The following day there was another surprise. The route back to Chipenden led us to within about four miles of our farm. I was going to ask if I could call in but the Spook beat me to it.
'I reckon you should pay a visit home, lad. You might find that mother of yours is back; if so, she'll be expecting to see you. I'll press straight ahead, because I need to visit a surgeon on the way.'
'A surgeon? Are you ill?' I asked, starting to worry for him.
'Nay, lad. The man in question does a bit of dentistry as a side-line. He's got a big supply of dead men's teeth and there's bound to be something that'll fit,' he said, giving me a wide smile so that I had a good view of the gap left where the boggart had knocked out his front tooth.
'Where does he get them from?' I asked, appalled.
'From grave robbers?'
'Most of them come from old battlefields,' the Spook said, with a shake of his head. 'He'll make me up a denture and I'll soon be as good as new. He does a nice line in bone buttons too. Meg made all her own dresses and was one of his best customers,' the Spook said sadly.
I was glad to hear that. At least her buttons hadn't come from her past victims, as I'd first suspected.
'Anyway off you go now,' said the Spook, 'and take the girl with you for a bit of company on the way back.'
I was happy to obey. No doubt the Spook didn't want Alice following at his heels. But I would have the usual problem. Jack wouldn't want her to take one step across the farm boundary and, as Brewer's Farm belonged to him now, it wasn't worth arguing.
An hour or so later Alice and I were in sight of the farm when I noticed something very unusual. To the north, just beyond the farm boundary, was Hangman's Hill, where a plume of dark smoke was now rising from the trees at its summit. Someone had lit a fire there. Who would do that? Nobody ever went there because it was haunted by the ghasts of men who'd been hanged during the civil war that had swept through the County generations earlier. Even the farm dogs kept well clear.
Instinctively I knew it was Mam. Why she should be up there I couldn't guess, but who else would dare? So we skirted the farm to the east and, once beyond its northern boundary, headed up the hill through the trees. Of the ghasts there was no sign and Hangman's Hill was silent and still, the bare branches gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. The leaf buds were swollen but it would still be a week or so until they unfolded. Spring had come very late this year.
Immediately we came to its summit, I was proved right. Mam was sitting in front of a fire gazing into the flames. She was sheltering under a refuge of branches, twigs and dead leaves which shielded her from the sunlight. Her hair was matted with dirt and it looked as if she hadn't washed for a long time. She'd lost weight too and her face was gaunt, her expression sad and weary, perhaps of life itself.
'Mam! Mam!' I said, sitting down beside her on the damp earth. 'Are you all right?'
She didn't answer right away and there was a faraway look in her eyes. At first I thought she hadn't heard me. But then, still staring into the fire, she put her left hand on my shoulder.
'I'm glad you're back, Tom,' she said at last. 'I've been waiting here for days .. .' 'Where've you been, Mam?'
She didn't answer, but after a long pause she looked up and met my eyes. 'I'll be on my way soon but we need to talk before I leave.'
'No, Mam, you're in no state to go anywhere. Why don't you go down to the farm and get some food inside you. You need a good night's sleep too. Does Jack know you're here?'
'He knows, son. Jack comes up to see me every day and begs me to do what you've just asked. But it's too painful to go down there now that your dad's not at home. It's hit me hard, Tom, and my heart is broken. But now that you've come at last, I'll force myself to go back down there one last time before I leave the County for ever.' 'Don't go, Mam! Please don't leave us!' I begged. Mam didn't reply but just stared into the flames. 'Think of your first grandson, Mam!' I continued desperately. 'Don't you want to see him born? Don't you want to see little Mary grow up either? And what about me? I need you! Don't you want me to complete my time and become a spook? You've saved me in the past and I might need your help again just to get that far...'
Still Mam didn't reply and Alice suddenly seated herself so that she was facing her directly across the fire. 'Not sure, are you?' she said to Mam, her eyes fierce in the firelight. 'You don't really know what to do.'
Mam looked up, her own eyes glistening with tears. 'How old are you, girl? Thirteen, is it?' she asked. 'You're just a child. So what can you know about my business?'
'May only be thirteen,' Alice retorted defiantly, 'but I know things. More things than some who've lived a whole lifetime. Some were taught me. Others I just know. Maybe I was born knowing them. Ain't no idea why. Just is, that's all. And I know about you. Some things anyway. And I know that you're torn between going and staying. Ain't that so? It's true, ain't it?'
Mam bowed her head and then, to my astonishment, nodded.
'The dark is growing in power, that's plain enough, and it's something I've told Tom before,' Mam said, turning to face me again, her eyes glittering more fiercely than those of any witch I'd faced. 'You see, it's the whole world that's falling under the power of the dark, not just the County. I need to fight it in my own land. If I go back now, I might just be able to do something about it before it's too late! And there are other things there that I've left unresolved.'