Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
RUE
‘Thank heavens he’s gone,’ my aunt said, as the door closed and Theo took up his reins.
I jumped, shocked to find her standing behind me.
I dismissed Theo from my mind. ‘Not for long, though, Aunt Sorrel.’ I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache coming on.
‘We need to warn Grandmother and the others. Thankfully we cleared out most of the spell room, but you’ve both been working on the spell for today’s meeting since then. ’
She sighed wearily. I felt her exhaustion and wished we could have time to rest before the next onslaught upon our home. ‘We have. And there’s the attic. What with the women leaving in such a hurry, I doubt all traces of our spell, or possibly my grimoire, have been cleared away.’
I guessed my grandmother had come downstairs by now. I didn’t want either of them to have to climb several flights of stairs yet again. ‘I’ll go up there now and check everything is as it should be. Hopefully I can make it look as if no one has been up there for a while.’
‘Good idea. We don’t know how much time we have, so we need to be practical. I’ll fetch Mama and go to the spell room.’ She touched her lips with her forefinger. ‘Anything they find in the kitchen can be explained away.’
I thought of the herbs steeping and the bunches of others hanging up to dry. ‘Don’t forget your own cottage.’
She groaned. ‘I’ll do that as soon as I’m satisfied they won’t find anything here.’
‘I’ll come and help when I’ve finished in the attic.’ I looked at her, miserable that I was the cause of all this unpleasantness. ‘I’m so sorry about all this.’
Her eyebrows knitted in confusion, then she raised her hands.
‘Stop that right now, Rue. None of this is your fault. If anything, it’s that madman who insists on persecuting our family.
’ Her face softened. ‘I heard most of what Theo Le Cerf said to you, and have to admit he does seem very different from his father.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, though I knew exactly where she was going with this.
‘He clearly has affection for you.’
I started to argue but she glared at me.
‘You can deny it all you wish, but that man has gone behind his father’s back to warn you.
I saw his horse out of the window before I came to listen at the door, and by the look of the sweat on the poor creature, they had been galloping for miles to get here. ’
‘What are you saying?’ I needed her reassurance about Theo. After being so wrong about my father all this time, I was beginning to wonder if my intuition was at all reliable.
‘Only that he seems decent, and I sense that, rather than trying to find you guilty of doing exactly what we do secretly do,’ she said, her voice lowered as if someone might hear her making the admission, ‘I believe he’s doing his utmost to prove your innocence.’
The thought saddened me. If that truly was the case, then this man was choosing to help me against his father’s wishes – unaware that he was trying to prove someone innocent of a crime of which they were guilty.
‘Wipe that look from your face immediately,’ she snapped, taking me by the shoulders and turning me to face the staircase. ‘Go to the attic and make it ready for inspection.’
I began to hurry up the stairs.
As I entered the attic, I hoped a sense of my mother would still be there now that I was alone.
But there was nothing. It was as if she had never materialised before me.
I was glad the other women in the coven had been there to witness the event, otherwise I might think myself fanciful, imagining her coming to us because I needed her so desperately.
I stood and surveyed the room. The women must have cleared up after themselves, I noted with relief. Everything had gone and it was as if we had never been there. Then I spotted something shining, half-hidden under one of the coverings. Someone must have kicked it there by accident when tidying up.
I bent to retrieve it and saw it was a smoky quartz, which I knew was used for protection and to guard against negative energy.
I would need to return this to its owner.
I tried to recall who had stood there. Iris.
She would be the first person I asked. I knew how much I valued my crystals and would hate to lose one, especially one I took to such a powerful spell.
Not wanting to be caught with it on me, I decided to hide it down the back of one of the chairs under a covering.
Surely these men working for the Witchfinder would have far too much to do checking this enormous house to investigate pieces of furniture.
I hoped I was right, because to carry it downstairs and be caught with it in my pocket, should they arrive before I had a chance to discard it, was too much of a risk.
I looked around the room and spotted a chair in a group of six.
I threaded my way past other pieces of furniture, dusty trunks and old pictures, and lifted the edge of the covering so as not to disturb it more than necessary.
I reached under it and, hoping my hand wouldn’t encounter anything furry or with more than four legs, I pushed the crystal between the cushion and the inside of the chair’s arm, before carefully lowering the sheet.
I thought of my mother’s warning not to trust someone and wondered who she had meant.
Not the Witchfinder, because it went without saying that I would never trust him.
Not my father, Pierre or Jem, because, apart from none of them wanting to hurt me in any way, they would, in any case, gain nothing from it.
My throat ached with sadness as it occurred to me that the only other man it could be was Theo.
Surely not. After what he had done – tracking down my father and persuading him to come and reveal himself to us, then racing here across country to warn us of the impending raid – how could he let us down?
Was everything he had done an attempt to gain my trust and then hurt me?
Would he be that cruel? I thought of who his father was. He did have cruelty in his blood.
I thought of the look on his face when I had kissed his cheek.
Shock – and something else. Delight, maybe?
Was that because, as my aunt had suggested, he had feelings for me?
Or was it guilt about what he was doing behind our backs?
I had no idea. But I also had no more time to think, or to do anything at all about it.
I had to go and help my grandmother and aunt clear the house of any signs of our work.