Witch from the Sea

“It is six years since we lost him but he is as vivid in my mind as he ever was. You would understand if you had known him. He was a kind, good man in a world that is far from good and kind. That was what made him so outstanding. My mother says he was born before his time. He belonged to a different age, when men had become wiser and kinder because of it.”

“That’s a wonderful thing for a wife to say about her husband.”

“He was a wonderful husband.” He clenched his fists suddenly. “I know I shall find out one day what happened to him.”

“Isn’t it obvious? His ship must have been lost at sea.”

“I suppose you are right, but I have a feeling that some day I shall hear.”

“How wonderful if he came back to her. My grandfather was away for years—captured and made a slave and my grandmother never gave up hope. And he did come back. Poor Grandmother, she feels his loss sadly.”

He was very thoughtful and I longed to share his thoughts.

Then he said suddenly, “Tamsyn, would you do something if I asked you?”

“I am sure I shall. What is it?”

“You have planted rosemary on your mother’s grave.”

“She loved it and so did I and it’s for remembrance.”

“Will you plant a bush on his grave?”

“Of course.”

“An unknown sailor. Who knows where his family is? Plant the rosemary and it will be as though you plant it for my father. Will you do that for me, Tamsyn?”

“You may trust me to.”

He stood up and took my hands in his. Then he kissed me lightly on the forehead.

I was blissfully happy because that kiss while he stood close to my mother’s and the unknown sailor’s grave was a symbol. It was like plighting my troth. I knew that I loved Fenn. I was not sure whether he loved me but I thought he did.

Fenn left next day but not before I had planted my rosemary bush. I saw how pleased he was.

“I know you are the sort of girl who would keep her promises,” he told me.

Before he left he said that he wanted me to come and stay with his parents. He would arrange that they should soon invite me.

I waved farewell to him and then went right up to the ramparts so that I should see the last of him.

Senara came and stood beside me.

“You’re madly in love with him,” she accused me.

“I like him,” I admitted.

“You show it. You shouldn’t do that. You should be aloof; it is for him to fall madly in love with you. Now I suppose he will ask for your hand in marriage and then you will go away to that place of his and I shan’t see you any more.”

“What nonsense!”

“It’s not nonsense. I shall be left here and I don’t like it.”

“When I marry—if I do—you shall come and stay with me.”

“What’s the use of that? We’ve always been together. We’ve shared a room. You’ve been my sister ever since I could remember.”

She was pouting and sullen. Then her eyes were suddenly mischievous. “What if I made an image of him and stuck pins in it? Then he’d die because I’d pierce his heart. No one would know how he died … except me.”

“Senara, I hate to hear you talk like that. It’s all such nonsense.”

“People do die … cows die, sheep die … as well as people. No one knows what killed them. There is no sign at all … They just die. It’s the evil eye. What if I put it on your precious lover?”

“You couldn’t and you wouldn’t … even if he were my lover, which he is not. He is merely a good friend. And, Senara, I beg of you do not say such things. It is dangerous to talk so. People hear it and take it seriously. You mustn’t say it.”

She dodged back from me and put out her tongue. A favourite gesture of hers which was meant to irritate.

“You are no longer a child, Senara,” I said. “You must be sensible.”

She stood still, her arms folded, mocking me.

“I am sensible. They are always saying my mother is a witch. Well, I’m a witch too. Nobody knows where we came from, do they? How do I know, how do you know, who my father is?”

“Senara, you are talking dangerously. Your mother had the misfortune to be wrecked at sea. My mother saved her life. You were about to be born. It is all easy to understand.”

“Is it, Tamsyn? Is that what you really think?”

“Yes, it is,” I said firmly.

“You always believe what you want to. Everything is good and nice, according to you. Other people don’t always think so. And one thing, don’t imagine you are the only one who has a lover.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ah, wouldn’t you like to know?”

I very soon did know. It suddenly occurred to me that Senara had inherited that indefinable quality from her mother. In the days which followed she seemed to grow more beautiful; she was passing out of her childhood and she was of a type to mature early. Her body had become rounded, her long eyes languorous and full of mystery—so like her mother’s. When she danced with Dickon she was so lovely that it was impossible to take one’s eyes from her.