this world anytime soon.”

“You’re thirty now, which means I can no longer go around pretending to be so myself.”

“I don’t see why not,” Gilbert smiled. “I’ll tell people you’re my sister.” Mother was still young and vigorous, and the only damage she had suffered from age was that her smile was more deeply ingrained on her face.

“Save your flattery for the unmarried girls you meet. Their youth will make them susceptible to your nonsense.”

Leland tried again to sit on the trunk. Gilbert shoved him off and swung it open.

“Now, don’t open-” Mother said, several seconds too late.

“Ugh!” Gilbert winced as he was met with the smell of must and mildew. “It’s filled with moth-eaten blankets!”

“I didn’t buy it for the blankets. I bought it for what you’ll have once you take them out.”

“What’s that?” asked Leland. He rummaged through the pile, looking for the treasure. Puffs of dust rose to meet him, and he began sneezing.

“An empty chest, of course!” Mother said. Turning her back on Leland she explained to Gilbert, “I bought it from the Brewers. Maybell was good enough to lend me Leland here to help bring it home.”

“If you didn’t want the blankets, then why were we made to carry them?” Leland demanded between sneezes.

Mother raised her eyebrows “I suppose we could have left them on your doorstep, but then you would have missed out on the exercise of pushing them here. And you are positively starved for exercise, Leland. How will you get a wife with your looks in such a sad condition?”

“Looks are hardly important to a woman in search of a husband!” he protested. “Your son is built like a dock-worker and it’s done him no service as a suitor.”

“That’s more to the discredit of the women in this country,” Mother insisted.

“But why did you buy a trunk?” Gilbert asked, noting that it was rough and didn’t really match anything else in the house, much less the room.

“I need something to hold my belongings when I go back to America,” she said casually, as if this was a perfectly ordinary thing for her to do.

“You’re visiting Ruby?” Gilbert asked with incredulity.

“No. I’m
moving in
with Ruby and Walter. And you should come along. There’s another nation full of women over there. Maybe one of them will have you, since you seem to do so poorly with the ones in this country.”

Gilbert was stricken. “But... you can’t just
move
. I mean...” He trailed off, confused.

“And why not? We don’t have any connection to this country now that your father is passed on. You spent the first fifteen years of your life over there, and it suited you well enough.”

“But I’ve spent the last fifteen years
here
,” he protested. “I don’t want to just pick up and leave.”

Mother took off her hat and headed out of the room, still talking to him. “You act as though you have some sort of life going on here, but you’re a piece of driftwood, dear Gilbert. Look at Leland. Ten years your junior and he’s begun his career. He’s going to work for the church.”

“I’m going to help track down magical deviants,” Leland proclaimed.

“You’ve been accepted to the Witch Watch?” Gilbert asked doubtfully.

Leland bristled at this. “It’s called the Ministry of Ethereal Affairs, and no, I’m not working for them. I’m working for the church.”

“I didn’t know there was a difference,” Gilbert shrugged.

Leland gave an impatient snort. “
The Ministry
is a government institution and really only concerns itself with big public cases. Wizards, mind-controlled Members of Parliament, magical attacks on the royal family, that sort of thing. The church is less interested in headlines and more concerned with weeding out dangerous sorcery at
all
levels of society.” He stood up straight at this, like a soldier reporting for duty.

“You see?” Mother said with pride. She patted Leland on the back like a child who had just cleaned up after himself. “He’s going to be doing important work.”

“But that’s what I wanted to tell you,” Gilbert said. “I
have
found work.”

“As a dock-worker,” Leland quipped, to his own amusement, and the indifference of everyone else.

“I’ve been accepted to act as the personal guard of Viscount Mordaunt of Ravenstead."

Gilbert led Simon as best he could through the unfamiliar woods. They left the pursuing lantern behind and allowed themselves a short rest. Thinking the chase was over, they began discussing where they might stop and rest for the night.

Before Simon could close his eyes, the lantern returned and began tracking them again. They saw the light bobbing through the trees in the distance, and when the wind was right they could hear the clamor of men carrying their fighting gear.

This time Gilbert could not shake them. He led them through streams, he doubled back, and he climbed over rocky places. Their tracker would move some distance, then stop for a minute, and then begin moving again, never falling for any of Gilbert’s tricks.

Eventually Gilbert abandoned subterfuge and opted for speed, pushing through the darkness as fast as Simon’s weary legs would allow. Gilbert never heard any sound of barking, even though a bloodhound was the only thing he could think of that might explain this uncanny pursuit.

Towards morning they were finally able to leave the lantern light behind, although it was more likely exhaustion than lack of direction that ended the chase. Simon was nearly spent as well, and Gilbert knew he couldn’t push the boy much further.

They struck a road and followed it, not having any idea where it went or even what direction they might be heading. It brought them to a small village which neither of them knew. Before sunrise they found a humble church crouched on the edge of town, dark and quiet. They slipped in and hid in the tall space beneath the church bell. (This space was really too small to be called a “bell tower” by a serious person.) It wasn’t much in the way of a hiding place, but it was the best they could manage in such hasty circumstances.

They sat on either side of the bell rope. Simon wrapped himself in Gilbert’s cloak and dropped off to sleep almost immediately. The terror had left the boy as fatigue set in, and by the end he was ragged and speechless.

Gilbert found he wasn’t tired at all, even after their long run.

Gilbert sat motionless and quiet, watching over the sleeping Simon as the boy tossed and shivered in the damp October air.

Daylight found its way into the church. This was a quiet town, and even at the height of the day few sounds reached his ears. If not for the sound of the odd horse, Gilbert might have suspected this place was uninhabited.

As daylight began to fade, Simon stirred. “What hour is it?” he asked sleepily.

“You’re the one with the timepiece,” Gilbert whispered. There was no real reason to whisper. They were alone and the church had been quiet all day, but the setting seemed to demand it.