At the House of the Magician

by Mary Hooper

  But, my stomach rumbling, I didn’t want to speak of books. ‘But what vegetables are those in the pot?’

  She threw a handful of herbs into the water. ‘They are called potatoes,’ she said, and thought me ignorant when I said I hadn’t ever heard of such things. I was rather doubtful about eating them, for while they were cooking they didn’t look at all appetising, but beaten up with cream and butter they tasted very well. We also had some radishes, sliced and eaten with a tiny amount of salt, which latter thing was another new experience for me and which gave a strange shiver to my tongue which I couldn’t have described. As I cleared away, Mistress Midge said that we might not even have had these meagre amounts to eat, except that some of those who’d consulted Dr Dee recently had paid him in kind.

  While we ate, finding space amid the trenchers and untidy mess upon the table, cook told us of meals she’d had at Mistress Dee’s family home, for they were very rich and had, so it seemed, dined every day on herb-crusted capons, soused larks, roast quails, fried salmon, lobsters and prawns marinated in brandy. Even more delightful to hear of were the dainty foodstuffs that would follow: cream custards, crystallised fruits in spun-sugar nests, gooseberry syllabubs, rose-water creams and frosted violets.

  ‘Oh, do stop!’ I begged Mistress Midge after hearing of these delicacies. ‘For you make me long to taste such elegant fare and I’m sure I never shall.’

  She winked. ‘Perhaps you will,’ she said, ‘for if our master pleases Her Grace and gives her what she wants, then we’ll be dining on these very things every day of our lives.’

  ‘What is it that Her Grace wants, then?’ I asked, eager for any information about the queen.

  But Mistress Midge turned away. ‘That’s not for the likes of you and me to enquire,’ she said, for magick was one matter she would not speak of.

  Chapter Six

  ‘Lord above!’ Mistress Midge shouted, throwing her apron up over her head. ‘However am I supposed to run this house with no other servants? ’Tis more than an old body can stand! It’s Mistress Midge this, Mistress Midge that from morn to night. And now, if you please, the master has taken a fancy to having a jug of posset and some sweet biscuits brought to him.’

  ‘I’ll take them in,’ I offered.

  ‘But there are no biscuits! There’s no time to make biscuits and no sugar if there were time. There will be no biscuits of any sort made until he’s paid the grocer’s bill! Tell him that, will you?’

  I looked at her uncertainly. How could I ever do such a thing?

  ‘Oh, ’tis past all endurance!’ Mistress Midge stamped across the kitchen, causing Beth, Merryl and Tom-fool to skitter out of her way, and lifted a trapdoor in the floor. She went down a dozen steps then came up, puffing with effort, holding a dusty, dark bottle. ‘Make him the posset, and he’ll have to be content with that!’

  I took the bottle from her and the children and I exchanged a smile, for I was fast becoming used to cook’s temper and hardly jumped at all when she shouted now.

  I’d spent most of that morning – the third of my employ – scouring, cleaning and putting away the last of the trenchers and bowls which had been cluttering the table, and following this I’d scrubbed down the shelves, swept up the soiled rushes and generally tried to put the kitchen in better order. Mistress Midge, who was overworked but also somewhat lazy, I soon discovered was only too happy for me to do this. As I’d worked, the children had gone backwards and forwards bearing messages from members of the household, who would ring bells to summon them and then variously request food, hot water to wash, that a fire be lit against the sudden cold weather or (this for Mistress Dee) that a sleeping draught be prepared. Tradesmen and cryers also arrived at the kitchen door at frequent intervals, selling foodstuffs, demanding money for past services or offering to buy or sell pots and pans, and throughout all this Mistress Midge kept up a fruitful flow of words: scolding, complaining, shouting or berating everyone in turn. It was fortunate, perhaps, that we didn’t also have to answer the door to those who came to consult with Dr Dee, for the cook told me that if someone wanted his services – needed a horoscope cast, had lost something valuable or required a talisman – then they’d tap on the long window in the library. If he was at home he’d usher them in.

  Beth and Merryl, of course, were so used to Mistress Midge that they were unperturbed by her chiding and reprimands, and, despite the irregularity of the household, were good and obedient children. When they weren’t conveying messages from one end of the house to the other, they walked solemnly around the place playing a game they called Queens and Courtiers, or sat with their horn books, practising their letters. They showed me how their names looked, and wrote mine for me, then insisted that I try writing it for myself, so that very soon I knew how to pen ‘LUCY’.

  ‘Get a tray! No, a silver one,’ Mistress Midge instructed me. ‘And two silver goblets. Warm a pottle of sweet cream with six egg yolks …’ I hastened to find these things in the kitchen, ‘… set them a-warming on the fire. Stir continually!’ she added, as I left the pot for a moment to add more wood to the fire. ‘Throw in some cinnamon sticks and the bottle of claret and heat together with some … no! There’s no sugar to add, so let that be an end of it.’

  I lifted the pan and sniffed at the mixture, pleased with my attempt, for the mixture smelled appetising and had thickened well. ‘Pour it into a jug, cover it and take it through to the library.’

  I’d not heard this last word before. ‘Take it where?’

  ‘The library,’ Merryl called. ‘It’s the place with lots of books.’ I smiled at her gratefully. The room I’d found myself in that first night, then.

  I’d not yet come face to face with Dr Dee, but if he challenged me I was ready prepared with a reason for being seen wandering that first night. I’d explain that, being new to the house and its noises, I’d heard something strange and had gone to investigate. I’d then beg his humble apology for being abroad like a felon in the dark, and all would be well.

  I put a clean kerchief about my head, asked Beth to check over my appearance and, setting the jug and goblets on the tray, set off for the library. Reaching the black door I tapped lightly and pushed it open, then stopped on the threshold and nearly dropped the tray in horror, for floating in the air close to the ceiling were two great dragons; dragons with scaled skin, gaping jaws, monstrous teeth and clawed feet.

  Had I the gentility to do so, I might have fainted, but instead I cowered backwards, whilst making sure that I kept the tray and its contents upright. I uttered some small sounds of distress, however, and the two gentlemen seated within the room cast me quick glances.

  ‘Oh, ’tis just a new maid,’ said the old white-bearded one I’d seen in the night. ‘Come in, do.’

  ‘There’s nothing here to be affrighted of,’ called the other man, who was somewhat younger and with a short, neat beard. ‘All these are merely part of Dr Dee’s collection of rare species from around the world. And they –’ he motioned with his hand up to the ceiling – ‘are named ally-gators.’

  At first I was too terrified to look again, but then, seeing as the two gentlemen seemed so unperplexed by the dragons – ally-gators – that they hadn’t stopped studying the papers before them, I dared to glance up. What I saw alleviated my fears slightly, in that the creatures did not seem to be alive and floating in the air, but were dead and suspended from the ceiling by means of chains, fore and aft. In the darkness of the night their presence must have escaped me.

  I carried the tray to the table and, my fears eased and my curiosity roused, could not stop marvelling at all that surrounded me, for considerably more of the room’s contents were now revealed in the light. A large window at the far end of the room bore a majestic coat of arms in coloured glass, and amber, blue and green light filtered through this on to the floor. On the shelves and tables, books by the cartload jostled for space with roots, urns, corals and the many strange things – including the skull – I’d seen
that first night. Indeed, there was so much for an inquisitive person to look at that I knew that my eyes must be as round as porringers.

  ‘Pour out our drinks,’ the younger man said rather sharply.

  I hastily did so. ‘Mistress Midge conveys her compliments and apologises for the fact that she doesn’t have any biscuits to hand,’ I said, bobbing a curtsey.

  But I don’t think either of the men heard me, for both were staring at the paper before them, which I could see bore various diagrams and figures as well as some writing. I’d just put down the jug and had turned to go when my attention was caught by a large and bulbous fish, quite still, enclosed in a glass tank and set in waving coral fronds. I gazed at it in wonder, for its scales shone with all colours of the rainbow and it was a thing of great beauty.

  ‘I tell you that I drew up the pentacle and used the incantation exactly as written here,’ Dr Dee was saying to the younger man, seemingly oblivious of my presence.

  ‘And you are quite sure you were not asleep and dreaming?’ came the reply, with some disbelief in the tone.

  ‘Of course I was not. Do you doubt my word?’

  ‘By no means,’ came the reply. ‘I merely think it strange that apparitions usually appear to me, and me alone.’

  ‘I tell you that I saw the wraith as clear as day!’ Dr Dee went on, his voice rising with excitement. ‘She was clothed all in white samite, and had her hair about her shoulders like a virgin. She seemed about to speak to me, and then she clutched her hand to her breast and all at once the heavenly glow which seemed to surround her went out.’

  ‘A miracle indeed!’ said the younger man, somewhat briskly. ‘But I am still at a loss to understand – if you spoke the necessary incantations in this room and within the pentacle, then why did the spirit appear to you in the passageway outside?’

  Hearing these last words, I suddenly felt myself growing hot.

  Dr Dee reached for his goblet and both men looked towards me. ‘You may go,’ he said.

  I moved away quickly, then closed the door behind me and stood for some moments in the dark hall, my heart thumping. It was obvious to me what had happened: Dr Dee had seen me in the night and thought I was a spirit; someone he’d conjured from the dead!

  Should I go back in there and tell him the truth? I hesitated, wondering what to do for the best, for he’d seemed so pleased to have seen the vision that he might be angry, perhaps even strike me, if I informed him that he’d only set eyes on his new maid. After I’d thought about the matter for a moment I went on my way, resolved to say no more about it.

  ‘I take no interest in the master’s magickings and neither should you,’ Mistress Midge said, sniffing. We were preparing supper and I’d ventured to ask her about Dr Dee’s work and the seeing of spirits. ‘I’ve enough to do with the wants and needs of people who’re alive, without bothering with the other sort.’

  A shiver ran down my backbone. ‘Is it there, then, that Dr Dee’s interests lie?’ I asked in a low voice. ‘He seeks to raise people from the dead and speak with them?’

  ‘Some say so.’ Mistress Midge turned away and bent over the fire to baste a small duck given by someone whose horoscope Dr Dee had cast. The duck skin crackled and spat, giving off delicious aromas.

  I sniffed the air. ‘Will there be anything left of that for us to pick at tomorrow?’

  ‘I doubt it,’ she said, ‘for that pribbling foot-licker, Kelly, eats with the master nearly every day and will certainly consume every morsel he can lay his hands on.’

  ‘Kelly is the younger man who works with Dr Dee?’

  She nodded. ‘I don’t know why he doesn’t move in,’ she said sourly, ‘for he’s here all day and every day a-writing of his charts and pretending to see this and that. The mistress cannot abide him!’

  ‘So both gentlemen seek to speak with the dead?’ I asked breathlessly.

  Mistress Midge gave the duck a vigorous turn on its spit. ‘It strikes me, my girl, that you ask far too many questions for a servant.’

  I felt myself redden. ‘You may be right,’ I said. ‘My ma always said I was far too curious.’

  The two little girls were under the table, rolling a ball backwards and forwards along its length while Tom-fool ran between them. Suddenly Merryl spoke.

  ‘They do speak with angels,’ she said. ‘There are two of them who come regularly. One is one called Madimi and the other, Celeste. They tell Papa secrets.’

  ‘And how does Papa see these angels?’ I asked, looking eagerly under the table.

  ‘They are viewed in a crystal called a show-stone,’ the child answered.

  Mistress Midge banged a trencher of bread down on the table. ‘Enough! ’Tis not for us to know such things!’ she said, and Tom-fool shrieked with laughter, as if he understood her words.

  ‘It isn’t Papa who sees and hears them,’ Merryl went on nonetheless, ‘but Mr Kelly, and then he tells Papa what they’ve said.’

  ‘They are trying to get the angels to appear to both of them, to tell them how to do certain special things,’ put in Beth. ‘Like how to make gold.’

  ‘They’d be better off making groats with the queen’s head on,’ Mistress Midge snorted, ‘then we could pay our debts and have a roast duck each!’

  Chapter Seven

  Within a few weeks I’d settled quite happily into the Dee household and it felt as if I’d been there much longer. I missed my ma, but Mistress Midge – scold that she was – in some ways filled that role. I missed my father too and was more than happy to do so, for it meant I also missed going hungry because he’d drunk all we’d earned from our glove-making, and missed feeling his clenched hand fall with a heavy thump on to my head.

  I felt so at ease in the magician’s house that I’d even stopped being frightened of going into the library. The strange objects no longer scared me and as neither the room nor its contents were held in any kind of reverence by the children, we would play there almost as happily as if on the riverbank. As for the books, well, once Beth had taken down some of the great volumes and showed me they were just letters within words which worked together to make up a story, I stopped being afraid of them, too. I even started to think that it might be a fine thing to know how to read, for then all the knowledge in the world was available to you and whatever you were curious about could be discovered. Sometimes when Dr Dee was out, I’d slip into the library for a moment and just stare around me, gently touch the shells, corals, vases or strange roots on the shelves and approach the skull to try and overcome my fears of it.

  One item that specially intrigued me in the room was the brass-banded chest, for it was beautifully made and seemed costly, as if it was like to contain something of great import. The padlock was always closed upon it, however, and there was no sign of a key, so I could only imagine what was within. Treasure, perhaps? Strands of pearls, sparkling stones and shiny gold coins? But then surely it couldn’t contain such things, or the household wouldn’t remain so poor.

  Whether Dr Dee and Mr Kelly were true magicians, I had yet to discover. I’d received a message from Mistress Dee to say that the doctor had asked a spirit about my stolen clothes and had been informed by this ethereal being that they’d been taken to London and sold at a street market there, but I had no way of knowing if this was correct.

  Sometimes, when Mr Kelly was in attendance or Dr Dee was casting a chart for someone, the children were given a warning not to interrupt and the door was locked against them. Standing outside the door at these times, I’d oft hear a strange chanting similar to that which I’d heard on my first night there. Once, finding the door had not been fully closed, I looked through the gap and saw Mr Kelly kneeling on the floor with Dr Dee standing beside him, holding a parchment. Both gentlemen were turned away from me and Mr Kelly was saying, ‘I see her! I see Madimi. She’s speaking … she is telling you to beware of being abroad on the fifteenth of the month, for it’s an evil day.’

  ‘Indeed!’ Dr Dee said, and he appea
red to write this down.

  ‘And now she seems to be holding something out to you.’

  ‘What is it?’ Dr Dee asked him eagerly.

  ‘A gemstone. One ruby, crimson as a berry. She tells me that she’ll soon have the means to deliver it to your hand.’

  ‘Is it large?’

  ‘Very large! And it glows from within! It’s worth a great deal of money – I can tell that from the size.’

  I put my eye to the crack in the door (which, I confess, was very low conduct indeed), and stared intensely at where Mr Kelly was staring, but couldn’t see or hear anything at all.

  One day the children and I had the whole afternoon to ourselves, for Dr Dee and his wife, together with Mistress Allen, had gone to Richmond to take the new child, being now near two months old, to its wet nurse. A carriage had been hired for this purpose, and this had two horses in front like a cart but was somewhat grander, with seats at the back for four persons and a waterproof covering against the weather. We’d seen them off (Mistress Dee weeping a waterfall of tears at the thought of being parted from her beloved child) and then, with Mistress Midge happily occupied chatting with a neighbour, the children and I had begun a game of hide-and-seek about the house.

  There could be no dwelling ever built which could better the magician’s house for such a game, and although, of course, Tom-fool didn’t understand (staying hushed while we hid, but often becoming wildly excited and giving away the whereabouts of whoever he was hiding with as soon as anyone entered the room), Beth, Merryl and I were happily occupied for more than two hours, using cupboards, empty rooms and dark corners to conceal ourselves in, wrapping ourselves in bed drapes, hiding under beds and tables, and climbing in and out of wooden chests.

  Once, when it was my turn to hide, I left the children counting in the kitchen and hurried along to the library, for I had a mind to creep behind an old tapestry hung in an alcove on the wall and conceal myself there.