Chapter 42
42
‘What’s all this about?’ Marcus asked, directing his question to Dr Gardener, who was at the front of the crowd.
‘We were summoned by your manservant, Webber, who called around the village shortly before dusk, telling us to assemble by the well at midnight if we wanted to know the truth of who was behind all the witchcraft and dark things that have been happening. Many wouldn’t leave their houses on All Hallows’ Eve but some of us were curious enough to band together.’
‘Safety in numbers, and all that,’ said Constable Jones, although the policeman was not in uniform and Luna thought she could see the wooden grip of a revolver tucked into the band of his trousers.
Where was Webber? Luna scanned the faces. Perhaps she really had seen him earlier in the trees – not as a spirit summoned like the others, but as a mortal, causing mischief and mayhem.
‘And we’ve seen the truth now, with our own eyes,’ one of the men brandishing a spade shouted. ‘The Ravenswood Witch in the clearing at the witching hour. It’s quite obvious she’s been Devil-worshipping. Look at the marks in the soil, the candles, the grimoire. ’
Luna was horrified.
‘These aren’t my?—’
‘Burn her!’ Hilda screamed, as the doctor turned to the old lady with an incredulous look on his face. ‘She’s too powerful for my poppets. Seven of ’em I’ve made of her and nothing.’ So she was behind the clay figures and the blinding pains – this sad old woman who was so convinced that Luna was a witch. ‘Burn her, I say.’
‘Really, madam, contain yourself. We have moved on since those barbaric times.’ The doctor was quite indignant and swung back to Marcus. ‘But I do think the woman claiming to be your wife has questions to answer, Greybourne. Something unsavoury has certainly happened here tonight and I have fears for her sanity and, if you are supporting such ritualistic nonsense, perhaps even your own.’
‘It’s not what it looks like…’ Marcus began but was shouted down by the crowd, just as a young man sprang out of the rabble and grabbed Luna, pushing her away from the protection of her husband and holding a knife to her throat.
‘Stop this nonsense at once!’ Mrs Cole stepped forward. ‘Freddie, put the knife down.’
Luna felt the cold of the blade against her skin and wondered if this was how it would all end. Would this lad see to it that she never left the woods alive? One quick slice across her throat and it would all be over. With her swimming head and thudding heart, she half-believed it would be the merciful option.
Marcus lunged to snatch her back, but the man growled and his weapon-bearing arm went rigid. Not prepared to risk her safety, her husband stepped away.
‘Leave her be.’ Mr Webber came rushing from the depths of the trees. ‘She ain’t a witch. She ain’t even Luna Greybourne. You’ve got this all wrong but I saw everything.’ He shook his head and shuddered. ‘ Everything . It’s that Mr Findlay I called you all here to see. I’m pretty sure he’s behind it all: the animals, the ill-wishing, even the muteness of the little feral girl.’
Luna felt the knife drop away as the young lad’s hand fell to his side, but his grip on her arm remained tight.
‘Findlay’s our friend,’ Mrs Cole said, gently. ‘I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I do know him to be a kind man and a healer of sorts, even if the doctor doubts his methods. He has helped so many in the village and passed over thoughtful gifts and money to support Penny. He’s not responsible for her being struck dumb.’
‘I know many of you don’t have cause to trust my word, but I know what I saw,’ Mr Webber insisted. ‘I’ve been passing through these woods at night since I started working here – the reasons ain’t no one’s business but my own – and I saw the cunning man with Mrs Greybourne, just before the birds wouldn’t let him enter the woods no more. I never said nothing because I’m largely of a mind that if I stay out of other people’s business, they’ll stay out of mine. But him and her were casting spells, dancing naked and fornicating together?—’
‘Harlot!’ screamed Hilda, running up to Luna and spitting in her face. ‘Spawn of Beelzebub. Pagan whore. Kill her for her carnal wantonness!’ It appeared she was determined to condemn Luna for something – anything – and being a fallen woman was as good a reason as being a Devil-worshipping one.
‘Findlay?’ Marcus’s eyes widened in disbelief. ‘ It was Findlay ?’
He had known then, as the cunning man had implied, of his wife’s indiscretions, even if not who they were with. But was it enough to drive him to murder?
The constable gently guided Luna away from Freddie. She returned to her husband’s side and he drew her close once more.
‘Go to Honeysuckle Cottage,’ Mr Webber insisted, addressing the horde. ‘All of you. Findlay ain’t gonna stop you. He’s dead in that fire and you need to be thankful for it. I knew things were brewing, coz I’ve been watching him these past few days and broke into his house tonight, after he left for the well. What I found there would make a grown man weep. I ain’t saying too much coz there’s women here, but he had some pretty grotesque books upstairs, with pictures in ’em showing wicked things with children. There were evil instruments, stuff in jars that’d turn your stomach, and a journal under his pillows. I can’t read the words but I’m betting it ain’t his thoughts on the reverend’s weekly sermon.’
He slipped a slim leather notebook from his coat and handed it to the doctor, who moved to stand closer to one of the lamp holders and started to flick through the pages.
‘I know I’ve slapped my wife about a bit in my time, but I ain’t never done the unholy evil things he did.’
‘Merciful Father,’ the doctor whispered, as his eyes rapidly scanned Findlay’s words. ‘Penny. No wonder the poor girl stopped speaking.’
For a moment, the woods were silent as people absorbed the magnitude of the cunning man’s depravity. They started to cast nervous glances at each other and shuffle from foot to foot. Luna thought back to when Findlay had talked to her about looking into the eyes of a monster who had ill-used little children, and she realised he was undoubtedly talking about himself. The evil that had so frightened him had stared back at him from his own mirror.
‘Take some of the men, Constable, see for yourselves. And then tell me he wasn’t practically the Devil Himself. I may not be a good man, and God knows one day I shall pay for my sins, but the things I saw in his trunk and kept around his bed will haunt me until the day I die. Findlay fooled us all but I saw him summoning the dead tonight, assaulting this woman, trying to murder her raven?—’
‘Her familiar, more like,’ the old woman shouted but was largely ignored by those around her, who were losing interest in her accusations against Luna, too shocked by Webber’s words and their implications.
‘To my mind, we should be thanking her and that bird,’ the manservant said. ‘They’ve saved us.’
And with the impeccable timing that Bran always seemed to possess, he swooped down from the tallest oak and flew past Luna’s face, with something dangling from his beak. She felt the cool rush of air as he swept past, and realised with horror what the small, white sphere swinging from a cord was, as Findlay looked into her soul one last time.
Her legs buckled and she felt the strong arms of Marcus catch her as everything faded to black.