The Witch from the Sea (46 page)

“Oh Senara!”

“Yes, he’ll despise you and your father, and he’ll do something about it. I know he will. He’ll be here when there’s a wreck and he’ll catch them at it. Then we’ll see what will happen. But that’s why he’s kept away from you. I’ve sent Jan over to tell him that the grave in the burial ground is that of his father. That’ll bring some action, you see.”

In spite of everything I felt a certain pleasure. There was a reason for Fenn’s absence. I could understand how shocked he must have been by Jan Leward’s revelation. I knew how he would feel because of my own bewilderment. He would be uncertain how to act, as I was.

I could explain to him and I remembered with a sudden stab of joy that I could prove I had not known of the terrible things that were happening. Had I not saved the ship by lighting the lanterns—one of the trading ships of his own company!

“You see,” Senara was going on, “I am a witch. I stir up trouble as the witches stirred up the sea when the Queen was coming from Norway. I am wicked. You could say that I have given my allegiance to Satan. I have renounced God. It’s true Tamsyn.”

“And you are talking of being a puritan?”

“You know I never would be. I talk a great deal of nonsense, Tamsyn. And then tonight … I woke up suddenly in the Red Room and I knew I had to come to you. I had to tell you. I want Fenn Landor to know the truth too.”

“Why this sudden change of front?”

“Because something is going to happen. Nothing is going to be the same again. I am a witch. I know it makes you angry when I say it. I don’t ride on broomsticks. I have no familiar, I haven’t kissed the horned goat, but I stir up the lives of those around me. That’s why I’m a witch. I’m going to give you Fenn Landor, Tamsyn. I’m going to make him believe in you. You’re my blood-sister and I’m going to make you happy for the rest of your life.”

“That’s good of you,” I said.

She laughed. “Now you’re talking to me as you used to. You’ve forgiven me. Of course you have. You always forgive. You think I’m reformed, but I’m not. I’ll be just as wicked tomorrow. It’s only tonight I’m good.”

“You must be cold too.”

“No,” she said, “I’m warm … warm in the glow of my own virtue. Soon I shall have to say goodbye to Dickon. Then I shall marry Lord Cartonel and live dangerously ever after.”

She went on talking of what her life would be like and then she was silent.

Fenn filled my thoughts. I must see him. I thought: He will come to see me and we will go away together. But what of Castle Paling and the evil things which were done there?

And as I sat there I thought I heard a noise in the corridor.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Senara listened.

She said: “It was the wind.”

“I thought I heard footsteps outside.”

Footsteps outside the door! Footsteps retreating!

I shivered a little and was thankful that Senara was with me.

She talked of her love for Dickon and how it amazed her and him; and how she wondered how she could go on living without him.

It was dawn when she went to her bed and the castle was stirring. Only then did I sleep and when I awoke it was late into the morning.

I don’t know how I lived through the next day. There was one thought which superseded all others. There was a reason for Fenn’s absence. If he could be made to see the truth … He
should
be made to see the truth. What could I do? Could I ride over to him? The distance was too far in one day. I could not just slip away. Or could I? I might go to my grandmother. Then I thought of the shock it would be to her to learn of these things. The terrible trade of her son-in-law, her daughter’s acceptance of it, and finally her murder.

Yes, I was convinced that my mother had been murdered. I believed that the noise in the corridor I had heard the previous night had been the footsteps of the murderer who was coming to my room. Senara had saved me, Senara who had tried to ruin my life had saved it.

I would not have died as my mother had. She had been fast asleep—possibly poppy-juice had been given to her. Because she was unwell possets were continually taken to her. It would not have been so easy had she been awake.

I could not bear to stay in Castle Paling. The whole place had taken on a sinister aspect. I went out and walked away from it. Then I looked back at Ysella’s Tower where the goods had been stored and where my mother had once been locked in and the Seaward Tower where my father’s men lived—those who were party to his guilty secret and took a share, I doubted not, of the profits. Then Crow and Nonna where I had lived my life.

I would leave the castle very soon. If Fenn did not want me—and how could I be sure that he did?—I would go to my grandmother and live with her.

I would not stay in that castle where so many evil deeds had been done.

I thought of my father. Strangely enough, I had a glimmer of affection for him. Why, I could not understand. He had never shown me any. There was about him a strength, a power. He towered above the men I saw around him. He was a leader among them. I knew that he was cruel, that he was capable of evil deeds and yet … I could not entirely hate him. I could not inform against him. I just wanted to get away but if I did I would always be haunted by what was happening at the castle. And oh, how desperately I wanted my father to be innocent of my mother’s death.

Then suddenly I knew that I was going to stay another night in the castle. I was going to discover the truth if I could. The night before I had waited in my bed for someone to come to me, someone with murder in the heart. And Senara had come with her revelations, and because Senara was with me the murderer had gone away.

But tonight I should be alone. I should be prepared.

I did not go down to supper. I said that I was not feeling well. Whoever was afraid of what I had discovered would be able to use that indisposition to good advantage.

In my room I planned what I would do. I would not go to bed. If I did there was a danger of my falling asleep, even in my excited state. I would go into the ruelle and be there. Through the curtains I would watch if someone came into the room. But it must appear as though I were sleeping in my bed.

I took two pillows and laid them longways in the bed. I covered them up. In the darkness it would seem as though I were sleeping there.

How long the night seemed in coming. I was ready waiting behind my curtains of the ruelle. I heard the clock strike eleven.

How quiet the castle was! Did my mother have no premonition on that night? I was more fortunate than she was. I had her journal to warn me. When she was writing was she impelled to do so because it was going to play such an important part in her daughter’s life?

I sat on the pallet and I wondered what the future held. There was a great lifting of my spirits in spite of the dangers I felt all around me. Fenn might love me after all.

Was that a faint sound in the corridor? Had I imagined it. I felt my limbs begin to tremble. I felt courage sapping away.

No, it was nothing, a mouse perhaps? But it
was
a sound. The latch of my door was being quietly lifted.

Someone was in the room.

I peered through the curtains. The figure was moving stealthily towards my bed.

I drew back the curtains and stepped out.

My stepmother turned sharply to face me. She stared at me blankly. It was the first time I had ever seen her disconcerted.

I took the damp cloth from her hand and said: “You killed my mother.”

She didn’t answer. In the gloom her face seemed impassive. Her surprise had left her. She was calm as she ever was.

She did not speak at all.

She turned away and walked from the room. I stood there, the damp cloth, her murder weapon, in my hands.

I spent a sleepless night. I must make some plans and I was not sure what. In the morning I would speak to my stepmother; I would make her confess how she had killed my mother.

I sat on the chair which the night before Senara had occupied. I tried to sort out my thoughts. I had to take some action. If only I knew what.

During the early morning, the wind had risen. It sent the sea thundering into the caves along the coast and it sounded like voices shouting to each other. The wind whined about the castle walls like the complaining voices of those who had lost their lives on the Devil’s Teeth demanding revenge on the men who had sent them there.

I was up early. I dressed and went down to the hall. I could hear the servants bustling about. There was no sign of my stepmother.

All through the morning I could not find her, but I saw my father. He was alone coming across the courtyard from the Seaward Tower.

I went to him and stood before him, barring his way.

“I have something to say to you,” I said.

He stared at me; this was not the manner in which people were accustomed to address him, but I had lost all fear of him and when he made as though to push me aside, I caught his arm.

“I’ve discovered something … terrible,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes and I thought he was going to strike me. Instead he hesitated and then he said; “Come inside. We can’t talk here.”

I led the way to my bedroom. I wanted to tell him there, in that place where last night I had come near to death.

I faced him fearlessly and perhaps because he had always respected courage his eyes softened slightly. But his expression changed rapidly when I blurted out: “Last night your wife tried to kill me … in the same way as she killed my mother.”

It was horrible, for I saw the look in his eyes before he could veil it. He knew that she had killed my mother.

“I suspected her,” I went on. I pointed to the ruelle. “I was in there watching and waiting. She killed my mother in the same way as Lord Darnley’s murderers killed him. I learned how that was done. A damp cloth pressed over the mouth, leaving no marks … no sign. And so my mother died. And you knew it. Perhaps you helped. Perhaps you planned it together.”

“No!” he shouted vehemently. I was grateful that I could believe that.

“But you knew she did it,” I insisted; and he was silent in his guilt.

“You,” I went on. “Her husband … my father. Oh God, my own father.”

I had never believed I should see him so shaken, for I had never before seen him anything but in command of a situation. I could see, too, a certain anguish in his eyes and because I had read my mother’s journal and knew of that first meeting between them and the attraction which had sprung up, I was aware of the fact that he was looking back into the past and remembering too. He had not been a happy man since her death—yet I could not pity him.

“I loved her,” I said, my voice trembling.

“I loved her too,” he answered.

“And yet …”

He was himself again, the softness passed. “You wouldn’t understand,” he said roughly. “Maria was irresistible … a witch, if you like. She’d put a spell on me.”

“And even though she had murdered my mother and you knew it, you married her.”

“It’s something you’re too young to understand.”

“I understand there is such a thing as unbridled lust,” I said contemptuously.

“’Twas more than that. Try to understand, Tamsyn.”

“I understand this,” I retorted. “You are a murderer, for I hold you guilty with her.”

“It was done before I knew it. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”

“Only marry her and enjoy the fruits of her infamy.”

“You will never understand.”

“Alas for me. I understand too well.”

“You will cease your insolence, girl, or I’ll take you to the courtyard and lash you there myself.”

“Yes,” I answered, “you are capable of that.”

He did not try to stop me as I pushed past him and left him standing in my room.

I did not know what I was going to do. All through the morning I looked for my stepmother but she was nowhere to be found.

It was afternoon when Fenn rode over.

I heard his voice in the courtyard and my heart started to beat madly.

I ran out to him.

“Fenn,” I said, “at last you have come.”

He dismounted.

He took my hands and looked at me steadily. “I’ve wronged you, Tamsyn,” he said; and my heart leaped and in spite of all my indecisions and the horror which was all about me I was happy.

“I must talk to you,” he said. “Where can we be alone?”

“In the burial ground,” I told him.

We went there together.

There he said, “So it is my father who lies there.”

“You know,” I answered.

He clenched his fists suddenly. “The murderers!” he said. “I shall avenge him.”

“I was hurt when you didn’t come,” I told him.

“I was miserable … most of all to think that you had been a party to this.”

“I never was.”

“I know that now. I know that you saved one of our ships. I have spoken to the captain and he has told me that the Paling Light prevented a disaster. And I know now that it was you who lighted the lanterns after they had been put out.”

“I did not know of this foul trade. Not until I read my mother’s journal. She knew. But he was her husband.”

He nodded.

“I love you, Tamsyn,” he said.

I said: “It’s a strange place in which to be so happy.”

“But before I can speak to you of this I have something to do. Your father is responsible for my father’s death. I have sworn that my father’s murderer shall not go free. I have come here today to speak not of love but of hatred. I shall never forget, Tamsyn. I shall kill him. I am going to make him pay for the lives of my father and those innocent sailors.”

“Let us go away from here. I never want to see this place again. The sound of the wind howling round the walls, the knowledge of what has been done here nauseates me. Let’s go right away from here.”

“And if we go away, what then? Shall they be left to ply their hateful trade. How could we go away knowing that they went on luring ships on to the rocks to destroy them.”

“Then what can we do?”

“I am going to stop this forever. He has plundered his last ship.”

“How can you stop it?”

“What he does is a crime against humanity.”