Part 44 (1/2)
”Would you have me there weaving my spells?”
”Have done with such talk.”
”My mother has gone now.”
”She had to. She killed my mother and would have killed me but I discovered in time.”
”What do you think happened to her?”
”I think she walked into the sea.”
Senara laughed aloud. ”Oh Tamsyn, you don't change. Full of remorse, do you think she was?”
”No, she found the position untenable. She was betrayed as a murderess and my father a cripple for the rest of his life. The weight of her sins must have been heavy.”
”Never. I knew her well, Tamsyn, better than you ever could. She came of a n.o.ble Spanish family. She was travelling in the s.h.i.+p with her husband, my father, when it was caught on the Devil's Teeth. She never forgave that. She told me much. She came here and determined to destroy the household which had changed her life. She ensnared your father. They were lovers from the first. He never tired of her. She left soon after I was born and he bought a house for her some miles from here in the heart of a wood. He used to visit her and there she wove her spells. Then she came back and she sent your mother away so that she could marry your father. And she did. But she was tired of the life. She remembered Spain and the hot sun and the flowers and the gracious manners of courtiers, for she was highly-born. Lord Cartonel didn't come to see me, Tamsyn. He came to see her. She has gone with him. They will go to Spain and we shall never hear from her again.”
”Is this truly so, or is it one of your dreams?”
”It is a good story, is it not? You will find that Lord Cartonel has disappeared too. He is a spy for the Spaniards, I doubt not. You will never see either of them again.”
”Can she leave you, her daughter, and never see you again?”
”Quite easily. She left me before, did she not? She did not want children. They do not fit into her scheme of things.” She shrugged her shoulders. ”It is hard for you to understand ... you with your mother and your kind grandmother. We were different. She was a witch in her way as I am in mine. We are not like ordinary folk.”
”Senara, once again I must ask you not to talk so. It is dangerous.”
”Life is dangerous, Tamsyn. Even you should have learned that by now. When you are married to your Fenn and your children are playing at your knee, it will still be dangerous.”
She was right of course, but whatever life held for me I was ready to face it with Fenn.
Melanie wanted me to marry soon although I had said I would stay awhile and help her nurse my father. But she would not hear of it. He was bewildered and could not believe that this had happened to him, to Colum Casvellyn, the man who had always had his own way. Oddly enough Melanie was the one who could soothe him best. It was a remarkable discovery that there was such power in this quiet girl. My brother Connell was changing too. He was the head of the house now, for that poor wreck which my father had become could scarcely be called that any longer. It was as though his new responsibilities gave him sudden strength. He was regarding Melanie in a new light; she was no longer the dull little wife whom he had married for convenience. Once I had thought he was growing more and more like our father but now there was a sudden halt in that progress. It was as though he had had a revelation and was taking stock of himself. I was glad for him ... and for Melanie.
It was evening and the light was fading fast. Senara was with me in my bedchamber and as we talked I suddenly saw from my window that lights were approaching. It was a party of people, carrying torches, who were wending their way up the slope towards the castle.
I listened to their chanting voices and what they said sent a cold s.h.i.+ver down my spine.
”Give us the witch.”
Senara stood beside me, her eyes dilated.
”They are intent on murder,” she said, ”and they are coming for my mother.”
”Thank G.o.d she has gone.”
”Yes, she has cheated them.”
The torches were now lighting up the scene; the chanting voices were growing louder.
Merry came running into the room.
”They've come for the witch,” she said, ”the witch from the sea.”
”Don't they know she has gone?” I asked.
”They know, but ...” Merry was looking fearfully at Senara. ”If they can't have the witch from the sea they'll take her daughter. Oh G.o.d help us all. They wouldn't have dared if the master had been himself. But now he be nothing but a wreck broken on the Devil's Teeth and there be none to stop 'em.”
They had always wanted the witch from the sea. They had watched her and blamed her for their ill fortune. They believed she had bewitched my father but they feared him so much that when he was there to protect her they dared do nothing.
”They will find me, Tamsyn,” said Senara. ”They will tie me to a stake and burn me alive. Or they will hang me from a gibbet. Poor d.i.c.kon, his heart will break.”
Connell strode in, Melanie with him.
”The mob is at the gate,” he said. ”They are calling for the witch.”
”She's gone.”
He was looking at Senara. ”They're greedy for blood,” he said. ”You must get away. You must never come back here. You'll never be safe. I'll hold them at bay. I'll show them who is the master here.”
It might have been my father speaking. I turned to Senara and said: ”We'll go out through the Seaward Tower. They won't be round that side of the castle. We'll take two donkeys.”
”Where?” asked Connell.
”To Leyden Hall,” I answered. ”They'll hide her there until she leaves for Holland.”
”Go quickly,” said Connell.
And we went out. The night airs cooled our burning faces as we rode away.
I saw the exultation in Senara's eyes and I knew it was because she was going to d.i.c.kon.
We were on our way to Leyden Hall by the time the torch-lit mob was in the courtyard. Connell would subdue them, I knew. He was now the lord of the castle.
I must say a sad farewell to Senara but I had the future to think of with Fenn.
THE END.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Daughters of England series
ANGELET.
Visitors from the Past YESTERDAY, THE TWELFTH DAY of June in the year sixteen hundred and thirty-nine, was our seventeenth birthday-mine and Bersaba's. It was fitting that we should be born in June, the birth sign of which is Gemini, for we are twins. In our family birthdays are always celebrated as joyous occasions. Our mother is responsible for that. There are certain women in our family who are born to be mothers and she is one of them. I don't think I am; I'm certain Bersaba isn't. But perhaps I am mistaken, because it can be a quality which is only discovered when one reaches the state of motherhood, and one thing I have learned is that one can be mistaken about a great deal, which is one of the less gratifying experiences of growing up. I once remarked to Bersaba that every birthday our mother thanked G.o.d for giving us to her and Bersaba answered that she did it every day. My mother, Tamsyn Landor, was married five years before our brother Fennimore was born and then another seven years elapsed before she gave birth to us-her twins. I believe she had wanted a large family, but now she would say she had just what she wanted, for she is a woman who can adjust existing conditions to her dreams of contentment which I am old enough to know is a rare gift.
We had the usual birthday celebrations. June is a lovely month for a birthday because so much of it can be celebrated out of doors. On our birthday it became a ritual that if the day was fine we rode out into the meadows and there we would feast off cold poultry and what we called West Country Tarts, pastry cases with the fruit of the season-strawberries for our birthday-in them and custard or clouted cream on the top, which were a very special delicacy. Of course there had been rainy birthdays and on these occasions the friends and neighbours who joined us would come to the house, where we would play games such as blindman's buff or hunt the slipper and then we would dress up and act charades or produce the plays which we had seen the mummers do at Christmas time. Whatever the weather, birthdays were days to be looked forward to and I had said every year to Bersaba that as ours was two in one it should be extra special.
On this particular birthday the weather had been fine and we had been out into the meadows and the young people from Kroll Manor and Trent Park had joined us. We had played ball games and kayles-which consisted of knocking down pins with a stick or a ball-and after that hide-and-seek, during which Bersaba had not been found and caused a certain anxiety because our mother was always afraid that something terrible would happen to us. We were an hour searching for Bersaba and finally she gave herself up. She looked hurt when she saw how worried our mother had been, but I who knew her so well guessed that she was gratified to be so worried about. Bersaba often seemed as though she wanted to a.s.sure herself that she was important to us.