When asked by her fond grandmother what she would like to do with their day together, Rosamund promptly said that she wanted to see the Dark Lady. Smiling to herself, Helewise readily agreed and, after the noon meal, the two of them set off through the forest towards the abbey. There was no hurry, so they took their time, chatting as they walked. It was no surprise when, a quarter of a mile or so from their destination, Meggie materialized beside them.
‘You’re going to see the Lady?’ she asked with a smile.
‘We are,’ Helewise agreed.
‘Can I come too?’
‘Of course.’
St Edmund’s Chapel had been deserted, Helewise’s little cell empty. Then there was still no replacement, she observed sadly. Brushing the thought aside, she followed Meggie and Rosamund into the chapel, and together she and Meggie raised the trapdoor cleverly disguised as a flagstone. The three of them descended into the crypt, and Meggie struck a spark, lighting the torch that was set in the wall sconce.
The Black Goddess sat in her niche and, as always, Helewise felt her power. She gave herself up to it for a few moments, then, with a smile to Meggie, slipped away and went back to the chapel above. She went to stand before the simple altar with its plain wooden cross. Without thinking, she dropped to her knees. Soon she was so deep in prayer that she did not notice Meggie and Rosamund come up from the crypt, gently lower the flagstone and leave the chapel.
When finally she emerged into the bright afternoon, it was to discover that the others had found a sunny spot on the slope that led down to the abbey and were crouched on the grass, deep in conversation.
‘You’ll get cold, sitting on the wet grass!’ she scolded, hurrying down to them.
Rosamund turned and gave her a sweet smile. ‘We are sitting on our thick cloaks, and mine is lined with fur! Besides, the grass is not wet,’ she said. ‘Feel! The sun is warm today and has dried it.’
Helewise was about to insist — the child was her responsibility just then — but there was no need. Both of them were already getting up. ‘I have just been telling Rosamund about the little bridge I’ve been trying to build across the stream beside the hut,’ Meggie said. ‘She’d really like to-’
Rosamund didn’t allow others to speak for her. ‘I’d love to see it,’ she said pleadingly, taking Helewise’s hand and giving it a squeeze. ‘Can we go with Meggie to the hut, Grandmother?’
Helewise looked from one to the other. This was meant to be my day with my granddaughter! she thought, and then instantly regretted it. Others loved Rosamund too, for the girl was generous with her affections. Why should Meggie not enjoy the child’s company as well? She glanced at Meggie and saw understanding in Meggie’s brown eyes.
‘Perhaps you should go back with your grandmother,’ Meggie said gently, ‘and we’ll go to the hut another time, when-’
‘No, go now!’ Helewise interrupted her with a smile. ‘Just the two of you. I’ll see you later, back at the House in the Woods,’ she said, giving Rosamund a hug. ‘I don’t mind,’ she added softly to Meggie.
Meggie looked at her intently, the bright golden lights in her eyes that were so like her father’s catching the lowering sun. Then she nodded.
The three of them walked together as far as the place where the track to the hut branched off from the main path. There, with a cheerful, ‘Goodbye, Meggie! See you later, Rosamund!’, Helewise went on alone.
The inhabitants of the House in the Woods knew where Rosamund was, and so nobody thought to worry about her. She was with Meggie, and Meggie was more at home in the forest than anyone else in the family.
Darkness began to fall. First Josse and then Helewise slipped outside to look anxiously down the track that led away under the trees.
‘She’ll be here soon,’ Josse said.
Helewise thought his voice sounded uncertain. ‘Yes, I’m sure she will.’ She noticed that hers did too.
They waited.
Presently, footsteps sounded, crossing the courtyard behind them. Ninian came to stand beside them, closely followed by Geoffroi. Half-brothers they might be, but there was little resemblance between them, other than an indefinable but unmistakable air of confidence and power. Ninian was tall, slim and dark, like his mother. His brilliant blue eyes he had inherited from his father.
Geoffroi looked worriedly at Josse. ‘Maybe Meggie got lost,’ he said. ‘It’s getting dark.’
They all agreed that it was. Nobody said what they were all thinking: that Meggie knew her way through the trees blindfold.
Gussie and Will came out of the house. ‘Tilly’s making hot soup,’ Gussie volunteered. ‘They’ll be cold when they get here.’
Helewise felt a stab of fear dart into her heart. She put a hand to her chest. ‘Josse?’ she whispered.
He put his arm around her shoulders. He hugged her very tightly for an instant, then let her go. ‘Saddle the horses, Will,’ he said firmly. ‘Ninian, Gus and I will go and look for them.’
TWO
Ninian left his horse tethered to a tree branch and raced off down the narrow track to Meggie’s hut. He had left his father and Gus behind, painstakingly searching the main path and the narrower trails leading off it, while he hurried on to seek out his half-sister. Rosamund will be with her, he told himself over and over again. Meggie will explain that they didn’t realize how late it was until darkness was too well advanced to make the journey home. She’ll say she’s very sorry we were all anxious, but that it seemed safer to keep Rosamund warm and snug with her in the hut overnight. She’ll tell me she was planning to set out first thing in the morning to bring her back.
He repeated the words to himself until they were meaningless.
He raced on down the overgrown path, heedless of his own skin, and soon had a bramble tear across his cheek and a lump on his shin where he had run into the outstretched branch of a fallen tree. He was calling silently to Meggie as he ran, and he believed she must have heard him. He would not have said he knew with any certainty exactly where the hut was, yet he made his way straight to it with not a single wrong turn. But there was no time to wonder at his sister’s strange powers.
He bounded across the clearing, gasping for breath, his heart pounding so hard that he felt light-headed and sick. He skidded to a halt in front of her door, bending over to ease the sharp pain in his side, then reached out and hammered on the stout wooden planks with his fist.
The door opened instantly, and Meggie’s voice said, ‘No need to break it down! I heard you coming, and anyway I-’
Then she saw the state he was in. She gasped and, clutching at his shoulders with hands that hurt, rasped out, ‘What is it? What’s happened?’
He straightened up and looked at her. There was a light burning inside the hut, but she had her back to it and her face was in shadow. Pushing her aside, he stared into the hut. ‘Is Rosamund here?’ he demanded, eyes darting frantically around the small, tidy space.
He knew the answer to his question even as she spoke. ‘No, of course not, she-’
She had understood, as of course she would. She led him inside, closed the door and pushed him down on to the stool beside the hearth. She picked up an earthenware mug and, tipping into it a handful of something from a jar on a shelf, poured on hot water. She stirred it, blew in it and handed it to him. ‘Drink.’ He obeyed her. ‘Now, tell me.’
He did as he was told. He had no idea what she had given him, but he trusted her. Rightly, for the herbal concoction had already calmed him. ‘Rosamund hasn’t come home,’ he said. Then his fear came galloping back, and he burst out, ‘It’s dark, she’s out in the forest and she’s barely more than a child!’
‘Hush,’ she soothed him. He glanced up at her tense face. She muttered something under her breath and then said, ‘I walked back to the House in the Woods with her late this afternoon. We were almost there when she saw you and said she’d run on and go the rest of the way with you.’
‘You let her go on alone?’ Suddenly, he was furious.
‘She wasn’t alone, she’d just seen you!’ she flashed back, her own anger rising alongside his. ‘I watched as
