However, though it was a kind promise, it was not one any of them was able to keep.

—

“It’s scarcely believable,” Charlotte said. “That Clifton Bradshaw should have made such a tragic discovery in the first instance, but then to propose simply leaving the bones out for any to gawk at until he can bury them on his own land in the spring is indefensible. Has he forgotten that a human soul once dwelt within that wretched skeleton?”

“ ’Tain’t no surprise to me,” Tabby said unhappily. “Those Bradshaws have always been a bad lot—since creation, I shouldn’t wonder. Who else’d build their house right up there on top of the moor, where nowt but the hidden folk should live?”

Charlotte patted the distressed woman’s hand in a bid to comfort and quiet her, though she herself was drenched with cold horror.

“What the world of Men has forgotten is that there is always a price to pay for everything they take from the land, a balance to be made,” Tabby went on. “Haven’t I always told you that the hidden people, the children of Adam and Eve, inhabit those hillsides where the Bradshaws farm and plough? Didn’t I say there’d be trouble?”

“You did,” Charlotte said soothingly.

“Created in original sin and hidden by God as His punishment, but always there, inhabiting rocks and woodland, moors and rivers, always there but never seen. In the old days, folk would leave out offerings to them to keep away ill fortune, but times have changed, and the old ways have been lost. I always knew there would be a heavy price to pay for such arrogance, and I don’t know how, but I just know these bones are the start of it.”

“Top Withens is a very ancient house,” Charlotte said. “The bones could have lain there concealed for two centuries. Though Mr. Bradshaw is very wrong in his treatment of the remains, take some comfort, Tabby, that they are the remnants of some tragedy long since played out.”

“Perhaps,” Tabby said. “But if I know one thing, it is that as long as that poor soul’s remains are so badly done by, then there will be nowt but ill fortune and unease, and not just at Top Withens—it’ll spread like a blight across the land. You mark my words.” Tabby’s voice fell away, causing Charlotte to lean in to her, searching out her troubled gaze.

“All will be well, my dear Tabby,” she said. “We will rectify this awful situation as soon as we are able. If only the weather wasn’t so very inclement. Top Withens is almost unreachable at present.”