At the House of the Magician (15 page)

Trembling, for I was afeared they might have changed their minds or found someone else to do the job, I knocked at the black door and waited for permission to enter. When I did so, I saw both men seated at the long table with a number of parchments before them. Behind them, on the wall, were two vast charts. One of them, Merryl had told me, was for plotting the movement of the stars, the other gave the times of the tides all round the world.

‘Yes?’ Dr Dee asked, looking annoyed at my interruption.

I sank into a curtsey. ‘Excuse my boldness in addressing you directly, Sirs,’ I said when I straightened up, ‘but the other evening you made a proposition. You asked me to take part in a … a performance that you intend to put on.’

Mr Kelly started, looking up from his parchments for the first time.

‘I refused you then, but now I think I might like to act in this masquerade.’

Dr Dee glanced at Mr Kelly, stroking his beard from
top to bottom. ‘You’ve changed your mind? Why is this?’

‘I’ll be frank, Sir,’ I said, feeling myself blush. ‘A member of my family is badly in need of money and I want to help them.’

‘I see,’ said Dr Dee slowly.

‘Not worried about your father’s Puritanism now, Lucy?’ asked Mr Kelly sardonically.

I shook my head, blushing further. ‘I’ll do it if you want me to.’

The two men exchanged glances. ‘There is still a part for you to play, certainly,’ Dr Dee said.

‘You mentioned two gold angels, did you not? So if I agree to join the masque, then – begging your pardons – would it be possible for me to have my fee in advance?’

Dr Dee snorted. ‘I haven’t got so much. How about you, Kelly?’

Mr Kelly somewhat reluctantly produced a small velvet pouch from his pocket. Shaking the contents of this on to the table, he picked up two gold coins and held them out to me, saying, ‘In return for these you must promise to do whatever it is we ask of you and vow never to utter a word of it.’

I’d already told Isabelle, of course, but I nodded just the same. ‘Yes, Sir, and thank you kindly. When … when is it likely that this masque will take place?’

They exchanged glances. ‘Next Wednesday would be especially opportune,’ said Dr Dee.

Mr Kelly smiled, but I didn’t like his smile, for it reminded me of that on the face of the ally-gators. He said, ‘Yes, next Wednesday, the thirty-first day of the month.’

I shivered. ‘But that date is the Eve of All Hallows, Sir,’ I said, for I well knew that on this date all good citizens should keep within their doors, leaving ghouls, witches and other evils free to roam.

‘It is. But
you
have nothing to fear, child,’ said Mr Kelly.

‘Indeed not,’ said Dr Dee. ‘Unschooled and simple souls can always go abroad on this night, for God in His mercy will protect you from witchcraft.’ He waved his hand. ‘You may go now.’

The following morning I went to the hut where Isabelle lived, and gave into her keeping a purse I’d newly sewn. It contained the two pieces of gold and the few copper coins I had left from the money I’d brought with me from home.

‘’Twill be enough to keep my ma from the poor-house,’ I said to her, and added, ‘And my father, too – even though I wouldn’t care if
he
never saw the light of day again.’

‘I’ll take it tomorrow,’ she promised. ‘And my brother has said he’ll ride with me and see that I get there safely. He’s grateful, see, for what you’ve done, for if you’d gone to the Watch when …’

I hastily told her, not another
word
, and she smiled and put the purse into her pocket. She looked over her shoulder into the hut, where Merryl was playing a staring-out game, as little girls do, with Margaret,
the youngest of Isabelle’s sisters. ‘You’ve told your gent’men you’ve decided to take part in the deception, then?’ she asked in a low voice and I nodded.

‘When will it be?’

‘October the thirty-first,’ I replied.

Her eyes widened. ‘But that’s …’

I nodded, then tried to make light of it. ‘But ’twill be all right; the ghouls and ghosties won’t come after me, for they’ll think I’m one of them!’

‘You shouldn’t joke about such things,’ she said anxiously. ‘Be sure to carry some crossed rowan twigs – and also a moonstone, for that’s said to be efficacious against witches. And they say that the sound of a brass bell which has been blessed in church will rid any place of demons in an instant.’

I began laughing. ‘If I take all those things I’d be so hung about with charms that I’d be unable to walk!’

The rest of that day I couldn’t help but feel greatly afeared – not merely about the date of the masque, but about my purse, for although I liked Isabelle very much and counted her as a friend, that money would mean life or death to my ma. I hadn’t ever met Isabelle’s brother, so how could I know whether to trust him or not? Would he, on hearing of what the purse contained, be tempted to steal it away?

Mistress Dee visited the kitchen that afternoon, which was only about the second time I’d ever seen her out of her room. She was not attired as a lady should
be, but wearing a poor nightgown, her hair hung from under her nightcap in thin wisps. She looked very unhappy, poor lady, for on Dr Dee’s insistence, Mistress Allen had taken little Arthur off to his wet nurse early that morning, and there he had stayed.

It was a strange little scene: Beth and Merryl standing one each side of their mother, each holding a hand and talking to her, the cook fussing, trying to coax her mistress to take something nourishing and above this a continual shrieking and a rattling of the cellar door from Tom-fool, who’d been locked down there on account of his making Mistress Dee extremely nervous.

‘Would you take a little light chicken gruel, Madam?’ said Mistress Midge. ‘I could send Lucy out for a boiling fowl.’ This only bringing forth a shake of the head from the mistress, she went on, ‘Or a little conserve of sage and scabious to aid your melancholy?’

‘Thank you,’ sighed Mistress Dee, ‘but I could not swallow a morsel of food.’

Mistress Midge looked at me in despair, shrugging.

‘After child-bed my ma always got my sisters to take a tonic of elderflowers and barberries in claret,’ I said tentatively, but Mistress Dee again refused, saying she’d rather not, and even Merryl’s offer to make her a plate of gilt gingerbread could not persuade her to change her mind.

‘Arthur. Poor wee babe,’ she kept saying. ‘He won’t know where he is or who his mother might be. He’ll think I’ve abandoned him.’

‘Begging your pardon, Madam,’ Mistress Midge said, ‘but the child is far too young to worry about his whereabouts. And a finer wet nurse with such milk in abundance you’ll not find anywhere in the county!’

Mistress Dee’s eyes closed in anguish. ‘Oh, but he’s so tiny and helpless,’ she sighed. ‘And he’s our heir!’

‘Mama,’ asked Merryl suddenly, ‘were you this unhappy about leaving me with a wet nurse?

‘And
me
?’ put in Beth jealously.

Mistress Dee rallied slightly. ‘Of course, my darlings,’ she said, ‘every bit as anxious,’ and Mistress Midge caught my eye and gave me a half-wink.

The next day, towards evening, there was a tapping on the kitchen window and I looked out to see little Margaret standing there, proffering a scrap of paper. I took this from her eagerly. I knew that Isabelle could read and also write a little, for she’d been taught her letters by a teacher she’d washed for, and when I studied the paper I found, much to my delight, that I could read the few words she’d written. The note said:
Your ma says you ever were a canny child
, and I knew from this that Isabelle had truly delivered the purse, and that I’d done right to trust her and her brother, even though my heart had misgiven me several times during the day.

After the children’s bedtime I was summoned to speak with Dr Dee. Whether Mistress Midge was curious about this interview with my employer or any of the subsequent ones I don’t know, but she never
questioned me about them or enquired as to what we might be talking about.

In the library, Dr Dee and Mr Kelly were sitting one each side of the large fireplace, looking at me seriously.

‘Lucy, we must rehearse your part,’ Dr Dee said, when I’d wished them a good evening.

‘Indeed, Sir,’ I said, and tried to sound keen and biddable, so that they wouldn’t suspect that I knew the real reason for the masquerade. ‘What must I do?’

‘We want you to impersonate the daughter of Lord Vaizey, who’s an important personage at the Court of Her Majesty.’

I nodded slowly.

‘We have obtained various descriptions of this young lady, who was about your age …’

‘She
was
, Sir?’

‘She has passed over to the land of shadows,’ said Mr Kelly soberly.

‘I am to pretend to be a dead girl?’ I asked in a shocked voice. ‘That seems a very strange masquerade …’

‘Whether it is or not is no business of yours,’ said Mr Kelly curtly.

‘You must understand that the grieving father will be much comforted by seeing his daughter again,’ said Dr Dee.

‘I see. So I am to pretend to be her.’ I allowed a moment’s silence, as if taking all this in, and then asked what words I’d need to play my part.

‘You’ll need to learn very little,’ said Dr Dee. ‘You’ll
appear, Lord Vaizey will speak and ask for your forgiveness, and then you’ll say, “
I forgive you, Father
.”’

‘Just that?’

They both nodded. ‘Try it, child,’ Dr Dee said.

‘I forgive you, Father
,’ I intoned.

‘With more feeling!’ urged Mr Kelly.

‘And softer, more cultured.’

I tried again. ‘
I forgive you, Father.
’

Dr Dee shook his head. ‘You have an ugly country twang to your voice.’

‘Remember, the young woman – Alice – was maid of honour to the queen,’ said Mr Kelly. ‘Your voice should be well-modulated, sweet and low.’

‘
I forgive you, Father
,’ I said breathily.

‘Again and yet again,’ Mr Kelly said curtly, ‘until we’re satisfied.’

‘You must work hard at it, for two gold coins are not as easily earned as all that,’ put in Dr Dee.

Thirty
gold coins certainly seemed to be, I thought, but of course could not say this. Instead I asked, ‘But what if the man, her father, seeks to question me more?’

Mr Kelly said very sternly that I was to say nothing more than the words they were tutoring me in. ‘You will appear, say what you’ve been taught and then vanish. Do you understand?’

‘Try again,’ Dr Dee said, ‘for there is much depends on this.’

‘
I forgive you, Father
’.

‘That’s a little better.’

‘Again – and then once again.’

And so the evening passed.

Going into the library the following night, I was told I’d have to wear a winding sheet for the masquerade, so that it would appear I’d just stepped out of my coffin.

‘This won’t be of rough wool as the common people have,’ Mr Kelly assured me, ‘but a cloth of fine white linen. And you may keep it after.’

I shuddered, picturing the scene and wondering if any real ghosts and ghouls abroad that night would be angry at this deception, and was only slightly appeased by the thought of the good white linen sheet which would be mine to keep.

I asked them how I’d be able to walk properly; how I’d appear and disappear with a sheet wound tightly around my person, and the two gentlemen, after some discussion, decided that the sheet could be loose around me, creating a flowing effect. Underneath I’d wear a nightdress of high quality.

‘But we must find out what
sort
of a nightdress,’ Dr Dee said worriedly to Mr Kelly. ‘If the girl was put into the grave wearing spotted muslin, then she mustn’t appear wearing tucked lawn.’

‘Indeed,’ said Mr Kelly.

‘And how would she have had her hair?’ Dr Dee suddenly asked. ‘What
colour
was it?’

They looked at each other, and then at me.

‘We must find out and, if necessary, obtain a wig,’
said Dr Dee.

‘Or perhaps tie her hair back, put it up out of sight. She was a married woman, after all. She would have worn it up.’