The Devil Rides Out

‘Don’t fret your sweet self. No one shall lay a finger on you as long as I’m around.’

‘But, you great fool, you don’t understand,’ she wailed miserably. ‘The Power of Darkness cannot be turned aside by bruisers or iron bars. If I don’t appear at the meeting tonight the moment I fall asleep Mocata will set the Ab-humans on to me. In the morning I may be dead or possessed—a raving lunatic’

Rex did not laugh. He knew that she was genuinely terrified of an appalling possibility. Instead he turned her towards the house and said gently: ‘Now please don’t worry so. De Richleau does understand just how dangerous monkeying with this business is. He spent half the night trying to convince me of it, and like a fool I wouldn’t believe him until I saw a thing I don’t care to talk about, but I’m dead certain he’d never allow you to run any risk like that.’

‘Then let me go back to London!’

‘No. He asked me to get you here so as he could have a word with you—and I’ve done it. We’ll have a quiet little lunch together now and talk this thing over when the Duke turns up. He’ll either guarantee to protect you or let you go.’

‘He can’t protect me I tell you— and in any case I wish to attend this meeting tonight.’

‘You wish to!’ he echoed with a shake of the head. ‘Well, that gets me beat, but you can’t even guess what you’d be letting yourself in for. Anyhow I don’t mean to let you—so now you know.’

‘You mean to keep me here against my will?’

‘Yes!’

‘What is to stop me screaming for help?’

‘Nix, but since the Duke’s not here the servants know I’m in charge, so they won’t bat an eyelid if you start to yell the house down—and there’s no one else about’

Tanith glanced swiftly down the drive. Except at the white gates tall banks of rhododendrons, heavy with bloom, obscured the lane. No rumble of passing traffic broke the stillness that brooded upon the well-kept garden. The house lay silent in the early summer sunshine. The inhabitants of the village were busy over the midday meal.

She was caught and knew it. Only her wits could get her out of this, and her fear of Mocata was so great that she was determined to use any chance that offered to free herself from this nice, meddling fool.

‘You’ll not try to prevent me leaving if De Richleau says I may when he arrives?’ she asked.

‘No. I’ll abide by his decision,’ he agreed.

‘Then for the time being I will do as you wish.’

‘Fine—come on.’ He led her back to the house and rang for Max, who appeared immediately from the doorway of the dining-room.

‘We’ve decided to lunch on the river,’ Rex told him. ‘Make up a basket and have it put in the electric canoe.’ He had made the prompt decision directly he sensed that Tanith meant to escape if she could. Once she was alone in a boat with him he felt that, unless she was prepared to jump out and swim for it, he could hold her without any risk of a scene just as long as he wanted to.

‘Very good, sir—I’ll see to it at once.’ Max disappeared into the domain of which he was lord and master, while Rex shepherded Tanith back to the neglected cocktails.

He refreshed the shaker while she sat on the sofa eyeing him curiously, but he persuaded her to have one, and when he pressed her she had another. Then Max appeared to announce that his orders had been carried out.

‘Let’s go—shall we?’ Rex held open the french windows and together they crossed the sunlit lawn, gay with its beds of tulips, polyanthus, wallflowers and forget-me-knots. At the river’s edge, upon a neat, white painted landing-stage, a boatman held the long electric canoe ready for them.

Tanith settled herself on the cushions and Rex took the small perpendicular wheel. In a few moments they were chugging out into midstream and up the river towards Goring, but he preferred not to give her the opportunity of appealing to the lock-keeper, so he turned the boat and headed it towards a small backwater below the weir.

Having tied up beneath some willows, he began passing packages and parcels out of the stern. ‘Come on,’ he admonished her. ‘It’s the girl’s job to see to the commissariat. Just forget yourself a moment an’ see what they’ve given us to eat.’

She smiled a little ruefully. ‘If I really thought you realised what you were doing I should look on you as the bravest man I’ve ever known.’

He turned suddenly, still kneeling at the end of the boat. ‘Go on—say it again. I love the sound of your voice.’

‘You fool!’ She coloured, laughing as she unwrapped the napkins. ‘There’s some cheese here—and ham and tongue—and brown bread—and salad—and a lobster. We shall never be able to eat all this and—oh, look,’ she held out a small wicker basket, ‘fraises des bois.’

‘Marvellous. I haven’t tasted a wood strawberry since I last lunched at Fontainebleau. Anyhow, it’s said the British Army fights on its stomach, so I’m electing myself an honorary member of it for the day. Fling me that corkscrew—will you, and I’ll deal with this bottle of Moselle.’

Soon they were seated face to face propped against the cushions, a little sticky about the mouth, but enjoying themselves just as any nice normal couple would in such circumstances; but when the meal was finished he felt that, much as he would have liked to laze away the afternoon, he ought, now the cards were upon the table, to learn what he could of this grim business without waiting for the coming of the Duke. He unwrapped another packet which he had found in the stern of the boat, and passing it over asked half humorously:

‘Tell me, does a witch ever finish up her lunch with chocolates? I’d be interested to know on scientific grounds.’

‘Oh, why did you bring me back—I have been enjoying myself so much,’ her face was drawn and miserable as she buried it in her hands.

‘I’m sorry!’ He put down the chocolates and bent towards her. ‘But we’re both in this thing, so we’ve got to talk of it, haven’t we, and though you don’t look the part, you’re just as much a witch as any old woman who ever soured the neighbour’s cream —else you’d never have seen me in that crystal this morning as I sat in the lounge of your hotel.’

‘Of course I am if you care to use such a stupid old-fashioned term.’ She drew her hands away and tossed back her fair hair as she stared at him defiantly. ‘That was only child’s play—just to keep my hand in—a discipline to make me fit to wield a higher power.’

‘For good?’ he questioned laconically.

‘It is necessary to pass through many stages before having to choose whether one will take the Right or Left Hand Path.’

‘So I gather. But how about this unholy business in which you’ve a wish to take part tonight?’

‘If I submit to the ordeal I shall pass the Abyss.’ The low, caressing voice lifted to a higher note, and the wise eyes suddenly took on a fanatic gleam.

‘You can’t have a notion what they mean to do to you or you’d never even dream of it,’ he insisted.

‘I have, but you know nothing of these things so naturally you consider me utterly shameless or completely mad. You are used to nice English and American girls who haven’t a thought in their heads except to get you to marry them — if you have any money — which apparently you have, but that sort of thing does not interest me. I have worked and studied to gain power—real power over other people’s lives and destinies—and I know now that the only way to acquire it is by complete surrender of self. I don’t expect you to understand my motives but that is why I mean to go tonight.’

He studied her curiously for a moment, still convinced that she could not be fully aware of the abominations that would take place at the Sabbat. Then he broke out: ‘How long is it since you became involved in this sort of thing?’