Saraband for Two Sisters by Philippa Carr Read Free Book Online Page A

send to the wine cellars for it. We will all drink to celebrate your return.’
    ‘You are good to me, Connell,’ said Senara. ‘Never shall I forget how you helped me escape from this house.’
    ‘Do you think I would have allowed the mob to lay hands on you?’
    ‘You became master of the castle on that night. Everyone knew then that though the old master lay crippled in his chair there was a new one as strong to take his place.’
    I was fascinated. As they talked I was trying to piece the story together. One day I should read it all in the diaries of my mother and her mother Linnet, who had been the one who had rescued the witch from the sea, that witch who was this Senara’s mother.
    We sat at the table. No one wished to move. They went on talking and we of the younger generation listened avidly, and as they talked a storm began to rise. The sky grew dark and we could hear the wind rousing the sea.
    Melanie called for more candles to be lighted and the servants tiptoed around lighting them while the storm outside seemed to be increasing.
    Still we sat on. It was as though no one wanted to leave that table; and Aunt Melanie, my mother, Senara and Uncle Connell talked of the old days and the picture of their lives began to take shape.
    Then suddenly the door was flung open. We heard the roar of a voice which there was no mistaking. It belonged to Grandfather Casvellyn.
    He propelled himself into the hall, his eyes looking wilder than ever as they raked the table and came to rest on Senara.
    Melanie had risen to her feet.
    ‘Father … how did you come here? How did you leave the Seaward Tower?’
    He glared at her. ‘No matter,’ he shouted. ‘I did. They brought me down. They carried me and brought me here. I insisted. If I want to come into any part of my castle I’ll do so. She’s here, they tell me. She’s come again … as they did all those years ago … the witch’s girl.’
    ‘Father,’ said Connell, ‘it’s Senara. Your own wife’s daughter.’
    ‘I know who it is. I was told and I knew they dared not lie to me. What do you want here?’ he demanded, glaring at Senara.
    She rose and went to him. She was smiling in a way I didn’t understand. She knelt before him and lifted her face. In the candlelight it looked young and very beautiful.
    ‘I came back to my old home,’ she said. ‘I came to see you all.’
    ‘Go back where you came from. You and your kind bring no good to this house.’
    Melanie cried: ‘Father, how can you!’
    ‘Don’t call me “father”. You’ve no right … just because my son married you. She’ll bring no good here. She’s her mother all over again.’
    ‘I’m not,’ cried Senara. ‘I’m different.’
    ‘Send her away. I won’t have her here. She’s … disaster. I’ll not have her here reminding me of her mother.’
    Tamsyn said: ‘Father, you are cruel. Senara has travelled far to see us, and if you’ll not have her here she knows she will always find a home with us.’
    ‘Fool!’ cried my grandfather. ‘You were always a fool.’
    ‘Was I?’ said my mother with spirit. ‘If I am a fool then I do not know the meaning of wisdom. For I have found happiness in my home and my husband and my children which wise men like yourself—or so you think—ever failed to do.’
    He glared at her, but I could see the admiration for her in his face. He was proud of her and I think it was not the first time he had been.
    ‘Then,’ he said, ‘you should have more sense than place them in jeopardy.’ He pointed to Senara. ‘That one … comes of evil stock. Her mother came here and bewitched us all. She’ll do the same. She should never have been born. I warn you, daughter. Be wise. Listen to me. I know. I lived it all.’ His voice broke suddenly. ‘By God,’ he cried, ‘don’t you think I live it all again up in that tower when I look out at the waves and the Devil’s Teeth out there. And I say to myself everything would have been different if the