‘Does she know about Blackwater?’ I ask as casually as I can. Gods forbid Aidan should find out about the mine – about how Isolde made it produce.
He laughs. ‘I’m neither fool nor minion, no matter what she thinks, I don’t provide reports on my progress. She knows nothing about where I am, only that if I want my life back I will return with you.’ He grins and it’s an ugly thing. ‘And you will give me children, Miren, and I will feed one at least to the sea and our bargain will be reforged. Or rather, the sea-queen.’
I catch my breath. How much did Aoife tell him? How much did she share with him that she did not share with me, to get him to agree to her scheme? Before she realised too late he had plans of his own, bigger and better; bigger fish eat smaller fish. Can he know what I merely suspect? He sees the question in my face.
‘Oh, Aoife told me about Isolde and her light fingers, what she stole.’ He smiles. ‘Quite handy, in the end, that you ran away and led me here.’
And I think about the size of the mer I’ve seen, and think again that the sea-queens are even bigger, so how did Isolde take such a thing? I think about Malachi saying that Isolde had a talent for making things big or small, and the silver scale in the rill. I think about Maura telling me tales of a witch who wished for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth, so as she aged she shrank down, down, down until she could be put into a bottle, there she stayed making noises everyone around took for summer insects. I think about the glass boxes I’ve seen in Isolde’s workroom, how they might be perfect for something the size of a healthy bass or cod.
‘And now, I think, Miren, it’s time for me to take back that stolen item.’
‘You have no right to it,’ I say. ‘You’re not an O’Malley, you’re some by-blow who thinks he’s better than he is. Do you think if Aoife had any other choice she’d have made a bargain with you?’
His colour heightens; he’s not quite angry enough to hit me, but he’s angry enough, I hope, to become careless.
‘No matter what you think of me, Miren, I will be your master. And I like breaking spirits. The longer you resist, the happier I will be.’ He rises. ‘And now, it’s time for me to collect my property.’
‘And precisely how are you going to take her back to Hob’s Hallow? Have you learned spellcraft, Aidan? Can you do with Isolde did? Shrink the thing down so you might put it in your pocket?’ I laugh.
‘I will make arrangements. Now, there is a cellar?’
I nod. ‘But I’ve never been able to find a key to the locks, of which there are three.’
He snorts. ‘Do you think Isolde would have wasted her time with ordinary keys?’
I think about the cellar door at Hob’s Hallow with no mechanisms at all because the latches had all be removed; there were only the old warnings from my grandparents and Maura not to go down there. ‘I have what we need. Take the child, she will keep your treacherous hands busy and I’m sure I’ll find another use for her.’
And I worry that I’ve not bought Ena any time at all.
37
Ena has fallen asleep in my arms and she is heavy as a bag of wet sand. She snuffles against my neck and all I can think of is how to keep her alive. I’ve killed two men without a second thought, but they earned their deaths. This child, though she is nothing to do with me, has done no wrong. I’m walking slowly as we leave the library and Aidan registers his annoyance.
‘If I go any faster,’ I say mildly, ‘the child will wake. And if she wakes she will cry. Do you want to listen to that again?’
He harrumphs in response. ‘Which way?’
‘Follow me, the entrance is in the kitchen.’ The corridor seems suddenly far shorter than it ever has in this enormous empty house.
‘Who was the man?’ asks Aidan and for a moment I think he means Jedadiah and I’m not happy at the idea of him knowing about my lover, but then he continues, ‘The man who went into the other wing of the house and did not come out. He was arguing with that slattern. More importantly, where is he?’
Nelly probably was a slattern, but I bristle at him calling her such. ‘Dead. He fell out a window. He claimed to be my father’s brother, said his name was Edward Elliott. I believe he wormed his way into my father’s good graces, then murdered him and Isolde. He’s been playing lord of the manor for months.’
Aidan laughs. ‘Liam Elliott had no family. He was just some pretty boy from the Breakwater docks that Isolde fancied.’
‘You knew my parents weren’t dead,’ I state. I don’t expect to get much out of him.
He shrugs. ‘They might as well have been, beyond Aoife’s grasp; if she’d found them I think she might have fed Isolde to the waters.’
And I cannot deny that my grandmother might have done that. ’But she didn’t know where Isolde had gone.’
‘That was part of my bargain with her – that I would use all my resources to find Isolde or at least what she had stolen.’
I laugh loudly and Ena stirs. I say because there’s no point in hiding and I’m happy to let Aidan know that not everyone fell in with Aoife’s plans, and if he doesn’t already suspect it, that I’m
