Chapter 40
40
That cheery voice had lost its friendly edge. The sense of calm Luna had always felt in his presence was now a searing terror. She had been such a fool.
Luna spun to face Mr Findlay, surprised to find him shrouded in a light brown cloak and hood. Those blue eyes of his no longer looked twinkly and friendly but had taken on a more sinister edge. There was a snide curl of the lip and a haunting solemnity about his gaze.
‘I trust the rest of your household have heeded my warning to remain inside, as I really do not want to be disturbed, tonight of all nights.’
Luna said nothing. At that moment in time, the only person safely inside the house was Mrs Webber.
‘The dark one will be joining us soon and I am certain you will find it a truly magnificent spectacle.’
It took her a few seconds to understand what he meant by the dark one. He certainly wasn’t referring to a grumpy Marcus. He noticed her confusion and clearly delighted in explaining.
‘You must surely be aware of the properties of the water from the Ravenswood well. They have been referenced in numerous demonology texts since the Middle Ages, and I moved halfway across the county to have access to it because I believe there may be even more power here than at my beloved Stonehenge. I have tired of waiting for Mr Greybourne to do his part and get the well flowing. It is up to me, my dear, to realise the legend, and then you shall witness the horrifying yet transcendent pageantry of All Hallows’ Eve. I’m afraid I need your assistance though, which was why I cast a summoning spell. And here you are.’ He looked inordinately pleased with himself.
She thought about what had made her enter the woods but felt strongly that the decision had been hers and hers alone. There had been no inexplicable force dragging her reluctant feet outside. He may have ground up powders and muttered magical words, but the fact she was at the well was coincidence, and linked purely to her desire to find Marcus, not his use of sorcery.
‘I don’t understand; you counteract dark magic, you don’t practise it.’
Mr Findlay looked disappointed and opened up a small leather pouch hanging at his waist to scatter the dried contents onto the fire. Revived by the highly combustible offering, it swelled and roared – a dragon woken from its slumbers and showing its anger by expelling deep orange flames that reached out into the blackness that surrounded it. A heady exotic fragrance with sickly sweet undertones filled the air. He inhaled deeply before turning his attention back to her.
‘I thought you were brighter than that, Rose .’
She felt a jolt as he said the name out loud. No one, except Constable Jones, had spoken it in months, but she gave nothing away. Ravenswood was her home and Marcus was her husband. She would not acknowledge anything from before that time.
‘The constable was round a few days ago asking questions,’ he continued, feeling the need to explain how he had come by his knowledge. ‘Some housemaid from Lowbridge poisoned a young lad who was sweet on her. Ran from the village the day his body was discovered and was tracked to Little Doubton, where the trail went cold. How strange, I thought to myself, that it should be around the time you arrived at Ravenswood.’
He smiled but his cheeks no longer looked rosy. Instead, he looked jowly and the roundness of his face only served to highlight how small and sinister his eyes were.
‘But worry not, dear child, I said nothing. I simply could not have you arrested and taken to Branchester gaol when I need you here. You may not be who you claim to be, but you are certainly the woman Marcus Greybourne loves, and that means you are the one I’ve been seeking.’
Seeking? The word made her shiver. It was bad enough that the constable was hunting her, but that Findlay had also been pursuing her made her blood run cold in her veins.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m Luna Greybourne,’ she said, even though they both knew it to be a lie. Her heart started pumping faster and her eyes darted about. Planning to make a run for it, she wondered which path was her best option, but Findlay was inching closer, blocking her escape. She began to back away but her body came into contact with the cold stone well. He had her pinned.
‘We can play that game, if you wish, my dear, but I am running out of time now, so I’d rather we focused on the matters at hand. Shall we begin?’
He reached forward and took the lamp from her shaking hands, resting it on the edge of the well next to his own lantern.
Luna’s mind raced to make sense of what was happening, as he studied her confused expression. A small shrieking black bat swooped past her face, making her jump, especially as there were so few creatures in these woods. Then she remembered Marcus had told her that the insects were attracted by the firelight, and the bats were here for the insects. There was nothing to be afraid of – apart from Mr Findlay it would suddenly seem.
‘Oh dear, are you now only realising that I am not what I have led you to believe? Perhaps you should have listened to Mr Greybourne, but women always think they know best.’ He shook his head. ‘I need the well to flow again, if not for tonight, then soon, because I waited far too long for Luna to break the spell to no avail. I consider myself a patient man, but the time has come for action. “When new life is created at the well, so shall the well come back to life”.’
But surely this was just a silly superstition. Marcus was undoubtedly right about that, too. Only an act of nature could cause it to flow again.
‘I don’t understand what that has to do with me.’
‘I thought it was Luna, you see? The rumours of the well’s power were legendary, especially in the circles I move in. These woods are special – the purity of the water, the depth of the shaft, the presence of such ancient oaks. Before the persecution of my kind, and the drying out of the sacred water source, this was a truly magical site and it was foretold that one day it would become so again. When I arrived in Little Doubton, the tarot told me that the woman to fulfil the prophecy would be the mistress of Ravenswood, and it was the creation of her child that would cause the spring to flow.’
Luna felt a shiver run through her. Was that why he’d given her the rose-scented potion? What she’d thought was genuine concern for her happiness was a manipulative attempt to get her and Marcus to have a physical relationship, in the hope that a child would come from the union.
‘Two years I waited and nothing.’ He sighed. ‘She believed herself barren, perhaps she was, and it only served to contribute to her madness and despair. However, I considered what she had not, that it might be her husband who was at fault, and so decided there was more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. I had only divined the truth of the mother, not necessarily the father.’
Findlay’s gaze was dreamy and unfocused. ‘She was utterly beguiling; those pale eyes had me hypnotised from the first time we met,’ he continued. ‘I had not touched her, as I thought it was her husband who must fulfil the prophecy – but when we finally came together in that way, she was by the well, twirling about totally naked in a beam of moonlight, waving a long thread of scarlet ribbon in the air. She pretended not to notice me and continued to leap and writhe in time with her mystical chanting, until I slipped off my cloak and she saw that I, too, was unclothed…’
‘I don’t want to—’ But Findlay would not be silenced. He wanted to relive this memory and wanted her to hear him do so. How wrong she had been to think Mr Webber was Luna’s lover, when all the time it was Mr Findlay.
‘I remember how she tipped her head back, stretching her arms to the sky, as though she could sweep her fingers through the stars, and allowed me to reach out and trace a line from her wrist, down her arm to circle under one of her breasts. We both knew why I was there and revelled in one moment of perfect stillness before she became a wild beast, pulling me to her with a roughness that took even me by surprise. Her husky laugh was cruel and self-satisfied, as though it was she who had orchestrated events – perhaps she had. And then the savage hunger in both of us was allowed to explore its violent and unfettered recklessness. We were so alike, you see?’
Luna most definitely did not see, nor did she want to hear any more, but he was determined she would listen to his tale.
‘Her desires were even more disturbing than mine, and when she had finished, and rose from me, the moonlight highlighted the deep scratches and smears of blood that covered her thin, pale body. She had enjoyed every moment, and the pain and brutality of it all had been part of the thrill.
‘Our encounters, though, proved unfruitful and I suspected she was barren, after all. The prophecy made no sense. And then you appeared and I began to wonder if I’d interpreted the cards incorrectly. But I should have known that the honourable Marcus Greybourne would not touch you.’ He sneered. ‘And it would seem the love philtre I passed to you has failed me.’
‘I never used it,’ she said, defiantly. ‘And I’m glad now, for anything could be in it.’
‘You drank my teas though.’ He gave a sly smile. ‘And were all the more suggestible because of them.’
Revelations were tumbling out at an alarming rate. What had he put in those infusions when she’d visited Honeysuckle Cottage? Had he been drugging her? Had he been drugging Luna? She was thankful not to have relied on the laudanum. But as the sickly scent in the woodsmoke grew stronger, she suspected he had put something equally intoxicating on the fire.
He caught her alarmed expression.
‘Devil worship is so often misunderstood; we merely desire to indulge in a lifestyle others might consider immoral or sinful.’ He shrugged. ‘Often, it is at the expense of weaker individuals, but I do not lose sleep over that. We shun abstinence and advocate an eye for an eye. I do not think we are so very terrible just because we have the backbone to grab what we want from the world. My happiness is greater and my life more colourful than yours. I am not confined by your rules. I make my own.’
‘But you have healed so many villagers, even protected them from witchcraft.’ She was still struggling with how she’d been duped .
‘What better way to win people over? It certainly worked with you. Besides, it’s not that I wish people ill, just that I wish specific people ill. I do not desire to be persecuted as a witch, so it is rather fortunate that the accoutrements one needs to practise good magic can equally be used to practise bad. There are a few things I keep out of sight…’ She thought back to the locked trunk at Honeysuckle Cottage that he’d told her contained poisons and valuable spices. ‘Things it would not be wise for me to have on display, but I generally find people are more helpful when they consider you an ally. And, because I believe in giving even the hunted fox a fighting chance – it rather adds to the game, don’t you think? – I even tried to warn you.’
How stupid she had been. Findlay had said it over and over again: not everyone could be trusted, even those she thought of as friends.
‘But you said the evil was at Ravenswood.’
‘And you don’t think she is? You have admitted to seeing her. She visits me too. Marcus killed her, you know. She finally told me this and begged me to take his life, but I thought I needed him, like I need you, to get the well to flow.’ He shrugged. ‘It was clear to me that you loved him, but I had not counted on his faith. He is a man who does not condone sexual immorality – quite the mystery to me because it is such an inordinate amount of fun. Luna and I often laughed at how he had even saved himself for their wedding night.’
How dare they mock Marcus, she thought, rubbing her temples as she tried to focus on everything she was being told. But her head was feeling woolly and her senses were fighting for clarity.
‘I’m a desperate man, Rose, and have waited long enough. If new life must be created at the well, then let us create it…’ he grabbed her wrists and jerked her horrified face closer, ‘…tonight.’
The bumpy stones embedded in the well walls dug painfully into her back as he pinned her down with his surprisingly strong right arm, bending her backwards so that her head hovered above the deep shaft behind her. He used his free hand to wrestle with the buttons of the purple trousers he wore under the cloak, but she was not having this and fought back. If this was to be her fate, she would not make it easy for him.
‘Feisty little thing, aren’t you? I think I like your angry spirit even more. Luna was always a willing, if violent, participant, and yet your genuine struggle is surprisingly arousing.’
It was no use. Even had he not been physically stronger and taller, the way he had his body across hers and her vulnerable position, bent backwards across the well, meant she was never going to throw him off. She began to cry out in the hope that someone, anyone, would hear, determined to break free, even though she knew it was impossible. Where were they? Bran and Marcus, her protectors?
The scent from the fire was snaking around them, more concentrated now as the herbs and powders intensified in the heat, floating about their heads like a creeping and ominous fog. She felt alone and suddenly very foolish; she had trusted the enemy for the second time in her life, and failed to spot his duplicity until it was too late.
Her head was starting to spin, thoughts wriggling out of her control as everything became blurry and distant, but she would not let this man win. Standing in front of the persuasive Eloise, she had buckled at her mistress’s strength and allowed herself to be manipulated. The decision to flee had been the wrong one; she knew that now. It would have been better to stand up for herself – to fight. And now that she finally had a life she wanted to fight for, she would do exactly that.
Twisting her pinned hands towards each other, she was able to slip one slender wrist free of his tight grasp. As she liberated it, it flew behind her head and caught the nearest of the lamps, sending it tumbling into the well. There was a cracking of glass as it ricocheted off the sides of the deep shaft on its way down, the light immediately extinguished, and then an unexpected splash as it eventually hit the bottom.
The well held water, which meant the spring was flowing once more.
‘How can this be?’ he asked, frowning as he peered over the edge and into the dark chasm below. He turned back to look at Luna, before both sets of wide eyes fell to her flat belly.