'Aye, it could have cost you your life,' my master said, shaking his head in disapproval.
'I was desperate,' I told him.
'I don't care, lad,' said the Spook, scratching at his beard. 'Didn't I tell you to steer clear of him? You should have told me everything, not sneaked up to steal something on the word of that fool Morgan.'
I was hurt by his use of the word 'steal'. There was no denying that it would have been theft, but to hear him use that word hurt me badly.
'I couldn't. Meg had you prisoner. Anyway, you didn't tell me everything,' I said angrily. 'Why didn't you tell me Morgan was your son? How can I know who to trust when you keep things like that a secret? You told me he was Mr and Mrs Hurst's son - but he wasn't, he was yours. The seventh you had with Emily Burns. I did what I did because I love my father. But your son would never do the same for you. He hates you. He wants to destroy you. He says you're an old fool!'
I knew I'd gone too far, but the Spook just smiled grimly and shook his head. T suppose there is no fool like an old fool, and I've certainly sometimes been that, but as for the rest...'
He looked at me hard, his green eyes glinting fiercely. 'Morgan is no son of mine! He's a liar!' he said, suddenly thumping the top of the desk, his face livid with anger. 'He was, he is and he always will be. He's just trying to confuse and manipulate you. I don't have any children - I've sometimes regretted that, but if I had a child, do you think I'd deny it? Would your father have denied one of you?'
I shook my head.
'Would you like to hear the full story, if it means that much to you?' I nodded.
'Well, I won't deny that I took Emily Burns from my own brother. Or that it hurt my own family badly. My brother particularly. I've never denied that and I've little to say in my defence except that I was young. I wanted her, lad, and I had to have her. One day you'll find out what I mean, but only half the fault was mine. Emily was a strong woman and she wanted me too. But it wasn't long before she tired of me, just as she'd tired of my brother. She moved on and found herself another man.
'Edwin Furner was his name, and although he was a seventh son of a seventh son, he worked as a tanner. Not everybody qualified to do so follows our trade. It was fine for just over two years, and they were happy together. But very soon after their second child was born, he took himself off for almost a year, leaving her to fend for herself with two young children.
'It would have been better had he stayed away, but he kept turning up again like a bad penny. Each time he went away again, she was expecting another of his children. There were seven in all. Morgan was Furner's seventh. After that he never came back.'
The Spook shook his head wearily. 'Emily had a hard life, lad, and we still stayed friends. So I helped her out when I could. Sometimes with money, sometimes finding work for her growing lads. As there was no father to fend for them, what else could I do? When Morgan was sixteen, I got him a job at Moor View Farm. The Hursts took to him so much that they eventually adopted him. They had no son of their own and the farm would have been his. But he couldn't stick to the work and things started to turn sour. It lasted barely a year.
'As I told you, they had a daughter. She was about the same age and her name was Eveline. Young as they were, Morgan and Eveline fell in love. Her parents would have none of it because they wanted them to be brother and sister, so they beat them both; made their lives not worth living. Finally, unable to stand it any longer, Eveline drowned herself in the lake. After that, Emily begged me to get Morgan away from there and take him on as my apprentice. At the time it seemed a reasonable solution, but I had my doubts and I was proved right. Three years he lasted, until finally he went back to Emily, but he couldn't keep away from
Moor View Farm. He still lives there sometimes - at least that's when he's not making mischief elsewhere.
'The sister must be a lingerer, someone who's not been able to cross over to the other side. And because of that, he's got her in his power. And there's no doubt that he is growing stronger. He certainly seems to have had some power over you. You'd better tell me exactly what's been happening between you.'
So I did, and as I talked, the Spook kept prompting me for details. I began with my meeting with Morgan at the graveyard chapel on the edge of the moor and ended with our conversation at Emily Burns's grave.
'I see,' said the Spook when I'd finished. 'It's clear enough now. As I told you before, Morgan was always fascinated by that ancient burial mound up on the moor. Dig into it long enough and you're bound to find something. Well, when he was my apprentice, he finally found a sealed chest with the grimoire inside. And that grimoire contains a ritual which is the only way to raise Golgoth. So thafs what he tried to do.
Fortunately I got there before the ritual had gone too far and put a stop to it.'
'What would have happened if he'd succeeded?' I asked.
'Doesn't bear thinking about, lad. One mistake in the ritual and he'd have been dead. Better that than completing it successfully. You see, he'd followed the instructions to the letter and drawn a pentacle on the floor of his room in Moor View Farm, a five-pointed star within three concentric circles. So if he got the rest right, he was safe enough inside there. But Golgoth would have materialized on the outside of the pentacle and have been loose in the County. Not for nothing was he called the Lord of Winter. It might have been years before summer returned. Freezing death and famine might have been our lot. Morgan offered up the farm dog as a sacrifice. Golgoth never touched it but the poor animal died of fright.