The food was good though, one of Mam’s special hotpots, so I didn’t mind the lack of conversation – I was too busy filling my belly and getting second helpings before Jack could scrape the dish clean.
Jack had his appetite back but he was a bit subdued like everyone else. He’d been through a lot, with a big bump on his forehead to prove it. As for Alice, I hadn’t told her what the Spook had said but I felt she knew anyway. She didn’t speak once during dinner. But the quietest one of all was Ellie. Despite the joy of having her baby back, what she’d seen had upset her badly and I could tell it would take some getting over.
When the others went up to bed, Mam asked me to stay behind. I sat by the fire in the kitchen, just as I had on the night before I went away to begin my apprenticeship. But something in her face told me this conversation was going to be different. Before, she’d been firm with me but hopeful. Confident that things would work out all right. Now she looked sad and uncertain.
‘I’ve been delivering County babies for nearly twenty-five years,’ she said, sitting down in her rocking chair, ‘and I’ve lost a few. Although it’s very sad for the mother and father, it’s just something that happens. It happens with farm animals, Tom. You’ve seen it yourself.’
I nodded. Every year a few lambs were born dead. It was something you expected.
‘This time it was worse,’ Mam said. ‘This time both the mother and the baby died, something that’s never happened to me before. I know the right herbs and how to blend them. I know how to cope with severe bleeding. I know just what to do. And this mother was young and strong. She shouldn’t have died but I couldn’t save her. I did everything I could, but I couldn’t save her. And It’s given me a pain here. A pain in my heart.’
Mam gave a sort of sob and clutched at her chest. For one awful moment I thought she was going to cry, but then she took a deep breath and the strength came back into her face.
‘But sheep die, Mam, and sometimes cows when giving birth,’ I told her. ‘A mother was bound to die eventually. It’s a miracle that you’ve gone so long without it happening before.’
I did my best but it was hard to console her. Mam was taking it very badly. It made her look on the gloomy side of things.
‘It’s getting darker, son,’ she said to me. ‘And it’s coming sooner than I expected. I’d hoped you’d be a grown man first, with years of experience under your belt. So you’re going to have to listen carefully to everything your master says. Every little thing will count. You’re going to have to get yourself ready as quickly as you can and work hard at your Latin lessons.’
She paused then and held out her hand. ‘Let me see the book.’
When I handed it to her she flicked through the pages, pausing every so often to read a few lines. ‘Did it help?’ she asked.
‘Not much,’ I admitted.
‘Your master wrote this himself. Did he tell you that?’
I shook my head. ‘ Alice said it was written by a priest.’
Mam smiled. ‘Your master was a priest once. That’s how he started out. No doubt he’ll tell you about it one day. But don’t ask. Let him tell you in his own good time.’
‘Was that what you and Mr Gregory talked about?’ I asked.
‘That and other things, but mainly about Alice. He asked me what I thought should happen to her. I told him he should leave it to you. So have you made up your mind yet?’
I shrugged. ‘I’m still not sure what to do but Mr Gregory said that I should use my instincts.’
‘That’s good advice, son,’ Mam said.
‘But what do you think, Mam?’ I asked. ‘What did you tell Mr Gregory about Alice? Is Alice a witch? Tell me that at least.’
‘No,’ Mam said slowly, weighing her words carefully. ‘She’s not a witch, but she will be one day. She was born with the heart of a witch and she’s little choice but to follow that path.’
‘Then she should go into the pit at Chipenden,’ I said sadly, hanging my head.
‘Remember your lessons,’ Mam said sternly. ‘Remember what your master taught you. There’s more than one kind of witch.’
‘The 'benign',’ I said. ‘You mean Alice might turn out to be a good witch who helps others?’
‘She might. And she might not. Do you know what I really think? You might not want to hear this.’
‘I do,’ I said.
‘ Alice might end up neither good nor bad. She might end up somewhere in between. That would make her very dangerous to know. That girl could be the bane of your life, a blight, a poison on everything you do. Or she might turn out to be the best and strongest friend you’ll ever have. Someone who’ll make all the difference in the world. I just don’t know which way it will go. I can’t see it, no matter how hard I try.’
‘How could you see it anyway, Mam?’ I asked. ‘Mr Gregory said he doesn’t believe in prophecy. He said the future’s not fixed.’
Mam put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a little squeeze of reassurance. ‘There’s some choice open to us all,’ she said. ‘But maybe one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make will be about Alice. Go to bed now, and get a good night’s sleep if you can. Make up your mind tomorrow when the sun’s shining.’
One thing I didn’t ask Mam was how she’d managed to silence the ghasts on Hangman’s Hill. It was my instincts again. I just knew that it was something she wouldn’t want to talk about. In a family, there are some things you don’t ask. You know you’ll be told when it’s the right time.
We left soon after dawn, my heart down in my boots.
Ellie followed me to the gate. I stopped there but waved Alice on and she sauntered up the hill, swinging her hips, without even once glancing back.
‘I need to say something to you, Tom,’ Ellie said. ‘It hurts me to do it but it has to be said.’
I could tell by her voice that it was going to be bad. I nodded miserably and forced myself to meet her eyes. I was shocked to see that they were streaming with tears.
‘You’re still welcome here, Tom,’ Ellie said, brushing her hair back from her forehead and trying to smile.
‘That’s not changed. But we do have to think of our child. So you’ll be welcome here, but not after dark. You see, that’s what’s made Jack so bad tempered recently. I didn’t like to tell you just how strongly he feels, but it has to be said now. He doesn’t like the job you’re doing at all. Not one little bit. It gives him the creeps. And he’s scared for the baby.
‘We’re frightened, you see. We’re frightened that if you’re ever here after dark you might attract something else. You might bring back something bad with you and we can’t risk anything happening to our family. Come and visit us during the day, Tom. Come and see us when the sun’s up and the birds are singing.’
Ellie hugged me then and that made it even worse. I knew that something had come between us and that things had changed for ever. I felt like crying, but somehow I stopped myself. I don’t know how I managed it. There was a big lump in my throat and I couldn’t speak.
I watched Ellie walk back to the farmhouse and turned my attention back to the decision I had to make.
What should I do about Alice?
I’d woken up certain that it was my duty to take her back with me to Chipenden. It seemed the right thing to do. The safe thing to do. It felt like a duty. When I gave Mother Malkin the cakes, I’d let the softness of my heart overrule me. And look where that had got me. So it was probably best to deal with Alice now, before it was too late. As the Spook said, you had to think of the innocents who might be harmed in the future.
On the first day of the journey we didn’t speak to each other much. I just told her we were going back to Chipenden to see the Spook. If Alice knew what was going to happen to her, she certainly didn’t complain. Then on the second day, as we got closer to the village and were actually on the lower slopes of the fells, no more than a mile or so from the Spook’s house, I told Alice what I’d been keeping bottled up inside me; what had been worrying me ever since I’d realized just what the cakes contained.
We were sitting on a grassy bank close to the side of the road. The sun had set and the light was beginning to fail.
‘ Alice, do you ever tell lies?’ I asked.
‘Everybody tells lies sometimes,’ she replied. ‘Wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. But mostly I tell the truth.’
‘What about that night when I was trapped in the pit? When I asked you about those cakes. You said there hadn’t been another child at Lizzie’s house. Was that true?’
‘Didn’t see one.’
