Philippa Carr: Saraband for Two Sisters

Tamsyn said: ‘Father, you are cruel. Senara has travelled far to see us, and if you’ll not have her here she knows she will always find a home with us.’

‘Fool!’ cried my grandfather. ‘You were always a fool.’

‘Was I?’ said my mother with spirit. ‘If I am a fool then I do not know the meaning of wisdom. For I have found happiness in my home and my husband and my children which wise men like yourself—or so you think—ever failed to do.’

He glared at her, but I could see the admiration for her in his face. He was proud of her and I think it was not the first time he had been.

‘Then,’ he said, ‘you should have more sense than place them in jeopardy.’ He pointed to Senara. ‘That one … comes of evil stock. Her mother came here and bewitched us all. She’ll do the same. She should never have been born. I warn you, daughter. Be wise. Listen to me. I know. I lived it all.’ His voice broke suddenly. ‘By God,’ he cried, ‘don’t you think I live it all again up in that tower when I look out at the waves and the Devil’s Teeth out there. And I say to myself everything would have been different if the sea had not thrown up Maria the witch on my coast. Your mother was a fool like you. She brought in the witch who spoiled her life. It’s like a pattern, you fool, girl. Don’t you see it? The Devil has sent her to take your happiness from you.’

‘Father,’ said my mother, ‘you have suffered so much, you are sick …’

‘Yes, an old fool of a man, that’s what you say. By God, I’d lay a whip about your shoulders, old as you are, if I was not, confined to this chair. I’ve lost the power of my legs but I’ve a mind that I command still. I’ll tell you this, if you take that woman into your house you’ll rue the day, and you’ll remember this moment and what I’ve said to you.’ He began to laugh and it was unpleasant laughter. ‘All right. I’ll not forbid it. I’ll watch. I’ll see my words come true. I’ll look out on you from my tower and I’ll prove my words come true. Bring the witch’s daughter here … into my castle. Let me show you that I’m right.’

Then he turned and wheeled his chair away. He was calling, ‘Binder. Binder,’ and the terrified manservant came to take the chair and push it out of the hall.

There was silence.

It was Carlotta who spoke first. ‘What a terrible old man,’ she said.

‘He married your grandmother,’ said Senara. ‘It was your grandmother of whom he spoke with such venom.’

‘He must have hated her.’

‘He was bewitched by her.’

‘He’s mad, isn’t he?’

‘Who would not be mad?’ asked Senara. ‘Such a man as he was to be kept a prisoner in a chair!’

My mother said: ‘You will come with us, Senara, to Trystan Priory when we leave. You would not want to stay here now.’

Senara laughed. ‘I’ll not allow him to decide my plans,’ she said. ‘Connell is the master now. If he wanted me to stay … and Melanie wanted it … I would not care for that madman’s words. I shall come to Trystan to be with you—depend upon it, Tamsyn—but I want to be in the castle for a while first.’

Melanie rose. She was clearly shaken by the scene my grandfather had made.

‘It seems as though the storm will not abate for a while,’ she said. ‘But there is no reason why we should sit over the table waiting for it. I will take you to the room which will now be ready. You may want to rest.’

‘I could talk and talk,’ said Senara. ‘Tamsyn, come with me to my room. Let us pretend it is years ago and we are young again.’

My mother went to Senara and they embraced warmly. Everyone began to talk as though nothing had happened. After all, we were accustomed to Grandfather’s outbursts, but I could not forget the wildness of his eyes, and the words he had spoken kept ringing in my ears.

THE CHANGE WAS APPARENT in the first day. This visit was like no other. Before we had rarely made plans for the days. We would come down to breakfast, which was a tankard of ale and bread with cold bacon, and we helped ourselves to this. Then we would go our separate ways. There had been a free and easy atmosphere about the castle. Sometimes I would ride with my sister and any of the girls who liked to accompany us; or I would go to the sea-shore and add to my collection of shells and semi-precious stones, or I would simply explore the castle. There was so much to do. When we had been young we had been allowed to play all sorts of games in the various towers as long as we did not penetrate Grandfather Casvellyn’s Seaward; and the castle had seemed to us an enchanted place.

It was still that in a way, but it was different.

Senara, my mother and Aunt Melanie seemed to want to talk all the time about the old days; Senara must go round the castle exclaiming: ‘I remember this well,’ or ‘Oh, look at that. Fancy its still being here.’ That left Carlotta to us.

We were wary of each other—particularly was Bersaba wary. Carlotta talked in that half foreign way which was attractive; her clothes were different; they, with her voice, her manners and her incomparable beauty, set her apart. It would have been different if she had not been aware of this, but she was.

Bersaba and I with Rozen and Gwenifer took her on a tour of the castle.

‘Is it very different from what your mother told you?’ asked Rozen.

‘Very different.’

‘And we are different too?’ I asked.

She laughed, shaking her head. ‘I did not know of you, therefore I could not picture you. You are different from the people I know.’

‘What? Girls like us?’

‘Oh, it is different in Spain. Young girls do not run wild, as here. They practise decorum and have a duenna.’

‘Who is yours?’

‘I have none now. I am here, and here I shall live as girls live here.’

‘Do you prefer it?’ asked Bersaba.

She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I cannot say. It is not a gracious way to live. Yet one has freedom, and that is good.’

‘We could do with more freedom,’ said Gwenifer. ‘We are not allowed to ride out without grooms, are we?’

‘Sometimes we get lost,’ said Bersaba.

Carlotta turned her full-lidded eyes on my sister. ‘For a purpose?’ she asked.

My sister shrugged her shoulders, and Gwenifer said: ‘You came back with Bastian the other day, Bersaba.’

‘Yes,’ said Bersaba, ‘I lost you, and so did Bastian, and then … we found each other.’

It seemed a long and unnecessary explanation. I knew Bersaba had deliberately lost herself. I wondered whether Bastian had too.

‘Ah, Bastian, the brother,’ said Carlotta. ‘He is a very pleasant young gentleman. I shall miss Spain where life is so much more gracious, but I think I shall like being here … for a while.’

‘Shall you go back to Spain?’

‘Of course.’

‘Are you betrothed?’ asked Rozen.

Carlotta shook her head. ‘No, I could have been but he was not to my liking. He was old, a great nobleman with large estates and a great title, but I said, No, I am too young yet for such a union. I will wait a little while. There might be someone to my liking.’

We all regarded her with awe.

When we came to the Seaward Tower, she said: ‘Why do we not enter here?’

‘We rarely go in there,’ said Rozen. ‘That’s where our grandfather lives with his servants. There has to be a special reason for going … for instance, when my aunt arrives with the twins. She is expected to call on the first day of her arrival and after that wait for an invitation.’

‘That mad old man!’ said Carlotta. ‘What a scene he made! He did not like my mother nor me. He does not want us here.’