Master of the Scrolls

by Benjamin Ford

  ‘He has, Your Majesty!’ said Gloria, curtseying.

  King Henry looked at her once more, as though sensing he should know her, but the sensation unnerved him. ‘I shall not enquire as to how you came by your conclusions concerning this man, James Trevayne, for I fear the answer may condemn you to the same fate. Be warned, eyes within the village are now upon you! Have a care with whom you choose to spend your time. Now Isabella’s murder is avenged, I can do nothing to protect you! Heed my warning well, and I pray you shall live a long and happy life. I bid you farewell, James Trevayne!’

  With those words, the King departed, leaving Gloria and James suddenly very alone.

  ‘It is over,’ said James with a relieved sigh. ‘Now Samuel is gone from our lives forever, we can rest at last. The other locket is in a secure location, and the parchment shall remain hidden, safe from prying eyes now the one person save us who knew of its existence is dead!’

  Gloria smiled, though not her own smile. ‘My husband, it is good to set eyes upon you one final time, but it is not over. One last thing remains.’

  James sighed as he looked upon the countenance of the second love of his life, speaking with the voice of his first. ‘You must depart, Isabella. Your time here is ended and your task to protect Gloria is over.’

  Isabella touched her husband’s cheek tenderly. ‘I wish not to be freed until I have consummated my reunion with my one true love; you, my husband! I wish you to forgive my transgressions with Peter. I cannot be at peace until I know I have your forgiveness.’

  Gloria kissed James, speaking in her own voice. ‘You must do this one thing, James. Whatever she has done to wrong you, whatever her continued feelings for Peter, she deserves to rest in peace. You must forgive Isabella, make love to her one final time, and we must hope she will keep her word and relinquish her control over me.’

  James returned her kiss passionately. ‘Oh, my love, my darling, I love you both equally, and tonight I shall love you both equally!’

  The Dream III

  She has returned to where she belongs, free at last.

  She sits in her bedroom, staring into the mirror on her dressing table, brushing her long black hair so it frames her face. Pleased with the finished result she directs her attention to the man seated upon the bed. ‘How do I look?’ she asks.

  He regards her lovingly. ‘Fit to make any man’s heart melt!’ he says as he comes to kiss her passionately upon her lips. ‘I love you, Ria, my love.’

  ‘As I love you, James! I wish to spend the rest of my days here with you!’ She stands and they embrace, their love physical, but then, over the shoulder of her lover, she sees another man standing in the doorway of the bedroom.

  She emits a gasp of horror. ‘Oh, I didn’t expect to see you here!’

  The intruder glowers at the pair. ‘It would appear not!’

  James stares at the man incredulously. ‘Samuel Wylams! How is this possible?’

  ‘That’s Allan Barncroft, the man I left behind in my own time.’

  The man Gloria calls Allan laughs demonically, a terrifying laugh that is familiar to the pair. He pulls a dagger from inside his jacket.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Gloria cries.

  ‘Avenging a wronged man!’

  He lunges, and James parries the blow with ease, but does not see the second dagger in the intruder’s other hand before it finds its mark.

  James falls to the floor, dead, the dagger sticking from the middle of his back.

  Gloria screams. ‘My God, Allan, what have you done?’

  The man speaks slowly, enunciating carefully. ‘My name is not Allan. My name is Sawyl Gwilym, and vengeance shall be mine!’

  The knife embeds itself within Gloria’s chest, and her last thought as blackness overwhelms her, Sawyl’s laughter ringing in her ears, is that it is far from over. She has misjudged events terribly.

  Freedom has not been found within the sanctity of death.

  Summer 1537

  Gloria awoke frantically flailing, fighting off demons of the night once more. It was just a dream, she kept telling herself as she slowly brought her erratic breathing under control. Just a stupid, bloody dream! Samuel Wylams is dead. He can do no harm to you in this time!

  It perturbed her enormously to think that Allan might indeed be Samuel’s reincarnation back in her own time, and part of her was relieved that she was hundreds of years away from him. If she were to find herself back in 1987, she wondered how she would react upon seeing him again. He was, after all, the man she loved.

  Your first love, she reminded herself blithely, glancing down to where James still lay wrapped in repose beside her. She stroked his red hair tenderly as he stirred and turned towards her. His eyes remained closed, still asleep, and Gloria smiled. He looked so peaceful, without a care in the world, clearly unencumbered with dreams. Yes, James Trevayne was definitely her new love.

  As she sat there, calmer now she was fully awake, Gloria became vaguely aware that there was something different within her perception that morning. It was so vague, that at first she could not place what was different, before realising something was significantly missing from her mind. Isabella had clearly been a part of her mind for so long, a vague shadow of emotions on the periphery of her consciousness, only coming to the fore with the surfacing dreams, that Gloria had grown accustomed to her presence without realising exactly what the feelings were. Having no insight into how other people felt within themselves, she had always assumed the odd feelings that someone was always watching over her were natural. It was only now, with Isabella suddenly gone, that she realised the sensations were anything but natural, and she felt oddly alone. Bereft, she realised now that Isabella had indeed been her guardian, guiding her and protecting her, and now her part in Gloria’s life was over, her task done, she was gone.

  She cast her eyes heavenward. ‘Thank you, Isabella,’ she whispered. ‘Thank you, and goodbye!’

  Having long since passed the point when she could not tell reality from dreams, it would take a long time to get used to the idea of never seeing her family again. Just as Louise seemed to have found a man to love, now she was not going to be around to share in her best friend’s happiness; just as her grandmother and her father seemed to be melting the ice, she was not going to be there to see if it was a mere flash in the pan. She was not going to get to see any more of her novels published, yet she knew she had plenty of stories still to tell.

  There was also unfinished business with Phil, she felt, and though it was irrelevant now she was here with James, Gloria found herself wondering whether things would have developed further. Was the love Phil felt for her really Peter’s love for Isabella, or did the Scot genuinely have feelings for her?

  And then there was Allan.

  Oh Allan, I’m so sorry. I feel like I’ve betrayed you in many ways. I betrayed you with Phil, and I’ve betrayed you with James. Are you Samuel Wylams? If I went back, would you try to kill me, as yourself for my betrayal, or as Samuel?

  She had found a good man in James Trevayne. True, she would not have the white wedding she had always dreamed about; he loved her, of that there could be no doubt; she loved him, she was more sure of that than ever, and since she was now free of Isabella’s influence, she knew those feelings to be her own. They would have a beautiful daughter together, but then they would end their lives together. She was not enamoured with the latter part of her destiny, but if that were her fate, at least she would die in the arms of her true love. She would be certain to enjoy her new life with James.

  She heard soft spluttering sounds coming from beside her, and as she glanced down, James fluttered his eyes as he escaped the clutches of sleep. She smiled at him. ‘Good morning, my darling!’

  James yawned, pushing himself to a sitting position, a little hesitant in responding to Gloria’s kiss, welcoming him to the first day of their new life together. Though they had been married, he and Isabella had seldom shared a bed, and more rarely had she
awakened at his side in the morning, and they had certainly never greeted each other on those scarce occasions with a kiss.

  ‘Are you all right?’ asked Gloria, sensing his unease.

  ‘I am,’ he said with a gentle chuckle. ‘I enjoyed waking up next to you. I am merely unaccustomed to such a morning greeting.’

  Gloria responded by kissing him again, making no effort to conceal her desire for him. ‘You’d better get used to it then, my darling, because I have no intention of sleeping on my own! Speaking of which, why did you and Isabella have separate rooms if you were her one true love?’

  James sighed. ‘She was always writing well into the night. It began as a matter of courtesy towards me, but developed into routine. We had not a loveless marriage; we just shared no physical bond.’

  ‘What, never?’ gasped Gloria, appalled at the thought that two people who claimed to be in love might never make love.

  ‘On rare occasions she would come to me. Only later did I discover her true relationship with Peter. Mayhap that played its part in the way we loved each other.’

  ‘Well, there are people in my own time who love one another and marry yet sleep separately, but personally, I couldn’t live like that!’

  ‘I shall try to make you happy, as I longed to make Isabella happy.’

  Gloria brushed James’s hair from his forehead. ‘My darling, you don’t even need to try! Last night Isabella got a taste of what she missed while she was alive, and now she is gone!’

  James knelt up, the bedclothes falling away to give Gloria a rather immodest display of his body, which he made no attempt to cover, such was his comfort in her presence. ‘She has departed your body?’

  Gloria nodded, drinking in the view before her. ‘Oh yes, she’s gone all right. She’s left my body. My consciousness is free of her influence!’ She pushed James onto his back, straddling him.

  ‘Women of my time behave not in such a manner,’ James muttered, momentarily startled.

  ‘Don’t be fooled, James. Women of my time are not subservient to the whims of men. Well, not as much as we used to be, anyway. I shall do as I please, so don’t expect me to take orders from you!’

  James laughed. ‘Then I shall lay here while you do as you please, my love!’

  They made love slowly, languorously, with Gloria leading James into hitherto unknown realms of desire. He did not lie there, immobile with supplication. Taking the lead from this woman who excited him more than any other, he made love to her with unbridled passion, until both spent, they lay entwined in each other’s arms as they returned from their plateau of ecstasy.

  ‘I dreamt of Samuel last night,’ Gloria muttered. ‘Do you think it means anything?’

  ‘Recent events have been traumatic for you, my love. What has happened will have a lasting effect upon you. This dream may be your mind exorcising the demons within you.’

  Gloria was startled by his words. ‘Since when did you become so prophetic?’

  ‘I say only what I feel. Isabella has departed; mayhap she took your fear of Samuel Wylams with her, a dream the manner of your mind’s release?’

  Gloria shook her head, unconvinced. ‘It was Allan, the man from my own time who looks like Samuel. He was my boyfriend… he will be my boyfriend… whatever.’

  ‘Your boyfriend?’ James frowned. ‘Ah, mean you your lover?’

  ‘Yes, Allan is my lover in my own time. In the dream I was with you, and he killed us both.’

  ‘Be he a jealous spurned lover?’

  Gloria shook her head vehemently. ‘No. Allan is the sweetest, gentlest man I know. He would not give me up without a fight, true, but a metaphorical fight! He certainly wouldn’t murder us!’ She then uttered the thoughts that petrified her. ‘What if he’s Samuel reincarnated? Or possessed by his spirit?’

  ‘Unlikely. Was not his head severed from his body?’

  ‘What about headless ghosts; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and all that?’ She saw James’s bewilderment. ‘Way after your time, sorry. My point is, in my time there are all kinds of ghost stories, and large numbers of people claim to have seen headless ghosts. Ghosts are spirits, and spirits can take control of another person, as we have seen only too well!’

  ‘There is a difference between ghost and spirit. A ghost is one who has died an unnatural or a natural death, it matters not which, yet has unfinished business with the living world. They cannot really react physically with our world; oft-times they might make small objects move, or merely show themselves corporeally. A spirit is one who is dead, called back into this world for whatever reason, but whose spirit has not been returned properly to the spirit world. Isabella was such a spirit, called into existence by the Seer, Thaumaturgia Anathemas, afore being cast asunder by Samuel Wylams. A spirit can reside in the body of another, but only one who has direct connections to the deceased or the place of their death!’

  ‘Ah, so Isabella could inhabit my body because I lived in the house built on this site, and another possible connection to her is my connection to you!’ Gloria paused for thought. There was a flaw in that logic. The dreams, which she now associated with Isabella taking control of her thoughts during her moments of sleep, started on the night of her first trip to Ravenscreag Hall, when she was six… Years before I came to live at Snowfield House, and years before I even heard of James Trevayne, much less actually met him. Was there perhaps another connection between Isabella and either Ravenscreag Hall or her that she did not know about? It did not really matter now, so she pushed the thought aside.

  ‘Okay, so what’s to prevent someone like this Thaumaturgia Anathemas from calling up Samuel’s spirit?’ she said.

  ‘His head was severed from his body. The soul, which resides in both the heart and the mind, would be incomplete, split between the two parts. It would be impossible to call back the spirit of such a dead person.’

  ‘Unless the two parts of the body were made whole again.’

  James was confused. ‘I follow not what you say, Ria.’

  ‘They chopped off Samuel’s head, but what did they do to the body afterwards?’

  ‘They would most likely burn it.’

  Gloria nodded. ‘That’s what I feared. Put the two parts of the body together, burn them until all the flesh is gone, and all that’s left is bone. The spirit doesn’t live in the skeleton, does it? It’s in the flesh, in the heart and the brain. Flesh becomes ash… one pile of ash. The two parts of the soul are reunited, whole, as one.’ She looked at James, a frightened look on her face. ‘Don’t you see; he has escaped even death itself! Samuel’s spirit lives on! That must be why I dreamt of him.’

  James embraced her, trying to soothe away Gloria’s mounting hysteria. ‘His spirit can only inhabit the body of someone who has a connection to him or the place of his death, so he cannot hurt us in this time!’

  ‘But he can in the future,’ said Gloria animatedly. ‘And then there’s the possibility of him being reincarnated.’

  James shook his head. ‘Reincarnation is a very different thing to possession. The returning spirit shall find the vessel of its reawakening within the womb, and so be reborn into the world, rather than take control of existing consciousness. You might say they are one and the same… a true rebirth of the same spirit, but sometimes the returning spirit is not strong enough to make its presence known. Again, if Samuel truly shall be reincarnated, we are perfectly safe until a child born after his death reaches an age where they might harm us!’

  Gloria sighed. ‘I know, but I was thinking of the parch-ment. We have the one from this time, the one that is hidden within Isabella’s incomplete journal. However, there’s the other one, still in my own time! If I’m right, and Allan is the reincarnation of Samuel, then he will find it. He’s my lover, after all. He has access to my home. He’ll recognise it!’

  ‘Then you must retrieve it. But you may do so at any time, after all, have you not the power to travel to whenever you wish?’

  ‘True, I guess.’ Gl
oria breathed deeply. ‘All this is going to take a lot of getting used to. Travelling through time, leaving behind everything I know and everyone I love, starting a new life here with you, trying to decide what to do with the parchment, and the locket.’

  James smiled. ‘Worry not about the locket, Ria. It is quite safe, somewhere Samuel will never go to retrieve it. The other parchment from your own time must join it eventually. The one from this time shall remain hidden, for your ancestors to discover sometime in the future.’

  Gloria still was unsure whether she should reveal what destiny had in store for them. If they were to die together, burnt alive in the house sometime in the next year, then this time would not remain the safest place for the parchment. Then she realised that the manuscript had survived to her own time: to start second-guessing future actions could lead to disaster.

  One day at a time, she thought to herself. Just take each day as it comes, and events are sure to play out just as they should. Trying to predict what to do, based upon facts read about in books but yet to happen, would be a mistake.

  Therefore, for the moment, the manuscript with its concealed parchment remained.

  Gloria laughed. ‘You have it all planned out, don’t you? So, where is the locket?’ As she spoke, she fingered the one around her own neck. It was a peculiar sensation, knowing that the item they were discussing was in two places at once. But then again, it was really in too many places to even count, for it existed in every fraction of every second of its existence, from the moment of its creation, to the moment of its possible eventual destruction.

  ‘The locket is safe. Trust me; you need know nothing more than that!’

  ‘Then I shall press you for no answers, my darling!’ She kissed him again. ‘I think it’s time we got up! I could really do with a bath!’

  *

  A couple of hours later, having filled several dozen buckets with water from the pump outside the back door, most had been emptied cold into the metal bathtub James dragged from its hiding place in the kitchen, the remainder heated in two cauldrons suspended above the pit of the cooking hearth before joining the cold water. Gloria stepped into the tub, sinking into the lukewarm water with relish. Though she would have preferred a quick refreshing shower, which was not a viable possibility, the bath was bliss. An infusion of lavender and rosemary had boiled with the water in one of the cauldrons to relax and invigorate her.