Witch from the Sea

But I could see he was remembering the father whom he had loved—gentle Fennimore Landor, who had never sought to harm anyone and who had dreamed idealistic dreams of bringing prosperity to his country.

We had reached the Devil’s Teeth. How malevolent they looked with a tetchy sea swirling threateningly about them!

A wooden chest with iron bands had been caught in the rocks and it was this which my father was trying to salvage.

“Colum Casvellyn,” shouted Fenn. “You killed my father and I’m going to kill you.”

My father turned sharply to look at him and as he did so the boat rocked dangerously. He stared at us for a few seconds in amazement, then he cried: “You fools. Go back. There’s danger here. What do you know of these rocks?”

“I know this,” answered Fenn. “You lured my father to death on them.”

“Go away, you oaf! Take yourself out of my affairs.”

Fenn had stood up and I cried out in fear: “Fenn, be careful.”

I heard my father’s derisive laughter.

“Yes, be careful. Go away, you … trader. You don’t understand this business. It’s too dangerous for you, boy.”

At that moment my father’s boat tipped suddenly and he was pitched forward. The boat turned over and he was in the water. I heard him give a cry of agony as he threw up his hands and sank. He emerged a few seconds later. The water was up to his neck.

“I’ll get him,” cried Fenn.

“It’s too dangerous,” I warned, but Fenn was out of our boat swimming cautiously to that spot where my father was.

“Go away,” shouted my father. “I’m caught. The Teeth have got me. Can’t pull myself free. You’ll kill yourself, you fool.”

Fenn ignored him.

Minutes passed while I watched in terror. The water was stained red and I thought: They will both be lost.

“Fenn, Fenn,” I cried. “It’s no good. There’s nothing you can do.”

But he did not listen to me.

It seemed a long time before I helped him pull my father’s mangled body into the boat.

He lay on his bed, my bold cruel father. The physician had seen him. Both his legs were injured. He had prided himself that he knew the Devil’s Teeth better than any living man, but they had caught him in the end. The eddies about the rocks were notoriously dangerous and when he had fallen into the sea he had been immediately sucked under. Strong swimmer that he was, he could do nothing against such odds, for he had fallen between the two rocks known as the Canines, the most dangerous of them all. And Fenn had saved his life. That is what makes me so proud. He had intended to kill him and in that moment when my father lay helpless and all Fenn would have had to do was leave him to his fate, he had risked his own life to save that which a short while before he had threatened to take.

So Fenn brought home my father’s poor mangled body and we did not need the physician to tell us that he would never walk again.

Melanie was there, cool and efficient. Dear good Melanie, we all had reason to be grateful that she belonged to our family, then—and more so in the years to come.

So my father lived—not the same man. How could he be? He who had been so active would never walk again. This was retribution. The Devil’s Teeth which he had used as his murder weapon on so many were turned against him. And the punishment he must suffer must be greater than death, for he was not a man lightly to endure inactivity.

Fenn came to me when the physician had gone.

We did not speak. We just looked at each other and then he put his arms round me and I knew that we should never leave each other again.

It was the next morning when we found my stepmother’s cloak on the shore. It was in that very spot where my mother had discovered her. There was nothing else but her cloak.

The inference was that she had walked into the sea.

There was a great deal of talk in the castle. The servants whispered together. Change was everywhere. The master had been struck by avenging providence. He would never stalk through the castle again. And the mistress had gone, the way she had come.

They had always known she was a witch.

Fenn wanted me to go to my grandmother until we could be married, but I said I must stay awhile. I must be with Melanie who was now pregnant and had taken my father under her care.

My stepmother had gone; my father was crippled. It was a stricken house; but the danger had disappeared.

Senara came to my room, her eyes wild. “Everything has changed, so quickly,” she said. “You’ve got your Fenn after all. Who would have believed it? He now knows what a fool he was to think that you could ever have stood quietly by and watched your father’s business. And you know what a noble gentleman he is. He sets out to kill and then saves. Now with free conscience and hearts beating as one you can begin to live happily ever after.”

“You may laugh at us, Senara, but we shall be happy.”

“And what of me?”

“Let us hope that you too …”

“Dickon is going to Holland. Shall I be happy without him?”