‘I’ll do what’s necessary,’ Alice said in a quiet voice, ‘but I want to be sure that it’s the only way. I need time to think. And I need to talk to Grimalkin. She ain’t that far away, so I’ll go and find her. I shouldn’t be away more than a few days.’
The next morning Alice headed north to find the witch assassin. I gave her a hug at the edge of the garden.
‘Whatever you decide, Alice, don’t go off into the dark until we’ve spoken again. Do you promise?’
‘I promise, Tom. Wouldn’t go without saying goodbye, would I?’
I watched her walk off into the distance, my throat constricting with emotion.
Within the hour, after leaving the three dogs in the care of the village blacksmith, my master, Judd Brinscall and I had departed too. Although he’d cried off from the journey to Pendle, the Spook seemed happy enough to head for Todmorden. His knees were feeling better and his stride showed its usual energy. As we walked, the three of us talked.
‘Do you know what I miss about the old house?’ Judd said.
‘For me, it’s the roof and the library,’ the Spook joked, ‘and it gladdens my heart to see that both are being attended to!’
‘Well, I miss the boggart!’ exclaimed Judd. ‘It might have burned the bacon occasionally, but it always did the washing-up and kept the garden safe from intruders. It scared me at first but eventually I grew quite fond of it.’
‘It scared me too,’ I said. ‘It gave me a clout behind the ear when I came down to breakfast too early on my first day. But my memories of it are mostly good.’
‘Aye,’ my master agreed. ‘It warned us of danger and saved our lives on more than one occasion. It will certainly be missed.’
We broke our journey in the village of Oswaldtwistle, the Spook leading us directly to its one and only tavern, the Grey Man.
‘Money might be short at present but my old bones are begging for a warm bed tonight, lad,’ he told me.
‘I can pay for our accommodation,’ Judd said. ‘I know you’ve had a hard time of it.’
‘Nay, Judd, put your money away – I won’t hear of it.’
Our finances were limited because my master needed most of what he had recently accumulated to pay for the repairs to his house. Whenever he did a job, he often had to wait to be paid; sometimes until after the next harvest. That he was willing to pay for rooms now showed how weary he must still be feeling. During the last couple of years our struggles against the dark had taken a lot out of him. But he was proud as well, and wouldn’t let an ex-apprentice pay for his lodgings.
A few locals sat gossiping in the corner by the huge fire, sipping ale from pint tankards, but we were the only diners. We tucked into huge plates of beef and roasted potatoes swimming in delicious gravy.
I looked at the Spook. ‘You said your work had never taken you to Todmorden, so I wonder how Mistress Fresque knew about your library and what happened to it . . . Did you tell her, Judd?’ I asked.
‘Aye, that I did. I’ve not been back in the County for more than a few weeks. I wanted to return months ago, but it was still occupied by enemy troops. As soon as I arrived, I looked up Cosmina Fresque, an old friend from Romania, who kindly provided me with a roof over my head while I found my feet. She said she had some books to sell – so, of course, I told her about you. She travelled to Chipenden herself, and en route found out about the sad loss of your library.’
‘She should have visited us rather than just leaving a note,’ said the Spook.
‘She didn’t want to disturb you when you were busy with all the rebuilding,’ Judd explained.
‘She’d have been very welcome,’ my master said. ‘You too, Judd. Why didn’t you bring her up to the house?’
‘As much as I’d have loved to visit, I can’t afford to pass up the chance of paid work. There was a boggart to be dealt with just over the County border, so duty called!’
‘It’s an unusual name, Todmorden,’ I commented. ‘I wonder where it came from. Does it mean anything?’
‘All names mean something,’ said the Spook. ‘It’s just that some are so old that their origins have long been forgotten. Some say the name is derived from two words from the Old Tongue: tod, which means death, and mor – which also means death!’
‘But others dispute that,’ Judd said. ‘They claim the name means the Valley of the Marsh Fox.’
The Spook smiled. ‘Human memory is fallible and the truth is sometimes lost for ever, lad.’
‘Was your dad from the County, Judd?’ I asked.
‘That he was, Tom, but he died in the first year of my apprenticeship, and then my mother returned to Romania to be with her family there.’
I nodded in understanding. My own dad had died during the first year of my apprenticeship and my mam had gone back to Greece. We’d endured similar things and I knew how he felt.
I’d previously met three of my master’s ex-apprentices. All of them were dead now. First there was Morgan, who’d served the dark and had been killed by Golgoth, one of the Old Gods. Secondly, there’d been Father Stocks, murdered by the witch Wurmalde. Most recently, in Greece, Bill Arkwright had died fighting a heroic rearguard action while we made our escape.
I’d hated Morgan, who’d been a bully, but had grown to like Father Stocks – and even Bill eventually, though he’d given me a difficult time at first. And now I felt the same way about Judd. He seemed an amiable man. The life of a spook could be very lonely. I hoped that I was about to make a new friend.
The next day we strode east across the moors until late in the afternoon. Then, after we’d passed through another small village, three steep-sided valleys came into view below us. In the middle lay the small town of Todmorden. I saw that it was hemmed in by dense woods which extended up the slopes. The Spook had told me that the place had a river running through it; the far bank lay beyond the County border. There was something odd about the layout of the town though. Not only was it divided by the river but there was a swath of trees on either bank, as if nobody had wanted to build a house too close to the water.
‘Well, I’m sorry, but this is where we part company,’ Judd said.
‘After coming all this way I thought you’d have been guiding us to Mistress Fresque’s door and introducing us,’ the Spook said, evidently surprised.