Speaks the Nightbird

by Robert R. McCammon

  “Here is our lovely daughter!” Lucretia exclaimed. “Cherise, take your place.”

  The girl, in a white linen gown with a lace bodice and sleeves, continued to stand where she was and stare down at Matthew. She was indeed an attractive girl, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, her waves of blonde hair held fixed by a series of small wooden combs. Matthew imagined she must closely resemble her mother at that age, though her chin was longer and somewhat more square and her eyes almost as pale blue as her father’s. In these eyes, however, there was no suggestion of a watery constitution; there was instead a haughty chill that Matthew instantly dropped his gaze from, lest he shiver from a December wind on this May night.

  “Cherise?” Lucretia repeated, gently but firmly. “Take. Your. Place. Please.”

  The girl sat down—slowly, at her own command—on Matthew’s right. She wasted no time in reaching out and spooning chicken stew onto her plate.

  “Are you not even going to say hello to Mr. Corbett?”

  “Hello,” she answered, pushing the first bite of food into her cupid’s-bow mouth.

  “Cherise helped prepare the stew,” Lucretia said. “She has been desirous to make certain it was to your liking.”

  “I’m sure it’s excellent,” Matthew answered. He spooned some of the stew onto his plate and found it as good as it appeared, then he tore off a hunk of bread and sopped it in the thick, delicious liquid.

  “Mr. Corbett is a fascinating young man.” This was spoken to Cherise, though Lucretia continued to gaze upon him. “Not only is he a sophisticated gentleman and a judicial apprentice from Charles Town, but he fought off that mob of killers and thieves who attacked the magistrate. Armed only with a rapier, I understand?”

  Matthew accepted a helping of stewed tomatoes. He could feel three pairs of eyes upon him. Now was the moment to explain that the ‘mob’ consisted of one ruffian, an old crone, and an infirm geezer…but instead his mouth opened and what came out was, “No…I…had not even a rapier. Would you pass the corncakes, please?”

  “My Lord, what a night that must have been!” Stewart was profoundly impressed. “Did you not have a weapon at all?”

  “I…uh…used a boot to good advantage. This is an absolutely wonderful stew! Mr. Bidwell’s cook ought to have this recipe.”

  “Well, our Cherise is a wonderful cook herself,” Lucretia assured him. “I am currently teaching her the secrets of successful pie baking. Not an easy subject to command, I must say.”

  “I’m sure it’s not.” Matthew offered a smile to the girl, but she was having none of it. She simply ate her food and stared straight ahead with no trace of expression except, perhaps, absolute boredom.

  “And now…about the treasure chest full of gold coins you found.” Lucretia laid her spoon and knife delicately across her plate. “You had it sent back to Charles Town, I understand?”

  Here he had to draw the line. “I fear there was no treasure chest. Only a single coin.”

  “Yes, yes…of course. Only a single coin. Very well, then, I can see you are a canny guardian of information. But what can you tell us of the witch? Does she weep and wail at the prospect of burning?”

  The stew he was about to swallow had suddenly sprouted thorns and lodged in his throat. “Mrs. Vaughan,” he said, as politely as possible, “if you don’t mind…I would prefer not to talk about Rachel Howarth.”

  Suddenly Cherise looked at him and grinned, her blue eyes gleaming. “Oh, that is a subject I find of interest!” Her voice was pleasingly melodic, but there was a wickedly sharp edge to it as well. “Do tell us about the witch, sir! Is it true she shits toad-frogs?”

  “Cherise!” Lucretia had hissed the name, her teeth gritted and her eyes wide with alarm. Instantly her composure altered with the speed of a chameleon’s color change; her smile returned, though fractured, and she looked down the table at Matthew. “Our daughter has…an earthy sense of humor, Mr. Corbett. You know, it is said that some of the finest, most gracious ladies have earthy senses of humor. One must not be too stiff and rigid in these strange times, must one?”

  “Stiff and rigid,” the girl said, as she pushed a tomato into her mouth and gave a gurgling little laugh. Matthew saw that Lucretia had chosen to continue eating, but red whorls had risen in her cheeks. Stewart drank down his glass of wine and reached for the decanter.

  No one spoke for a time. It was then that Matthew was aware of a faint humming sound, but he couldn’t place where it was coming from. “I might tell you, as a point of information,” he said, to break the wintry silence, “that I am not yet a judicial apprentice. I am a magistrate’s clerk, that’s all.”

  “Ah, but you shall be a judicial apprentice in the near future, will you not?” Lucretia asked, beaming again. “You are young, you have a fine mind and a desire to serve. Why should you not enter the legal profession?”

  “Well…I probably shall, at some point. But I do need much more education and experience.”

  “A humble soul!” She spoke it as if she had found the Grail itself. “Do you hear that, Cherise? The young man stands on the precipice of such political power and wealth, and he remains humble!”

  “The problem with standing on a precipice,” he said, “is that one might fall from a great height.”

  “And a wit as well!” Lucretia seemed near swooning with delight. “You know how wit charms you, Cherise!”

  Cherise stared again into Matthew’s eyes. “I desire to know more about the witch. I have heard tell she took the cock of a black goat into her mouth and sucked on it.”

  “Umph!” A rivulet of wine had streamed down Stewart’s chin and marred his gray jacket. He had paled as his wife had reddened.

  Lucretia was about to either hiss or shriek, but before she could, Matthew met the girl’s stare with equal force and said calmly, “You have heard a lie, and whoever told you such a thing is not only a liar but a soul in need of a mouth-soaping.”

  “Billy Reed told me such a thing. Shall I find him tomorrow and tell him you’re going to soap his mouth?”

  “That thug’s name shall not be uttered in this house!” The veins were standing out in Lucretia’s neck. “I forbid it!”

  “I will find Billy Reed tomorrow,” Cherise went on, defiantly. “Where shall I tell him you will meet him with your soap?”

  “I beg your pardon, Mr. Corbett! I beg a thousand pardons!” In her agitation, the woman had spilled a spoonful of corncake and cream on the front of her gown, and now she was blotting the stain with a portion of the tablecloth. “That thug is James Reed’s miscreant son! He’s near an imbecile, he has the ambition of a sloth…and he has wicked designs on my daughter!”

  Cherise grinned—or, rather, leered—into Matthew’s face. “Billy is teaching me how to milk. In the afternoons, at their barn, he shows me how to hold the member. How to slide my hand up and down…up and down…up and down…” She displayed the motion for him, much to his discomfort and her mother’s choked gasp. “Until the cream spurts forth. And a wonderful hot cream it is, too.”

  Matthew didn’t respond. It did occur to him that—absolutely, positively—he’d lately been hiding in the wrong barn.

  “I think,” Stewart said, rising unsteadily to his feet, “that the rum bottle should be unstoppered.”

  “For God’s sake, stay away from that rum!” Lucretia hollered, oblivious now to their honored guest. “That’s the cause of all our troubles! That, and your poor excuse for a carpentry shop!”

  Matthew’s glance at Cherise showed him she was eating her dinner with a smirk of satisfaction upon her face, which was now not nearly so lovely. He put his own spoon and knife down, his appetite having fled. Stewart was fumbling in a cupboard and Lucretia was attacking her food with a vengeance, her eyes dazed and her face as red as the stewed tomatoes. In the silence that fell, Matthew heard the strange humming sound again. He looked up.

  And received a jolt.

  On the ceiling directly above the table was a wasp’s ne
st the size of Mr. Green’s fist. The thing was black with wasps, all crowded together, their wings folded back along their stingers. As Matthew watched, unbelieving, he saw a minor disturbance ripple across the insects and several of them commenced that angry humming noise.

  “Uh…Mrs. Vaughan,” he said thickly. “You have…” He pointed upward.

  “Yes, wasps. What of it?” Her manners—along with her composure, her family, and the evening—had greatly deteriorated.

  Matthew realized why the nest must be there. He’d heard of such a thing, but he’d never before seen it. As he understood, a potion could be bought or made that, once applied to an indoor ceiling, enraptured wasps to build their nests on the spot.

  “Insect control, I assume?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Lucretia said, as if any fool on earth knew that. “Wasps are jealous creatures. We suffer no mosquitoes in this house.”

  “None that will bite her, anyway,” Stewart added, and then he continued suckling from the bottle.

  This evening, Matthew thought, might have been termed a farce had there not been such obvious suffering from all persons involved. The mother ate her dinner as if in a stunned trance, while the daughter now set about consuming her food more with fingers than proper utensils, succeeding in smearing her mouth and chin with gleaming hogsfat. Matthew finished his wine and a last bite of the excellent stew, and then he thought he should make his exit before the girl decided he might look more appealing crowned with a serving-bowl.

  “I…uh…presume I’d best go,” he said. Lucretia spoke not a word, as if her inner fire had been swamped by her daughter’s wanton behavior. Matthew pushed his chair back and stood up. “I wish to thank you for the dinner and the wine. Uh…no need to walk me back to the mansion, Mr. Vaughan.”

  “I wasn’t plannin’ on it,” the man said, clutching the rum bottle to his chest.

  “Mrs. Vaughan? May I…uh…take some of that delicious bread with me?”

  “All you wish,” she murmured, staring into space. “The rest of it, if you like.”

  Matthew accepted what was perhaps half a loaf. “My appreciation.”

  Lucretia looked up at him. Her vision cleared, as she seemed to realize that he actually was leaving. A weak smile flickered across her mouth. “Oh…Mr. Corbett…where are my manners? I thought…hoped…that after dinner…we might all play at lanctie loo.”

  “I fear I am without talent at card games.”

  “But…there are so many things I wished to converse with you about. The magistrate’s condition being one. The state of affairs in Charles Town. The gardens…and the balls.”

  “I’m sorry,” Matthew said. “I don’t have much experience with either gardens or balls. As to the state of affairs in Charles Town, I would call them…somewhat less interesting than those in Fount Royal. The magistrate is still very ill, but Dr. Shields is administering a new medicine he’s concocted.”

  “You know, of course,” she said grimly, “that the witch has cursed your magistrate. For the guilty decree. I doubt he shall survive with such a curse laid on him.”

  Matthew felt his face tighten. “I believe differently, madam.”

  “Oh…I…I am being so insensitive. I am only repeating what I overhead Preacher Jerusalem saying this afternoon. Please forgive me, it’s just that—”

  “That she has a knife for a tongue,” Cherise interrupted, still eating with graceless fingers. “She only apologizes when it cuts herself.”

  Lucretia leaned her head toward her daughter, much in the manner of a snake preparing to strike. “You may leave the table and our presence,” she said coldly. “Inasmuch as you have disgraced yourself and all of us, I do hope you are happy.”

  “I am happy. I am also still hungry.” She refused to budge from her place. “You know that you were brought here to save me, do you not?” A quick glance was darted at Matthew, as she licked her greasy fingers. “To rescue me from Fount Royal and the witless rustics my mother despises? Oh, if you are so sophisticated you must have known that already!”

  “Stop her, Stewart!” Lucretia implored, her voice rising. “Make her hush!”

  The man, however, tilted the bottle to his mouth and then began peeling off his suit jacket.

  “Yes, it’s true,” Cherise said. “My mother sells them breads and pies and wishes them to choke on the crumbs. You should hear her talk about them behind their backs!”

  Matthew stared down into the girl’s face. Her mother’s daughter, Stewart had said. Matthew might have recognized the streak of viciousness. The pity, he mused, was that Cherise Vaughan seemed to be highly intelligent. She had recognized, for instance, that speaking of Rachel Howarth had caused him great discomfort of a personal nature.

  “I will show myself out,” Matthew said to Mrs. Vaughan. “Again, thank you for the dinner.” He started toward the door, carrying the half-loaf of fennel-seed bread with him.

  “Mr. Corbett? Wait, please!” Lucretia stood up, a large cream stain on the front of her gown. Again she appeared dazed, as if these verbal encounters with her daughter sapped the very life from her. “Please…I have a question for you.”

  “Yes?”

  “The witch’s hair,” she said. “What is to become of it?”

  “Her…hair? I’m sorry, I don’t understand your meaning.”

  “The witch has such…shall I say…attractive hair. One might say beautiful, even. It is a sadness that such thick and lovely hair should be burnt up.” Matthew could not have replied even if he’d wished to, so stunned was he by this direction of thinking.

  But the woman continued on. “If the witch’s hair should be washed…and then shorn off, on the morning of her execution…there are many, I would venture—who might pay for a lock of it. Think of it: the witch’s hair advertised and sold as a charm of good fortune.” Her countenance seemed to brighten at the very idea of it. “It might be heralded as firm evidence of God’s destruction of Evil. You see my meaning now?”

  Still Matthew’s tongue was frozen solid.

  “Yes, and I would grant you a portion of the earnings as well,” she said, mistaking his amazed expression as approval. “But I think it best if you washed and cut the hair yourself, on some pretext or another, as we wouldn’t wish too many fingers in our pie.”

  He just stood there, feeling sick. “Well?” she urged. “Can we consider ourselves in company?”

  Somehow, he turned from her and got out the door. As he walked away along Harmony Street, a cold sheen of moisture on his face, he heard the woman calling him from her doorway: “Mr. Corbett? Mr. Corbett?”

  And louder and more shrill: “Mr. Corbett?”

  thirty-one

  PAST THE HOUSE of deceased Nicholas Paine he went, past Van Gundy’s tavern where the revelers made merry, past Dr. Shields’s infirmary and the squalid house of Edward Winston. Matthew walked on, his head bowed and the half-loaf of fennel-seed bread in his hand, the night sky above him a field of stars and, in his mind, darkness heavy and unyielding.

  He turned left onto Truth Street. Further along, the blackened ruins of Johnstone’s schoolhouse secured his attention. It was a testament to the power of the infernal fire as well as a testament to the power of infernal men. He recalled how Johnstone had raged in helpless anguish that night, as the flames had burned unchecked. The schoolmaster might be bizarre—with his white face powder and his deformed knee—but it was a surety that the man had felt his teaching was a vital calling, and that the loss of the schoolhouse was a terrible tragedy. Matthew might have had his suspicions about Johnstone, but the fact that the man believed Rachel not to be a witch—and, indeed, that the entire assertion of witchcraft was built on shaky ground—gave Matthew hope for the future of education.

  He went on, nearer to where he had known he was going.

  And there the gaolhouse stood. He didn’t hesitate, but quietly entered the darkened structure.

  Though he endeavored to be quiet, his opening of the door neverthele
ss startled Rachel. He heard her move on her pallet of straw, as if drawing herself more tightly into a posture of self-protection. It occurred to him that, with the door still unchained, anyone might enter to taunt and jeer at her, though most persons would certainly be afeared to do so. One who would not be afeared, however, would be Preacher Jerusalem, and he imagined the snake must have made an appearance or two when no other witnesses were present.

  “Rachel, it’s me,” he said. Before she could answer or protest his presence, he said, “I know you’ve wished me not to come, and I do respect your wishes…but I wanted to tell you I am still working on your…um…your situation. I can’t yet tell you what I’ve found, but I believe I have made some progress.” He approached her cell a few more paces before he stopped again. “That is not to say I’ve come to any kind of solution, or have proof of such, but I wished you to know I have you always in mind and that I won’t give up. Oh…and I’ve also brought you some very excellent fennel-seed bread.”

  Matthew went the rest of the way and pushed the bread through the bars. In the absolute dark, he was aware only of her vague shape coming to meet him, like a figure just glimpsed in some partially remembered dream.

  Without a word, Rachel took the bread. Then her other hand grasped Matthew’s and she clutched it firmly against her cheek. He felt the warm wetness of tears. She made a choked sound, as if she were trying mightily to restrain a sob.

  He didn’t know what to say. But at this revelation of unexpected emotion his heart bled and his own eyes became damp.

  “I…shall keep working,” Matthew promised, his voice husky. “Day and night. If an answer is to be found…I swear I will find it.”

  Her response was to press her lips against the back of his hand, and then she held it once more to her tear-stained cheek. They stood in that posture. Rachel clutched to him as if she wanted nothing else in the world at that moment but the warmth—the care—of another human being. He wished to take his other hand and touch her face, but instead he curled his fingers around one of the iron bars between them.