Page 54 of The Peculiar Incident at Thistlewick House

Mallory looked anxiously at Edward, as the small group made their way along the lane and onto the common. The temperature hadn’t risen much since they’d arrived at the Cleyfords’ cottage, as there was no sun or patches of blue – just grey cloud hanging heavy across the sky.

Katerina and Hazibub walked at a slower pace.

Their possession of the elderly bodies may have eliminated the influenza, but the flesh and bones of both had still been around for decades.

Sarah held the old woman’s arm, and Edward wondered if she still felt some connection to the woman who’d given birth to her, and whom she was undoubtedly grieving.

He hoped there was no unpleasant miasma lingering near Mrs Cleyford but, having nursed both her and old Dr Appleby and not succumbed, her daughter was probably safe.

Sarah remained, he reflected, a remarkable woman, living an unremarkable life.

Look how she’d taken all their wild claims in her stride.

Her mother said she was a dreamer, her head full of bookish nonsense, which had made her open to such outlandish phenomenon.

But she was also kind, she was trusting and she was loyal.

In the distance, the figures of Reverend Fallow and Lord Felthorpe were peering over the cliffs and gesticulating at the ground beneath their feet.

The vicar was wearing his vestments, and carrying a large crucifix in one hand and a small, stoppered glass bottle in the other.

Edward could only assume the latter contained holy water, as it appeared the pair had just conducted a ritual of some description… or were preparing to.

‘I’m not sure why Katerina’s so keen to speak to the vicar. He wasn’t even around back then,’ Mallory whispered.

The reverend saw them approach and strode over to meet them, concern etched across his face, but Lord Felthorpe had his back to them, scrabbling about in the soil.

‘Dear Mrs Cleyford, what on earth are you doing out of bed? Especially on such a chilly day as this?’ He looked quite alarmed.

‘I find it somewhat irresponsible of your daughter to expose you to the elements so.’ He gave Sarah a chastising look as a swirl of wind tugged at the edges of his white surplice.

‘Reverend Fallow, what are you doing on the cliffs in such inclement weather?’ Edward turned his question around and the vicar narrowed his eyes.

He could sense the man was wary of him after their last encounter.

Mallory’s love had given him the courage to step from the shadows and stop worrying about what others thought, and the vicar hadn’t liked his honesty about their relationship one bit.

He could hardly put Edward across his knee and give him six of the best, like he did with the schoolchildren.

‘Mr Blackmore.’ He nodded his head and begrudgingly acknowledged Edward but didn’t answer the question.

‘I see you’re here in an official capacity. Could it be that you and Lord Felthorpe have finally accepted my cousin’s wife was possessed of a long-dead spirit and are attempting to protect yourselves from future transmigrations?’

‘Not that it is any of your business, but I am indeed exorcising this area of ground at Lord Felthorpe’s behest. It’s a precautionary measure because, whilst I find the idea of such a phenomenon unlikely, I accept that there are things in heaven and earth that I cannot hope to fully understand.

The bodies beneath our feet belonged to wicked heathens.

A circus came to this village forty years ago and attempted to corrupt the good people of Thistlewick Tye and, if spirits do indeed exist, then I cannot have them rising to commit such unholy acts again. ’

Interesting, Edward thought, that he was now accepting these bodies were the missing troupe, when everyone had so strenuously denied this when he’d first enquired about the falling bones.

‘And has the unjust nature of their passing been explained to you, Reverend? Because they certainly didn’t die of natural causes, burying themselves in the process.’

The vicar frowned and then his eyes briefly expanded in horror, this aspect of the situation apparently not having occurred to him.

Katerina slipped her arm from Sarah’s, and walked towards Lord Felthorpe, who’d remained closer to the cliff edge, only belatedly realising they had company.

‘The true wickedness,’ she muttered as she strode forward, ‘was not found in the people beneath our feet, but instead in the man that, I’ve been told this morning, the entire village of Thistlewick Tye looks up to.

The man who professes to be a Christian.

Ha!’ She snorted. ‘Never was an individual more inappropriately named.’

‘Mrs Cleyford. Miss Cleyford.’ Lord Felthorpe greeted them as they approached. ‘Did I hear my name mentioned?’ He gave his usual pleasant smile and bowed his head.

‘What did you do, Christian?’ She stopped in front of him and tipped her small, grey head upwards to meet his eyes. ‘Killing me, I understood. But a whole group of innocent people?’

Hazibub, Mallory, Edward and the vicar drifted over to witness this extraordinary confrontation.

Was Katerina claiming that Lord Felthorpe had murdered her all those years ago?

Edward exchanged a startled glance with Mallory.

He knew the fortune teller had disappeared to the hall that afternoon to confront the Felthorpes about the romance.

Had Christian taken the news badly and refused to give Zella up?

‘My dear woman, what are you talking about?’ He turned to Sarah. ‘Your mother really shouldn’t be out here in this dreadful weather. I understand she recently contracted influenza and it seems to be affecting her mind.’

Katerina ignored his patronising comments and waved a bony finger at him.

‘Forty years ago, a crime of indescribable magnitude was committed right here, on this common land. A whole troupe of circus folk were murdered. It took me a while to work out what happened that night, but having talked to Miss Cleyford at length, I’m now utterly convinced you were behind the mysterious gift of poisoned food and wine. ’

Mallory and Edward exchanged another surprised glance. But he’d been a friend to the troupe back then because he was desperately in love with Zella, and keen for the villagers and the travellers to heal their rift.

Katerina continued. ‘Everyone in this village does as you say for the fear that God will punish them if they don’t – as it was with your father, before you.

The great triumvirate of lord of the manor, vicar and doctor was as strong back then as I understand it is now.

The three men most respected in Thistlewick, with your holier-than-thou demeanours but righteous indignation.

Even as heir to the estate, you commanded enough authority to have men do your bidding. ’

Lord Felthorpe couldn’t even be bothered to reply to an old woman he clearly suspected was off her rocker, and instead addressed her daughter.

‘Miss Cleyford, please return your mother to bed. The doctor tells me she’s dangerously ill and has clearly now entered a state of delirium. The reverend and I are dealing with a potentially serious matter, and she is talking nonsense about things that don’t concern her.’

Katerina stepped forward and narrowed her eyes. ‘But it does concern me, Christian. I was there. You murdered my people. You killed the man I loved. And before that, you took a gun from your father’s cabinet and shot me.’

Even Edward was confused, and he’d thought himself fairly well apprised of the events from Mallory’s past life. Christian snorted and looked about him with a broad smile on his face, clearly finding the whole drama highly amusing – or wanting those about him to think that he did.

‘Poppycock,’ he said, dismissively.

‘But you wouldn’t be out here with the reverend exorcising this land if you didn’t suspect there was some truth to the rumour of spirit possessions,’ Edward pointed out.

‘Because these are the bodies of Samson’s Circus of Astonishing Spectacles.

So, why would everyone lie about the troupe moving on?

Why would Jacob Palmer set fire to a barn containing their equipment?

Why would Samson himself, risen in the body of Noah Garrod, push Silas from the cliff?

And why would Dr Appleby confess that he injected poor Mrs Shaw, when she claimed to be the spirit of a long-dead little girl called Esfir from that very company?

Because Constable Lovett currently has the third member of your tight and oh-so-dubious Benevolent Committee locked up in the Thistlewick Tye police cell for admitting exactly that. ’

‘That’s the biggest load of tosh I’ve ever heard anyone spout. You, Mr Blackmore, have quite the reputation for spinning fanciful and utterly ridiculous lies.’

‘Christian.’ Katerina barked his name in a surprisingly aggressive manner.

‘Please pay attention to what we’re saying.

In the same way Esfir jumped into Mrs Shaw, and Samson into poor Noah Garrod, you should know that Hazibub, the snake charmer, is currently in the body of old Dr Appleby.

’ She gestured behind her. ‘And standing before you now, in the body of old Mrs Cleyford, is Katerina Ballard, born Elisabeth Sutton, who married your unhinged father, Lord Felthorpe, in the April of 1829 and lived to rue the day. I abandoned you when you were a young child, but had to escape the rigid control imposed upon everyone in this village, and the madness of my husband. A man who believed he was chosen by God to make Thistlewick Tye an earthly utopia – a paragon of the perfect English parish. And woe betide anyone who didn’t conform…

’ Her voice softened slightly and she looked up to him with tears in her eyes. ‘I’m your mother, Christian.’