The Enchanter's Forest by Alys Clare Read Free Book Online Page B

new attraction and see it for the money-making scheme that it is?’
         He met her eyes. ‘I am not so sure, my lady,’ he admitted.
         ‘Oh? How so?’
         He cast his eyes around the room as if seeking inspiration. Then: ‘I expected to feel nothing or, if anything, disgust and contempt for a clever piece of dupery. Yet when I stood by the tomb looking down at those enormous bones—’ He broke off, shrugged and then said, ‘They give off a force. I felt as if I were in the presence of a great power that I did not understand.’
         ‘ Josse! Oh, then there is something in all this and it is not just a fraud!’ She put her hand to her mouth, horrified by his admission. If he of all people had been so affected, then what of the more credulous? Oh, dear Lord, they would go from Merlin’s Tomb straight home to their towns, villages, hamlets and hovels, tell their family, friends and neighbours how wonderful it had been and in no time all those whom they told would be setting out too. The present steady stream of people would become a river, a torrent, a full-moon tide , and nobody would ever come near Hawkenlye again  . . .
         With some effort, she made herself stop.
         But Josse, dear Josse, must have seen the terrible vision that she saw. ‘My lady, do not despair,’ he said softly.
         She managed a small smile. ‘I see very little reason not to.’
         He had stood up and was pacing to and fro across her small room. His restless presence, as always, made it seem even smaller. ‘Florian of Southfrith must be made to stop,’ he announced.
         ‘But why?’ she demanded. ‘If there is a power in these bones, and if it is benign’ – she suddenly appreciated that this was quite a big if – ‘then what right have we to come between the people and a source of succour? Times continue to be hard, Sir Josse. It is but two years since everyone in the land had to give far more than they could afford in order to buy back our King. Yet what have they in exchange for their enforced generosity? King Richard stayed in England less than two months and then set off campaigning again and we have seen neither hide nor hair of him since. Purchasing the King’s freedom has cost the people dear and it will, I fear, take them a very long time to regain any sort of security. Some will never achieve it and will live in wretched poverty and miserable uncertainty until they die.’ She heard her voice rise with passion and took a moment to regain her composure. Then she said quietly, ‘If they find comfort and help in this Merlin’s Tomb, then should we try to stop it?’
         ‘If it is based on a fallacy then yes, indeed we should.’ Again, Josse did not sound as certain as she would have liked.
         ‘The crucial question being whether or not it is a fallacy,’ she murmured.
         ‘Aye.’ He gave a gusty sigh.
         She thought for a while and then said, ‘Sir Josse, if these bones are not Merlin’s, then they have to be someone else’s.’ He smiled briefly at the simplicity of her argument but did not interrupt. ‘Then perhaps we should turn our efforts to discovering whose the bones are,’ she went on.
         ‘They’re very large,’ Josse put in. ‘The man in that grave would easily have stood head and chest above me, if not more.’
         ‘That much taller than you!’ She was shocked, for Josse was no midget.
         ‘Well, maybe not quite,’ he admitted.
         ‘Who on earth was he?’ she murmured wonderingly. She had always dismissed tales of giants as nothing more than fairy stories. To have the skeleton of one found not ten miles away was disturbing, to say the least . . . ‘If it is true that Florian did not make this miraculous find on the forest fringe with its lead cross helpfully providing identity—’
         ‘I’ll stake my reputation that he didn’t,’ Josse said.
         ‘—then he must have found