Виктория Холт - The Mask of the Enchantress

Tom came in and said: "Hello, Granma." He nodded towards me. He was always shy of me.

"Ain't you wanted at King William?" asked Matty.

"Got hour off to myself before we get busy. Not that there'll be much ... night like this."

"Oh, you don't get them fine gentlemen every day."

"Wish we did," said Tom.

I found myself telling them about the encounter in the graveyard. I had not meant to, but somehow it made me seem important to tell. Tom had carried his bags and had his shilling. I wanted them to know that I, too, had made his acquaintance.

"His sort is always interested in churches and suchlike," said Tom.

Matty nodded. "There was a man come down here once ... after the tombs he was. There he would sit ... down by Sir John Ecclestone's graven image, and rub it off on a bit of paper. Oh yes, you get that sort."

"When I was kept in late I went home through the graveyard. He was there ... waiting."

"Waiting?" echoed Tom. "What for?"

"I don't know. He wanted me to go into the church with him and I told him the vicar would tell him all he wanted to know."

"Oh, Vicar would like that. Once he gets started on the arches and the windows you can't stop him."

"It was funny," I said. "It was really as though he wanted to see me ... not the church."

Matty looked sharply at Tom.

"Tom," she said sternly, "I told you to keep your eye on Suewellyn."

"I do, Granma. She was kept in that day, wasn't you, Suewellyn, and I had to go to work at the inn."

I nodded.

"You don't want to go looking into no churches with strange men, ducks," said Matty. "Not churches nor nothing."

"I didn't really want to, Matty. He somehow made me."

"And how long was you in the church?" asked Matty intently.

"About five minutes."

"And he just talked to you, did he? He didn't ... er ..."

I was puzzled. Matty was trying to tell me something and I wasn't sure what.

"Never mind," she went on. "You just remember, and His High and Mighty Nibs is gone away, I believe. So there won't be no more visiting churches for him."

There was silence in the cottage. Then the center of the fire collapsed and sent out a shower of sparks onto the hearth.

Tom took the poker and knelt down, poking the fire. His face was very red.

Matty was unusually silent.

I could stay no longer but I made up my mind that when I was alone with Matty I was going to ask her why she was so disturbed about this man.

But that opportunity never came.

It had been a mild and misty day. It was almost dark just after three o'clock when I came home from school. As I came to the green I saw the station fly outside Crabtree Cottage and I wondered what it could mean. Miss Anabel always let us know when she was coming.

So I did not call in on Matty as I had intended but ran as fast as I could into the cottage.

Aunt Amelia and Uncle William came out of the parlor as I entered. They looked bewildered.

"You're home," said Aunt Amelia unnecessarily; she gulped and there was a brief silence. Then she said: "Something has happened."

"Miss Anabel ..." I began.

"She's upstairs in your room. You'd better go up. She'll tell you."

I ran up the stairs. There was chaos in my room. My clothes were on the bed and Miss Anabel had begun putting them into a bag.

"Suewellyn!" she cried as I entered. "I'm so glad you're early."

She ran to me and hugged me. Then she said: "You're coming away with me. I can't explain now... . You'll understand later. Oh, Suewellyn, you do want to come!"

"With you, Miss Anabel, of course!"

"I was afraid ... after all, you've been here so long ... I thought... never mind... . I've got your clothes. Is there anything else?"

"There are my books."

"All right then ... get them... ."

"Is it for a holiday?"

"No," she said, "it's for always. You're going to live with me now and ... and ... But I'll tell you about it later. At the moment I want us to catch the train."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm not sure. But a long way. Suewellyn, just help me."

I found the few books I possessed and those with my clothes went into the traveling bag which Miss Anabel had brought with her.

I was quite bewildered. Secretly I had always hoped for something like this. Now it had come I felt too stunned to accept it.

She shut the bag and took my hand.

We paused for a second or so to look round the room. The sparsely furnished room which had been mine for as long as I could remember. Highly polished linoleum, texts on the walls-all improving and all slightly menacing. The one which I had been most conscious of was: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!"

I was to remember that in the years to come.

There was the small iron bedstead covered by the patchwork quilt made by Aunt Amelia—each patch surrounded by delicate feather stitching, a sign of commendable industry. "You should start collecting for a patchwork quilt," Aunt Amelia had said. Not now, Aunt Amelia! I am going away from patchwork quilts, cold bedrooms and colder charity forever. I am going away with Miss Anabel.

"Saying good-by to it?" asked Miss Anabel.

I nodded.

"A little sorry?" she asked anxiously.

"No," I said vehemently.

She laughed the laugh I remembered so well, although it was a little different now, more high-pitched, slightly hysterical.

"Come on," she said, "the fly's waiting."

Aunt Amelia and Uncle William were still in the hall.

"I must say, Miss Anabel ..." began Aunt Amelia.

"I know ... I know ... ," replied Anabel. "But it has to be. You will be paid... ."

Uncle William was looking on helplessly.

"What I am wondering is this," went on Aunt Amelia, "what are people going to say?'

"They've been saying things for years," retorted Miss Anabel lightly. "Let them go on."

"It's all very well for them as is not here," said Aunt Amelia.

"Never mind. Never mind. Come on, Suewellyn, or we'll miss our train."

I looked up at Aunt Amelia. "Good-by, Suewellyn," she said, and her lips twitched. She bent down and touched the side of my face with hers, which was as near as she could get to a caress. "Be a good girl ... no matter where you find yourself. Remember to read your Bible and trust in the Lord."

"Yes, Aunt Amelia," I said. "I will."

Then it was Uncle William's turn. He gave me a real kiss.

"Be a good girl," he said, and pressed my hand.

Then Miss Anabel was hurrying me out to the fly.

Of course I am looking back over the years and it is not always easy to remember what happened when one is not quite seven years old. I think the picture gets colored a little; there is much that is forgotten; but I am sure that a wild excitement possessed me and I felt no regret at leaving Crabtree Cottage except for Matty, when I came to think of it, and Tom of course. I should have liked to sit once more by Matty's fire and tell her how I had found Miss Anabel in the cottage packing my things with the fly waiting to take us to the station.

I do remember the train going on and on through the darkness and now and then the lights of a town appearing and how the wheels changed their tune. Going away. Going away. Going away with Anabel.

Miss Anabel held my hand tightly and said: "Are you happy, Suewellyn?"

"Oh yes," I told her.

"And you don't really mind leaving Aunt Amelia and Uncle William?"

"No," I answered. "I loved Matty, and Tom a bit, and Uncle William I liked."

"Of course they looked after you very well. I was very grateful to them."

I was silent. It was so difficult for me to understand.

"Are we going to the woods?" I asked. "Are we going to see the castle?"

"No. We're going a long way."

"To London?" I asked. Miss Brent had often talked about London and it was marked with a big black spot on the map so that I could find it straight away.