Witch Finder (16 page)

And then he saw a figure making its way slowly across the drawing room.

‘Open up!’ he shouted. ‘Hurry!’

It was a girl – one of the servants or one of the family, he couldn’t tell, but why in God’s name was she moving so slowly, so deliberately? She was picking her way through the furniture as if she was walking in a mist.

‘Are you deaf?’ he cried, his voice close to a sob. ‘Open up, I said. It’s Miss Greenwood, she’s dying.’

‘I’m not deaf.’ He heard the voice through the glass as the girl reached him, her beautiful cornflower-blue eyes looking up at him as she struggled with the lock. ‘I’m blind.’

The door gave and he stumbled into the room, muddy boots and bloody clothes leaving a trail of filth and blood on the Persian rug.

‘What’s happened to her?’ the girl asked, her voice sharp. ‘I can feel she’s nearly gone.’

‘She had—’ Luke’s voice stuck in his throat. How could he say
an accident
, when it was anything but?

He put Rosa down carefully on the chaise, her body a crumpled rag, her magic a thin wisp of flame so slight he could hardly tell it was there. The girl knelt beside the chair, her head bowed. Her fingers hovered over Rosa’s face, touching her bruised blue skin, and then trailed down to where the whalebone stuck like a stiletto dagger between her ribs.

‘Don’t!’ he gasped, as her fingers reached it, but she didn’t falter, didn’t jerk it or knock it, just felt very delicately around the wound, a frown between her narrow silver brows.

‘This is very bad,’ she said at last. ‘It’s beyond me. But the others are all out. The hunt . . .’

‘I know,’ he snapped. ‘How d’you think this happened?’

The girl frowned again, then she seemed to make up her mind.

‘There’s nothing for it,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to fetch Mama.’

The wait seemed endless. Luke knelt beside Rosa’s body, listening to the water dripping slowly from her habit and the slow gasp and bubble of her breath. Each time she let go another painful breath he felt sure that it must be the last. No one could keep fighting against the inevitable like this. Each time the silence stretched a little longer. But every time, just as the despair rose in his chest, her ribs heaved up and another gurgling rasp came from her lips.

If he closed his eyes he could see the flame of her magic against his lids – like a candle in the darkness. It was low – so low he could hardly see it any longer. In his mind he cupped his hands around it, nursing it as he would have nursed an ember in the forge fire, blowing gently, keeping it from harm, until it had the power to flare up into the consuming blaze he knew it could be.

Another gasp.

And wait.

Another gasp.

And wait. And wait. And wait . . .

His fingers found hers, clenching them, willing her to keep going.

Her hand was cold.

Another gasp.

And then the door opened.

‘Come inside, Mama,’ he heard. ‘You’re quite safe.’

‘No! I mustn’t!’ It was a hoarse, gasping whimper. ‘Sebastian . . . Your father . . .’

‘You’re quite safe, Papa’s not here. Nor is Sebastian – he’s hunting.’

‘They said I must not . . . They will take me back . . .’

‘No they won’t. I will have you back in your room and they will never know. Come now, just a few paces more. And look – here is the girl. You remember? The girl I told you about. She needs your help.’

Luke looked up. A woman was standing in the middle of the room. She was in her forties, perhaps. If this was Sebastian’s mother she must have been a child when she had him – no older than Rosa. She was wearing a white nightgown spattered with the faint shadow of stains, carefully laundered but not quite removed. There were burn marks on her hands and arms, as if she’d held them over a candle, or scalded herself on a hot grate. Her black hair was wild and matted and hung round her thin white face. She must have been very beautiful once – she had the clear blue eyes of Sebastian and the blind girl.

Her magic was terrifying. A wild black blaze of hate.

‘No . . .’ She was shaking her head, even as the girl led her coaxingly across the floor. ‘No, no, no, no, no . . .’

And then she saw Rosa and she stopped.

‘See?’ the girl said. ‘This is why. You must heal her, Mama.’

Luke was shaking his head before he could stop himself, in an echo of the witch-woman’s frightened repetitive denial. Nothing good could come from this woman – there was darkness in her face and in her magic.

‘Listen . . .’ He touched the girl’s arm. ‘This can’t be right . . . Can’t you—’

‘No,’ the girl said firmly. ‘That’s not my gift. I’m sorry. But I can see – I can see she will live. Mama will heal her. Mama . . .’ She stroked her hands over her mother’s hair and Luke saw the magic pouring from her fingers, soothing and gentling and coaxing along with her words. ‘Mama, you can do this. Please. Please.’

‘Did he do this?’ the woman asked, her eyes wide and full of fear. For a moment Luke’s heart froze – had she seen inside him so easily, read his mind? But the girl was shaking her head.

‘It wasn’t Sebastian, Mama. It was nothing to do with him. Just an accident. But please, Mama, hurry . . .’

The woman said nothing and Luke felt his fists clench. To have this power – and to refuse to use it . . .

‘Please,’ he said roughly.

He wasn’t sure if she even heard him. She did not turn to look at him.

But then she spoke.

‘
Lig biseach di.
’

The words were strange and hot and full of power – rolling off her tongue like boiling metal in the forge.

‘Lig di bheith ar aon léi féin.
’

Luke did not understand them – but he felt their heat as they passed, the scorching blaze of their power.

‘
Lig biseach di.
’

The witch-woman put out her hands towards Rosa and he saw the power flooding out of her, like a river of dark fire. Rosa seemed bathed in it, consumed by it, burnt up by its brilliance.

The woman took a step forwards and then, with one swift horrible movement, she yanked at the whalebone, pulling the shard out from between Rosa’s ribs so that the blood sprayed across the room in a shower of scarlet flame.

‘
Suaimhneas ort!
’ she screamed.

She staggered back, falling to the Persian rug, her hands over her face.

She’s failed
, Luke thought dully.
She’s mad. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.

And then . . . and then Rosa opened her eyes.

L
uke stared down at her. She was lying on her back, the habit gaping open, and where the whalebone had been the skin was white and whole. Her ribs were streaked with blood, but there was no sign of the gaping bloody hole that had split the skin just a minute before.

For a minute Rosa looked from one face to another as if she were quite bewildered.

Her eyes dilated almost to black and then back to golden brown as they adjusted to the light in the room.

Then she coughed, spitting up blood on to the back of her hand.

‘Cassie?’ she managed croakily.

‘Hello, Rosa.’ Cassie smiled, her serious face suddenly transformed.

‘Wh-who’s this?’ Rosa’s eyes went from Cassie to the wild witch-woman and back.

‘My mother,’ Cassie said.

‘Your
mother
?’ Rosa pulled herself to sitting on the chaise. Then she looked down at herself and her pale skin flushed scarlet. ‘Oh!’

For a moment she struggled, ineffectually trying to pull the two halves of her butchered corset back together. Then, as if a spell were broken, Luke remembered his manners and where he was and who he was supposed to be.

‘H-here,’ he stammered. ‘Here, Miss G-Greenwood. Take my jacket.’

She took his jacket and clutched it to her breast, her cheeks flaming as red as her hair.

‘You had an accident,’ Cassie said. ‘This man saved you – he carried you up to the house.’

‘I remember . . .’ Rosa said slowly. She put her hand to her head. ‘I remember . . . We were on the bridge . . . the river . . . there was a cracking sound . . .’ Then her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Cherry!’ She looked up at Luke and her eyes were wide and full of fear. ‘Luke, where’s Cherry? Is she all right?’

‘I’m sorry . . .’ His voice broke and he couldn’t find the words to say anything else. He could only repeat the words, pathetically, pointlessly. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’

She said nothing. But her eyes filled with tears.

‘No . . .’ was all she said. ‘No.’

‘I’m sorry, Rosa.’ Cassie knelt by her side and took Rosa’s muddy, bloodstained hand in her small white one. ‘But you are alive – and you have Luke to thank for that.’

But Rosa was crying, great gulping sobs that seemed to be tearing her up from inside.

‘I know I should be grateful,’ she wept. ‘I
am
grateful – but oh, Cherry!’ She buried her face in her hands and he turned away. Luke swallowed, his throat sore and dry. It was more than he could bear.

A low moan came from behind him and he turned. It was the witch-woman, Cassie’s mother. Cassie was on her feet and at her side in an instant.

‘Mama?’

‘Take me away . . . They’re coming back.’

‘Not yet, Mama.’

‘Take me back upstairs!’ Her voice rose to a kind of scream and Cassie jumped and turned her head nervously, as if listening out for servants or horses.

‘All right, Mama, I’ll take you.’ She turned to Rosa. ‘Can you manage for a moment, Rosa? My mother is not well, as you see.’

‘Don’t do it,’ the witch-woman cried as Cassie led her from the room. ‘I can see it in your heart – you will regret it for ever. Take the other path – that one will break you.’

Luke stared after her. Was she talking to him or Rosa?

Rosa watched her go too, her tear-stained face turned to the door long after Cassie and her mother had left. Then she turned back to Luke.

‘How did she die?’

‘One of the broken struts of the bridge through the heart,’ he managed, though his throat was sore with grief. ‘It was quick. She knew nothing.’

She pressed her lips together. Her face was very pale, the nutmeg dust freckles standing out against her skin. She closed her eyes, her lashes making dark circles against her cheeks, the tears squeezing out from beneath. Luke fought against the crazed impulse to take her in his arms as he had that night in the stable. But he had no right to comfort her – not just because of who he was, but because of what he’d done.

‘P-perhaps it’s b-better this way,’ she managed at last. ‘My first pony, Willowherb, when she grew old Alexis had her sold to the knacker’s yard, to make meat for dogs. I wouldn’t have wanted that for Cherry.’

‘No,’ he said. His voice was as rough and hoarse as hers, though his tears were unshed. ‘No. She died quick. She died happy.’

Happy? He remembered Cherry’s scream as she felt the boards going out from under her and he shut his own eyes, though nothing could shut out the memory of her skewered body and that terrible, whinnying shriek.

‘She died happy,’ he repeated, his voice hard with anger at himself, at the lies.

‘You’d better see to your horse,’ Rosa said. Luke looked out of the open French doors, to where Bumblebee was nibbling the Virginia creeper that twined around the windows. He must have followed them home. Luke should have been relieved to see him, relieved that at least Bumblebee’s safety wasn’t on his conscience too. But he could feel no relief at all.

‘Yes.’ He rubbed his face. ‘All right. And Brimstone’ll be back by now, I shouldn’t wonder. Mr Greenwood will be wondering where I am.’

‘I wonder how long it will take him to notice his sister’s absence,’ Rosa said bitterly.

‘Miss Greenwood . . .’ he started. He didn’t know what he was about to say. That she deserved better. That she didn’t have to live this life, trapped by her mother’s rapacious ambition and her brother’s greed, despised by both of them. But it was not true. There was no escape for her, any more than for him. They were both trapped, each in their own cage.

‘Yes?’ She looked up at him from the sofa, her small, pale face spattered with mud and blood. Her golden-brown eyes were dull.

‘Nothing.’

He turned to go.

‘Wait.’

She had dragged herself to sitting. He stopped, his chest rising and falling as hers was too, beneath his wet, bloodstained coat.

‘Yes?’ he said, more harshly than he meant.

‘I-I . . .’ she stammered, and then stopped.

‘What?’

He ought to be sacked for speaking to his mistress like that – he would be, if anyone else heard. But she only shook her head angrily.

‘Nothing.’

Then as he turned again to go, ‘No, Luke, wait.’

She grabbed his shirt at his shoulder, pulling him down to her height, and he felt her lips, shockingly soft and warm against his cheek, and the slim strength of her arm around his neck in a fierce, almost angry embrace.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered, her breath hot against his ear. ‘Thank you. I owe you my life. I will never forget that.’

She let go and he was left gasping, hot with desire and shame.

For witchcraft comes from lust, that carnal desire which in women is insatiable.
He heard the words inside his head, as clear as if John Leadingham had spoken them, as he turned and stumbled out of the French doors and across the gravel drive.

Whose lust?

He thought of himself ripping open Rosa’s clothes, trying not to look, yet looking even as he tried to turn away. Even as he retched at the sight of the whalebone slicing between her ribs, he had looked. He had not been able to help himself.

He did not look back to see if she were still watching him. He could not look back. He grabbed at Bumblebee’s reins, and led him away.

Rosa watched Luke go and then she sank back on the sofa, her head in her hands. She was tired to the bone. Every part of her ached with weariness. Somewhere beneath the exhaustion she knew that her clothes were covered in blood, that her good corset was butchered, that beneath Luke’s jacket her breasts were bare. But she did not know if she had the energy to do anything about it. Now that Luke had gone none of it seemed to matter.

She knew she should feel shame at the thought of him pulling her from the river, pulling apart her clothes. But she didn’t. She would be dead if he hadn’t. So – he had seen her naked. That was the least of it. He had seen Sebastian’s mother, full of madness. And he had watched her heal Rosa’s wound in front of him. An outwith. And he had seen their power.

What had she done?

‘Rosa?’ The voice was soft.

Rosa’s head jerked up. Cassandra was standing in the doorway, her face worried.

‘Rosa, are you quite well?’

Rosa laughed. It sounded bitter in her own ears.

‘Quite well. Quite well unless you count almost drowning beneath my horse. Quite well apart from being cold, wet and bloodstained.’

She shivered, and Cassie came across and took her hand.

‘Your fingers are like ice.’ She touched Rosa’s forehead. ‘Heavens! You have a fever. Let’s get you upstairs and into bed.’

Rosa found she was very tired. Her legs shook as she stood.

‘Yes please,’ she said. Her voice was strange and far away. ‘I would like that very much.’

‘Rosa . . .’ Cassie’s voice was urgent in her ear as she helped Rosa stand. ‘Rosa, you must never, never speak of what my mother did. Do you understand?’

‘I . . .’ Rosa found her head was swimming. This strangeness was too much. ‘Why – why not?’

‘Especially not to Sebastian. You must promise me you will never mention that you have seen her.’

‘I promise.’ Her head was aching and her knees shook as she stood upright. ‘But, Cassie, why?’

But Cassie said nothing, and Rosa found that it took all her strength and concentration to put one foot in front of the other.

It was only later, much later, in her room that she closed her eyes on the pillow, and that strange gaunt face floated in front of her vision again. What was wrong with Cassie’s mother? Was Sebastian so ashamed that he could not bear to have her talked about?

She was too exhausted to think about it for long. Instead she drifted into a troubled sleep, with dreams haunted by pounding hooves, Luke’s sobbing pleas, and a strange wild-haired witch with Sebastian’s eyes.

Luke was walking slowly back from the stables when he heard horses’ hooves. He looked up. Alexis and Sebastian were trotting into the yard. When they saw Luke both changed direction to come across to him. Alexis had his crop in his hand, twitching against his thigh. Sebastian had a bloody fox foot dangling from his saddlebag. They were both keyed up from the hunt, full of triumph and arrogance and a sense of their own potency. Luke felt suddenly very weary with the knowledge of what was about to happen.

Every part of him hurt. His shoulder ached from where he had wrenched it trying to heave Cherry off Rosa’s body. His back ached from carrying her all that long trek up to the house. Most of all his heart ached, at the knowledge of what he’d done, what he faced back in London . . .

He did not feel fear at the sight of Alexis and Sebastian – he felt only an intense weariness at the unjustness of it all. He could have killed Alexis. He could have killed him in cold blood and felt he’d done the world a service. He could have killed Sebastian – not with joy, but with a grim sense of right. Why couldn’t he have drawn
their
names? Why Rosa and not them?

He turned away.

‘Hi!’ Alexis’ shout rang across the yard. ‘You. Where d’you think you’re going, eh?’

Luke kept walking.

‘I said
stop
!’ Alexis bellowed furiously and, to his shock and fury, Luke felt his feet drag on the ground, as if invisible weights had suddenly attached themselves to his boots. He gritted his teeth and pulled against the heaviness – but before he could free himself he heard Sebastian’s low, angry, ‘For God’s sake, Greenwood.’

The pull loosed abruptly, but he would not give them the satisfaction of seeing him flee. Not now. He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to face them.

‘What the hell are you playing at?’ Alexis snarled as Brimstone came level with Luke. He flicked out with his whip, catching Luke painfully across the ear. ‘First you disappear from the hunt and then saunter back here like I’ve nothing better to do than wait on your convenience. Where the hell were you?’ Luke bit his lip, and Alexis shouted out, ‘
Answer me,
damn you!’ The crop flicked again and Luke felt a sting on his cheek. When he put his hand up there was blood.

‘Saving your sister’s life,’ he ground out, hating them both with every ounce of flesh and blood and bone in his body.

‘
What?
’ It was Sebastian, not Alexis, who slid off his horse to stand level with Luke. ‘What did you say?’

‘You heard me. And you heard me on the ridge, didn’t you? Calling?’

Sebastian went very still, as still as stone.

‘That’s right,’ Luke said. ‘I was calling for help. The bridge gave way. Cherry fell. She’s dead, impaled on one of the bridge posts. Rosa was underneath when she fell.’

‘My God.’ There was no trace of emotion in Sebastian’s face, his eyes were as dead and cold as ever they had been. But his face had gone white, with two spots of colour high on the cheekbones. A splatter of mud stood out black against his pale skin. ‘Is this true?’

‘What d’you mean, saved her life?’ Alexis blustered. ‘Stood by while she scrambled out, I’ll warrant. And she’s Miss Greenwood to you, you lying—’

‘Shut up,’ Luke snarled. He didn’t care if he was sacked. His mission was over. Everything was over. ‘Speak to her yourself if you don’t believe me.’