I lifted her bag to carry it into the house. ‘Are you all right, Mam?’ I asked. ‘You look tired.’
‘Never mind me, son. What’s happened here? I can tell something’s wrong just by looking at your face.’
‘It’s a long story,’ I said. ‘We’d better get inside first.’
When we walked into the kitchen Ellie was so relieved to see Mam that she started to cry and that set the baby off crying too. Jack came down then and everybody tried to tell Mam things at once, but I gave up after a few seconds because Jack started off on one of his rants.
Mam shut him up pretty quickly. ‘Lower your voice, Jack,’ she told him. ‘This is still my house and I can’t abide shouting.’
He wasn’t happy at being told off in front of Ellie like that but he knew better than to argue.
She made each one of us tell her exactly what had happened, starting with Jack. I was the last, and when it was my turn, she sent Ellie and Jack up to bed so that we could talk alone. Not that she said much. She just listened quietly, then held my hand.
Finally she went up to Alice ’s room and spent a long time talking to her alone.
The sun had been up less than an hour when the Spook arrived. Somehow I’d been expecting him. He waited at the gate and I went out and told the tale again, while he leaned on his staff. When I’d finished he shook his head.
‘I sensed that something was wrong, lad, but I came too late. Still, you did all right. You used your initiative and managed to remember some of the things I’d taught you. If all else fails, you can always fall back on salt and iron.’
‘Should I have let Alice burn Mother Malkin?’ I asked.
He sighed and scratched at his beard. ‘As I told you, it’s a cruel thing to burn a witch and I don’t hold with it myself.’
‘I suppose now I’ll have to face Mother Malkin again,’ I said.
The Spook smiled. ‘No, lad, you can rest easy because she won’t be coming back to this world. Not after what happened at the end. Remember what I told you about eating the heart of a witch? Well, those pigs of yours did it for us.’
‘Not just the heart. They ate up every bit,’ I told him. ‘So I’m safe? Really safe? She can’t come back?’
‘Aye, you’re safe from Mother Malkin. There are other threats out there just as bad, but you’re safe for now.’
I felt a big sense of relief, as if a heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I’d been living in a nightmare, and now, with the threat of Mother Malkin removed, the world seemed a much brighter, happier place. It was over at last and I could start to look forward to things again.
‘Well, you’re safe until you make another silly mistake,’ the Spook added. ‘And don’t say you won’t. He who never makes a mistake never makes anything. It’s part of learning the job. Well, what’s to be done now?’ he asked, squinting into the rising sun.
‘About what?’ I asked, wondering what he meant.
‘About the girl, lad,’ he said. ‘It looks like it’s the pit for her. I don’t see any way round it.’
‘But she saved Ellie’s baby at the end,’ I protested. ‘She saved my life as well.’
‘She used the mirror, lad. It’s a bad sign. Lizzie taught her a lot. Too much. Now she’s shown us that she’s prepared to use it. What will she do next?’
‘But she meant well. She used it to try and find Mother Malkin.’
‘Maybe, but she knows too much and she’s clever too. She’s just a girl now, but one day she’ll be a woman and a clever woman’s dangerous.’
‘My mam’s clever,’ I told him, annoyed at what he’d said. ‘But she’s good too. Everything she does she does for the best. She uses her brains to help people. One year, when I was really small, the ghasts on Hangman’s Hill frightened me so much that I couldn’t sleep. Mam went up there after dark and she shut them up. They were quiet for months and months.’
I could have added that, on our first morning together, the Spook had told me that there wasn’t much to be done about ghasts. And that Mam had proved him wrong. But I didn’t. I’d blurted out too much already and it didn’t need to be said.
The Spook didn’t say anything. He was staring towards the house.
‘Ask my mam what she thinks about Alice,’ I suggested. ‘She seems to get on well with her.’
‘I was going to do that anyway,’ said the Spook. ‘It’s about time we had a little talk. You wait here until we’re finished.’
I watched the Spook cross the yard. Even before he reached it, the kitchen door opened and Mam welcomed him over the threshold.
Later, it was possible to work out some of the things that they’d said to each other, but they talked together for almost half an hour and I never did find out whether ghasts came into the conversation. When the Spook finally came out into the sunshine, Mam stayed in the doorway. He did something unusual then – something I’d never seen him do before. At first I thought he’d just nodded at Mam as he said goodbye, but there was a bit more to it than that. There was a movement of his shoulders too. It was slight but very definite so there was no doubt about it. As he took his leave of Mam, the Spook gave her a little bow.
When he crossed the yard towards me, he seemed to be smiling to himself. ‘I’ll be off on my way back to Chipenden now,’ he said, ‘but I think your mother would like you to stay one more night. Anyway, I’m going to leave it up to you,’ said the Spook. ‘Either bring the girl back and we’ll bind her in the pit, or take her to her aunt in Staumin. The choice is yours. Use your instinct for what’s right. You’ll know what to do.’ Then he was gone, leaving me with my head whirling. I knew what I wanted to do about Alice, but it had to be the right thing.
So I got to eat another of Mam’s suppers.
Dad was back by then, but although Mam was happy to see him, there was something not quite right, a sort of atmosphere like an invisible cloud hanging over the table. So it wasn’t exactly a celebration party and nobody had much to say.
The food was good though, one of Mam’s special hotpots, so I didn’t mind the lack of conversation – I was too busy filling my belly and getting second helpings before Jack could scrape the dish clean.
Jack had his appetite back but he was a bit subdued like everyone else. He’d been through a lot, with a big bump on his forehead to prove it. As for Alice, I hadn’t told her what the Spook had said but I felt she knew anyway. She didn’t speak once during dinner. But the quietest one of all was Ellie. Despite the joy of having her baby back, what she’d seen had upset her badly and I could tell it would take some getting over.
When the others went up to bed, Mam asked me to stay behind. I sat by the fire in the kitchen, just as I had on the night before I went away to begin my apprenticeship. But something in her face told me this conversation was going to be different. Before, she’d been firm with me but hopeful. Confident that things would work out all right. Now she looked sad and uncertain.
‘I’ve been delivering County babies for nearly twenty-five years,’ she said, sitting down in her rocking chair, ‘and I’ve lost a few. Although it’s very sad for the mother and father, it’s just something that happens. It happens with farm animals, Tom. You’ve seen it yourself.’
I nodded. Every year a few lambs were born dead. It was something you expected.
‘This time it was worse,’ Mam said. ‘This time both the mother and the baby died, something that’s never happened to me before. I know the right herbs and how to blend them. I know how to cope with severe bleeding. I know just what to do. And this mother was young and strong. She shouldn’t have died but I couldn’t save her. I did everything I could, but I couldn’t save her. And It’s given me a pain here. A pain in my heart.’