by Webb, Holly
‘I’m sorry – if she did betray your father.’ Louis ventured to run a finger down Henrietta’s velvet back.
‘It’s why we agreed to come here. Your mother thinks we want to be respectable, and come out into society – she can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t want that.’ Lily grimaced. ‘But actually, we were hoping that she might know where Father is. That we might be able to find out. Are you sure Fell Hall isn’t a prison as well as a school?’ she asked hopefully.
Louis frowned. ‘I don’t know for certain, but I think the prison is somewhere different, from the things that Mama’s said. It’s a deep secret.’ He eyed Lily and Georgie uncomfortably. ‘That’s why people never come out,’ he added, his voice suddenly more gentle.
Lily blinked. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, then they’d know the secrets, wouldn’t they?’
‘Oh.’ Lily stared at her hands. Ever since they’d left Merrythought, the way ahead had seemed to grow harder and harder. ‘He doesn’t have to get out by himself,’ she said in a small voice. ‘We’re going to rescue him.’
Louis looked as though he wanted to snort with laughter, but for once he was being kind. ‘You don’t even know where it is,’ he reminded her. ‘And you can’t really go asking, can you?’
Georgie frowned. ‘We could ask those children at Fell Hall.’
They stared at her, and she shrugged.
‘Well, they’re the only other people we know about who’ve been using magic. That’s why they’ve been sent there. Cora and Penelope would rather cut their noses off than tell us anything useful, that’s obvious. They don’t want Father out of prison, and helping us, do they? But I don’t see why the children at Fell Hall wouldn’t tell us. We could go there, and ask them.’ She swallowed. ‘After all, most of their parents are probably in the same prison as Father is.’
Lily gazed at her admiringly, and Georgie looked pleased with herself.
‘Have you ever been to Fell Hall?’ she asked Louis curiously. ‘You sound like you know a lot about it.’
‘No! Of course not. But people do talk about it sometimes. There was a boy at my school – he was always a little odd. He hardly spoke. Then after one Christmas, he never came back. They sent him there, everyone said so. We spoke about it afterwards, only a little, and out of hearing of the masters, of course. And one of the older boys came from Derbyshire, not so far away from Fell Hall. His nursemaid’s family were employed there. He used to beg her to tell him stories about it, in the firelight, like ghost stories. They use strange medicines, she told him, and enchantments too, so the children are quiet, and can’t make any terrible spells.’
‘But they wouldn’t do that.’ Lily shook her head. ‘Magic is illegal – that’s why the children are there! How can they use magic to stop them doing any? That’s just stupid.’ But it’s just what Aunt Clara’s been doing, she added to herself.
Louis sighed, and shrugged. ‘Perhaps these people are above the law. If they work for the queen…’
‘It still doesn’t seem right.’ Lily frowned. ‘How can the rules be different for the Queen’s Men? It isn’t fair.’
Louis shook his head. ‘If your father was trying to overthrow the queen – and I’m not saying he actually was, so don’t look at me like that,’ he added, catching Lily’s glare, ‘how would the authorities stop him, a powerful magician, if they couldn’t fight his magic with any of their own?’
Lily stared at him angrily. She could see that what he said made sense, in a way. But it still didn’t make it feel right.
She was searching for the words to argue, when Georgie jumped up, flinging herself at the window – nearly knocking over one of the flower arrangements that had suffered in the battle between Lily and the Dysart girls.
‘What is it?’ Lily demanded anxiously. Georgie was standing with her hands pressed up against the window, peering out.
‘That was Maria! I saw Maria!’
‘Maria from the theatre?’ Lily asked doubtfully.
‘Yes,’ Georgie snapped impatiently. She ran out into the panelled hall, and started to pull frantically at the heavy door locks. ‘Help me open it!’ she gasped to Lily. ‘She was just walking away past the window. She must have tried to come and see us. I didn’t hear anyone ringing the bell, did you?’
‘Because she didn’t.’ Lily crouched down, picking up a folded screw of paper that had been pushed underneath the door. ‘Look. She left a note.’
Georgie snatched at it eagerly, and Lily let her take the tattered paper. Georgie had loved Maria, and the companionship of the girls in the theatre wardrobe. She missed her, Lily knew.
‘She’s only written a line or two,’ Georgie said disappointedly. ‘There’s another letter inside – she was only passing it on. Daniel asked her to bring it, as she was going to visit her sister.’ She opened out the note, and another tightly folded letter dropped into her hands. ‘It’s for you.’ She passed it curiously to Lily. ‘Who on earth would be writing to you at the theatre? No one even knew we were there.’
Lily was staring at the letter, the familiar writing blurred with sudden tears.
‘Lily, what is it?’ Georgie asked worriedly. ‘Who’s written to you?’
Lily swallowed. ‘Peter.’ Fumbling, she tore at the sealed paper. ‘He addressed it to Miss Lily, at the theatre. He must have known not to write our surname.’
‘Who’s Peter?’ Louis muttered to Georgie.
‘The kitchen boy, back at Merrythought,’ Georgie murmured back, watching Lily scan the letter. ‘He’s a mute. He was abandoned…’
‘Abandoned on an island full of witches?’ Louis sounded shocked.
Georgie shrugged. ‘Perhaps when he never spoke, they thought he had magic in him too. Lily, what does it say?’
‘Merrythought was raided,’ Lily told her quietly. She sat down, rather suddenly, on one of the uncomfortable little velvet chairs that were scattered around the entrance hall. ‘The Queen’s Men.’
‘What?’ Georgie snatched the letter. ‘What happened? Where is Mama?’
‘She fled…’ Lily sighed. ‘All we know is, she isn’t there. She could be anywhere, Georgie.’
‘I don’t believe it.’ Georgie looked up from the letter, staring at Lily. ‘They’re taking him to Fell Hall!’
‘I thought you said he was a kitchen boy?’ Louis frowned.
‘He is.’ Lily shook her head disgustedly. ‘They’re getting desperate. Or panicking, maybe. Perhaps someone got wind of the plot. Peter hasn’t a shred of magic in him, anywhere.’
‘They think he might have been corrupted – by association with us!’ Georgie laughed bitterly. ‘I’m surprised they haven’t imprisoned all of the servants.’ She shivered. ‘Maybe they have… Except he must have got this letter to one of them, as they were taking him, so there’s someone left, at least. How funny that he saw our picture in Mr Francis’s newspaper.’
Lily smiled, rather miserably, and stroked Henrietta’s soft black head. ‘He recognised you,’ she told the dog. ‘It didn’t look at all like us, but he recognised you. We shouldn’t have worried about the newspaper picture, after all. He’d never have known where we were, if it wasn’t for that.’ She straightened her shoulders. ‘Well, now we know what we have to do.’
Georgie blinked at her, and Lily hissed through her teeth, ‘We have to go to Fell Hall, now, to get him back.’
‘Oh…’ Georgie nodded.
‘But he’s only…’ Louis started to say it, but faltered as both the girls glared at him.
‘He helped us to escape from Merrythought,’ Lily told him. ‘It’s our turn to rescue him now.’
Louis nodded. ‘I suppose you were going anyway.’ He wrinkled his nose. ‘How are you going to get to Derbyshire?’
Lily looked at Georgie doubtfully. ‘We have a little money. We earned wages at the theatre. Perhaps a train? We’ve proper clothes now, young lady clothes. What was the name of the boy at your school who lived close to Fell Hall
? We could say we’re visiting his family, if anyone asked us.’
Louis chewed his lip. ‘Tarrant,’ he said at last, reluctantly. ‘They live at a place called Blackwater House. I suppose it would work. Father has a railway almanac in his study. You could find the nearest station. Then you’d have to find a carriage to hire.’
‘Or we could walk,’ Lily pointed out. ‘We might not get far trying to hire a carriage to Fell Hall. I shouldn’t think they have many visitors.’
Louis nodded uncertainly. Lily wondered if he ever got to walk anywhere, other than the pretty park nearby. He was so sheltered, even if he did go to school. But she wasn’t jealous, she realised in surprise. She would far rather live their ramshackle life at the theatre, or even have the strange old times at Merrythought back, than be suffocated in silk and velvet here.
‘So we need to find your father’s railway almanac,’ Lily said, hoping that Louis might volunteer to help. He didn’t.
‘It’ll be in his study,’ was all he said, and then he retreated to the drawing-room door. ‘Just don’t do anything else to Mama. Or I’ll tell – someone…’
Sir Oliver stayed closeted in his study all that night. He and Aunt Clara were supposed to have gone to some political dinner, but Aunt Clara had been laid low by what she called a ‘slight headache’. She had also had words with the cook, forbidding her from serving fish, ever again. Even salmon.
After breakfast the next morning, Lily, Georgie and Henrietta crept out into the passageway. Georgie had the sewing box with her, for protection.
‘What are you going to do with that?’ Lily asked her irritably. She hadn’t slept well, for worrying about Peter, and about her father too. If the Queen’s Men were becoming fiercer, and more ruthless, what did that mean for him?
Georgie rolled her eyes. ‘We need an excuse. I’ve used up all the embroidery floss. I’m going to ask Aunt Clara if I may have some more.’
‘But we’re going to Sir Oliver’s study. She won’t be there.’
‘I know that, but I’m perfectly capable of pretending that I don’t. Sir Oliver thinks we’re stupid anyway. We just have to act, Lily! We did enough pretending to be princesses of the Northern Wastes at the theatre, just make use of it!’
Lily sighed, and nodded. ‘He ought to have gone out to walk around the park anyway.’
Henrietta nodded. ‘He always does after breakfast. They said so in the kitchens.’ She licked her chops appreciatively, thinking of the remnants of Sir Oliver’s kidneys and bacon that she’d been treated to that morning.
The girls scurried across the entrance hall, and disappeared into the darker, panelled passage that housed the study, and the billiard room.
‘He isn’t there,’ Henrietta promised, sniffing thoroughly at the study door. ‘I’m quite certain. One can tell him by those disgusting cigars.’
Lily turned the door handle, which was so well-oiled it didn’t even squeak, and they slipped into the room. It was high-ceilinged, but somehow still dark and cave-like, heavy velvet curtains half-obscuring the windows, and the furniture hulking and ugly.
‘I don’t think he let Aunt Clara decorate in here,’ Georgie muttered.
‘Where would a railway almanac be?’ Lily asked, ignoring her.
Henrietta leaped up on to the desk chair, and went sniffing through the papers. ‘He must write a great many letters,’ she commented, dislodging a sheet of stamps, which went fluttering to the floor.
‘Be careful,’ Lily whispered crossly. ‘We don’t want him to know we were here.’ She stooped to pick up the stamps, dull little reddish squares, printed with the queen’s face. She looked a great deal younger than she had for real, driving past in that carriage, a few weeks back. Lily had felt sorry for her then – she’d seemed so brave and tired. But that was before she had heard about Fell Hall, and before the Queen’s Men had stolen her friend. The sheet of stamps shook in her fingers, and Georgie put a hand on her arm. ‘Don’t tear them! Then he really would know we’ve been here.’
‘I’d like to,’ Lily nearly spat. ‘And worse. I hate the queen!’
‘You see, sir?’ a sad, sweet little voice spoke from the doorway, and Lily turned slowly to look over her shoulder.
Cora Dysart was standing by the half-open door, looking tragically up at a red-faced man in a dark uniform. The uniform they had seen at the theatre, when the Queen’s Men came visiting. Behind Cora was her sister, with another man who looked so like them he had to be their father. Jonathan Dysart, the counsellor to the queen. The hidden magician.
‘We were so shocked by the things they said yesterday.’ Cora shook her head tragically. ‘Of course, so many people know that our family were once magicians – I suppose they thought we would be in sympathy!’ She sobbed, and leaned against her father’s arm. Only the girls in the study could see the malicious glint of her pale green eyes. ‘I’ve never been so grateful that we escaped the curse of our family’s blood!’
Penelope nodded, and shuddered, her hair falling forward. Lily saw that the curl she had bespelled was still there, coiled into a P. As she watched, Penelope tugged at it, and scowled as it sprang back into place.
She should have taken the spell off before they left, Lily realised dully. She had been stupid, leaving it for them to find. She felt rather pleased that they hadn’t been able to remove her little charm – but that was probably why the Dysarts had decided to betray them. If they couldn’t take off Lily’s spell, it meant she was stronger than they were. And instead of fighting her, or racing her and Georgie to carry out the plot, they’d decided to let someone else do the work.
It was really rather clever.
Lily swirled and swam and floated, wisps of pale green coiling around her, and tugging her back up to the surface again.
She wasn’t swimming. She was lying on a bed, and the bed was moving, juddering up and down.
She felt sick.
In fact, now she thought about it, she was going to be sick.
‘Don’t!’ Georgie snapped. ‘I can tell you’re about to, and I haven’t a basin or anything. And the windows are screwed shut. So just don’t!’
Lily swallowed painfully, and opened one eye, just a very careful slit. It felt as though she had to tear her lids apart.
‘What happened?’ she whispered. ‘Where are we?’
‘In a carriage, on the way to Fell Hall.’ Georgie’s eyes were so wide with fear that they seemed to have stretched. She gave a high, unnatural laugh. ‘So we shan’t need a railway almanac after all.’
Lily nodded, and then moaned as the pale green tendrils wrapped all round her again. It was as if an essence of the Dysart sisters had been poured into her skull. She vaguely remembered now. ‘A spell…’ she murmured.
‘Yes. Louis was right – the Queen’s Men do use magic. It was in a bottle. He threw it at us, don’t you remember?’
‘Almost. Why am I so much worse than you?’
Georgie sighed. ‘You fought more. And you had more magic to overcome in the first place. You’ve been unconscious for over a day, I think. I was too, for a while. The spell seemed to hit you first, as though it knew the stronger one to go for. But once you fainted, it felt like someone strangling me. It was morning, when I woke up, and we’ve been travelling all through the day. We’ve only stopped to change horses, three times. And now it’s getting dark again.’
‘They didn’t take Louis too?’ Lily blinked wearily. ‘I saw him in the passageway.’
‘Penelope and Cora told the officer that Louis had no magic – it was only us. But even then he was fighting, and saying it wasn’t fair, we hadn’t done anything. I tried to tell him that it was – it was all right.’ Her voice wobbled as though she didn’t really think it was. ‘Aunt Clara hustled him away. She said that we must have bewitched him.’
Lily suddenly hauled herself upright, and then moaned, pressing her hand against her mouth.
‘Sit still!’ Georgie hissed. ‘I can’t travel all the way to Derbyshire
in a coach you’ve been sick in. And there’s no point calling for the coachman to stop, or anything like that – they won’t. I tried, when you wouldn’t wake up.’ She put an arm around Lily, gingerly. ‘I was worried about you – I wasn’t sure you’d ever wake up.’ She sighed. ‘I’d have been a lot nicer when you did, if it wasn’t for you almost being sick.’
‘Henrietta!’ Lily gasped, when she finally judged it was safe to move her hand. ‘What happened to Henrietta?’
Georgie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I don’t know. The spell took her too. I’m sorry, Lily.’
‘We left her behind?’ Lily whispered, as Georgie’s arms went round her.
‘We couldn’t do anything else. We were unconscious. And we can’t do anything now, Lily, before you try. The coach is all muffled up, like Aunt Clara tried to do with the house. I can hardly even feel my magic.’
‘But what will they do with her?’ Lily rubbed her cheek against Georgie’s pale pink sleeve, just as Henrietta used to. It was very soft, but it didn’t make her feel any better. Now that Georgie had told her, she could feel the enchantments round the coach. Her magic was squashed down inside her, and it was hard to breathe. ‘Aunt Clara doesn’t like dogs. What if they drown her, Georgie?’
‘They wouldn’t…’ But Georgie didn’t sound very sure. ‘Henrietta’s too clever. And she isn’t real, Lily, she’s painted. She probably only drowns in turpentine. If they try to drown her in the river, she’d just swim away, and adopt some other poor soul to be her slave.’
Lily sniffed. It might well be true, though she could tell that Georgie was just saying anything she could to cheer her up.
‘But what shall we do without her?’ she asked miserably, and Georgie sighed.
‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything. This was what we wanted, Lily, but I thought we’d be outside Fell Hall. Not shut in with the others. It’s all gone wrong. I’m scared.’
Lily hid her face in Georgie’s grubby sleeve. ‘Me too.’