Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
RUE
Every instinct told me not to do as my grandmother insisted but even I saw there was little I could do to help her escape. She wasn’t nimble on her feet any more, and at least if I was free I might be able to make a plan to help her, with Pierre’s assistance.
Unable to think clearly, I pushed my way past a man who had Iris by the shoulders.
He was shaking her and screaming in her face.
I hesitated, about to help her, when she screamed back at him, not, I realised with surprise, in fear but in temper.
She pushed him and the man fell backwards.
Relieved, I focused on finding a way out of the clearing and into the security of the dense woodland.
‘Get them all.’
The Witchfinder’s voice rang out loud and clear. I sensed I was his target. Again.
Damn that man, I thought, stumbling.
A sharp twig pierced my cheek. I fell forward, pain shooting up through my wrist. I grabbed hold of something to keep me on my feet.
As I stood upright again, I realised I was holding cloth.
It was a sleeve. Barely able to breathe, I looked up to my right and saw it belonged to Theo.
I gasped, desperate to get away. I let go of him and forced my shaky legs forward, though I knew I was only wasting energy and had little chance of outrunning this powerful, fit man.
I mustn’t give up, I told myself.
‘Rue, it’s me.’
Why did he think I didn’t already know that? I concentrated on forging through the bushes, blinking to clear my blurred vision. Why was I crying?
Furious with myself, I kept going. I don’t know how it happened but a moment later he was in front of me, taking hold of my sprained wrist and dragging me after him. I wasn’t sure what he was doing at first and desperately tried to snatch my arm away from him despite the searing pain in my wrist.
He ignored me and ran on into the trees, slowing as they became thicker. ‘Stop fighting me,’ he hissed eventually. ‘I’m trying to help you.’
I couldn’t understand why he expected me to believe he would disobey clear orders. Hadn’t he been one of those men who had come crashing into our gathering like bulls let loose from a field?
‘Rue, stop that, or I’ll have to carry you.’
‘Leave me alone, can’t you?’ I demanded through my sobs. My grandmother was still back there, my aunt too. ‘What are you doing?’
He stopped so suddenly that I slammed into him. He laid a hand on my right cheek and wiped my tears away with his thumb. Without another word, he picked me up and began pushing through the foliage once again.
I wriggled, my instinct to escape giving me strength I hadn’t expected to have.
‘I’m trying to save you, Rue, stop fighting me,’ he said, clasping me tightly against his chest. He was becoming breathless and I suppose it didn’t help that I was struggling to make him put me down. ‘Please, Rue. Enough.’
This was Theo, I reminded myself. If he had wanted to arrest me, he could have done that in the clearing. Weak from shock and fear, I gave in to him. I slipped my arms around his neck. I had little choice but to trust him if I was to escape this catastrophe.
Eventually we reached another clearing. Theo slowed his pace and stopped behind a wide-trunked oak tree. He stood there holding me and panting.
‘Will you be sensible and not try to run away if I put you down?’ he asked breathlessly.
Resigned to do as he asked, at least for now, I nodded. Realising that, despite the brightness of the moon, we were standing in a dark spot and he couldn’t see me, I said, ‘I promise.’
He lowered me gently to my feet.
We were here, alone. Had I been right to trust him? ‘Why did you bring me deeper into the woods away from the others?’
He scowled at me. ‘Not for any ungentlemanly reason, if that’s what concerns you.’
I looked away, not wanting him to see my reaction to his cold response. I knew it was odd and was surprised at myself. I realised he was waiting for me to speak. I forced myself to look at him.
‘I don’t understand why you helped me escape, especially after…’ My voice trailed off.
‘Even after you admitted who you really are,’ he said without taking his gaze from me, ‘I still struggled to believe it.’ He swallowed.
I began to speak but he talked over me, obviously determined to have his say. ‘Go now, as quickly as you can.’ He pointed over my right shoulder. ‘Keep going in that direction. You should end up somewhere near your family estate. Find Pierre and tell him what’s happened.’
‘I’m not sure I know what to say,’ I said, mostly to myself.
‘That’s not surprising.’ He pressed his fingers to his temples and winced.
‘I imagine your aunt and grandmother will have been arrested along with the other women. They’ll be taken to the castle to be questioned.
Tell Pierre to go there and ask to see them on some pretext.
He could possibly take them shawls, or something to eat and drink, because who knows what they’ll be expected to survive on otherwise. ’
‘I’ll go myself.’
He frowned. ‘No, Rue.’ He gave me a sympathetic shake of his head.
‘That place is not somewhere you should see.’ I took a breath to argue but he raised his hand and carried on talking.
‘You’ll only be offering yourself up to my father if you’re seen there.
Either he or one of the other men is bound to have seen you here tonight.
’ He closed his eyes wearily before looking into my eyes once more.
‘If only you weren’t a witch,’ he groaned.
His sadness stung. I was a witch, had been born to be exactly who I was now. ‘I have no choice in the matter,’ I said. ‘Not that I would change who I am, even for you.’
He rested his hands on my shoulders but didn’t speak. He didn’t need to; the pain in his eyes was clear for me to see even in the moonlight.
‘You’re sad I’m not the woman you imagined me to be, isn’t that right?’
‘It is, if you want the truth.’
‘Is it really so terrible that I’m a witch?’
He glowered at me. ‘Don’t mock me, Rue. I am still the Witchfinder’s assistant, and regardless of how I feel for you, I must carry out my duties.’
I was shocked that someone who apparently had feelings for me could still threaten to hand me over to his diabolical father.
We stared at each other in silence. I looked deep into his eyes and saw his need to do what was right, but also his shame: either because he couldn’t do more for me, or because he was being disloyal to his father and the work he was trained to carry out.
I realised that I needed to be completely honest with him.
It mattered that Theo should know the truth about what the witches in my family did.
‘Contrary to what you clearly believe about us, the women in this coven only come together for the good of others, or ourselves. We cast spells to protect those close to us who need it.’
‘You did that before tonight?’
I wasn’t sure whether he was being sarcastic. Deciding to be honest with him, I nodded. ‘We did.’ I smiled. ‘And didn’t you come to my aid, helping me to evade capture?’
I could see he wasn’t happy to discover he had become part of our spell without knowing it.
I took his hands in mine, feeling him flinch at the touch of my skin against his. ‘Theo, that time I caused you pain…’
He glanced at his chest before frowning and looking at me. ‘That was you after all?’
‘I’m afraid it was.’
His head moved back. ‘You admit you hurt me on purpose but wish me to believe I should trust you?’
I winced. ‘It was only once and because you upset me.’ I tightened my grip on his hands when he went to pull them away.
‘But I’ve only ever done that one other time since I was a child, and really shouldn’t have done it at all.
My grandmother and the other witches in our coven would be extremely angry with me if they found out. ’
He stared at me, clearly shaken. ‘You’re admitting that you can hurt someone simply by thinking about it?’
‘Sort of.’
‘And you expect me to believe that witches are gentle creatures who do no harm.’
I threw his hands from mine, infuriated with him for not giving me the benefit of the doubt. Seeing fear in his eyes, I reined my temper in. This was not the way to get my point across.
‘We are not cruel, like your father,’ I said, still angry. ‘Or mean. We help others in whatever way we can, and if that means casting protection spells, or binding spells to stop negativity coming our way, or gossip, then so be it. Mostly, though—’
There was a rustling in the bushes nearby and we were still, looking around us in case his father or one of the other men had discovered us. After a while, when we were certain there wasn’t anyone there, we relaxed and I was about to continue.
‘Rue, we don’t have time for this,’ he said.
‘I don’t care. You need to know our lives aren’t filled with the things people like your father would have you believe.’
He winced and held a finger to his lips. ‘Rue, keep your voice down.’
‘It’s not worshipping evil and making bargains with the Devil, you know.’
He tensed, then pushed his face angrily towards mine, our noses almost touching. ‘What is it all about then, Rue? You may as well tell me and get it over with before both of us are discovered here together and I ruin whatever relationship of trust I still have with my father.’
I had no intention of being silenced. I might be a woman, but I had grown up being cared for by two women who had met my every need.
Apart from Pierre carrying out his job on the estate and helping where my grandmother and aunt needed him to, no man had been there to look after me, feed me or earn money to keep the roof over our heads.
I was tired of men making the laws, creating the rules we all had to abide by.
I clenched my fists by my sides.
‘Whatever you or others who scorn our way of life may think, I and the women in my life spend most of our time making ointments and salves to sell at the market to purchase whatever we need that we cannot grow or make for ourselves. We provide herbal teas to help people suffering from insomnia, aches and other ailments. My aunt goes to help birthing mothers when the midwife in our area is busy, and my grandmother helps sick villagers when asked. I help Jem make cheeses and deliver milk and other dairy products, as well as eggs and vegetables, to those in our village and on the estate who need our support.’
He seemed surprised. ‘I admire your charity, I really do,’ he said earnestly, ‘but I’ve seen for myself all of you preparing to cast spells.’
So he had been lurking somewhere in the bushes. I had sensed him nearby but thought I was being fanciful. I would take more notice of my instincts in future.
He took a breath to continue. I braced myself for what was to come next. ‘Don’t try to deny it, Rue.’
‘I wasn’t going to.’
‘You don’t wish to tell me why they were going to banish my father with a spell? Doesn’t that alarm you?’
I could not think why. ‘It wouldn’t have done anything physical to him,’ I explained. I realised it must have been disturbing for him to hear us mention his father’s name in connection with a spell. ‘Only his memory of my aunt.’
He glared at me. ‘And that doesn’t seem wrong to you?’
I was weary and sank my head to my chest for a moment.
Then, raising it, I sighed. ‘We only cast spells to enhance something that requires it.’ I realised that probably didn’t sound as simple as it had in my head.
‘That is, we only work our spells for good. To improve something, or to guard against negativity, or evil. To protect ourselves or those who need our protection. We do not, whatever you may believe, practise our craft to hurt anyone. Only for the greater good.’
I took care not to mention that we also created teas for magickal beliefs as well as for medicinal purposes.
Our neighbours might just need help relaxing or sleeping, but they might also hope for luck or for their fortunes to change, or for a difficult relationship to end, or for protection, or to gain some peace in their life.
We tried to help with all these things, but only for people we knew and trusted, and we never mentioned magick or spells to the villagers we dealt with, only the powers of the herbs we were using.
So they could not run to the Witchfinder with tales of witchcraft from their own experience of us. It was something of a comfort.
He stared at me thoughtfully. I waited for him to speak but he remained silent.
Then he took a deep breath. He closed his eyes briefly.
‘You really must go now, Rue,’ he said, taking me by the shoulders and holding me away from him.
‘I can’t say I understand much more about you or your coven, but I promise I’ll do what I can to help you all.
However, in order to do that, I need my father to trust me and if I’m gone too long he’s bound to become suspicious. ’
I wasn’t ready to leave him.
‘Not yet,’ I whispered, forgetting to keep my thoughts to myself.
His eyes lit up and it dawned on me that I was being unfair to him.
He had saved me and promised to help my family and I was grateful to him, but if I was honest with myself I couldn’t see a future for us together: a witch and a Witchfinder’s assistant.
It was ridiculous even to waste time hoping for something that had no chance of making either of us happy.
I trusted that he would do as he had promised, and I wished things could be different, but I couldn’t see how.
I needed to annoy him enough so he would keep away from me, though the way I felt now I wasn’t sure I could do it.
At least if Theo felt less for me, both of us stood a small chance of getting on with our lives.
As it was, the feelings we had for each other were already causing trouble for those we loved.
‘I’m grateful to you for all you’ve done for me tonight, Theo, and for all you will do for my aunt and grandmother. Truly.’
His expression softened. ‘I am happy to do whatever I can.’
I ached to wrap my arms around him and cling to him but to do so would only drag out this thing we had between us.
‘I’m sorry, Theo,’ I said. ‘But although I have feelings for you, I still find that I can’t completely trust you.’
The delight in his eyes dulled and his mouth set in an angry line. I had hurt him, again. I hated having to do it, especially after all he had sacrificed for us, but believed in my heart of hearts that I had little choice.