Again Alice nodded, her expression very serious.

‘Right, so that’s settled,’ said the Spook. ‘You’ll sleep in the room above Tom’s, the one right at the top of the house. And now, think well on what I’m saying. That boggart down in the kitchen knows what you are and what you almost became. So don’t take even one little step out of line because it’ll be watching everything that you do. And it would like nothing better than to…’

The Spook sighed long and hard. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about,’ he said. ‘So don’t give it the chance. Will you do what I ask, girl? Can you be trusted?’

Alice nodded and her mouth widened into a big smile.

At supper the Spook was unusually quiet. It was like the calm before a storm. Nobody said much but Alice’s eyes were everywhere and they returned again and again to the huge, blazing log fire that was filling the room with warmth.

At last, the Spook pushed back his plate and sighed. ‘Right, girl,’ he said, ‘off you get to bed. I’ve a few things that need to be said to the lad.’

When Alice had gone, the Spook pushed back his chair and strode towards the fire. He bent and warmed his hands over the flames before turning to face me. ‘Well, lad,’ he growled, ‘spit it out. Where did you find out about Meg?’

‘I read it in one of your diaries,’ I said sheepishly, bowing my head.

‘I thought as much. Didn’t I warn you about that? You’ve disobeyed me again! There are things in my library that you’re not meant to read yet,’ the Spook said sternly. Things you’re not quite ready for. I’ll be the judge of what’s fit for you to read. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, sir,’ I said, addressing him by that title for the first time in months. ‘But I’d have found out about Meg anyway. Father Cairns mentioned her and he told me about Emily Burns too and how you took her away from your brother and it split your family.’

‘Can’t keep much from you, can I, lad?’

I shrugged, feeling relieved to have got it all off my chest.

‘Well,’ he said, coming back towards the table, ‘I’ve lived to a good age and I’m not proud of everything I’ve done, but there’s always more than one side to every story. None of us is perfect, lad, and one day you’ll find out all you need to know and then you can make up your own mind about me. There’s little point in picking through the bones now, but as for Meg, you’ll be meeting her when we get to Anglezarke. That’ll be sooner than you think because, depending on the weather, we’ll be setting off for my winter house in a month or so. What else did Father Cairns have to say for himself?’

‘He said that you’d sold your soul to the Devil…’

The Spook smiled. ‘What do priests know? No, lad, my soul still belongs to me. I’ve fought long, long years to hold onto it, and against all the odds it’s still mine. And as for the Devil, well, I used to think that evil was more likely to be inside each one of us, like a bit of tinder just waiting for the spark to set it alight. But more recently I’ve begun to wonder if, after all, there is something behind all that we face, something hidden deep within the dark. Something that grows stronger as the dark grows stronger. Something that a priest would call the Devil…’

The Spook looked at me hard, his green eyes boring into my own. ‘What if there were such a thing as the Devil, lad? What would we do about it?’

I thought for a few moments before I answered. ‘We’d need to dig a really big pit,’ I said. ‘A bigger pit than any spook has ever dug before. Then we’d need bags and bags of salt and iron and a really big stone.’

The Spook smiled. ‘We would that, lad, there’d be work for half the masons, riggers and mates in the County! Anyway, get off to bed with you now. It’s back to your lessons tomorrow so you’ll need a good night’s sleep.’

As I opened the door to my room, Alice emerged from the shadows on the stairs.

‘I really like it here, Tom,’ she said, giving me a wide smile. ‘Nice big warm house, it is. A good place to be now that winter’s drawing in.’

I smiled back. I could have told her that we’d be off to Anglezarke soon, to the Spook’s winter house, but she was happy and I didn’t want to spoil her first night.

‘One day this house will belong to us, Tom. Don’t you feel it?’ she asked.

I shrugged. ‘Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future,’ I said, putting Mam’s letter to the back of my mind.

‘Old Gregory tell you that, did he? Well, there are lots of things he doesn’t know. You’ll be a better spook than he ever was. Ain’t nothing more certain than that!’

Alice turned and went up the stairs swinging her hips. Suddenly she looked back.

‘Desperate for my blood, the Bane was,’ she said. ‘So I made the bargain even before he drank. I just wanted to make everything all right again, so I asked that you and Old Gregory could go free. Bane agreed. A bargain’s a bargain, so he couldn’t kill Old Gregory and he couldn’t hurt you. You killed the Bane but I made it possible. At the end that’s why it attacked me. It couldn’t touch you. Don’t tell Old Gregory though. He wouldn’t understand.’

Alice left me standing on the stairs while what she’d done slowly became clear in my mind. In a way she’d sacrificed herself. It would have killed her just as it had killed Naze. But she’d saved me and the Spook. Saved our lives. And I would never forget it.

Stunned by what she’d said, I went into my room and closed the door. It took me a long time to get to sleep.

Once again I’ve written most of this from memory, just using my notebook when necessary.

Alice has been good and the Spook’s really pleased with the work she’s been doing. She writes very quickly but her hand is still clear and neat. She’s also doing as she promised, telling me the things that Bony Lizzie taught her so that I can write them all down.

Of course, although Alice doesn’t know it yet, she won’t be staying with us for that long. The Spook told me that she’ll start to distract me too much and I won’t be able to concentrate on my studies. He’s not happy about having a girl with pointy shoes living in his house, especially one who’s been so close to the dark.

It’s late October now and soon we’ll be setting off for the Spook’s winter house on Anglezarke Moor. Nearby there’s a farm run by some people whom the Spook trusts. He thinks that they’ll let Alice stay with them. Of course, he’s made me promise not to tell Alice yet. Anyway, I’ll be sad to see her go.

And of course I’ll meet Meg, the lamia witch. Maybe I’ll meet the Spook’s other woman too. Blackrod is close to the moor and that’s where Emily Burns is still supposed to live. I have a feeling that there are lots of other things in the Spook’s past that I still don’t know about.

I’d rather stay here in Chipenden, but he’s the Spook and I’m only the apprentice. And I’ve come to realize that there’s a very good reason for everything that he does.

Thomas J. Ward