Alice grew silent and avoided my gaze, and I realized that I shouldn't have asked. She'd never talked much about life with her parents or with Lizzie after they'd died."Don't remember life much before Lizzie," she said at last. "I mostly remember the rows. Me lying there in the darkness crying while my mam and dad fought like cat and dog. But sometimes they talked and laughed as well, so it wasn't all bad. That was the big difference afterward. The silence. Lizzie didn't say much. More likely to give me a clout round the head than a kind word. Brooded a lot, she did. Gazed into the fire and muttered her spells. And if she weren't gawping into the flames, she'd be staring into a mirror. Sometimes I caught sight of things over her shoulder. Things that don't belong on this earth. Scared me, it did. Preferred Mam and Dad's fights to that.''"Did you live in Malkin Tower?"Alice shook her head. "No. Only the Malkin coven and a few chosen helpers live in the tower itself. But I went there sometimes with my mam. Some of it's underground, but I never went down there. They all live together in one big room, and there was lots of arguing and screaming and smoke stinging your eyes.
Being a Deane, my dad didn't visit the tower. He'd never have got out alive. We lived in a cottage near Roughlee, the village where most of the Deanes live. The Mouldheels live in Bareleigh and the rest of the Malkins in Goldshaw Booth. Mostly keep to their own territory, they do."After that Alice grew silent, so I didn't press her further. I could see that Pendle held a lot of painful memories for her--unspoken horrors that I could only guess at.Jack's nearest neighbor, Mr. Wilkinson, had a horse and cart, and I knew he'd be only too happy to hire them out. No doubt he'd have one of his sons drive us so I wouldn't have to make a return journey later. I decided to call in at my brother's first to let him know -what I intended to do with the trunks. We made good time and came within sight of Jack's farm late in the afternoon of the following day. My first glance told me that something was badly wrong.We'd approached from the northeast, skirting the edge of Hangman's Hill, and as we began our descent, I could see right away that there were no animals in the fields. Then, as I caught sight of the farmhouse, it got worse.
The barn was a blackened ruin: It had been burned to the ground.It never even crossed my mind to ask Alice to wait at the farm boundary. Something bad had happened, and all I could think of was checking that Jack, Ellie, and their daughter, Mary, were all right. By now the farm dogs should have been barking, but everything was silent.As we hastened through the gate and across the yard, I saw that the back door of the farmhouse had been smashed in and was hanging from one hinge. I ran across, with Alice at my heels, a lump in my throat, afraid that something terrible had happened.Once inside, I called Jack's and Elbe's names over and over again but received no answer. The house was unrecognizable as the home I'd been brought up in. All the kitchen drawers had been pulled out and there was cutlery and smashed crockery on the flags. The pots of herbs had been taken from the windowsill and thrown against the walls; there was soil in the sink. The brass candlestick had gone from the table and in its place were five empty bottles of elderberry wine from Mam's store in the cellar. But for me, the worst thing of all was Mam's rocking chair, which -was in big, jagged pieces, as if someone had taken an ax to it. It pained me to see that. It almost felt like they'd hurt Mam.Upstairs, the bedrooms had been ransacked --clothes scattered across the beds and floors and every mirror smashed. But the scariest moment of all came when we reached Mam's special room. The door was closed, but there was blood splattered across the -wall next to it, and there were bloodstains on the floorboards, too. Had Jack and his family been here -when this happened?
I became filled with a terrible dread that someone had died here."Don't think the worst, Tom!" Alice said, gripping my arm. "It may not be as bad as it seems. ..."I didn't answer, just kept staring at the splatters of blood on the walls."Let's look inside your mam's room," Alice suggested.For a moment I looked at her, horrified. I couldn't believe that was all she could think about now."I think we should look inside," she insisted.Angrily I tried the door but it didn't yield. "It's still locked, Alice. I've got the only key. So nobody's been inside.""Trust me, Tom. Please ..."For safety, I kept the keys on a piece of string round my neck. There was a large key for the door and three smaller ones for the three largest trunks inside. In a moment I'd opened the door and stepped inside. Additionally, I had a key made by the Spook's brother, Andrew, who's a locksmith, and it will open most locks without trouble.
I'd been wrong. Somebody had been in the room. It was completely empty. The three big trunks and the smaller chests were gone."How could they get into the room?" I asked, my voice echoing slightly. "I have the only key."Alice shook her head. "Remember the other thing your mam said: that nothing evil could enter here. Well, something evil's been here and that's for sure!"I certainly did remember what Mam had said. It had been on my final visit to the farm when I saw her for the last time. She'd stood in this very room, talking to Alice and me, and I remembered her words exactly.Once locked, nothing evil can ever enter here. If you 're brave and your soul is pure and good, this room is a redoubt, a fortress against the dark. . . . Only use it when something so terriblepursues you that your very life and soul are at risk.So what had happened? How had someone gotten inside and stolen the trunks that Mam had left me? What did they want them for? What use were they to somebody else?
After checking the attic, I locked the door to Mam's room again, and we went downstairs and out into the yard. In a daze I walked across to what was left of the barn--just a few charred posts and fragments of wood among a pile of ashes."I can still smell the smoke," I said. "This happened recently."Alice nodded. "It happened soon after dark, the day before yesterday," she said, sniffing loudly at the tainted air.Alice could sniff things out. She was usually right, but now, looking at her face, I didn't like the expression there. She'd discovered something else. Something very bad. Maybe worse than what we'd already found."What is it, Alice?" I demanded."There's something else as well as smoke. A witch has been here. Maybe more than one--""A witch? Why would a witch come here?" I asked, my head whirling with what I'd seen."For the trunks, what else? There must be something inside 'em that they wanted badly.""But how would they find out about the trunks?""Mirrors, perhaps? Maybe they have powers beyond Pendle."