There was silence for a long minute, then there was a dull roll of thunder and a livid purple-yellow flash of lightning which outlined the horizon of the western hills. The sky above them was greenish yellow, as bright as decay, and rolling in quickly from the west were clouds as dark as midnight.

Hugo looked up at Alys. Her face was ugly with strain. Her heart was pounding. All she could think of was how to survive. How to escape the charge of witchcraft which must come next. Her laughter had been blown away by the ominous breeze which was blowing the storm towards them, but her cheeks were still wet.

'Don't cry,' Hugo said. He pulled off his leather gauntlet and put up his hand to brush her cheek.

'I was afraid,' Alys said. When his hand touched her face she turned towards it so that his palm brushed her lips.

'Afraid of what?' Hugo asked softly. 'I'd not hurt you.' Alys shook her head. 'No,' she said. 'I know that.' 'Then what did you fear?' Hugo asked. 'Her.' Alys nodded to the dark mouth of the cave. 'She had made some dolls, she said they would do her bidding. She said that if she made the dolls sick then the people would be sick.' Hugo nodded. 'I saw them,' he said. 'They were vile.' 'You saw them as she shook them out of the bag,' Alys said quickly, 'as she let the bag open and shook them out. She told me that she would be mistress of the castle, that she would command your father, and you, and me, and Lady Catherine. With the dolls.'

Hugo looked at Alys and she saw an old superstitious fear cross his face. 'This is nonsense,' he said uncertainly. 'But you should have told me.'

Alys shrugged. 'How could I? I never see you alone now. Your father is too old and frail to be frightened with such dark fears. And I would not trouble Lady Catherine, not now.'

Hugo nodded. 'But what were you doing with her?' he asked. 'When I rode up?'

'She had agreed to stop,' Alys said. 'She promised to bury them in holy ground, to put away the magic. But she would not come out alone. She forced me to come too. She did not dare stand on the holy ground. She made me dig the hole. Only I could step on holy ground, because she was a black witch – leagued with the devil – and I am not.'

Hugo nodded. 'You must have been very afraid,' he said. He put his warm hand out and closed it over hers as she gripped the pommel of the saddle.

Alys looked down at him, her face alight with joy at his touch. 'I am afraid of nothing now,' she said. 'And I have my power, my white power, good power, which is dedicated to you and to the service of your family. I was using my power for you, to keep you all safe. I was struggling with her evil – and none of you knew.'

Hugo put a foot in the stirrup and swung into the saddle behind Alys. 'Come,' he said over his shoulder to the men. 'We'll go home. I have to speak to my lord and to Father Stephen about this matter. Alan, you block the hole with rocks, boulders as big as you can carry, and wait here with Peter until the water rises and covers it. You can keep the dogs with you.'

The men nodded.

Hugo hesitated. 'As you love me…' he said. 'No word of this to anyone. If you want to follow me to Newcastle, on my travels, or to London – not one word. We tell everyone that the woman fell into the river and was drowned. All right?'

The young men, grave-faced, nodded.

'If you gossip,' Hugo said warningly, 'if you chatter, like silly girls, then I will not know which of you has whispered this story.' He looked from one to another. 'I will turn all of you away, and you will never find service with a noble house again,' he said. 'You will go back to your fathers, my cousins, and I will tell them that you are not worthy to be in my family.'

The men nodded. 'You have my word,' they said, one after another, like an oath. 'You have my word.'

Hugo nodded and clicked to his horse. The young huntsman fell into line behind Hugo. They rode up the moorland path to Tinker's Cross again. Hugo tightened his arms around Alys.

'I have missed you,' he said in sudden surprise. 'I have been planning this voyage so carefully, and been so busy with the farms and the castle and the new house, and watching so much over Catherine that I had forgotten the pleasure of your touch, Alys.'

Alys nodded. She leaned back against him, feeling his warmth, the way he moved easily with the strides of the big horse.

'I saw you pale and quiet and I thought nothing of it,' Hugo said remorsefully. 'I thought you were sulking with me, because of that night. And I felt angry with you, for refusing me a second time.' He dropped his head forward and pressed her to his cheek. 'I am sorry,' he said simply. 'I have not cared for you as I should.'

'I have been very unhappy,' Alys said, her voice low. Hugo held her close. That's my fault,' he said. 'I wanted to be free of your love, of the promises I had made you. It all seemed – ' He broke off. 'Oh, I don't know! Too complicated. There was Catherine near-drowned and sick. There's my father failing but looking as if he will live forever. There's my new house, which I want more than anything in the world, and my father won't give me the funds! And then there you were, looking at me with your big eyes like some vagrant deer. I am selfish, Alys, that's the truth. I didn't want more troubles.'

Alys turned her head a little and smiled at him. 'I am not your trouble,' she said confidently. 'I'm the only one who can help you. I'm the only one who cares for you. I have grown sick this winter nursing your father, caring for your wife, and fighting this great evil of Morach which Catherine insisted on bringing into your family. If it had not been for me and my white power I don't know what Morach would have done.'

Hugo shook his head. 'I'd like to believe it can't be so,' he said. 'But I saw her. And then I saw the hare. This is a bad business, Alys.'

'Well ended,' Alys said firmly. 'We'll think no more of it. I fought against her and you have killed her, and the thing is done.' Her hands on the pommel of the saddle were white with tension, her fingers ached.

'Yes, it's done and we'll keep it quiet,' Hugo said. 'I don't want to distress Catherine, not at this time. And my father would be disturbed. We'll collect those little dolls and give them to Father Stephen. He'll know what to do with them. And we'll say no more on this.'

Alys nodded again.

'You are lucky it was me that found you,' Hugo said. 'If it had been anyone else they would have tried to catch two witches, not just the one.'

Alys shook her head. 'I have taken an ordeal,' she said coldly. 'I am no black witch. I counselled Lady Catherine against having Morach in the castle, and I warned her that though I am just a herbalist and a healer, Morach always had a reputation for dark work. I warned her and I warned you. No one would listen.'

Hugo nodded. 'That's true,' he conceded. He was silent for a moment while his horse walked up the path to the high moor. 'It must have been an odd childhood for you, Alys, all alone on the moorland with a woman like Morach as your mother.'

'She was not my mother,' Alys said. 'I am glad of it.' She paused. 'My mother, my real mother, was a lady,' she said. 'She died in a fire.'

Hugo pulled his horse to a standstill and looked down at the ground.

The spade lay where Alys had dropped it, beside the little hole. The pannier bag was on the ground, split from top to bottom. But there were no little wax dolls anywhere.

The wind stirred the heather all around them and the rain began to fall in great thick drops of water. Alys pulled her hood up over her head and felt the wind tug her cape. There were no little dolls anywhere on the sodden ground.

Hugo jumped down from the horse and kicked around in the clumps of heather. 'I can't see them,' he said. 'Hey! William! Come and help me search for them.'