However, Amanda’s focus had switched to the page opposite, very similar to its fellow but with a symbol at the top. It was a stick with a wiggly line over it and other waves around that. It was but a glimpse before she was lowered to the floor and the old woman led her to the foot of the stairs with its child-height railing. Her great-grandmother’s voice again, with its false ring of sweetness:
‘There you are. Now it’s time for a little game. I can see you’re interested in that pretty mist. Why don’t you go up and see all the different things it smells of? Lots of lovely things. Flowers and sweets and honey. I’m sure you like all of those things.’
Amanda looked up her doubtfully.
‘Up you go,’ the old woman encouraged her with a smile. She wasn’t usually this nice. Even in her extreme youth, if there was one thing Amanda could recognise, it was a pattern. And her great-grandmother’s current demeanour was a long way from fitting. It was marked enough to set off the urge for flight.
However, the room was choc-full of grownups. The door was heavy. She’d never get out that way. Maybe if she played their game, the old lady would take her back up and out into the light, and to Granny. Amanda swallowed, put both hands on the railing and took one step up.
The old woman moved back to the lectern. The mist did smell sweet …
Amanda took another step up. And another. Big steps for her little legs. It was a bit like flowers but … The old woman was reading now. Not words Amanda knew. Not Cornish, not English … Dead flowers … Amanda sniffed … not honey … She was at the top of the steps now and could observe that the stone was lined with a basin of grey metal. It was hard to see through the fog that was now brown, now purple, now mustard yellow … sickly sweet ... She sniffed again more deeply … the woman’s voice droning … the smell of … rotting … Amanda’s eyelids were growing heavier with each intake of breath … She would have to sit down on the stair … The air before her was … fuzzy … black.
‘Child. Wake up.’ Now she was opening her eyes. She was lying down, on a settee, in what Amanda recognised was the drawing-room. The old woman was speaking again.
‘You’ve had a nice little nap, and now your grandmother is here. That’s right, get up. Come along.’
Walking blearily into the hall ... and here is Granny, Granny picking her up. Relief … safety.
‘You can take her,’ said the old woman. The usual icy contempt was back. ‘No further use for that one.’
‘I can take her for good?’ asked Granny levelly.
‘Certainly … And Senara.’
‘Well?’
The old woman’s voice was as cold as the crypt.
‘Don’t come back.’
Amanda, in her grandmother’s arms, saw the air crackle between the two women. She felt words bubbling within Granny, a quiet seething. But Senara turned and walking to the front doors that opened before her. Without looking back, she said with passionless finality,
‘Goodbye, Mother.’
They were in the car, Amanda seeing the retreating shape of Cardiubarn Hall, the snake of the drive, the gates, hearing Granny’s tones, warm, reassuring, practical:
‘Back to Grandpa, and then … home.’
The clean smell of the sea … Grandpa’s arms taking her out of the car. Granny’s low spoken:
‘She’s ours. Yes, for good. She promised.’
Held close, cuddled. Grandpa’s words: ‘Pack up. We’re leaving now …’
Now … now …
Amanda came back to the present, sitting on the rim of the cauldron.
‘I remember … I remember it all, Tempest … And within weeks … days? … I had the first asthma attack … the ambulance siren … Grandpa saying … “Hear that? It means you’re important, bian.” Yes, I see … it was all quite logical … yes. The book! That sign on the right-hand page … I know what it means!’
Amanda hurried carefully down the steps from the cauldron’s edge to the floor and went to the lectern ... Empty. She looked around desperately and became aware of a movement in the shadow thrown by the deep frame of the door. A glimmer of long rippling pale hair. A child’s quiet voice, both warm and matter-of-fact:
‘It’s gone.’
‘Maybe it’s in great-grandmother’s library?’ Amanda asked urgently, disregarding, for the moment, the intruder status of the hidden figure.
‘Not there. I checked.’
‘You know …?’
‘Yes.’
‘But … it has the antidote!’ protested Amanda.
‘Yes. You must find it.’
‘Where? Where do I look? … Who are you?’
‘I have a message. For Michael Hogarth.’
‘You’re a friend?’ Amanda enquired cautiously.
‘It’s time for him to tell you my story.’
‘Who …?’
‘Lucy. Tell him to tell you Lucy’s story.’ Then, before Amanda had a chance to question her further, she added helpfully: ‘Remember to blow out the candles.’
Amanda went around the room until just the one by the door remained aflame. She turned and asked,
‘What do …?’
But the girl was gone.
Chapter 54
Amanda and Kyt
‘Come on, Tempest, let’s get out of here.’ Amanda blew out the last candle and stepped over the threshold. At once, her phone came back on. Granny was returning to the hall too, as Amanda turned her shoulder on the now re-locked, under-the-stairs door.
‘As I suspected,’ stated Senara. ‘The grounds are a mess. Ah … I can see from your face you’ve had some revelations.’
‘When did you work it out, Granny?’
‘That? Not for a long time. I wondered. Suspected. But actually not until the healer at the Centre said there was nothing any treatment or therapy could do for you. I knew then that it was deep Darkside magic. And it was unforgivable of them. I am sorry, Ammee. Sorry I wasn’t there.’
‘Granny, there was nothing you could have done to have stopped it. I was not under your roof or protection, and Great-grandmother always made you leave me here. But indeed, I do think I had a lucky escape. I could
