Free The Witch of Glenaster by Jonathan Mills

little rest, or too much. My
right arm had gone numb where I had fallen asleep on it, and my eyes were gummy
and sore. I gazed in panic about me, and thought myself still trapped in some
dream, until I recalled the previous night, and our fortunate escape from the
Plateau. The chair opposite, where my brother had been, was vacant, and when I
turned I saw that Thomas was gone also, and there was a woollen blanket
covering me up to my chin. I rose and stretched awkwardly, almost losing my
balance and tumbling to the floor. Then I wondered if there was somewhere I
could wash, even perhaps bathe, for I felt hot and dirty, and longed to get
clean.
    Cornelius appeared, a
bright-green waistcoat about his corpulent belly, and his bald head blinking in
the morning sunshine, and offered me hot chocolate and shortbread, and I was
grateful for both: the chocolate scalding and rich to the tongue, and the biscuits
thick, like the fingers of a giant, and burnt slightly at the edges.
    “Where are the others?” I
asked, and he told me Thomas and Magnus had already breakfasted, and had gone
for a walk in the garden.
    I blinked, and ran my fingers
through my hair, and smelt the grease on them. I made a face, and Cornelius
smiled, and asked tentatively:
    “I could run you a bath, if you
like…?”
    I nodded, and he seemed
pleased, and disappeared into one of the back rooms. I realized we had trusted
this strange little man with our lives – he could, I supposed, have murdered us
in our sleep – but Thomas had clearly judged him no threat, and he certainly
seemed friendly enough, if somewhat eccentric.
    “You are all alone up here,
then?” I asked, as he set about preparing the bath, returning to the kitchen to
boil some water. He seemed slightly startled by my question.
    “Alone? Yes, yes, I am alone. I
have no wife. You and your brother, you have… family?”
    I sucked at my lip, and it
tasted of dried blood. My mother had always scolded me for biting my lips.
    “We have each other,” I said
finally, after a long pause, and Cornelius seemed happy not to press the
matter.
    “Then you are lucky. I have no
family anymore,” he said quietly, and before I could say anything more he
disappeared again, carrying a jug of hot water that was almost as large as he
was.
    I sat back in the chair and
finished my chocolate, the dregs circling the bottom of the mug, crumbs of
shortbread powdering the front of my blouse. After a while, Cornelius came
round the corner with a towel and a cake of soap, and gestured to the back
room, where I found a wide, tin tub, steam sighing invitingly from its rim.
Testing the water, I found it a little too hot, and, stripping off my clothes,
sat naked for a minute or so on a small chair and let my mind drift. There was
no one to watch, and I did not think Cornelius was the sort to peep. Anyway, I
knew what to do with such people; not long before the drakes had come, one of
the boys from the village had tried to look in at me while I was having a bath;
I hurled a pumice-stone as hard as I could through the window, and broke his
nose. Now that boy was dead, most likely, like everyone else from my village.
If his relatives came looking for him, would they know him by his broken nose?
    After a while I climbed into
the bath, and felt the ache and stiffness in my limbs relax, as I soaked
gratefully in the warm water. I leaned back for a while, my hair hanging limply
over the edge of the tub, my chin just resting on the skin of the water, and my
legs floating away from me. It was the most beautiful feeling I had had in all
those long days, since we had begun our journey, and I gave thanks for it.
    Clutching at the sides, I sank
my head beneath the water, and lay down in the bottom of the tub, watching the
shimmering world above, enjoying the dullness of the sound. I was about to pull
myself back up, when I was aware of a hand on my chest - two hands - and I
realized in a horrified daze that they were trying to push me