‘If she’s caring for the children…’
‘Ah, but there’s only the oldest lad still left; and she’s got a little one of her own. The other two disappeared early in the piece and no one the wiser as to their whereabouts.’ He shrugs again. ‘Perhaps she’s had nothing to do with any of it. Perhaps they’re a most unfortunate family. But if not? If her closest blood can be treated like that? Why would she care for anyone else in the world? She only preserves those of use to her and I hope Aidan keeps that in mind in his dealings.’
There’s a long pause while I feel the threat of my cousin and that ruthless woman hanging above me. Then I shake myself: what value could I possibly have to the Queen of Thieves, me with no more than a crumbling mansion and two lost ships to my name? Aidan just wants a trophy to bring him Hob’s Hallow, the O’Malley name of which he’s been deprived. Anything more is just my imagination, stirred by Ellingham’s rumours.
I clear my throat and say, ‘Where did you find her?’ and tap on the top of the casket behind us. I ask because I don’t want to hear any more about how Aidan Fitzpatrick was once a likeable man; he may well have been likeable to a man, yet have always been anathema to a woman.
Ellingham smiles fondly. ‘She saved me, my little singing angel, just at a time when I thought I’d have to sell up, send this lot off to make their fortune elsewhere. But I found her and there’s nothing like her in all the world as far as I can establish.’
He gives me a sideways glance, as if deciding whether or not to trust me; then realises I already know more than enough to get him into trouble all because Brigid asked him to help me. ‘We went off the beaten path, took a wrong turn, and came to a deserted house, tumbling down, no roof to speak of. It had been a mansion, once, but no longer. I found a trapdoor in the floor of a great hall. Down there she was, on a chair, covered in mould and with vines wound about her, sitting there like she had been waiting for someone for so very long. I touched her and suddenly this voice came out, such a beautiful thing. I took her with me.’
‘I’m glad,’ I say, and I am. I hate the idea of her alone in the darkness forever. Bad enough she’s in a box all day. Then Ellingham darts back to our earlier topic.
‘I take it you weren’t interested in marrying Aidan?’
‘That’s an understatement, Mr Ellingham. My grandmother wanted it, she thought it would save the family fortunes.’
‘They say the O’Malleys have funny ways.’
That makes me laugh. ‘Oh, yes.’
You have no idea. I finger the spot on my hip where the mermaid scar is. I think of the third child, the one for the sea. It had not been done in so long I thought it was finished. I thought it was something from the old times when the O’Malleys could get away with anything. I didn’t think it would ever be something I would be expected to do. Didn’t think I’d ever be Gráinne making a terrible choice, giving birth with the intent of throwing a child away. Myself, Isolde, we only survived because we were sole children; and Aoife, forced to marry her own brother in the hope of more pure O’Malley offspring.
‘So, you’ve journeyed a lot, seen many places big and small?’ I hesitate but sooner or later I’m going to have to ask someone.
‘Aye, same route, every year and about.’
‘Have you ever heard, Mr Ellingham, of an estate called Blackwater?’
‘Blackwater?’ Ellingham’s brow furrows as he thinks, but eventually he shakes his head. ‘Don’t believe so.’
I could tell him that Isolde’s last letter mentioned the name of the house she and my father had built, of the estate that had spawned a village: north of Bellsholm, more or less, she wrote. From Óisín’s lessons, I know Bellsholm as a small port town on the Bell River, nothing so large or busy as Breakwater, but of Blackwater I’d never heard. No real surprise for my mother made it. But if I tell him north of Bellsholm, more or less then he might tell anyone else who comes looking for me. So I simply say, ‘Oh.’
‘The others might know, I’ll ask them tonight.’ He smiles at me. ‘Subtle like.’I grin. ‘Someone will know, Miss O’Malley, don’t fear.’
He’s a kind man and I’m sad to think Brigid cannot be with him.
16
It’s six days before we reach Bellsholm. We arrive late at night and camp on a flat grassy patch of land on the outskirts of the town. On our route there are many small villages and hamlets, nowhere big enough to justify taking the automaton from her box. Ellingham is very aware that one day she’ll stop working. He doesn’t know how old she is, or much at all about her inner workings because he’s never been brave enough to take her apart for fear he won’t be able to put her back together again; he does remove the front panel from her chest and dust regularly, however. Instead, the inhabitants of those tiny locales have had to be content with songs and jokes in whatever passes for a tavern, and some small skits that the actors seem to know like the backs of their hands. There have been no complaints because anything is better than nothing in places where you have to make your own fun most of the time. People who appear with the express purpose of entertaining you? Now, that’s something special. The troupe has been paid in eggs
