“Well, his mistress, of course,” Bess said, her expression suddenly sour and full of loathing. “I hear her singing at night. They think she’s long gone, but she ain’t. She comes back here in the dark and casts her spells. She’s as wicked as they come, is the mistress. I saved one boy from her, but I couldn’t save them all. But I can’t talk more. I mustn’t. She said if I spoke a word, she’d come back and take my Liston, and I cannot allow that. I must keep my silence though it will send me straight to hell, where his mistress will be waiting for me.”

“The mistress?” Anne stepped forward. “Bess, Mrs. Bradshaw has been dead these thirteen years.”

“I know that, you silly fool,” Bess snapped. “His mistress, I said. His.” She pointed at Bradshaw. “Born a witch, and she’ll die a witch, I don’t doubt. The devil is waiting for her in hell—she asked him to invite her. She’s wicked, that Cathy. As wicked as they come.”

“Cathy?” Emily demanded. “Whom is she speaking of, Bradshaw?”

“Please, before it’s too late”—Anne turned back to Clifton—“who is the monster who takes these boys?”

“My Cathy,” he sobbed. “My Cathy took Joseph and perhaps others I do not know of, but you don’t understand. She’s broken—abused and ill in the head. The sins she commits are all inherited from those who sinned against her.”

“Cathy?” Anne whispered, looking up at her sister as dread dawned in her expression.

“Lady Catherine Hartley,” Emily said.

The sisters came to the same terrifying conclusion at exactly the same moment.

“Charlotte,” they whispered as one.

47

Charlotte

“Why, Lady Hartley.” Charlotte found herself smiling, the disjointed nightmarish fear she had felt dissolving into crystal clarity. “You did not tell me that you had found such an important link in the chain of this mystery. Please tell me at once how you came upon this evidence.”

It was all Charlotte could do to hope that Catherine was fooled by her pretence, at least enough to give her the opportunity to get away. Hemming was still stationed outside the garden doors, cutting off one exit. Catherine had claimed that only Maude was left of her staff. If it was Maude who blocked her way out of any other door, Charlotte resolved to charge her to the ground.

“Send Hemming to fetch the law, and surely you will lead us straight to the culprit and to Joseph. You will be the hero of the hour!”

“It is an abiding annoyance that even the most independent woman must sometimes call on a man to do her bidding. Hemming certainly was a wonderful find: a man of unshakeable countenance, he will always do as I ask. But I shall not be sending him to fetch help, Charlotte. I’m certain you realise that.”