Miss Ellerby and the Ferryman (11 page)

Aubranael and Lihyaen always welcomed Isabel in the kindest
fashion, which gratified her exceedingly, for they were not very
well acquainted with her. But Isabel herself had been one of the
party which had ventured into Aylfenhame, a year ago, to bring back
Sophy, and the excursion had resulted in Lihyaen’s freedom as well.
Neither had forgotten.

‘Tell
me, my dear,’ said Sophy, drawing Isabel’s arm through her own.
‘That delicious creature presently occupying my shop counter. Has
she aught to do with you?’

‘Oh!
Is Tafferty still there?’ Isabel said, with a guilty flush. In her
delight at seeing Sophy, she had forgotten about the catterdandy.
‘Indeed, she came with me. She is my… my companion, she calls
herself.’

‘Ah!’
said Sophy with apparent delight. ‘Yes, I quite see. I received the
kindest and most interesting letter from your aunt not two days
ago, and she explained everything to me. My dear, I do congratulate
you! Only to think! I had no notion that you bore such connections
to Aylfenhame, nor such powers! Nor, I suppose, did you. I do hope
you are not too much dismayed. It will require some adjustment, to
be sure, but I do sincerely believe it will prove to be very much
to your benefit.’

‘Do
you truly think so?’ said Isabel, looking searchingly into Sophy’s
face. ‘I know that you have settled very well here, but I cannot
help wondering if it is sometimes painful to you, to be so far
removed from England. And then, there is the question of how to
reconcile this new aspect of myself with the rest! It is, you must
own, wholly incompatible with the future I must be expected to
have.’

‘You
are not to worry about any of that,’ Sophy said firmly. ‘Your aunt
has given me the strictest instructions on this point, and I assure
you I intend to carry them out! You shall not leave us until you
are comfortable with this development, and at peace in your
mind.’

‘Peace!’ said Aubranael, with a laugh. ‘That is rather too
much to expect, my love. When the foundations of one’s world fall
away and everything inverts itself, peace is not to be expected.
But that is not wholly a bad thing. It is at such unsettling times
that the most exciting and rewarding of developments can occur.’ He
gave Isabel an encouraging smile, which she could not manage to
return.

Sophy
nodded in agreement, and squeezed Isabel’s arm. ‘Never mind, Isa.
All will be well.’

Lihyaen had not spoken before, choosing instead to listen
with her usual quiet demeanour. Now she leaned towards Isabel a
little, her golden eyes shining, and said: ‘You were conveyed here
by the Ferryman! Is it true? Was it indeed he?’

Isabel nodded. ‘It was he, and he was a curious fellow. But
how is it that you know of him? I understood that he has been gone
from these parts for some time.’

‘Oh,
he has! But the Ferries of old are spoken of sometimes, in tales,
and the last Ferryman as well.’ Lihyaen’s eyes sparkled with
enthusiasm, for no reason Isabel could understand. ‘They say he is
very handsome. Is he so?’

Isabel hesitated, thinking of the Ferryman’s long black hair
and laughing eyes. ‘Yes,’ she said with a blush. ‘Very handsome
indeed.’

Lihyaen nodded with satisfaction. ‘They also say that he is
under a curse,’ she said, her voice sinking. ‘That he may never
leave the Ferry, as long as he lives — and also that he shall never
die.’ Her enthusiasm had faded, replaced by a darkling glower and
more than a hint of anxiety in her eyes. She was thinking of her
own curse, Isabel surmised, and the pain she had suffered under it;
of course she would feel for the plight of another. ‘Is that also
true?’

‘He
told me so,’ Isabel said gently.

Lihyaen bit her lip. ‘It is a terrible fate.’

Isabel nodded. ‘I have promised him my aid.’

Lihyaen’s eyes widened. ‘Promised?’ she repeated in a faint
voice.

‘Yes,
of course I did. How could I have done otherwise?’ Lihyaen said
nothing, and Isabel continued, with a touch of pique, ‘He seemed to
think it a great deal, and I see that you agree, but I cannot think
why! Tis a small thing indeed, and who could help offering their
aid?’

Lihyaen gazed at Isabel with a mixture of admiration and
concern. ‘It is beyond kind in you,’ she said. ‘Sophy has told me
you have the warmest heart in the world, and she is quite right!
But I fear you do not understand what it is you’ve done. You have
promised.’

Isabel nodded once, confused. ‘Yes.’

‘Such
a promise is binding,’ Lihyaen said. ‘It must be
performed.’

‘I
have every intention of carrying it out,’ said Isabel.

‘You
must,’ said Lihyaen simply.

‘Oh
dear,’ said Sophy, squeezing Isabel’s arm. ‘I do hope there is not
some penalty for failure, Lihyaen?’

‘There may be,’ said the princess. ‘Though we cannot know what
it will be.’ Seeing Sophy’s frown, Lihyaen hastily continued, ‘It
is the nature of such in Aylfenhame. Honesty is rewarded, but
faith-breakers are held in low regard.’

‘I
shall be no faith-breaker,’ Isabel said firmly, but her confidence
faltered. ‘It is only that I do not know how to go about it,’ she
confessed. Lihyaen’s warnings were beginning to alarm her, and she
felt an unpleasant degree of helplessness.

‘We
will help you,’ said Lihyaen earnestly.

‘Of
course we shall,’ said Sophy brightly, and Aubranael
nodded.

Isabel felt a rush of gratitude. Sophy’s sunny nature had
always been a comfort. She never worried, the way Isabel was
sometimes wont to do, and she was never gloomy. Her cheerful
confidence had aided and supported Isabel before, and could not
fail to do so now.

If
Sophy possessed the spirit to assist and encourage Isabel,
Aubranael and Lihyaen possessed the knowledge of Aylfenhame and its
customs and magics that would aid her in finding her way. Her hopes
revived, and she smiled. ‘I thank you all,’ she said. ‘Truly, it
was impulsive of me. I cannot think what possessed me to promise so
readily, when I have no notion how I shall go about fulfilling it.
But I do not mean to fail.’

Lihyaen eyed her with an unreadable expression, and exchanged
a look with Aubranael. ‘One of those things,’ said Aubranael, and
Lihyaen nodded.

‘What
things, dearest?’ said Sophy, echoing Isabel’s thoughts.

‘Never mind.’ He smiled at his wife. ‘We are thinking there’s
more at work here than impulse, but cannot be sure.’

‘Very
well! Keep your secrets!’ said Sophy cheerfully. ‘Knowledge of
Aylfenhame I may lack, compared to the two of you, but I do know a
place to begin.’

Isabel looked an
enquiry.

‘Why,
Mister Balligumph, of course!’ said Sophy with a smile. ‘He makes
it his business to know a great deal about everything. If anybody
can tell us where to begin, it is him.’

‘But
he is in Tilby,’ Isabel protested.

‘Most
days of the year, he is,’ agreed Sophy, ‘but not all. Whenever he
comes into Aylfenhame, he informs me of it, so that I may visit
him. And this is one of those times.’ She smiled at Isabel. ‘I do
not think it is a coincidence, for I received the impression that
he has taken an interest in you. He wished to be close at hand, in
case you should require his assistance in some way.’

‘Has
he indeed?’ said Isabel, surprised. ‘But we are not much
acquainted!’

‘That
matters little to Balli,’ said Sophy with a laugh. ‘He would gladly
be your friend, if you would let him. Especially now. There are not
many witches in Tilby, after all.’

Isabel began at once to feel guilty, for she had made little
effort to further her acquaintance with the toll-keeper; even
knowing him to be a close acquaintance of Sophy’s. ‘That is very
kind of him!’ she said. ‘I am sorry indeed that I did not know it
before! Let us visit him at once.’

Chapter Eight

She’s
a sweet thing, that Isabel. I’ll not lie, I’d long felt a wish to
know her better. But I’m not one to push. Even after Sophy’s move
t’ Aylfenhame, Miss Isabel remained a proper young English Miss,
an’ seemed to feel no desire to change that. Visitin’ wi’ the troll
as keeps the toll-bridge made no part of ‘er thinkin’, an small
wonder. Still, I felt in me bones that she was goin’ t’ need a
little help Aylfenhame-side, an’ so I took meself thataways. That
Ferryman’s a useful sort o’ chap, I’ll give ‘im that!

‘Course, even when ye are expectin’ visitors, they often
appear when ye’ve just taken the decision to do sommat else. Ye’ll
‘ave noticed that, I’ll wager. When Miss Isabel an’ Sophy an’ the
rest arrived, I ‘ad just got into the bath. Embarrassin’, an’ Miss
Isabel — bein’ so proper — well, she ain’t the type to cope well
wi’ the sight of the likes o’ me in naught but me smallclothes.
Poor lass! She were as red as anythin’.

The
visit to Balligumph was deferred until the following morning, as
Sophy considered that Isabel’s day had been eventful enough.
Secretly, Isabel agreed, for she was feeling the effects of her day
of unexpected adventures. But an unfamiliar, and not wholly
unpleasant, note of excitement was dancing somewhere within her.
When combined with the stronger and much more familiar note of
concern that lived alongside it, she was eager to proceed with the
task she had impulsively set for herself.

She
consented to rest and recover first, however; and thus it was early
on the following day that she set out with Sophy, Aubranael,
Lihyaen and Tafferty to visit the bridge-keeper of
Tilby.

On
the edge of Grenlowe there stood surprisingly expansive stables,
given the size of the village (though Isabel had been told before
that Grenlowe was larger than it appeared, with a great many
dwellings hidden underground — and hidden by other means besides).
The stable was called, peculiarly, Lurrock’s Leggy Beasts, and
there it was possible to hire a host of different creatures for
one’s travelling requirements.

Aubranael procured four ponies. They were not precisely as
one might expect, being unusually long in the leg (as the title of
their establishment implied), and displaying highly unorthodox
colours as well. Isabel’s pony was a dainty, high-stepping mare
whose gleaming coat was an enchanting, if odd, shade of pale lemon
and whose braided mane and tail were dark gold. Lihyaen was mounted
atop a slightly smaller, lavender pony; Sophy rode a white mare
with a pearly coat; and Aubranael’s taller gelding was deep blue.
The whole party set off for the Outwoods at once, leaving Grenlowe
by its southern gate and advancing into the forests at a
comfortable trot.

Balligumph’s dwelling was situated some way beyond the
borders of Grenlowe, though not so very far. They travelled for
less than an hour beneath the vastly tall, shady trees of the
Outwoods before Sophy turned off the wide dirt road and plunged
into the undergrowth. There was a path here, albeit a narrow one,
and Isabel had to concentrate all of her attention on keeping to it
— without permitting Tafferty, enthroned atop her mare’s neck, to
be swept off by a protruding branch. So engrossed was she in this
task that she did not immediately notice when Sophy reined in her
mount, and she almost walked hers into the back of Aubranael’s
horse.

‘Ah!’
came a great, booming voice from somewhere ahead — a voice she
recognised as belonging to Balligumph. ‘Visitors! An’ me not fit to
be seen. Hold yerselves steady fer just a second or two, an’ I
shall be at yer disposal.’

Isabel moved forward during this speech, and then regretted
that she had, for she beheld two sights, one of them a little
disconcerting.

The
first was a large hillock rising from the ground immediately before
her, surrounded on three sides by trees tall and wide of trunk,
their bark ranging in hue from nut-brown to old gold. Fallen
cinnamon-coloured leaves lay strewn all over the packed dirt of the
ground. Into the side of this hillock, someone had built a house.
Blocks of honey-coloured stone formed a front wall, into which a
door easily eight feet tall had been set, along with two large
windows of irregular shape. The top of the hillock formed the roof
of the house, liberally grown over with velvety moss. It suited
Balligumph well, Isabel thought, for it combined elements of his
quirky character with a great deal of practicality.

In
front of the house, and a little way to the side, there was a large
pool of muddy-looking water. Isabel could readily suppose it to be
deeper than it appeared, for Balligumph was immersed up to his
neck, his pale blue hair slicked against his head and dripping
water. As he spoke he began to lever himself up out of the pool,
revealing an enormous torso liberally covered in hair. Shocked,
Isabel averted her gaze and stared resolutely at the trees to the
left of the house, listening as sounds of heavy splashing split the
clearing.

Sophy
was laughing. ‘My goodness! We are terribly sorry to interrupt your
bath, Mr. Balligumph. Is it the first one this year?’

‘Tsh,’ said Balligumph with a chuckle. ‘I won’t say as it is,
an’ I won’t say as it isn’t neither. Ye mind yer tongue, Miss
Sophy.’

Isabel heard the
door open and close as he disappeared into the house, and judged
herself safe to turn back to the rest of her party.