For the second time she uttered an unpleasant, cackling laugh. ‘Not to me! I never go out at night!’
‘You’ve lived here all your life, though,’ I said, ‘and you must know a lot of what goes on. Come to think of it, you do know Cactus, don’t you? I’m not sure about him – he could be a sorcerer.’
Precious Light looked taken aback. ‘Cactus?’
Snake broke his silence. ‘You know. You’re a customer of his. My sister met you both in the marketplace.’
The old woman’s expression cleared. ‘Oh, I remember now. Yes, I buy herbs from him from time to time. They’re for making up poultices, for my back. It’s all those years bending over a spindle! He’s no sorcerer, thought, surely? Just a curer. But he’s very good and very attentive.’
‘Cactus, though. It’s a coincidence that you know him.’ I explained to Lily: ‘I met him at Handy’s house.’
‘Its not really that odd,’ said Snake. ‘This isn’t a big parish. I’d seen him before.’
‘He’s become quite a well-known figure,’ Kite put in. ‘He’s taken to giving away free samples of herbs to drum up business. He’s not done anything wrong that I know of.’
‘Curers and sorcerers aren’t so very different, though,’ Lily said. ‘You need to be careful. And if this one is going to start attacking people in their homes, then it doesn’t matter if you never go out.’
‘I’ve nothing to fear,’ Precious Light replied scornfully. ‘What have I got to live for anyway? It’s not as if anyone would miss me.’
She looked down at Snake then, and it was hard for me to read her expression, but I noticed the skin stretching and slackening over her cheekbones as though a range of feelings were chasing each other across her face. ‘We weren’t like your mother and Handy, boy.’ Her voice was calm but suddenly hoarse. ‘My husband and I didn’t have a houseful of healthy children to see us into our old age. We lost most of them while they still lay on their cradleboards. Then my husband died. Only Red Macaw survived. Now he’s gone.’
Snake made a fist and let it drop heavily into his lap. ‘We won’t see our mother into her old age,’ he said quietly.
The old woman gave him a thin smile. Perhaps it was intended to look sympathetic. ‘I know,’ she replied.
4
Lily was watching Snake. The boy walked quickly in front of us as we made our way back from Red Macaw’s house towards Handy’s. ‘What do you suppose he’s thinking?’ she asked me.
‘Do you think he’s guessed about Red Macaw and his mother?’
She gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Yaotl, the only person I know who would be too stupid to guess is you!’ She quickened her pace suddenly and called after the boy. He stopped and half-turned his head.
‘What was that about?’ Kite asked me in a whisper.
‘No idea,’ I said wearily. ‘I suppose I’m too stupid to guess what she meant!’
Lily had caught up with Snake. He acknowledged her without turning his head. ‘What?’
‘Snake, are you all right?’
‘Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?’
Lily faltered then, and even I could see that for now, the lad was probably better left alone with his thoughts. Hurrying after them, I asked: ‘Where are you going now?’
While my mistress glared at me in silence Snake mumbled: ‘I’d better be getting back. They’ll be wondering where I’ve gone. I can find my own way, though. You don’t have to come with me.’
‘But we’re going the same way,’ Lily protested.
‘What for?’ the boy demanded. His tone was bitter. ‘Haven’t you caused enough trouble already?’ His truculence reminded me of his eldest brother.
‘Your father doesn’t think so,’ I said.
‘What does he know?’ The words burst from him, forced out between the sobs he was trying to suppress. Lily, crouching, extended a wounded hand towards him, but he brushed it aside. ‘He didn’t want me to hear about my mother. So I didn’t, until you took me to that old woman’s house!’
‘Nobody took you. We followed you.’
He took no notice of my interruption. ‘Now you’re going to boast to him about knowing his little secret, I suppose!’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ I said impatiently.
He was still flinging words at me. ‘Of course you’ll tell him how sorry you are, how much you understand how he’s hurting, but it’ll be you who’s caused it! All you’ve done with your meddling is make everything worse!’
‘That’s enough, boy!’ Kite snapped. He stepped towards him, glowering threateningly.
However, Lily was standing again now and the policeman found her barring his way, her expression stricken but determined. ‘Be careful,’ she warned.
The boy darted behind her. ‘You’re no better!’ he cried. ‘Have you done anything to find my mother’s body? Do you have any idea where Flower Gatherer is? I don’t think so!’
Kite clenched his fists, but there was nothing he could do unless he was prepared to shove the merchant’s widow to one side in order to get at Snake; and Lily was not moving. ‘It’s not his fault either,’ she said, in a trembling voice. ‘Let him be.’
‘You go where you like!’ the lad called out, as he ran along the canal path towards his house. ‘But don’t come near me!’
Lily turned to watch him go. When she took her eyes off him, I thought Kite might spring after the boy, to fetch him a clip around the ear for his cheek, but all he did was let out a low whistle.
‘I’m sorry,’ my mistress said without looking around. ‘But you have to let him go.’
‘Oh, I know that,’ the policeman assured her. ‘But I do have to go back to Handy’s house, anyway. I left my sword there.’ He glanced at each of us in turn, smiling thinly. ‘I hope after all that’s happened we all know each other well enough for me to trust you not to go running off anywhere?’ And with that he stepped delicately past the woman and walked with a measured gait the
