Violently the roots of the mill shook. Alarmed, Eppie glanced round in time to see the door to the scutching room blast open. Out swept a macabre procession of gashed and bleeding spectres, their billowing shrouds like the sails on a sloop of war. On and on, merciless, they stalked towards their murderer, the timber floor reverberating to their weightless tread.

*No!' Thurstan shrieked as though jumped upon by robbers. *Keep away from me!'

Cotton threads whipped around his ankles, strained as taut as guy-ropes, until he fell.

*My property, I believe,' du Quesne said, maddened by his nephew's inexplicable gibbering and bizarre behaviour.

At the moment that he snatched the locket from Thurstan, the fusty phantoms made a wending rush through the cotton fluff. For an eerie moment, a haunting sigh, like the last breaths of the victims, was left dangling in the air.

A crazed look in his eyes, Thurstan scratched his dry hair, as though it crawled with the blood of those who had died, making it stick up wildly. *You saw her!' he shrieked, staring at Eppie. *I know you saw her! Tell me!'

*What have you to say?' du Quesne demanded of Eppie.

She was struck dumb by what she had seen and by what she saw now, everybody immobile, no evidence of the raw cotton or seed vessels that had blasted down the aisle. None other than her and Thurstan had seen Talia leading the gaunt-faced ghosts. The disembodied, the discarnate, faces she knew well: Titcher, Tobias, Alicia, Jenufer, Brodie and the climbing-boys, many more besides. All had lost their lives at Thurstan's hands or at his instigation.

*There was no theft, sir. I gave the locket to Eppie.'

Looking around at having heard that loved voice, hardly could she suppress her thrill at seeing Gabriel. About him was a weary, slightly dusty look. They gazed upon one another, each aware of the torment felt by the other, their vulnerability.

*Why would you do that?' du Quesne asked. *Was there,' he wondered, *a possibility that Hix was speaking the truth? Why has Gabriel always been so amiable with Eppie Dunham?' Unwillingly, he forced himself to stare long and hard at Eppie. There was something about her, that pensive look he saw so often in his son. He had always dismissed it.

Scoured by exhaustion, Eppie could not refrain from showing in her face the truth. She dragged her eyes away from her father's piercing stare.

*Your lordship, about my money,' Mr Blower wheedled, having become weary of waiting in the office.

*Blast your money, sir!'

Mortified that his cousin should catch him in this predicament, Thurstan peeled himself off the floor and hastened away; half crawling and half running towards the mill doors.

Mr Blower, not seeming to be getting anywhere with Robert du Quesne who, besides, no longer deserved his goodwill, pursued the magistrate, hopping first this side of him and then the other.

*Hix!' du Quesne bawled. *I want no more lost time; get these mules up and running.'

*I will escort you home,' Mr Grimley told Rowan. *Too much excitement is not good for the heart.'

Rowan cast a loving glance at Gabriel, and he upon her, and then allowed herself to be borne away.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR.

A TENUOUS THREAD SNAPPED.

Dismal and defeated, Eppie stood alone. Women and children returned to their work, the men to the street.

*That was some show, Genevieve du Quesne.'

Tenderness flowed through her as she faced Gabriel for the first time as her brother.

Machines thundered.

*Let's go into the office,' he said. *It'll be quieter.'

He slumped into Mr Grimley's chair. *I must apologise for my unkempt appearance. Twice I was thrown out of my lodgings for not paying the rent. Added to that, I'm feeling pretty miserable. When I arrived in Malstowe yesterday I went straight to Rowan and asked her to marry me.'

Although Eppie still shook from the spectacle of those long, sad faces and the sight of the bulging sinews and veins on Squire Bulwar's old, strong arm as he reached through the haze of cotton dust towards Thurstan, she managed a smile. *I'm so happy for you.'

*I wouldn't be.'

*Rowan can't have refused?'

*Quite the reverse.'

*So what's the problem?'

*Father. He said his good friend Squire Obadiah Bulwar would never have allowed the marriage and nor, therefore, will he. I know father detests malicious gossip and would hate to admit that his daughter-in-law spent her early childhood in a poorhouse, but I think he ought to judge Rowan on her finer qualities. Even Mrs Bulwar has a predilection for her great-granddaughter. I don't know, Eppie. I feel so helpless.'

Du Quesne stood beside the open window in the engine room, gazing upon the river. *I will not allow myself to imagine that wretch Eppie Dunham to be my daughter,' he thought. *Besides, if I did, I would be crediting Wakelin Dunham with a brain. He stole my wood, but any numbskull is able to pick up a few fallen branches. The man would not have the wit to steal a child.'

He stared at Talia's portrait, feeling gored with remorse for the harsh way he had treated her, as though her infliction had been of her own making. He straightened his shoulders. *I will not succumb to any show of weakness.'

So preoccupied was he with his thoughts, he failed to notice that Thurstan had entered the machine room and was shouting above the battering engine. *Sir, I must speak with you!'

Infuriated by the gormless expression on his uncle's face, Thurstan persisted, *The matter needs your urgent attention.'

*Attention?' du Quesne repeated vacantly, looking up at his nephew.

*Blower has accused you of using forged money to purchase the steam engine.'

With a jolt, du Quesne came back to reality, amazed at what he was hearing. *Forged? That was your money.'

*Mine?'

*The money you loaned me after the last disastrous harvest.'

*Are you accusing me of underhand dealings? I would have thought better of you.'

*Better of me?' Du Quesne grew damp with rage. *I made that settlement in good faith. I refuse to pay the man a second time.'

*I see no hope for you, Uncle. You have slandered my good name. That I will never forgive. I insist that you relinquish Tunnygrave Manor to me. Then I will see what I can do about getting you off the charge of forgery.'

*Never will I do such a thing! Ever since you and that deranged mother of yours came to live with me I have lavished money on you. I have been proud of you like a father would be of a fine, upstanding son. At the back of my mind, though, I have always had a gnawing feeling, expecting you to lower yourself to such an underhand scheme.'

*What else is a good education for? Throwing money at me always was your way of assuaging your culpability. I hate you for what you did to my father.'

*I advised Charles, that was all.'

*It was advice that led to his death. Before I have you incarcerated alongside your odorous associate, Grim, there is one other thing that you should know. For years I have known that Eppie Dunham is your daughter.'

Du Quesne gaped in disbelief at what he was hearing.

Enjoying his supremacy over his uncle, Thurstan sought to prolong the man's distress. *On the night of Genevieve's birth I could not abide to be indoors, having to listen to Aunt Constance's screams. Such pitiful weakness. So I took a bottle of brandy to the folly, to while away the hours. Towards dawn I was returning home when I chanced to see someone emerge from the priests' tunnel that leads from the manor.'

*What tunnel? I know of no such place.'

*Aunt Constance clearly had the sense not to let you in on all of her family's secrets, for which I give her credit.

*You like to think that you kept Talia confined to the house. However, I know that she often stole off along the tunnel. I used to watch her standing upon the arch with her arms outstretched, her face to the sun, as though she were willing herself to fly away from you.

*This time, though, I saw a sly fellow creeping across the arch. In his arms he carried a bundle. It was obvious that he'd been stealing from the manor. I trailed him to the medieval granary. By then I was having second thoughts. It was because of you that my father lost his wealth. It would serve you right to lose some of your valuables. It was months later that I realised Wakelin Dunham had actually stolen Genevieve.

*Now I insist that you hand over the locket. I should hate to miss this opportunity to have your daughter hung.'

*You stood up to father when he was about to hang Wakelin,' Eppie reasoned with Gabriel. *You can stand up to him again.'

*That's easier said than done.'

*You must have faith in yourself. What does it matter if he casts you out? Nothing is more important than love.'

*I suppose I shouldn't let father wield such power over me.'

*So you'll tell him you intend to wed Rowan?'

*Well, I would've liked to have married her.'

*Then you will, muttonhead. '

*I can't see how.'

*Because you are already married to her.'

*I am?'

*If you make-believe something has already happened it can make it come true. I tried it with Mr Grimley when Lottie needed somewhere safe to go during the day. Say to yourself that you have already asked your father, and he has agreed. It'll make you feel confident.'

*I will tell him.'

*When?'

*Tonight.'

*Now.'

*Now?'

*Now.'

Gabriel pushed back the chair and rose to his feet. *I'll do it.'

She grinned as he strode purposefully away, not lingering to cast a backward glance of doubt.

Gabriel was disturbed, yet intrigued, to see a fierce argument going on between his father and Thurstan, fists flailing as they fought over Talia's locket. *Father!'

Hearing Gabriel's shout, Thurstan momentarily glanced round.

To protect his daughter's life, du Quesne was determined that the locket would not fall into his nephew's hands. Hastening towards the window, he cast it into the river.

Consumed with anger at its loss, Thurstan grasped the sill of the window and leant forward.

Something grey and shapeless, like a mass of rotting leaves, ripped through the water. Draped in lacy tatters, a skeletal arm reached up, its fingers curling around the locket as it sank.

Stupefied, Thurstan stared at the gaping hole where Talia's nose would have been, at her cheeks, once rosy, now fallen into decay. Before the phantom plunged to the depths, he beheld a transformation: her face radiant, the way he remembered.

In the tussle, Talia's lock of hair had floated to the floor. Like a man obsessed, her father picked it up and stroked the ringlet. He was filled with misgiving. Living in a world of his own making he had repeated his father's mistakes. His single-minded, uncompromising nature had made him uncooperative, exiled from those he loved, fearful of the vulnerability of exposing his feelings to those for whom he most cared. Too quickly he had waged into battle like an army commander. His rashness had lost him the war, but there was still time. He had always been so hard on Gabriel. It was time to shatter that part of his character, the strong exterior that masked his inner turmoil. It was necessary to lose his sense of self in order to find himself. If Thurstan was about to throw him into jail, what had he to lose by pouring out his heart, of letting go?

*Father, I have decided, I shall marry Rowan! Nothing you can say will stop me.'

Grim with grief, du Quesne meekly nodded his consent.

*You agree?' Gabriel said, paralysed with surprise.

Swinging round in fury, Thurstan cried, *Rowan is to marry me. All is arranged.'

*She abhors the sight of you!' Gabriel cried.

*What would she want you for? You can hardly call yourself a man. Overwhelmed by feelings of inferiority, you wish only for a wife to care for you as though you are a child.'

*It is true that I lack a high opinion of myself. That hardly disqualifies me from being a loving husband. But you, my narcissist cousin, are driven by evil, with no more love in you for others than a speck of dust.' Wild with despair, he made to strike Thurstan. *I say you shall not marry Rowan!'

Mr Grimley hurriedly let himself into the office by the yard door. *Something earlier.'

Eppie had remained in the office, waiting for Gabriel's news. She wondered at the mill manager's grave expression.

*Something Thurstan mentioned to his lordship. He has found out that Wakelin Dunham is going to lead an attack on the mill. Did you know about this?'

*Forgive me for not disclosing it to you. I had hoped that I could reason with my father, so that the wreckers would not attack the mill. Now I've failed, I was going to tell you. You must be careful, Mr Grimley.'

*It is not my safety that I am concerned about. Thurstan said he was sending one of his men to the knacker's yard to arrest Wakelin. It does not sound good.'

*I must go to Wakelin and warn him, although I may already be too late.'

Dextrously, Thurstan ducked and parried blows, laughing coldly at Gabriel's flaccidity. *Batting out like this, you are weaker than a brew of milky tea.' A brutal look upon his face, he forced Gabriel towards the thunderous strapping.

His skull slammed against the smooth sharpness of metal beside the engine's drive wheel, Gabriel cried out in pain, gripped by a horror that his brain would be spilt. Fighting for his life, he lashed out wildly.