Chapter Ten #4
‘And what was I supposed to do?’ Dermot burst out, faltering only when he recalled Aubrey’s presence.
Mrs Kinnish was of no relation to their family but, as was practised by this particular group of women, they referred to one another as either aunt or sister.
‘Ever since going to that place, I’ve been at the mercy of men like Lord Robert.
Do you know the danger I faced every day when cooking the food, scrubbing the floors, even taking out the buckets we…
’ Here he stopped, Aubrey’s hand still clasped in his own, and continued, ‘What would’ve happened had I refused?
Accused of being a witch myself and carted off to the dungeons, I think!
’ It was all too easy to fall back into the heated exchanges he’d had with his mother in childhood; bringing back a boy long since dead.
Breesha scoffed and threw her arms into the air.
‘They’d bloody well have me to deal with first, had something happened to you!
’ Her face flushed crimson and, having said but one nicety since their time apart, went on, ‘I won’t have you complaining neither.
Imagine being holed up in a castle and talking about your lot.
There’s some young men here who are out in all seasons, and they have womenfolk, wives and the like, to support.
’ Her great log of a neck turned to Aubrey as if trying to discern a face through the black of the veil.
‘The time will come,’ Dermot began, riled up from their chatter, ‘when you women are expected to work as well. No more cosy days inside, you’ll be out and as miserable as us.’
‘Nonsense!’ Breesha shouted. ‘A woman works harder than any, and she does it with a babe in arm! Just because you’ve no wife doesn’t mean womenkind are at fault.
I dare say there’ll be no babes born at all if you have your way.
Then who’ll Lord Stanley have working his land?
’ She made no secret of her keen, beady eyes scrutinising Aubrey’s form.
‘And to say all this with a girl here. Now, why…’
Her investigation was swiftly axed as knuckles rapped at the door.
‘Don’t open it,’ Dermot said immediately. He’d reeled back, instinctively stepping towards his bedroom. Whether Robert or Will stirred during the night, a guardsman had noted Aubrey’s disappearance, or if Stephen unknowingly gave him away, it was impossible to say.
‘My own son, giving me orders!’ Breesha said. ‘Take one look at him, love, and know how you’ll spend your life. A husband who won’t take no for an answer, lazy as anything, won’t help you with the housework. And that’s how he treats his own mother.’ Her stubby legs marched to the door.
‘No!’ Dermot cried. ‘It might be Lord Robert, else a dozen guards!’
‘In my home! I’ll tell you what, if I see your Lord Robert, I’ll give him a good walloping. And I’ll say, see here, that’s what you get for taking old Aunt Kinnish, poor little Colyn, and giving my son no week off at the holidays!’ She wrenched the door open.
Grasping Aubrey and holding him to his chest, Dermot squinted at the dark figure.
It was a man he knew, surely, and seeing him again brought a flash of recollection.
He had been to them like a vicar, ambling around cottages and going to the beds of men and women who lay dying.
Every spring, the man would take village children to deliver reeds to the top of some hill.
Yet even when Dermot thought on this, he could not fathom why.
‘And what are you doing here, old Aleyn?’ Breesha said. ‘You scared my Dermot half to death, you did. Look at him there, hiding in the corner with his sweetheart. Never thought I’d have grandchildren, did I?’
Dermot coloured, his blush a fiery shield from the onset of cold air. As Aleyn stepped into their home and set his cane against the wall, he begrudgingly released Aubrey.
‘You must pardon me, Mrs Skelly,’ Aleyn said. He, as usual, made no reference to Breesha being an unmarried woman. ‘I haven’t been able to sleep tonight.’
‘Oh?’ Breesha said, nudging Aleyn’s cane neatly into a corner. ‘And why might that be? Never shown up to my cottage before, not at this hour. And don’t you be thinking a thing about it, Dermot, of old Aleyn and me.’
Moving aside so that he stood beside Aubrey rather than shrouding him in shadow, Dermot observed the intruder. Aleyn remained at the door as if waiting to be invited in. His cane was a simple stick fashioned for walking, and he wore shapeless, ill-fitting rags that looked to be pieced together.
‘I am sorry for having disturbed you,’ Aleyn said. His grey eyes lighted on Dermot; a shade eerie and unnatural even amongst their countrymen. ‘But I must speak to you, Dermot.’
‘What!’ Breesha cried. ‘No one’s sent you here, have they? Because I tell you, I won’t have it.’
Aleyn ventured forward, narrowing his eyes as he did so. Never before had Dermot known him to have issues with his sight but, seeing those ghostly spheres going to-and-fro, he surmised that perhaps madness had taken hold.
Standing back, Dermot naturally glimpsed his own room. He couldn’t escape his lust, even then, the idea of sharing a bed with Aubrey too incredible.
‘This…!’ Aleyn cried. Dermot turned just as the old man threw Aubrey’s veil to the side. Black lace yielded and swerved in mid-air, shuddering as it descended towards dusty floorboards. ‘The boy is…!’
‘Boy?!’ Breesha shouted. She surged forward but dared not touch Aubrey, eyes roaming until she finally came to his face.
He stood pristine with skin pure as milk, dark lashes shadowing sombre eyes, but was unquestionably male.
‘And here I was talking of grandchildren.’ Inching away from Aleyn and speaking so only Dermot might hear, she said, ‘But not for lack of trying, I’d wager. ’
‘This boy…!’ said old Aleyn again.
‘You’ve always known Dermot to be an odd one, so have I. Give it no more thought. Never hurt nobody, has he?’ Breesha said. ‘And, say, why have you come? Whatever happens in private stays there, don’t it?’
‘That’s not it at all. There’s an unnaturalness in this boy, an unwelcome quality. If we heard him speak, we’d all be witness to that strangeness. He’s a mainlander,’ Aleyn said.
‘And so was Dermot’s father. He’s half, and don’t you forget it, though I know you’d like to,’ Breesha said.
‘A Stanley!’ Aleyn declared. ‘Blood as black as his hair.’
‘Enough of this!’ Dermot cried out. So long had he been in shadow that it came as a shock to him to even be permitted breath. Yet now, liberated from service, no man held the right to his silence. He stepped forward, pushing between Aubrey and Aleyn.
‘Aubrey fled the castle with me. Robert had been keeping him like a prisoner since court, and now he is mocked or decried as a witch himself,’ Dermot said.
Each word was slowly enunciated, for he relished this peculiarity.
A lifetime of holding one’s tongue curdled a man’s soul until he spat fire with every breath, devouring his masters until they were at last made cinder.
‘Even though he is a Stanley by blood, he’s shown himself to be a better person than anyone who lives here. ’
‘Mind yourself!’ Breesha said. ‘I was there that very day, in fact. Come to protest, I had. And where were you? Stuttering your words in front of some pretty young lawyer! Fie, I cried, so ashamed of my own flesh and blood!’
‘Mother,’ Dermot said, grinding his teeth together so that his jaw shuddered. ‘What choice did I have? I could’ve said my piece and be thrown into the dungeon and burnt along with the Kinnish. Even Aubrey, Robert’s own brother, was locked away.’
Breesha paused and, observing Aubrey again, said with a rare smile, ‘At least my boy chose his partner well. Stanley or no, I was mightily impressed seeing the only person up there with some sense. Welcome to the family, lad, that’s what I say.’
Aubrey met Breesha’s enquiring eyes for a moment before his own immediately trailed back to the floorboards. His lips moved but he said nothing.
‘A Stanley amongst my very own. When we breed with these mainlanders…’ Aleyn rumbled, unable to see even Aubrey’s silhouette, hidden as he was behind Dermot and Breesha.
‘That’s for me, is it?! Well! You’ll be leaving now, old Aleyn, before I say something that’ll give me cause for regret,’ Breesha said, reaching out into the air and pushing back at nothing.
Aleyn observed Dermot’s steady gaze. Sighing, he said, ‘This is not why I came. I was studying the tea leaves, you see, as I could not go to bed, and what they showed me… well. That was when I realised there was a presence in the village unlike anyone I know.’
‘You held Dermot when he was but a babe, silly old man,’ Breesha said.
Sidestepping Breesha and going instead to Dermot, Aleyn said, ‘There’s something off about you, boy. A presence that lingers all about you, and it does not come from your fair Stanley. It is distinctly otherworldly, shall we say. And, yes, seeing your expression, I think you understand me.’
Dermot gawked. It was as if the old man had him in a chokehold. His most hated secret had been spoken into open air. Now it lingered all about them as Dermot said nothing, stupefied.
‘What’s all this? Tea leaves and whatnot, otherworldly. I’ll say you’re getting in the way of some of our other old folk, Aleyn, and no more. Off with you!’ Breesha said.
‘Wait!’ Dermot cried, despising how his mother reeled back at him as if to hit.
‘Mother, please, show Aubrey to my room. We’ve travelled a while, no doubt he is tired.
I will sleep on the floor when I come in.
But, for now, let Aleyn and I speak alone, if only to calm an old man’s fear.
’ This, he knew, was uncharacteristic of him.
He had never thought much about another man’s health.