Witchrise (26 page)

‘He does not belong in one of their stinking prisons either.’

Richard gave a disdainful laugh. ‘They won’t put your pet Spaniard in prison.’

I glared at him. ‘You have no idea what they may know. About us. About
me
.’

‘Nor do you,’ he said flatly. ‘But the fact remains, Alejandro is a nobleman. And an only son now his brother is dead, so he must be the heir to his father’s estate, yes? Unless that priest down there has sworn testimony that Alejandro has been making midnight sacrifices to the Devil, he won’t dare touch him. Not over this.’

‘
This?
You mean, over me?’ I felt as though he had hit me.

‘Listen, Alejandro is not the right man for you.’

‘You think I don’t know that?’

Richard drew me close and whispered urgently in my ear, ‘It’s not just that you’re a witch and a heretic. Those are faults that can be fixed if a man wants a woman badly enough. Look at King Henry, the lengths he went to when it came to his marriage bed. No, the real problem for Alejandro is that you’re a
commoner
. Not good enough for his proud Spanish bloodline. His family would never allow the match. So give it up before you get too badly hurt. Let the priest take him back to court.’

I threw back my head, meeting his gaze. ‘What, so you can try your luck with me instead?’

Richard’s smile was grim. ‘Luck. Ah yes, my old enemy. I would need more than luck with you, Meg Lytton.’

‘Well, you’re wrong, anyway. It doesn’t matter that I’m a commoner.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because I’m no longer betrothed to Alejandro.’ I swallowed, not looking at him. ‘We are not to be wed.’

His head turned and he looked down into my face. ‘Oh, Meg, I’m sorry,’ Richard said huskily, then carefully stroked the errant hair out of my eyes. ‘No, I’m not sorry. You know how I feel about you.’

I smiled bitterly. ‘I would have done better falling in love with you, that’s for sure.’

His breath seemed to catch in his throat, dark eyes narrowing on my face. ‘You mean that?’

I nodded, too hurt and confused by my feelings and the general horror of what was happening to see clearly what was going on between us.

‘If I married Alejandro, he would expect me to give up my power. To be simply his wife.’ I shook my head. ‘I could never . . . well, you know.’

‘Is the man a fool?’ Richard demanded, staring at me through narrowed eyes. ‘No, don’t answer that. Just hear me out. If you were mine, Meg, I would never ask you to give up magick. You are a witch, and a powerful one. That is why you are special, but he can’t see that. He wants to take you away from magick, make you . . . I don’t know, better. Cure you with marriage.’ His mouth tightened. ‘I wish you had fallen in love with me instead. Then I would not be crawling about the place like a dog that’s been whipped, I can assure you. I’d been spending my time far more pleasurably . . .’

Richard bent and kissed me, his mouth hard, punishing, almost angry. It felt more like hate than love, so topsy-turvy I could not begin to understand it. But for some reason my body responded, even if my heart was in shreds, and I did not push him away. Perhaps something in me craved the shock of this kind of desire, so very different from the way Alejandro kissed me. His hand tangled in my hair, dragging me closer. Slowly his mouth softened, persuading me, cajoling. Ah yes, he knew how to kiss.

I did not want to feel anything. In fact, I did not want to feel anything about a man ever again.

But I liked Richard. He had not been born into wealth and privilege like Alejandro but had fought for every scrap as a child. His father had been a brute and a drunkard, almost killing him on one occasion; Richard had only survived by a miracle. Now he could only show his interest by being unkind. By attacking rather than protecting. By kissing me roughly instead of with love.

Something in me sympathized with his wounds. My life had been easy compared to his, but I too had suffered. Heat flickered inside me, and I tugged on his dark hair, drawing him nearer, kissing him back. Richard groaned in the back of his throat, then his body shifted, his knee pushing against my skirts, and suddenly we were kissing in earnest. Our bodies pressed together as Richard cupped my face in his hands, kissing me hungrily, his eyes closed.

I shivered, bewildered by my feelings, and Richard stepped carefully back, his hands dropping away, palms open, indicating that I was free to choose.

‘I will always be here if you need me,’ he said huskily. ‘Just remember that.’

Raking my fingers through dishevelled hair, I moved to the window, trying to get myself back under control. What was wrong with me? I was in love with Alejandro. Yet all that is finished, I reminded myself bitterly. What difference does it make?

The men were mounting again below. I stared, relief sweeping through me as I heard their shouts and saw the last of their horses being led out from the stables where they had been fed and watered.

‘What is it?’ Richard asked, coming up behind me.

‘I think they’re leaving.’

Someone knocked at my door, which was not closed. Alice looked round it at me, her eyes frightened. ‘The Lady Elizabeth says you are to come down to the hall at once. And do you know that Alejandro is packing?’

‘
What?
’

The whole world seemed to stop. My lungs would not seem to fill, my chest impossibly tight. Richard looked at me sharply, but I pushed past him and stumbled along the narrow landing to the room William shared with Alejandro and Richard. Sure enough Alejandro was there, throwing his possessions into a dusty bag, his expression set and determined.

My brother had been leaning against the wall, talking quietly to Alejandro. He straightened as I came into the room, assessed the look on my face, then slipped past me.

‘I’ll be outside if you want me,’ William murmured, and pulled the door closed behind him.

Alejandro had turned, his dark eyes registering a blow as he saw me. Then he turned back to his packing, but moving more slowly, carefully.

‘Is it true?’ I demanded, my throat raw with pain. ‘Are you leaving with de Pero?’

‘If you already know, why did you come to my room? Are you trying to make us look like lovers?’

I reeled at the harshness of his reply. He could not have shocked me more if he had struck me.

‘Alejandro, I don’t understand. I know I refused your offer of marriage, but this . . . What did Señor de Pero say to make you leave Hatfield?’ My gaze narrowed on the back of his dark head. ‘Has he threatened you? I know a spell that could—’

‘No spells!’

He sounded as though he hated me. Suddenly dizzy, I put out a hand, supporting myself against the wall. My palms were clammy and my heart was thudding violently.

‘Señor de Pero reminded me where my true loyalties lie, that is all,’ he said, turning to face me at last.

I could not believe how remote Alejandro looked, head bent, not meeting my eyes, his face tight with some suppressed emotion.

‘Alejandro . . .’

I took a faltering step towards him, then stopped when he raised his head and fixed me with a desolate look. He did not speak, but I knew he did not want me to touch him. He did not even want me in the room with him.

My stomach churned as I saw the rejection in his face and the hard lines of his body.

‘I was born under the planet Mars,’ I whispered, trying to explain myself, hoping it was not too late to make amends. ‘I cannot speak without fighting. I lose my temper easily, I make mistakes, I . . . I cannot bear to be told what to do. Especially by a man. But none of that means I do not have feelings for you, Alejandro, even if I know we can never marry.’

He flinched.

Taking that as a good sign, I rushed on, desperate now. ‘If I have driven you away with my reckless behaviour, Alejandro, I beg you to forgive me and stay.’

His voice was low and ragged. ‘Do not lower yourself by begging. I am leaving Hatfield. There is nothing more to say. You should go back to your room. Let me finish here. De Pero awaits me below and he is not a patient man.’

The floor seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

‘Go, get out, do you hear me?’ he repeated harshly. ‘It’s over.’

‘But I thought we were friends.’ My words sounded so hollow.

‘A childish dream. We were both mad if we thought such a friendship could be possible in a world like this. There is one absolute good and one absolute evil, and we both know on which side of that line
you
stand.’ His eyes met mine, scorching me with dark fire. ‘Take my advice. Burn your spell book and go home to your father. Marry an Englishman. Marry Richard and raise a family. The path you are on can only lead to damnation.’ Abruptly he returned to his packing. ‘You can start by leaving my room.’

My heart was beating sickly, as though it might stop at any moment. Without another word, I stumbled out onto the landing to find Alice and William locked in each other’s arms, Richard nowhere to be seen.

The pair sprang apart guilty as I closed the door behind me, but I had nothing to say to them. I needed to be alone, to curl up in a ball and weep until my eyes were raw.

Alice said uneasily, ‘The Lady Elizabeth wishes to see you, do not forget.’

‘Yes, in a minute.’

I stopped, my back to them, and rubbed a hand across my wet face. I did not want to speak to anyone. But I could not defy my mistress. I had already lost Alejandro’s friendship. I could not lose my position in the Lady Elizabeth’s household too.

Unless that was why she wanted to speak with me, to tell me that I was dismissed. I could imagine the tales Miguel de Pero must have spun about me while they were talking below.

What did it matter what Elizabeth said to me? In service or dismissed, here or at home, from now on I would be forever incomplete.

My head in a fog, I descended to the Great Hall and found the Lady Elizabeth standing in front of the fire, her face pale but composed, chin raised in what I had come to recognize as a gesture of defiance. Miguel de Pero was seated at the table, a hurried meal having been set before him by a tight-lipped Bessie. He was pushing dripping meat into his mouth, speared on the point of his dagger, his sharp gaze examining the hall while he chewed as though hoping to spot some incriminating detail.

When he saw me, the Spaniard finished his mouthful and dragged his sleeve across his wet mouth, gesturing me forward.

‘Mistress Lytton,’ he said with heavy irony, ‘I was surprised to find you still in the Lady Elizabeth’s household. But I had been told the Queen’s sister has a soft heart. Now I see it is true. For most ladies of her elevated rank would have dismissed a suspected witch from her employ as soon as any whisper against her was heard, rather than have her good name mired by such a creature.’

‘Suspected,’ the Lady Elizabeth reminded him coldly. ‘Not proven.’

‘But even suspicion may leave its mark, madam. And when the crime is witchcraft, an inquisitor cannot be too thorough in his examination.’ De Pero stabbed at his last slice of meat, then bent to devour it. He spoke with the food in his mouth, staring at me, gravy running down his bearded chin, his words muffled but still sinister. ‘Come here, Meg Lytton.’ He pushed his empty platter away and held out both hands to me.

I had little choice, glancing at my mistress for permission, but to put my hands in his.

The Inquisitor turned my hands over, examining my palms, then my fingers. He paused over the discoloured fingernail, but did not mention our last meeting.

I shivered, remembering how he had chained me to a wall at Hampton Court Palace, then cruelly torn off one of my fingernails as he questioned me, his aim to prove that Elizabeth was in some way implicated in the practice of witchcraft.

He had failed, of course, for I had denied everything. But that night had been one of the longest of my life.

‘You wear no ring, Mistress Lytton?’

‘As you see, señor.’

‘Nor is there any mark to show that you have worn one in the past.’

‘Señor?’

The only people beyond this house who knew of my mother’s ring were John Dee and Marcus Dent. I had seen no indication during the
Aspicio
spell that de Pero knew how deeply Marcus was involved in the black arts. And I knew Marcus could never implicate me or Elizabeth in witchcraft, under the terms of the spell with which I had bound him to eternal silence. Still, they were both clever men, and I could not entirely trust that Marcus had not found some way to circumvent my spell.

My suspicious gaze narrowed on de Pero’s face, and at once he dropped my hands, sitting back.

‘Her ladyship has assured me that no indiscretion could have occurred between members of her household, and therefore I do not talk in terms of punishment.’ He looked me up and down, his mouth tight, making it obvious that he did not believe a word Elizabeth had told him. ‘But I think it best to remove an inexperienced young novice from a source of temptation before he can be led into . . . sin.’

He lingered over the final word, his gaze insulting.

For a moment I indulged the image of Miguel de Pero running about the Great Hall on four trotters, oinking and with a curly tail sprouting from his vile hairy backside. Then I reminded myself of his men outside, armed and loyal to the Queen. I would endanger the princess and every member of her household by working magick so openly. I had just admitted to Alejandro that my temper was unsteady and my nature reckless. I might be born under Mars, but it was time to stop excusing myself and exercise some discipline.

‘You will be unaware of this, but Alejandro’s father has summoned young Alejandro back to Spain, and I have agreed to escort him back. We must leave today, for a ship already awaits us at Plymouth, ready to sail.’

Plymouth.

A boat to Spain.

Alejandro was not just leaving Hatfield. He was leaving England and going home to Spain.

I had assumed that Alejandro had been recalled to court, that he would not be so very far away, and whatever had made him so cold to me upstairs could be fixed in time.

But Spain could not be fixed. Spain was an eternity away. Spain was for ever.