‘No!’ Joss flung herself away from him across the bed, bunched her knees and threw herself onto the floor. With the bed between them she faced him, panting. ‘I am not Katherine! Can’t you see that! Katherine’s dead! You’re dead!’ She was sobbing desperately. ‘Please. The link is cut. Margaret’s spell is broken; it’s all over, you are free of her at last. Don’t you see? It’s finished!’
He hadn’t moved any closer to the bed. He stood for a long time looking at, or perhaps through, her, then slowly he put his hand to his waist and she realised for the first time that beneath the long shadowy cloak he was wearing a sword. He drew it without a sound.
‘No,’ she gasped. ‘For Christ’s sake, no! Haven’t you heard me? Please –’ she retreated backwards away from the bed towards the windows which overlooked the garden, moving carefully step by step, her stomach knotted with terror. ‘Please – ’
‘So, does the great king, the sun of York, terrorise women with a sword?’ Natalie’s voice from the door was harsh with fear. ‘Are you going to kill her? Are you going to put your sword to the throat of a woman who is carrying a child. Your child!’
She ignored Joss’s gasp. ‘Put away your sword. You have no enemies here any more. You have no place here. This is not your time!’
Joss staggered backwards against the wall, her arms crossed across her breasts and suddenly her legs wouldn’t support her any more. With a sob she found herself sliding to her knees.
Natalie stepped into the room. ‘Put up your sword. You cannot hurt her. She is nothing to you, don’t you see? Nothing. She is from a different world. Let her go. Let her and her family live in peace. You have to leave Belheddon. The time has come. It’s time to go.’
The swordpoint wavered, then slowly it began to fall. Joss watched mesmerised. It looked very real. She could see the glimmer of the steel as his hand dropped to his side.
Katherine
‘Katherine is waiting for you,’ Natalie’s voice was gentle suddenly. ‘Let your child live. I’ll take care of her.’
They were watching the man’s face. The pain and anger etched into every line of it were clearly visible as was the velvet-trimmed neck of his shirt beneath the breast plate and the cords which held the cloak in place.
‘Let him go, Joss,’ Natalie murmured. ‘Release him.’
‘What do you mean?’ Joss was watching him, mesmerised.
He was holding out his hands to her, the heavy ruby ring on his forefinger catching the light dully.
‘Give him your blessing and your love – ’
‘My love!’ Joss recoiled.
‘It will help him to leave. Send him away in love and peace.’
‘What about the people he killed?’ In spite of herself she raised her eyes to his. The anger in his gaze had gone but the pain was still there.
‘They will be released as well. Love is the healer, Joss. Love and forgiveness. You are the spokeswoman, the one who has to do it for all the women – your mother, and your grandmother, and her mother and all the women through the generations who have lived in this house.’
‘And what about the men? What about the children who have died?’
He was shaking his head slowly back and forth.
Katherine
‘You cannot speak for them. They must speak for themselves. If we fill the house with love we can help them do it.’
Katherine
Joss shook her head. She could feel it like an intense pressure inside her ear drums: the name of the woman he had loved: Katherine.
‘What is it?’ Suddenly she was talking to him again. ‘What are you telling me?’
The room was growing darker; the rattle of rain on the window was louder and for a moment she felt her attention shift. There was an almost imperceptible movement of tension in the room and he had gone.
For a moment she stood gazing at the place where he had been standing then she spun round. Natalie was only a few feet from her now and for a moment they stared at each other.
‘What happened?’ Joss sat down on the bed. She was shaking violently.
Natalie shook her head. ‘Something happened out there in the world he inhabits. The energy discharged itself in some way.’ She hauled herself up onto the bed beside Joss and sat with her head in her hands. ‘We so nearly did it. We had reached him – or at least, you had. He was listening.’
‘He was trying to tell us something –’ Joss broke off. From upstairs came the sound of children laughing.
‘No. Oh no, I can’t bear it.’
Natalie took her hand. ‘At least they’re happy, Joss.’
Joss shook her head. Sliding off the bed she ran to the door. ‘Georgie? Sammy? Where are you?’ With the last vestiges of strength she possessed she ran up the stairs and threw open the door of the first empty attic. ‘Where are you?’ There were tears pouring down her cheeks.
The room was very cold. In the silence she could hear the rain on the windows. ‘Georgie? Sammy?’
Behind her Natalie stopped in the doorway.
A gust of wind buffeted the end gable of the roof and in the distance they both heard suddenly the sound of a child singing far away in the distance.
tum tum te tum te tum tum tum
Joss rubbed her nose on her sleeve, staring round helplessly – the sound was so distant, lost in the wind.
tum tum te tum te tum tum tum
She took a step into the room. It was empty – bare, dusty boards, the old shabby wall paper, a damp place on the ceiling where the water had begun to seep in.
tum tum te tum te Kath-erine
She could hear it more clearly now, from beyond the door. With hands stiff with cold she fought the latch to pull it open. The sounds were louder now. More clear.
It was my Lad-y Kather-ine
The chant echoed across the next attic above the howling of the wind.
It was my Lad-y Kather-ine
It was my Lady Katherine
Joss moved slowly towards the sound. It was coming from the end attic.
The melancholy little refrain echoed in her ears as she fumbled for the key and pushed open the door. As it creaked back the words were cut off abruptly.
She stared round.
‘Where are you?’ she cried. She could hardly see for her tears.
‘Joss.’ Natalie had come up behind her softly. ‘Let’s go back downstairs.’
‘No.’ She shook her head violently. ‘No, I have to see them! Where are they?’