The Irish Witch

'No!' she shook her head violently. 'I cannot. I've no idea where they are. The two girls left me against my wish. And I've not seen the young Earl since I left London.'

'You are lying, woman. That was the story you told the Duchess of Kew in your letter to her, but I know the truth. I had it out of your servants before I came up here. The girls left this house with you in mid-March in a hired coach, and St. Ermins also left here with, presumably, a friend of yours—a priest—on the 29th of that month.'

She shuddered. ‘I know! I know! It was stupid of me not to realise that you would have found out. But I can't take you to them, I can't!'

'You can, and you will,' snarled Roger.

‘I dare not. They are with the O'Brien woman, of course. You must have guessed that. If I betrayed the place where she is, she'd put a curse on me.'

'I'll take care of her. You have only to take me to the place where she has gone to earth, and leave the rest to me.'

'I won't! I'd rather die! She knows my weakness. She'd render me incapable of ever pleasuring a man again.'

Roger stood up, grasped her by the wrist, pulled her to her feet and shook her. ‘I, too, have that power. If the witch remains in ignorance of who led me to her you'll have naught to fear from her, and I'll tear up this warrant I have for your arrest. Refuse, and I'll execute it. You'll sleep tonight in one of the dungeons below Dublin Castle. Then you'll be tried and condemned to penal servitude. When you have served a year or two with the female scum of the city, such looks as you have will have been replaced by lacklustre eyes, scrofolous grey hair and the wrinkled face of an old crone. Maybe you will catch typhus and die in prison. If you do come out alive, you'll have to haunt the lowest taverns to find even a drunken dock rat who'll be bemused enough to sleep with you.'

'You awful man,' she whimpered. 'How can you threaten a woman like me with such a terrible fate? Have you no pity?'

'None,' he retorted, shaking her again. 'None for lecherous bitches of your ilk who corrupt young people, and trade them to a priestess of the Devil in return for opportunities to gratify your lust. Come now! Make up your mind. Do you give me the information I require, or do I send you to live on skilly and stitch mail bags for a term of years? The choice is yours.'

Falling back on the couch, she sobbed, ‘I ... I'll do as you demand. But it is already night, and the place is far from here—thirty miles at the least’

'In that case we'll need a coach, and had best postpone our journey until tomorrow. But foster no illusion that you will succeed in playing me any tricks. I propose to hold you incommunicado for the night. Now show me the way to your bedroom.'

Stifling her sobs, she led the way from the room and upstairs to the second floor. Her bedroom was at the back of the house. Roger walked over to one of the windows and looked down. Below, in the semi-darkness, he could make out a small, paved garden. Satisfied that there was no way down to it and that the window was much too high for her to risk a drop, he recrossed the room to the door, removed the key from the inside and transferred it to the outside. Then he said to her:

'For tonight you must dispense with the services of your maid, as I have no intention of giving you the chance to smuggle out a letter or message. I am about to lock you in here, and I shall give the servants orders that if you ring your bell they are not to answer it. Moreover, I do not mean to leave the house. I'll doss down in one of your spare bedrooms. You are to be up and dressed in travelling clothes by eight o'clock. I will by then have made arrangements for our journey.'

As she stared at him in silent dismay, she was not a pretty sight. Her eyelash black had run and her cheeks looked raddled. She had clearly gone to pieces, and he felt confident that she would give him no trouble. But he was taking no chances; so, having locked her door behind him and put the key in his pocket, he went down to the basement to deal with the servants.

They were still sitting round the table talking in low voices in Erse. As he entered the room they fell silent and looked up at him apprehensively. He gave them a smile and said pleasantly:

‘I have questioned her ladyship and I am now satisfied that none of you is involved in the serious crime of which die is accused. Providing that you obey my orders, you have nothing to fear.' Taking the paper from his pocket he handed it to the footman and went on, 'As proof of my authority, here is the warrant for her ladyship's arrest.'

The man took it, stared at it a moment, then murmuring, 'It's no great one at the readin' I am,' he passed it to the lady's maid, who slowly read it aloud before handing it back to Roger.

'Now,' he said. 'Had I arrived here earlier I should have taken her ladyship to the Castle for the night. As things are, it will be more convenient for her to remain here locked in her bedroom. If she rings her bell, none of you is to answer it. In the morning you,' he pointed to the cook, 'will prepare two breakfast trays by seven o'clock. You,' he pointed to the maid, 'will take one up and leave it outside her ladyship's door and put the other in the dining room for me. Tomorrow I have to take her ladyship some thirty miles into the country to confront a confederate. You,' he pointed at the footman, 'will go out and secure for me a two-horse coach from a livery stables, with a coachman prepared to drive that distance. It is to be here, in front of the house, at eight o'clock.'

He produced a guinea from his waistcoat pocket, gave it to the cook and said, 'In the depths of the country it may not be possible for us to get a decent midday meal, so when you have finished cooking breakfast I wish you to go out and get some things for me. At one of the better hostelries nearby you should be able to buy a ready-cooked chicken or duck, with some slices of ham and a cake or some pastries, also two bottles of red wine. We'll need butter and bread as well. Pack them all into a basket, with plates and cutlery, so that they are ready for me when we set off. There should be a few shillings change. You may keep them for your trouble.'

Delighted at such a windfall, she smilingly bobbed him her thanks as he added, 'You may now all stay up or go to bed as you wish. But none of you is to leave the house before tomorrow morning.'

From the beginning he had thought it most unlikely that any of this group of servants would have the temerity to challenge his authority; now, having shown them the warrant he felt confident that none of them would sneak out in the night to inform the police that a stranger had come to the house, browbeaten them and locked their mistress in her bedroom.

Going up to the second floor he found the room opposite Maureen Luggala's to be another bedroom. The bed was not made up, but folded blankets and sheets lay beneath the coverlet. Well satisfied with his evening's work, but still desperately worried about Susan and Charles, he partially undressed, made the bed and, still wearing his underclothes, settled down for the night.

In the morning he woke early, but remained in bed until his turnip watch told him that it was half-past six. That he was unable to shave or do his hair annoyed him, but he was able to wash as an ewer of water stood in a basin in one corner of the room. By the time he had dressed it was seven o'clock and, on going out onto the landing, he saw that a breakfast tray had been set down outside Maureen's door. Unlocking it, he pushed the tray inside and called out to her, 'Here is your breakfast. We start in an hour's time. Be ready by then. I dislike being kept waiting.'

Downstairs in the dining room the pretty maid served him, and he found that the cook had done him welclass="underline" a fried herring with two poached eggs to follow, and the remains of a cold sirloin on the side-board in case he still felt hungry. But he scarcely noticed what he was eating, because his mind was so occupied by thoughts of his coming encounter with the witch.