Fairfax rose from his seat and held out his hand to her.
“There is something I wish to show you,” he said. When she hesitated he went on. “Appleby’s continued existence in this world depends upon your cooperating with me, my little minstrel. One way or another you must sing for your supper. Now, come,” he said. It was not an invitation but an instruction.
Xanthe got up and made herself give him her hand. He tucked it into the bend of his arm, patting it gently.
“Have no fear,” he said. “We are to be partners of the most singular kind, you and I. Permit me to show you.”
10
Fairfax led Xanthe back along the cloisters, where the snow was being whipped up from the courtyard in dizzying whirlwinds and flung through the open stone arches. By the time they took a second staircase up through one of the towers at the north end of the great house her boots had white toes and she was shivering. Fairfax was eager to show her what lay behind the broad oak door on the top floor. With a flourish he bid her enter what was as far as Xanthe could tell some sort of observatory. There was a vast, floor-to-ceiling window at the far end of the room, in front of which stood a gleaming brass telescope, pointing at the night sky. There were charts and maps and models of planets. Two glass-fronted bookcases housed an impressive collection of leather-bound volumes. Knowing how expensive books were at the time, Xanthe calculated this collection to be the most valuable part of the room. Fairfax showed her a large astrolabe sitting on a walnut desk.
“I have searched far and wide for a replacement for the device that granted me the gift of time travel, but I have never found another. It seems that for me, that astrolabe was unique. I have tried to understand why it did not return with me and can find no explanation. Who will have the presence of mind to pick it up from where I stood? All had witnessed the impossible. A man vanishes before their eyes. What would they say about that?”
Xanthe gestured at the contents of the room. “You might want to be careful who you show this to,” she said. “As I understand it, people of your time are quick to shout ‘witch’ at anyone they think might be dabbling in strange practices.”
“I do not dabble!”
“But time travel is a pretty strange practice, don’t you think? What if the king were to find out about your … obsession?” She walked around the room, examining the precious objects Fairfax had gathered in his search for another key to spinning time.
“Do not think to threaten me, little minstrel,” he warned her. “You are in no position to so much as speak to anyone at court. And if you did, why would they listen to you?”
“Perhaps they wouldn’t, but would you want to take that risk?” She knew she was on dangerous ground, but she was determined not to let him see how powerless she actually felt.
“I advise you to consider what paths you have to choose from. It is true, you could, should I allow you to do so, go from this place and travel to London in search of one who will hear the fantastic tale you have to tell them. You might even find some sympathy at the mention of my name, for one does not rise to prominence but one acquires enemies during the ascent.” He came to stand in front of her and she could see how adamant he was that there was another way. “Instead, you might choose to work with me, rather than against.”
“Work with the man who plans to send my friend to his death?”
“I am not unreasonable. Were we to form an alliance I would not be averse to considering your request for leniency toward Appleby.”
“Leniency?”
“He is a recognized enemy of the crown. He cannot simply be allowed to continue with his treasonous thoughts and plans.…”
“Thoughts! Are you able to read minds now too? And what plans? You have no proof Samuel was planning anything.”
“After the activities of Master Fawkes and his companions, everyone who chooses to set themselves against the faith and rule of the land in whatever small way must be considered a threat.”
“If you were to speak up for him he would be left alone. If you declared yourself satisfied that he is a peaceable man … You could do that.”
“I could. Had I sufficient incentive.”
“What exactly is it you think I can do? I don’t have your astrolabe. And I can’t take you with me when I travel through time, not unless the idea of slowly disintegrating appeals to you. You might have been able to overcome that problem when you had the astrolabe, but I can’t guarantee any such success.”
“If we combined our knowledge. Put our experiences in the crucible of endeavor, here, in my observatory. With what you know, of the future and of the spinning of time, and with my resources, there is no limit to what we could achieve!”
“You are overestimating my ability. I’ve told you, I can’t control every aspect of my journeys. I need specific objects. And they take me where they want. They decide where and when I go.” Her mind briefly flitted to the book. Did Fairfax know of its existence? He hadn’t mentioned it, but Mistress Flyte had been so excited by it, had insisted it was really important. Xanthe decided even if he had heard of it, he didn’t know that she had it. It seemed sensible to keep it that way.
“But you have made many successful journeys, have you not? You have succeeded in moving backward and forward through the ages and suffered no ill effects.”
“You don’t understand the risks. There have been times I thought I wouldn’t reach my destination. Times when I thought I would be lost in some sort of limbo. And what about how people will think of you if they find out what you are doing? You’d be accused of witchcraft, and if I was helping you, so would I. Your astrolabe saved your life. Can’t you be content with that?”
“And sent me back in time, not safely ahead. Do you not see? How can I be certain I will avoid my fate when that time is yet to come?”
“I would have thought becoming the king’s man and being willing to sacrifice anyone to gain more wealth and standing has worked pretty well so far. Laybrook Abbey looks to me to be the home of an influential and respectable person.”
“You tell me your own time is ruled by a parliament and that the monarch is powerless. See how the tide can turn? Why would I satisfy myself with what is within the reach of so many well-born, clever men, when within my own grasp lies an ability to shape the very future itself? Imagine how you and I could use our wondrous gift.”
Now the scope of his ambition was clear to Xanthe. This was what Mistress Flyte had feared, had suggested he would want. “Seems to me,” she said levelly, “that you are not just interested in saving your own neck. You want to use the skill of spinning time to … what? Become more powerful than the king himself, perhaps? How many people would be sacrificed on your way up that dangerous climb, I wonder?”
“Better then that I have you by my side to moderate at least my ruthlessness, if not my ambition. Do you not see it as your duty as a Spinner to ensure that our gifts are well used? Perhaps this is the very reason you have been brought here, to this time, to my time. To me. We would be a match like no other.”
“A match?”
“Alliances have ever been formed for the greater good of both parties. I care not for your affection. I would rather secure the availability of your gift. As my wife you would naturally be at my side.”
Xanthe gave a shocked bark of laughter. “You want me to marry you?” Even as she phrased the question she could see that, for Fairfax, this was the obvious solution to his need. As his wife she could be with him all the time, her presence accepted, her background glossed over and forgotten when she became the chosen bride of an influential, wealthy man and the mistress of a great house. A stab of regret and jealousy assailed her heart as she thought of Samuel betrothed to someone else. Was that too a marriage of convenience? she wondered. Could it be that the match had been arranged by their respective families? It was ridiculous to be hurt by it, she told herself. If she didn’t find a way to get past Fairfax, Samuel wouldn’t live long enough to marry anyone. She made herself focus,
keeping her tone businesslike and firm. “You need to understand something,” she said. “If I agree to help you in some way … if … then it will be to secure Samuel’s freedom and safety. I have a life of my own, in my own time, with my family.”
“Why do you refuse to see the magnitude of what it is I offer you?”
“It seems to me your ‘offer’ amounts to nothing more or less than blackmail. If I don’t do exactly what you want, you’ll send Samuel to the Tower. That’s the bare bones of the thing, isn’t it?”
“You can achieve what you came here to do. You can see Appleby reprieved. Why would you not wish to develop your stupendous talent to its fullest extent?”
“Why would I want to leave my family? And anyway, what makes you think you can keep me here if I don’t want to stay?”
“I have considered this, naturally. Which is why,” he lowered his voice, watching her face closely, “I earlier asked of you: How is it that you return to your own time? Do you, perhaps, need a specific place? Must the planets be in a peculiar alignment? Or have you some object that serves as sextant through the eons and delivers you home?”
Xanthe did not trust herself to respond or move. The slightest gesture toward her locket might give herself away. She played for time.
“I keep telling you that I have very little control over when or how I travel.”
Fairfax looked disappointed at her answer. He drew back from her a little and she wondered for a moment if he might hit her. Did he think he could beat the information out of her? She felt herself tense, ready to move if he tried to strike her. But what then? He was, for all his bony frame, bigger and stronger than she, and the house was filled with his servants, his men. Xanthe felt suddenly trapped. Now that she knew Fairfax’s intention was not simply to make use of her but to keep her, to make her his wife, she had to get away. Had to find some way to help Samuel at a safe distance from this obsessed man. She could see now that he had glimpsed a terrible power in the ability to travel to the future. He would settle for nothing less than total control over it. Another thought made her heart heavy in her chest. He would always use her feelings for Samuel to control her. Even if he called off the trial and let him go free now, there would always be the threat of what he might do to Samuel and his family if she didn’t fully cooperate with him. Forever. What about her own life? What about her mother? She had to get away. In the moment it had taken for her to see this, Fairfax had come to the same conclusion. As Xanthe sprinted for the door he lunged after her.
“Let me go!” she yelled at him as he grabbed her. She kicked and struggled so that he was forced to grasp her clothing to keep hold of her. The cotton of her blouse gave way, ripping part of the collar. When she leaned over and bit his hand he cursed, shouted, and then slapped her hard with his other hand. Unbalanced and shocked, Xanthe fell back, landing heavily against the bookcase, shattering the glass in its doors. Fairfax took hold of her by the arms, hauling her to her feet.
“Such obstinacy! You foolish creature. It is a wonder you were ever chosen for a Spinner, when you are in possession of such witless reason.”
“You’re the fool if you think you can make me stay with you!” she cried, fighting to free her arms from his grip, feeling his bony fingers bruising her skin, his grasp tightening. She wriggled, turning, so that he stood behind her, one arm now around her neck, the other hand still clenched around her arm. Xanthe felt herself beginning to choke as his hold tightened on her throat.
Fairfax was enraged by her resistance and her refusal to accept what he saw as the only sensible course of action.
“I will never again suffer the humiliation and helplessness of being incarcerated. Never be the victim of another’s ambition! Never await my lonely fate in a dark cell! I will become the most accomplished Spinner of time there has ever been and you will assist me. I will find ways to gain your cooperation. If you choose to fight against me do not be surprised if those ways are not in your best interests. I offer you a true alliance and you turn it down without a minute’s contemplation!”
“I don’t need another second to see what sort of monster you are.” Xanthe let herself go limp and stopped struggling. Confused but wary, Fairfax loosened his hold on her. It was only a minute adjustment of pressure, the slightest lessening of force, but it was enough. Just. Instead of struggling forward against his hold, Xanthe dropped to the floor, and in one fluid movement, using the hem of her petticoat as a mitt, she grabbed a long shard of glass from the broken bookcase. As Fairfax reached down to take hold of her again she wheeled around as best she was able in her crouching position, swiping upward at him with the glass. She didn’t have the chance to aim properly or think where her improvised blade might find its mark. There was a shriek as the sharp edge cut through Fairfax’s flesh. He leaped back, staggering, clutching his face. Xanthe saw blood pour out between his fingers as he roared in pain and rage. She scrambled to her feet and ran for the door, not daring to look back. She raced down the twisting stone stairs of the tower, Fairfax’s shouts following her as she went. She knew she had to get out of the abbey before his servants came to his aid. She threw open the nearest door and found herself back in the cloisters again.
“Stop!” One of the footmen, hearing his master’s cries, had hurried toward the tower and saw Xanthe. “You there, stop!”
Xanthe jumped over the low wall of the cloisters and tore across the snowy courtyard. She could see the door to the main hall. Within moments she was there, fortunate that Fairfax’s bellowing had drawn everyone who heard it toward him, leaving the front door unguarded. Xanthe hauled it open and ran out into the snowy night.
Heavy clouds blocked out the moon so that she was running almost blind, the dull gleam of the snow allowing only the tiniest amount of visibility. She ran down the grand drive, hesitating when she came to the gates at the bottom. Her instinct had been to run to the village, to return to Rose and Adam and ask for their help again. But Fairfax would look for her there. And then what hope for Samuel’s cousins? With a stab of panic she thought of Samuel, still in the abbey. She couldn’t risk going back to find him. Would Fairfax take his anger out on him? It pulled at her heart to think she might have actually made things worse for him. Sounds from the house told her horses were being fetched. She had to move on, had to run. If she stayed on the road they would catch her in a matter of minutes. Turning east, she climbed the low wall and raced off across the open meadow, heading for the dark cover of the woods at the far side. She reached the trees just as those sent in search of her thundered out of the drive, some heading for the village, others toward the high road.
Xanthe crouched at the base of an ancient oak, leaning against its great trunk. She had no coat, and the cold was already seeping through her clothes. She pulled the remnants of her torn blouse together and as she did so a wave of fear swept over her.
Her locket was gone.
She searched her panicked mind for when she had last known for certain that it was still around her neck. Had she lost it when Fairfax had ripped her collar? Was that when the chain had been broken? Might it have been caught up in her clothes? It could have fallen to the ground at any time while she was making her escape. It could still be in the abbey. It might be lying in the snow, soon to be covered by the fresh fall that seemed to thicken by the moment. Xanthe felt tears of despair stinging her eyes and angrily wiped them away.
“You idiot!” she said aloud, needing to summon up her fury to stop herself giving way to desperation. Without the locket she was trapped, unable to return home. She would have to find it, but not now. If it was outside, the dark and the snow would make searching for it without a lamp impossible. She could not risk going back into the house. She knew the most likely place to find it would be Fairfax’s observatory. Would he still be in there? How badly had she wounded him? It seemed unlikely he would have been able to ride out after her, not bleeding as heavily as he had been. She couldn’t go back into the abbey, not with him still there.
Her teeth began to chatter. Staying hidden in such weather was not an option. She would not survive the night sleeping in the woods. She had to keep moving. She decided to head back along the road toward Bradford. She would have to hide from any riders, but at least she knew it was no more than about eight miles to the town. She would go to Mistress Flyte and ask for her help. It was possible, of course, that Fairfax would look for her there, but the old woman was clever and resourceful and would more than likely know of a place to hide Xanthe. And then together they could work out a way for her to retrieve her locket.
Xanthe left the woods, checked the snow-covered road, and then set off at a jog, heading west. She didn’t slow her pace until she had left the village of Laybrook behind. The rough road was made a little smoother by the snow, but treacherous potholes and ruts still caused her to stumble and she had to move carefully to avoid a twisted ankle. As she walked she listened for hoofbeats and thought about how badly she had handled the situation with Fairfax. She had gone there planning to bargain with him for Samuel’s release and now she had enraged him and lost her precious locket. She was no use to Samuel and might never get home. She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms against her own weariness and the deepening cold. She had to find extra reserves of strength and think what to do next. She would go to Bradford and she would ask Mistress Flyte for her help. Together they could approach one of Samuel’s friends, perhaps. Surely he was well enough liked and known, his family well regarded, that someone would help?
As the night wore on Xanthe’s pace slowed further, so that after an hour she was trudging, stumbling more often, her fingers and toes numb. It was then she heard sounds of wheels and hooves. An approaching carriage, moving fast through the wintry darkness. She looked about her for cover, but she was on a stretch of road with no trees nearby, not even a ditch to jump into. She told herself it could not be anything to do with Fairfax, as it was heading toward and not away from Laybrook. Within seconds she could see lights as the carriage rounded the bend ahead and came hurtling toward her. She could do no more than step aside, head down, hoping that the driver would take no notice and simply pass her by. Just as it seemed they would do exactly that and drew level with her she heard voices, shouts from inside, instructions to the driver to pull up. Xanthe held her breath as the carriage slowed to a halt and the door opened. A figure took a lamp from the carriage and held it high, walking toward her. She could see that he was a young man, tall, his face partly obscured by the hat he wore. She searched her mind for a story to give this stranger as to why she was wandering the high road in the middle of the night.
Secrets of the Chocolate House Page 16