Speaks the Nightbird

by Robert R. McCammon

  Because she needed him. That was it, in an acorn’s shell.

  He went inside. A lantern burned and the roof’s hatch had been opened, courtesy of Mr. Green, therefore the gloom had been somewhat conquered. Upon seeing who her visitor was, Rachel stood up from the bench and pushed the hood of her coarse cloak back from her face. She allowed as much of a smile as she was able to muster—so feeble it was hardly worth the effort—and she came to the bars to meet him.

  He approached her cell. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to explain his return. So he was relieved when Rachel spoke first, “I heard the whip strike. Are you all right?”

  “I am.”

  “It sounded painful.”

  He felt suddenly very shy in her company. He didn’t know whether to look at the floor or into Rachel’s eyes, which caught the yellow lamplight and gleamed like gold coins. Though her smile had been weak, her eyes still held remarkable strength, and Matthew had the sensation that she could see through his frame of flesh and bones, into the depths of his guarded soul. He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. What she might see there, he knew, was his own desire to be needed, which had always been true in his relationship with the magistrate but was now a bright, hot bonfire. It was that he had seen her naked, he thought: not the moment of her being physically unclothed, but the moment in which she had exposed her own need and reached for his hand through the bars to seek comfort.

  He’d realized he was all the hope she had left in the world. Whatever aid and comfort would be given to her for the rest of her short days, it would come from him. How could he banish her from his mind and soul? Woodward was in dire need as well, but he had the care of Dr. Shields. This woman—this beautiful, tragic woman standing before him—had no one on earth to care for her but himself.

  “Has Green brought your meal yet?” he asked.

  “I’ve just now finished it.”

  “Do you need fresh water? I could go fetch you some.”

  “No,” she said. “I have enough water. But thank you.”

  Matthew looked around at the dirty hovel. “This place should be swept out and fresh straw laid down. It’s abysmal that you should have to endure such filth.”

  “I imagine it’s a late hour for that,” she replied. “May I ask how goes the magistrate’s deliberations?”

  “He has issued no word yet.”

  “I know there can be no other decree but that of guilty,” she said. “The evidence against me is too strong, particularly after what the child said. I know also I didn’t help myself by violating the Bible, but I lost my senses. So…Bidwell will have his witch-burning before long.” There was pain in her face, but she lifted her chin. “When the time comes, I shall be ready. I will have made my preparations. When I am led out of this place I will be glad, because I know that though I am banished from earth I shall be received in Heaven.”

  Matthew started to protest her surrender, but words failed him.

  “I am very, very tired,” Rachel said quietly. She pressed the fingers of her right hand to her forehead and closed her eyes for a few seconds. “I will be ready to fly this cage,” she said. “I did love my husband. But I have so long felt alone…that death must be better.” Her eyes opened, and she lowered her hand. “Will you attend it?”

  Matthew realized what she meant. “No,” he said.

  “Will I be buried near my husband? Or somewhere else?”

  There was no use in telling her anything but the truth. “Probably outside the town.”

  “I thought as much. They won’t behead me, will they? I mean…after I’m burned, will my body be violated?”

  “No.” He would make sure not even a fingerbone was cleaved off to be shown for two pence at Van Gundy’s tavern. Of course, what some graverobber did to her skeleton after he and Woodward had departed was beyond his control and beyond his wish to think about.

  Rachel’s expression of concern told Matthew this thought had entered her mind as well, but she didn’t give it voice. She said, “I’ll have only one regret: that whoever murdered Daniel and Reverend Grove will never be brought to justice. That’s not fair, is it?”

  “No, it certainly is not.”

  “But by then I won’t care, will I?” She looked up at the clouded sky through the roof hatch. “I thought—I hoped—I would die of old age, in bed in my own home. I never dreamed my life would end like this, and that I’d not even be allowed to lie beside my husband! That’s not fair either, is it?” She breathed in and let go a long sigh, and finally she lowered her gaze, her mouth drawn into a tight line.

  The gaol’s door opened, and instantly upon seeing who had arrived Rachel stepped back from the bars.

  “Ah ha!” Exodus Jerusalem tilted his head to one side, smiling slyly. “What doth go on here?”

  Matthew turned to confront him. “May I ask what your business is?”

  “Whatever I do, wherever I goeth, ’tis the business of my Lord God.” Jerusalem, clad in his black tricorn and black suit, came forward within an arm’s length of Matthew. “I should wager thy business doth not be so holy.”

  “Your presence is not wanted here, sir.”

  “Oh, I am sure of that. But I hath come to speak to the witch, not to her cock-a-doodler.”

  Matthew felt the blood burn in his cheeks. “I don’t think Madam Howarth has anything to say to you.”

  “She might, as without my influence her tongue should be forever silent.” The preacher directed his next statement to Rachel: “Witch Howarth, thy hourglass is near empty. I have heard it said the tree hath been selected from which thy stake shall be cut. Even now, the axes are being sharpened. I sincerely hope thou hast given some thought to the offer I made thee on my last visit.”

  “What, the offer to be your travelling doxy?” Rachel asked sharply.

  “To be my travelling disciple,” he answered, his voice a smooth adagio, so leisurely that Matthew felt sure Jerusalem had proposed this arrangement so many times it was second nature. Or perhaps first nature. “And companion in study and prayer,” Jerusalem added.

  “The study of sin and prayer that you find another woman whom you can pluck from a gaol?” On Rachel’s face was an expression of sheer disgust that might have curdled a pail of milk. “I would rather kiss the flames.”

  “Thy wish shall become reality,” Jerusalem said. “And thy dark beauty shall be burnt from thy skull and crushed beneath the foot of God, and where thou dost lie the beasts shall come and tear thy very bones asunder.”

  The anger was rising up in Matthew like a floodtide. “I wish you to leave.”

  “Boy, this a public place, and I have just as much right to enter it as thyself.” His eyes narrowed. “At least I entered here to bring salvation to the witch, not to receive her vile blessings.”

  “Madam Howarth and I are both aware of your purpose.”

  “Oh, thou and the witch are coupled now, is that it? Yes, I knew it was only a matter of time.” He lifted his right hand and inspected his fingernails. “I hath seen witches at work before. I hath seen them promise all manner of pleasures to young boys. Tell me this, then: how did she propose thou should ride her? From the north or the south?”

  Matthew swung at him. It was so fast he hardly knew what he was doing, but the blood roared in his ears and his right fist came up and cracked across the preacher’s prominent jaw. Jerusalem staggered back two steps but found his balance; he blinked, touched his lower lip, and then regarded the smear of crimson on his fingertips. Instead of offering a wounded and angry countenance, as Matthew had thought he would, the preacher only smiled, but there was some wicked triumph in it. “Thou nicked me, boy. Yet I think I drew first blood.”

  “I should apologize, but I will not.” Matthew rubbed his stinging knuckles.

  “Oh, don’t apologize! This action speaks for itself, and therefore should be reported to thy master.”

  “As you please. The magistrate trusts my judgment.”

  �
�Really?” Jerusalem’s smile broadened. He licked his injured lip. “What shall Woodward say, upon report that his clerk was caught in intimate conversation with the witch, and that his clerk is so bewildered in the mind that he hath struck a proper man of God? And look here! ’Tis the damage to prove it!”

  “Tell what you like, then.” Matthew feigned indifference, but he knew this would not go over very well with the magistrate.

  “When a right Christian boy is entranced by a witch, who knoweth where such actions may lead? Thou may find thyself sharing the fire with her, and thereafter thou may fornicate in Hell to thy eternal delight.”

  Matthew shouted, “Get out! By God, I’ll strike you again!”

  “And blasphemous as well!” Jerusalem crowed. “This is a sorry day for thee, that I can promise!” His gaze slid toward Rachel. “Then burn, witch!” His voice, at the fullest of its power, seemed to shake the walls. “I offered thee salvation, and thou hast spurned the last hope of a Godly life! Yes, burn, and call upon me with thy last tortured breath but thou—”

  Rachel reached to the floor. “Move!” she told Matthew, who saw what she had picked up and so dodged the oncoming deluge.

  “—shall call in vain, for Exodus Jerusalem shall not ans—ohhhhh!” he bellowed, as Rachel threw the contents of her waste bucket through the bars at him, and he danced backward to avoid as much as possible a meeting between the sacred and the profane. For the most part he was lucky, but his shoes received a washing.

  Matthew couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing at the preacher’s whirligigging, and thus called upon himself Jerusalem’s blackest regards.

  “You’ll be damned too, you young bastard!” It was amazing how a bucket of pee could knock the thees and thous out of a man. “I’ll call the wrath of Heaven down on both your heads!”

  “Call away, then!” Rachel said. “But do it somewhere else!”

  Matthew was still grinning. Then he saw a fleeting look in Jerusalem’s eyes that should only be described as terror; in that moment he realized that ridicule was the sharpest sword that could pierce the preacher’s swollen pride, and thereafter Jerusalem spun around and fled the gaol like a cat with a burning tail.

  Rachel threw the emptied bucket aside and viewed the wet floor. “Mr. Green will have a few choice words to say about this, I’m sure.”

  Matthew’s grin faded away, as did the hilarity that had for a brief time lightened his soul. “I’ll tell the magistrate what happened.”

  “Jerusalem will be there before you.” She sank down on her bench. “You will have some explaining to do.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “The magistrate won’t understand why you came here. I don’t fully understand why, either.”

  “I wished to see you,” he said, before he could ponder his choice of words.

  “Why? Your business is finished here, is it not?”

  “Magistrate Woodward’s business is finished,” he corrected. “I intend to continue working at this puzzle.”

  “I see. Is that what I’ve become, then? A puzzle to be worked at?”

  “Not entirely.”

  Rachel looked at him, but said nothing for a stretch of time. Then she spoke in a quiet voice, “Are you becoming interested in me?”

  “Yes.” He had to pause to swallow. “In your situation, I mean to say.”

  “I’m not speaking of my situation, Matthew. I mean: are you interested in me?” He didn’t know what to say, therefore he did not answer.

  Rachel sighed and stared at the floor. “I am flattered,” she said. “Honestly. You are a bright and kind young man. But…though you’re twenty and I am twenty-six, I am fifty years older than you. My heart is used up, Matthew. Can you understand that?”

  Again, words failed him. He had never in his life felt so confused, timid, and utterly strange, as if his powers of self-control had melted away like a lump of butter set on a forge. He might have preferred three more lashes than wearing this simpleton’s suit.

  “As I said, I will be ready to die when the time comes,” Rachel continued. “It will come soon, I know. I thank you for your help and care…but please don’t make my death any more difficult than it has to be.” She sat for a moment, her hands clasped together in her lap, and then she lifted her head. “How is the magistrate’s health?”

  Matthew forced himself to speak. “Not well. I was on my way to see Dr. Shields. Where is the infirmary from here?”

  “On Harmony Street, toward the gate.”

  Matthew knew it was time to go. His presence seemed to be sinking Rachel into deeper gloom. “I won’t give up,” he vowed.

  “Give what up?”

  “Trying to find an answer. To the puzzle. I won’t give up, because…” He shrugged. “I can’t.”

  “Thank you,” she replied. “I think—if you ever do find an answer—it will come much too late to save my life, but I thank you just the same.”

  He went to the door, where he felt the need to look back at Rachel once again. He saw her lift her hood over her head and face, as if to block out everything possible of this treacherous world.

  “Goodbye,” he said. There was no response.

  He left the gaol, but he had the most compelling sensation that part of himself did not follow.

  twenty-two

  MRS. NETTLES CAUGHT MATTHEW at the staircase when he returned to the mansion after his visit with Dr. Shields. “The magistrate asked that you see him directly ye arrived. I ha’ to tell you that the preacher’s been here, and he was might loud.”

  “I expected it. Thank you.” He braced himself for what was ahead and started up the stairs.

  “Oh, sir!” Mrs. Nettles said before he’d gotten more than halfway up. “I recalled somethin’ I thought you might find of interest. About Rev’rend Grove.”

  “Go on,” Matthew urged.

  “Well, sir…you asked if the rev’rend had any enemies, and I said he had none I knew of. But I was thinkin’ over it some, and I recall a strange thing happened—oh, I’d say it was three or four days ’fore he was killed.”

  “What was it?”

  “He’d come for dinner,” she said. “Had some business ’bout the church to talk over with Mr. Bidwell and Mr. Winston, so his wife had stayed home. I remember they were talkin’ there in the parlor, with the fire goin’.” She nodded toward that room. “Mr. Bidwell had walked with Mr. Winston out to the carriage. I had come in to ask the rev’rend if I could refresh his cup, and he said no, that he was fine as he was. I turned my back and started to leave, and he says, ‘Mrs. Nettles? What would you do if you knew a thing, and tellin’ it might be right but it would serve no good purpose?’ That’s what he said.”

  “Did you ask what he meant?”

  “No sir, that would not have been proper. I told him I was nae one to be givin’ advice to a man a’ God, but that it depended on what it was he knew.”

  “And what was the reverend’s response?”

  “He just sat there, lookin’ at the fire. I started out again, on my way to the kitchen, and then I heard him say, ‘No Latin.’ That was all, and he’d said it so quiet I hardly heard it. But I said, ‘Sir?’ ’cause I didn’t know what he meant. He didn’t answer; he was just sittin’ there, lookin’ at the fire and thinkin’.”

  “Hm,” Matthew grunted. “You’re sure he spoke those words, and not something else?”

  “I heard him say, ‘No Latin.’ At least, it sounded like that to me. Then Mr. Bidwell came back in, and I went about my business.”

  “And you say Reverend Grove was killed three or four days afterward?”

  “Yes sir, he was. His wife found him, lyin’ there on the church floor.” She frowned. “What do ye think he meant?”

  “I have no idea,” Matthew said, “but his question to you may mean that someone of physical rather than spectral nature had cause to wish him harm. I’d very much like to find out what it might have been he knew. May I ask why you’ve not brought this up
before?”

  “I’d forgot it, ’til this mornin’. Bein’ who he was, the rev’rend knew a lot of things about a lot of people,” she said. “But like I told ye, he had no enemies.”

  “Obviously he did,” Matthew corrected. “Only it was someone who might have worn the disguise of being a friend.”

  “Yes sir, I suppose so.”

  “Thank you for telling me this.” Matthew decided to store this information away and pursue it at a later date. Right now there was the magistrate to deal with. “I’d better go up.” He ascended the stairs, his face grim.

  He had spoken to Dr. Shields at length concerning the magistrate’s condition, and had been informed that though the sickness appeared serious it was well under control. The doctor said more bleeding would have to be done and there would be times when the magistrate would feel both better and then worse before he improved. But, said Dr. Shields, the road to recovery was never easy, especially from a malady such as this coastal fever. The magistrate was a strong specimen and otherwise in good health, Dr. Shields had said, therefore there was no reason he shouldn’t respond to the bleeding and put this sickness behind him within a week or two.

  Matthew reached the magistrate’s door and tentatively knocked. “Who is it?” came his voice: a weary but serviceable croaking.

  “It’s me, sir.”

  There was a pointed silence. Then, “Come in.” Matthew entered. Woodward was still in bed, propped up by two pillows. The box of documents lay beside him, a sheaf of the papers on the blanket that covered his lap. Three candles burned on the bedside table. He didn’t look up from his reading. “Please close the door,” he said, and Matthew obeyed. Woodward let his clerk stand there for a while; his throat was agonizing him again, his nostrils were swollen, his head ached, and he had a hellish mixture of chills and fever, so when Exodus Jerusalem had told him what Matthew had done it did no good to his nerves or temper. But Woodward kept himself calm and continued reading, unwilling yet to display one iota of anger.

  “Sir?” Matthew said. “I know you had a visit from—”