Second Night (9 page)

‘That ought to get things going,' he said aloud. ‘Your old God likes a bit of pain, doesn't he, old tree?'

The hissing of powerful wings beating against the wind currents brought him swinging back upright to sit on the branch just in time to see a wedge of swans flying slender-necked in silhouette against the moon before they turned, descending rapidly towards the manor house and the lake.

He grinned. ‘Hey, it looks like Delilah's back. Maybe someone out there's listening to me after all.'

Kyri left her grazing and came cantering into the clearing. The sky was brightening and he stood up, straightening the cloak around his shoulders. He retrieved the spear and pulled the dagger out of the gnarled bark. But there was still the same nagging doubt.
What have I missed?

The hissing echoed sharply under the dome as the heavy birds flew low over the observatory. Sir Jonas picked up the binoculars, focusing them on the centre of the lake. He had counted seven swans on the water, no more, before a flash of white light blinded his single eye, burning into his empty socket as though he had taken the thrust of a gigantic spear directly into his head. He slid down the steps of the observing ladder, an agonised hammering in the middle of his chest pounding the same words over and over until he thought he would go utterly mad.
Who sacrifices? Who sacrifices
?

The pain in his head was unbearable. He abandoned his work in the observatory and crept down the stairs to his bedroom. Climbing fully clothed into the four-poster bed, he cowered under the covers until grey light outlined the patterns on the yellow curtains and the pain lessened.

CHAPTER 12

Weekend duties at the manor house had been a lot easier on Daisy and Maddie since Jemima had started working in the kitchen, giving each of them more time to catch up on the never-ending lists of chores that were always waiting when they went home. John decided he should be on duty while Jasper was working in the office, just in case the boy needed a helping hand, which meant that Jemima was sent back to the lodge as soon as all the most urgent jobs were done.

‘One of you youngsters under my feet is quite enough at any given time,' said Daisy firmly.

Jemima wasn't sorry. It didn't make any difference to her wages and life at home had definitely looked up since Sara had moved in. Maddie talked a lot more, Caz smiled more and Jasper was a hundred times easier to live with. Sunday mornings had quickly evolved into ‘girls' mornings' when they baked bread and cakes for the coming week and prepared the lunch together.

Sara scooped a ladleful of melted fat into the enormous iron pot on the stove. ‘I didn't think pans like this existed any more. Where did you get it?'

‘We found it in one of the sculleries at the house,' said Jemima.

‘But what did they use it for?'

‘Daisy says it was used on harvest days when everyone was working in the fields. We call it the Hugely Hungry Stew Pot.'

‘So what are we going to make?'

Maddie smiled. ‘Hugely hungry stew.'

‘What are we going to put in it?'

‘Everything we can find,' said Jemima.

Maddie stirred a bowlful of meat into the fat that was already starting to spit in the bottom of the pot. Jemima fetched bags of lentils and pearl barley from the pantry and put a big basket of vegetables on the table. Sara set the knives on the chopping boards and sat down, pushing the blue-eyed cat off the chair. ‘Go away, Kresh. We've got work to do.'

The cat jumped onto her lap, nosing up around her ears, purring in a rising crescendo of rumbling delight. The green-eyed cat, crouching among the dishes on the top of the dresser, promptly leapt down and landed on her shoulders.

‘This is too much!' she exclaimed, pushing away the cat on her lap and clutching unsuccessfully at the other one who was wrapping himself around her neck and digging his claws into her sweater. ‘I can understand Kresh for crescendo, but why is this uncomfortable animal now called Kush?'

He had been ‘the green one' since the evening in the spring when Alan and Jasper had found the two white kittens abandoned at the northeast gate and brought them to live at the lodge. The little female had been named in a matter of days while Jemima tried out a list of names for the male kitten, none of which he would answer to. She pointed to the bulge of torn material in the rocking chair by the window. ‘He's Kush for cushion-clawer. He likes it.'

‘That doesn't sound like a Jas brand,' said Sara, finally ridding herself of the cat.

‘No, it was Caz this time.'

Maddie tipped more logs into the fire. Jemima crouched in front of the grate, watching the flames.

‘Is there anything interesting?' asked Sara.

Jemima stood up. ‘Only a skull. It's easy to see skulls in the fire. They don't mean anything.'

Kush stalked the top of the open pantry door. Kresh curled up on an old coat on the hearth. Jemima poured fresh grounds into the coffee maker. Sara began preparing vegetables.

‘Isn't this delightfully domestic?' she said happily.

‘If you say so,' said Jemima.

‘I wonder where domesticity stops being a pleasure and becomes a chore?'

Maddie answered. ‘It depends what else is going on in your life. It's a pleasure as long as it's satisfying. Otherwise it's just a chore.'

‘Is it a pleasure or a chore for you, Maddie?'

‘Both, I would say.'

Sara looked at her directly. ‘But aren't you bored being alone all the time?'

‘She's not alone,' protested Jemima. ‘She's got us.'

‘But that's not enough,' said Sara.

Maddie thought about it. ‘Am I bored? Yes, I suppose I am, in a way,' she admitted.

‘What was Tom like?'

Maddie's eyes softened, looking inward to the place where he still lived and everything that had happened since was just a dream. She smiled as she answered. ‘He was very physical, broad-shouldered and narrow in the hips.‘

‘That sounds like Caz,' said Jemima.

Maddie nodded. ‘But unlike Caz, your father was always talking. He had a wicked sense of humour. He used to make me laugh until I cried.'

‘Sounds like Jas,' said Sara.

‘Yes, like Jas,' agreed Maddie. ‘He did some crazy things. Most people really liked him. A few couldn't cope with him. Sometimes that was difficult but it was mostly funny too.'

‘Definitely like Jas,' said Jemima.

‘And then he died, and the laughter died with him,' said Sara.

Their eyes met.

‘Yes,' Maddie admitted, ‘the laughter died with him.'

‘That's not true!' exclaimed Jemima. ‘We still laugh, you know we do.'

‘Yes, but it's not the same,' objected Sara. ‘You need a lover, Maddie.'

‘I'm afraid that's not my department any more.'

‘Why?'

Maddie laughed ruefully. ‘My children told me they would find me one. As you can see, I'm still waiting.'

‘That's because no one's good enough,' said Jemima.

‘For her, or for you?' asked Sara.

‘If they're good enough for her, they'll be fine for us too.'

‘Don't you think that's a bit selfish?'

‘Of course it isn't. How could she be happy with someone we didn't like?'

‘She wouldn't fancy
your
boyfriends.'

‘I should hope not!'

‘So why should it be any different for her?'

‘It just is,' said Jemima obstinately. ‘Isn't it, Ma?'

Maddie opened the oven door. A burst of steam evaporated into the hot room.

‘Perhaps that would depend on the lover,' she said carefully. ‘The bread's done. Are the teacakes ready, Jem?'

Jemima put a finger to the warm, skin-soft dough left to rise on a tray under a cloth. ‘Yes.'

‘I don't want my kids telling me what to do,' said Sara. ‘I can't see the point in always being encouraged to develop my individuality if I'm going to have to end up suppressing it, just so that my children can have the convenient ‘parent' label to categorise me with.'

Jemima immediately objected. ‘We don't categorise Ma.'

‘Yes, you do,' Sara answered. ‘You don't expect her to need any kind of a life other than what you are prepared to allow her.'

‘But we are her life.'

‘Only temporarily. In a few years' time you'll be going to university and what do you expect her to do then? Families don't live just for each other any more. Your grandparents live more than two hundred miles away in the West Country. Mine live in Oxford. We don't expect to see each other more than once or twice a year, and that's normal rather than exceptional nowadays.'

‘But that makes it more special when we do,' argued Jemima.

‘It doesn't alter the fact that our generation is going to have to completely re-evaluate this parent thing and how we go about it. Your mother isn't just a mother. She is a whole person who needs to be with interesting people with similar values.'

‘Well, this family's going to stay together,' said Jemima doggedly. ‘We're all going to live here with the horses forever.'

‘That won't be enough for Maddie.'

‘But I don't go anywhere to meet interesting people,' said Maddie. ‘I have to work.'

‘Then your lover will have to come to you,' declared Sara. ‘Maybe he'll come to the pub.'

‘Except that no one new ever goes to that pub,' said Jemima complacently.

A tiny, secret smile touched Maddie's lips.
They do sometimes,
she thought.
They have red hair, and this time brown eyes, not grey. Tom would laugh – me and the vicar.

She realised both girls were looking at her. ‘It's so hot in here,' she said briskly, and turned to open the window before they saw her blush.

But Jemima wore her wary face and Sara had seen the smile.

CHAPTER 13

Caz smelled bread baking when he came around the path to the back door at the lodge. He heard the women talking and the clatter of cutlery in the sink, and was comforted.

I have come home after a long day working in the fields. The bread is baking and the meat is roasting on the spit. There's a tankard of ale ready for me on the table and the women are at the hearth tending the fire.
He stood back from the open door, admiring them.
They are the three Fates at the roots of my little life in this world of shadows. Will they find my body hanging in the tree at Thunderslea if I die in that other place on Hag Night?

Sara saw him first – unshaven with the dark rings around his eyes and his shoulders bowed in complete exhaustion after a night without rest. She threw her arms around him and walked him over the threshold. ‘Come in and be loved! We're being domestic this morning.'

‘I can tell,' he said, laughing as she dragged off his jacket and pushed him into the rocking chair.

‘Get completely comfortable. You're not to move an inch unless we tell you to.'

The women asked no questions of him on this quiet, autumn morning of ragged mist and pale sun. His mother brought him cushions and coffee. Sara scooped up Kresh and laid her in his lap, and pulled off his wet boots. Kush curled around his neck, licking at the stubble on his throat as he swallowed the coffee. Jemima took the cup and filled it again.

‘It's brewed to death, just how you like it.' She was trying not to sound anxious. ‘And I've made teacakes. You can have them with peanut butter or jam and cream.'

‘I'll have three tonight,' promised Caz.

‘Couldn't you try just one now and tell us if they're okay?' wheedled Sara.

He grinned. ‘I'm okay with coffee.'

Sara made a little moue of disappointment. ‘We could split one between us.'

‘Where's Jas?' he asked, changing the subject.

‘Working. Didn't you see him up at the house?'

‘No, I didn't go in.'

I didn't need any more of Daisy's questions
, he thought wearily. He had spent time checking out the swans, recognising all of them from the year before. Sadly, white-eyed Delilah was not among them. He decided not to tell Jemima. It was best to let her find out for herself. She bent over him, teasing out a twig tangled in his hair.

‘We ride wild horses together,' she whispered in his ear. ‘You can't be not well.'

‘I am well, little sister.'

‘You're just tired then?'

He nodded. ‘That's all.'

‘Jas will be home soon,' said Sara, with one eye on the clock. ‘We should check the hugely hungry stew.'

They each took a spoon and stood around the pot, tasting the bubbling broth.

‘Does it need more salt and pepper?' asked Maddie.

Sara took another spoonful. ‘A bit more, I think.'

‘What about some sage?' Jemima suggested.

‘That's what's missing,' agreed Maddie.

‘And dumplings,' said Sara. ‘I make seriously wicked dumplings on a good day and this is a good day. I can feel it in my bones.'

‘Challenge!' cried Jemima. ‘Daisy's been teaching me all her secrets in case she dies and there's no one left to feed Sir Jonas.'

Sara laughed. ‘Challenge accepted!'

They raced each other to the pantry, squabbling goodnaturedly over flour and bowls. Jemima grabbed the weighing scales. ‘Me first!'

Caz rocked the chair, amused and comfortable with the cats. ‘You are the three Norns stirring the white water in the cauldron of Fate,' he told them.

‘So which one is which?' asked Jemima, detecting a story.

Caz looked at his mother. ‘You are
Urth
, Ma,' he said, rolling the
r
and softening the
th
to a whisper. ‘You are Eldest and Norn of the Past.'

‘What am I?' asked Sara eagerly.

‘You are Elder Sister so you must be
Verthandi
, the Ever-Present.'