Page 96 of Witchbane

I stepped forward and held up my hand. He tried to move me aside.

‘No. You will not hurt this woman or any other person in my presence,’ I said.

His top lip curled in disgust. ‘How dare you defy me. Remember who I am.’

I sighed. ‘If only I could forget.’

His mouth opened in shock and finally I saw hurt on his face. Only this time it was because I had chosen to stand up to him.

Chapter Forty-Eight

RUE

Appoline shook visibly as she greeted Jem and me, her black cat circling her before leaning against her legs. I explained about Pierre taking Grandmama home and about Aunt Sorrel and the others being held in the Witchfinder’s interrogation cell at Mont Orgueil Castle.

‘I can’t bear to think of them in that horrible place.’ She pressed her hands to her face. ‘And poor dear Sorrel. That man is a blight on our island and to your family in particular.’

‘He is,’ I agreed, holding my fear in check. ‘I daren’t think what he is doing to her at this moment.’

‘Evil is as evil does,’ she said quietly, shaking her head. ‘He dares accuse us of consorting with the Devil, but I’ve never known anyone as cruel as him.’ She laid a hand upon her heart. ‘Dear Ophelia, such a relief that she at least is at home and safe.’

‘Grandmama wants us to assemble as many of us as are still free and cast the spell to banish the Witchfinder’s memory of my aunt forever. She said you would know what to do about the finer details.’

Appoline wrung her hands together thoughtfully. ‘She is right.’ She paced back and forth making sounds as if she was in conversation with someone else. She stopped and clapped her hands. ‘Yes, we can do this.’ She raised a finger and frowned. ‘The only problem is there are only the three of us, as far as I know, and we will be casting the spell without your aunt or that man present.’

‘Won’t that make the spell weaker?’ I asked, knowing how important it was that this spell worked on the first attempt.

She picked up her black cat and hugged it to her. ‘It’s too dangerous for us to attempt to go anywhere near the castle. We can’t help anyone if we too are arrested.’

‘What shall we do?’

She shrugged. ‘We need blood,’ she said matter-of-factly.

‘Whose blood?’ Jem asked, clearly shocked.

She looked at him in surprise as if she hadn’t noticed him standing in the room. ‘Rue’s.’

‘What?’

‘Hush, Jem,’ I said, irritated by his interruption. ‘We have to get this right.’

He folded his arms and closed his mouth.

Appoline lowered the cat to the floor. ‘As Sorrel’s niece, you are the closest person available to us.’ She sighed. ‘We need the Witchfinder’s assistant’s blood and will have to find a way to take this from him. By force, if necessary.’

‘Because, as his son, he’s our closest connection to the Witchfinder,’ I said almost to myself. I doubted he would even consider taking part in the spell, let alone allow Appoline to take his blood, and I said so. ‘I could ask him, I suppose?’

She threw her hands in the air. ‘If we are to save your aunt, and most probably you too, Rue, we have little choice but to involve his son. You must find him and persuade him to do this for us.’

I thought back to the pleasure of our kisses, hours before in the woods, but it was one thing to have feelings for someone and another entirely to expect a Witchfinder’s assistant to help witches cast a spell – and one against his father at that.

‘I’m not sure he’ll agree to see me,’ I said, remembering his warning that I should stay away from the castle. ‘Maybe someone else should ask him.’ I thought of Iris and how one of the men had seemed to be a relation of hers – one of the Witchfinder’s men who clearly hadn’t known she was a witch. ‘What about Iris? She has connections within the Witchfinder’s office.’

Appoline sighed sadly. ‘It seems that he has taken the knowledge of her membership of the coven extremely badly. The man arrested her.’

I gasped.

‘Yes, it’s very unfortunate that he was one of those who raided our gathering.’