Witch from the Sea

He looked beyond me with a faraway look in his eyes, and he said, “There is only one way of making sure that he never does this again. That is by killing him.”

“But you are a man of peace,” I said.

“This is the way to bring peace. Sometimes it is necessary to remove someone who is corroding the society in which we live. We had to kill Spaniards when we defeated the Armada. I have no remorse for them. We were saving our country from a cruel enemy. We drove off those ships which carried the invader and his instruments of torture. I would fight again and again; I would kill any Spaniard who tried to land in England. This is different. This is a ship full of cargo, a trading ship. The wrecker wants that cargo so he lures the ship on to the rocks; he sends thousands of men and women to their deaths for he must make sure that there are no survivors to carry the tale of villainy where it might be acted on. No, there is only one way, I say.”

I looked at him fearfully. In his eyes there was a fanatical hatred—so alien to him.

“I am going to kill your father,” he said.

“No, Fe

He put them aside; then he looked at me sadly.

“It would always be between us,” he said. “He killed my father. I can never forget that nor forgive him. And I shall kill yours. You will never forget that either.”

He looked down at his father’s grave; then he turned away and left me there.

I ran after him. I had to stop him, I knew he meant what he said. He had idolized his father; he had gone on doing so after he was dead. He had refused to believe that he was dead and gone on dreaming of his return.

And my father was responsible for his death—he had killed him as certainly as though he had run him through with a cutlass and left him to die.

I heard the shouting voices above the wind.

“He be gone out,” said one.

I saw them in the Seaward courtyard. There were about four of the men who worked with my father.

“He be at the Teeth,” said Jack Emms, a dark-haired man with battered features.

“Why should he go there?” cried Fe

“There he be gone, Master.”

Fe

“Tell me where he is. I will know,” he said, “or it will be the worse for you.”

I saw then that Fe

“He be gone, Master, with Jan Leward. There always be cargo that stays in the foundered ships. We go out now and then to recover it.”

“I am going out there,” said Fe

“Nay, Master.”

“But yes,” cried Fe

I was terrified. I pictured my father out there at the Teeth, with the howling wind whipping the waves to fury. And Fe

I wanted to cry: “Don’t go. Jack Emms is your enemy. All these men are your enemies. They will destroy you because you have come among them like an avenging angel. You are trying to destroy their lucrative business. Fe

It would be to plead in vain. He was going to confront my father. He was going to accuse him of the murder of his father; and I knew he pla

But if he was going out there, I was going with him. I leaped into the boat.

“No, Tamsyn,” shouted Fe

“If you go,” I retorted, “I am coming with you.”

Fe

I said: “My father is a murderer. He has been responsible for the deaths of thousands.” I was thinking of my mother. He had not killed her but he had co

His face hardened. “He killed my father.”

“I know … I know. But it is not for you to kill him. If you do the memory will haunt you all your life. Fe

But I could see he was remembering the father whom he had loved—gentle Fe

We had reached the Devil’s Teeth. How malevolent they looked with a tetchy sea swirling threateningly about them!

A wooden chest with iron bands had been caught in the rocks and it was this which my father was trying to salvage.

“Colum Casvellyn,” shouted Fe

My father turned sharply to look at him and as he did so the boat rocked dangerously. He stared at us for a few seconds in amazement, then he cried: “You fools. Go back. There’s danger here. What do you know of these rocks?”

“I know this,” answered Fe

“Go away, you oaf! Take yourself out of my affairs.”

Fe

I heard my father’s derisive laughter.

“Yes, be careful. Go away, you … trader. You don’t understand this business. It’s too dangerous for you, boy.”

At that moment my father’s boat tipped suddenly and he was pitched forward. The boat turned over and he was in the water. I heard him give a cry of agony as he threw up his hands and sank. He emerged a few seconds later. The water was up to his neck.

“I’ll get him,” cried Fe

“It’s too dangerous,” I warned, but Fe

“Go away,” shouted my father. “I’m caught. The Teeth have got me. Can’t pull myself free. You’ll kill yourself, you fool.”

Fe

Minutes passed while I watched in terror. The water was stained red and I thought: They will both be lost.

“Fe

But he did not listen to me.

It seemed a long time before I helped him pull my father’s mangled body into the boat.

He lay on his bed, my bold cruel father. The physician had seen him. Both his legs were injured. He had prided himself that he knew the Devil’s Teeth better than any living man, but they had caught him in the end. The eddies about the rocks were notoriously dangerous and when he had fallen into the sea he had been immediately sucked under. Strong swimmer that he was, he could do nothing against such odds, for he had fallen between the two rocks known as the Canines, the most dangerous of them all. And Fe

So Fe

Melanie was there, cool and efficient. Dear good Melanie, we all had reason to be grateful that she belonged to our family, then—and more so in the years to come.