'Alys,' she said. She looked at the girl critically, noting the strain on her white face.

'Hard times,' she said. It was not a question.

'I am sorry if they brought you against your will.' Alys said. 'It was Lady Catherine's idea and order. Not mine.'

Morach nodded. 'With child, is she?' she asked.

Alys nodded.

'It was the dolls did it?' Morach confirmed.

Alys drew Morach into the shelter of the wall and put her mouth close to her ear.

'I don't know,' she said. 'How can you tell? Hugo said he went to her for choice, but he never went to her like that before I did the spell. And there was something so…' She broke off. 'Something very unnatural about the way they are together.'

'Unnatural?' Morach asked with a sharp laugh. 'Since when could you limit Nature, child? What d'you mean? That he mounts her like a dog? That he beats her? That he blows his hunting horn when he comes?'

Alys gave an involuntary giggle. 'Not that!' she said. 'But the rest. And he couples with her when they are tied together with a strip of linen. I tied the dolls together with a ribbon. D'you think this is my doing?'

Morach shrugged, stoical. 'Could be,' she said. 'Could be just his nature. Take me in, child, I am cold.'

Alys nodded at the guard and held Morach's arm and little bundle as she took her across the outer manse, over the inner drawbridge which spanned the ghostly, mist-filled moat, and across the dripping garden of the inner manse, then into the main body of the castle. She led Morach through the great hall without stopping, though Morach dawdled and looked all around her.

'Tell me of the household,' she said as Alys tugged her onward. 'This is Lord Hugh's hall?'

Alys nodded.

'I've been here before when I was a witness in a case of theft against Farmer Ruley,' Morach said. 'The old lord sat behind the table on his great carved chair.'

'He holds the quarterly court here,' Alys said tersely. 'And he has dinner and supper here.' She drew Morach up the steps to the dais and opened the tapestry at the rear of the little stage. 'This is where we come in,' she said. 'This lobby outside is where we wait for the lords and my lady if we are too early. Sometimes they gather here and talk.' She nodded to one doorway. "This way leads to Lord Hugh's round tower where his room is, his soldiers, and where the young lord sleeps.' She drew Morach up the flight of stairs to their left. 'These are the stairs up to the gallery, the ladies' gallery which is set above the hall. These are the women's quarters – we stay here. You're not welcome in the round tower except by the lords' command.'

Morach nodded, following Alys up the flight of stairs, examining the tapestries which hung on either side.

'I am to have a new room to share with you,' Alys said. 'But we are still housed in the women's quarters. Lady Catherine sleeps off the gallery, the other women share a room opposite, and we are to have a new little room next door. They used to store lumber in it; I told them we needed space to distil herbs and make our goods. I'd rather we could have been in the round tower with the old lord. But Catherine watches me close.'

'Because of the young lord?' Morach asked, her breath coming short as they climbed the stairs.

Alys nodded. 'She was jealous,' she said in a sudden rush. 'And she put me through an ordeal. She was trying to get rid of me, Morach. Hugo had told her that he loved me. And last night we were alone together and he promised… he promised… ' Alys broke off, her face hard with grief. 'None of it matters now,' she said unsteadily. 'It does not matter what he said to me, nor what plans we made. I dreamed of being his lady here. But it meant nothing. She is with child now. Her position is untouchable.'

Morach nodded. Alys led her into the ladies' gallery and opened the door in the right-hand corner of the room. 'Lady Catherine's chamber is opposite,' she said gesturing. 'It overlooks the inner courtyard, it's warmer. The other women sleep next door to us, looking out over the river. Our room matches theirs. We look out over the river too.'

Morach stepped inside and looked around. 'A bed,' she said with satisfaction. 'I've never slept in a bed.' 'Halfa bed,' Alys said warningly. 'We're to share.' 'And a good fire and a chest for our things,' Morach said, making a rapid inventory of the room. 'A little mirror and a cupboard. Alys, this is greater comfort than the cottage for the winter.'

'And greater danger,' Alys said warningly. 'The ordeal was no jest.'

Morach cocked a bright, unsympathetic eye at her. 'You lied your way clear,' she stated.

Alys nodded. 'I paid a price,' she said, her voice very low. In her mind she could still see the undamaged consecrated wafer which she had chewed, swallowed and then vomited up into the hearth without marking it. 'I am outside the grace of God,' she said. 'That was when I commanded the dolls.'

'The only thing to do,' Morach said briskly. 'If one seigneur will not protect you – you have to seek another. How else could you survive? If you are outside the grace of your God then you have to use magic. You might as well go out into a storm in your shift. You need some power around you.'

Alys nodded. 'Hugo promised to protect me,' she said. 'Only last night he swore that he loved me – he has said he would give up Catherine, even the castle itself to be with me. It is as you foretold, Morach, and as I dreamed. He said he would set Catherine aside for me. And I said I would give up magic, he and I are safer without it.' Morach flapped a dirty, dismissive hand. 'All these promises,' she said with mocking respect. 'But now he knows that his wife is with child.'

Alys nodded. 'Yes,' she said dully.

'Spoken to him since?' Morach asked brightly.

'No,' Alys said. 'Anyway, we weren't alone.'

'Gave you a sign, did he? Tipped you the wink? Caught you on the stairs and said "never fear, sweetheart!'"

'He's out hunting,' Alys said defensively.

'Sent you a message to say that even though the rich Lady Catherine is carrying his son and heir, you are still his love and the promises stand? That he will send her away and put you in her place?'

Alys shook her head dumbly.

Morach gave a cracked laugh. 'Better pray for a stillbirth then,' she said agreeably. 'Or an idiot, or a weakling, or a sickly girl from a ruptured womb that can never bear child again? What'll it be, Alys? Something a little stronger than prayer? A little spell to make Catherine miscarry? Herbs in her dinner? Poison on her sheets to make her skin swell and blister, to pox the babe as it comes out?'

'Hush,' Alys said, glancing towards the thick door. 'Don't even speak of it here, Morach. And don't think of it either. I've come too close to my power already. I've stood inside the pentangle. I've felt my power from the soles of my feet to my fingertips.'

Morach breathed a deep sigh of pleasure. 'You came to it,' she said. 'At last.'

'I don't want it,' Alys said in a passionate whisper. 'I felt the power of it and the delight of it and I loved it. I know what you mean now, Morach, it was like the strongest wine. But that will not be my way. I will trust Hugo. I will trust to what he promised. And I will keep my promise to him to rid myself of magic. I want rid that power, I want to be an ordinary woman that can be bedded by an ordinary man and feel delight, as great as Catherine feels, when he has her. I want that life and those pleasures. Not yours.'

Morach chuckled to herself as if it did not much matter.

'I will keep faith with Hugo,' Alys said. 'However hard it is over the next few months. Even if he wavers. I will keep faith. We have made promises. I have given him my love, I shall stay true to him.'

Morach shrugged dismissively. 'Maybe,' she said, unimpressed. 'But what of the dolls? Are they safe?'

'I want rid of them,' Alys said in a whisper. 'I threw one in the moat last night, but it floated. I had to go in and get it out. It nearly drowned me, Morach. It was the doll of Lady Catherine and I felt that it dragged me in. I felt it wanted me drowned. I heard it laugh as I went down. I heard it laugh, Morach! I want rid of the dolls. You must take them back.'

Morach pulled a stool up to the fire and looked into the flames for a moment. When she looked up her old face was sallow. 'They're yours,' she said. 'Your candles, your commands, your dolls. I'll not have them around me. I'll not claim them. I'm not surprised they tried to drown you. There's a shadow around them that I can't clearly see. But it looks like water.'

'Much water?' Alys asked. She looked in the fire, like Morach. All she could see were the dark squares of turf and the red embers.

'A lungful is enough,' Morach said dourly. 'Too much if it is your lungs. Anyway, the dolls are yours.' 'Can I bury them?' Alys asked. Morach shrugged. 'You might do. The shadow I see is Water not Earth.'

'Can I throw them on the fire and let them melt and burn?'

Morach put her head on one side and looked at the fire. 'It's a perilous gamble,' she said.

'What am I to do with them then?' Alys demanded in irritation.

Morach laughed unkindly. 'You should have thought of that first,' she said.

Alys waited.

'Oh well,' Morach said. 'When the weather lifts we'll go up to the moor and drop them down one of the caves. If their shadow is water they will have their fill then. We'll maybe be able to do some spell to take their power away. Where d'you keep them?'

'On me,' Alys answered. 'In my purse on my girdle. I had no room of my own, I was afraid they would be found.'

Morach shook her head. 'That's not safe,' she said positively. 'You don't want them close to you, listening to your voice, hearing your worst thoughts. Is there nowhere you can hide them?'