Trixie’s last moments seemed to go on forever: the cursing, the spluttering, the pleading and the last horrible choking sounds. They will probably be in my head forever. She had only just vanished into the bog when we heard the baying of hounds and the tramp of feet and the first policemen appeared.

“You’re too late,” I said, feeling stupid tears running down my cheeks. “They’ve both gone into the bog. I would have gone too, but Wild Sal saved me.”

I turned to her, but she was no longer there.

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR’S EVE AND THE FIRST MOMENTS OF A NEW YEAR

It seemed to take an eternity to walk back down to the village. I stumbled along in a nightmare of what I had just lived through. A young policeman held my arm and helped me along, saying encouraging things, but I couldn’t shake those images from my mind. I thought about Wild Sal and how she had vanished when the police arrived. Had she really been there at all? Was she really a witch after all? I remembered the voice that had seemed almost to be inside my head. How could she have whispered to me over such a distance? But one thing was sure—somebody or something had saved my life. I was still here. The bog had not taken me.

An explosion rocked the night, then another. I recoiled in horror, wondering if this was a last act of vengeance set up by the Robbinses—blowing up the village that had sheltered them. But then a rocket burst into brilliant color over my head. It was only the fireworks at the end of the evening. More flashes and crashes could be heard as we came down the last of the slope.

“I’ve got the young lady with me,” my policeman shouted. “She’s all right.”

People started running toward us, one running more quickly than the rest. Darcy swept me into his arms and held me so tightly that I thought he’d crush every bone in my body. “Thank God,” he muttered, his lips on my face and hair. “I was worried out of my mind.”

“How is your aunt?” I asked. “Is she going to be all right?”

“Only a flesh wound, luckily. The nerve of the fellow, shooting her in front of us all.” Then he released me a little, looking down at me. “And what were you thinking, going off with that woman on your own?

“I thought she was Wild Sal,” I said. “She told me Miss Prendergast was getting away and we had to stop her. It was stupid of me, and it was a trap anyway. She was really Robbins’s wife and they wanted me as a hostage.”

“Where are they now?” he demanded.