*One rainy night, when my aunt must have been sheltering in here, the star fell through the rotten roof and killed her. Her body was not discovered for days because no one really missed her. I overheard Doctor Burndread telling father that her skull had been smashed in. I never liked Aunt Zelda. She used to creep up on me whilst I was studying at my desk and pretend to snip my hair with her fingers. Once, when I heard her arguing with my cousin, Thurstan, I peeped through the keyhole into her bedchamber. I saw her piercing her head with a knife and ripping out hairs from the puncture wounds. After glaring at each hair, she would strike and bite off the roots as though she were decapitating an enemy.

*Whilst we were dining, father spotted the bald patches on her scalp. They'd become infected and swollen. He asked her what was ailing her. She said that each evening a vampire bat flew out of father's study, called the Brown Room, and attacked her. He forbade her from partaking of future meals with the family. Father wanted to put her in an asylum. Thurstan told him that he'd already sent his father to his death and he did not want to lose his mother as well, though I think it was more that Thurstan enjoyed seeing my aunt vex my father. Would you like to see my tree house?'

*You have a tree house! How wonderful!'

*You won't have been in the wood this side of the river,' Gabriel said as they spurted across the woodland floor, their feet kicking up fallen leaves. *Villagers aren't allowed in here. This is where Thurstan and my father shoot deer. I hate the killing.'

*I hate it when Wakelin tells me about how the men bait the badgers.'

A magnificent ancient oak stood in the middle of a clearing.

Eppie clapped in delight. *His trunk's a bull with bulging eyes. That twig's a pipe sticking out of his mouth.' Over their heads swept a stout, curved branch. *I could crawl along that.' She pressed her ear to the mossy trunk, listening for the spiritual life throbbing within. *I can hear his heart beating.'

*I was reading one of father's documents in the library. It said that this tree has been pollarded for hundreds of years. That's why it's this odd shape. It was planted in the twelfth century, at the time of the crusades. I call it the Crusader Oak.'

*I've found his tongue!'

*This fungi looks like beefsteak.' Gabriel fetched out a rusty pocketknife and slashed the smooth, reddish fungi. Juice spurted from the cut.

Eppie poked fungi growing on a branch which had fallen within a clump of enchanter's nightshade. *These are cramp balls. When I was little I thought they were brown buns and ate one. I like the wavy skirts on these horns of plenty.'

*I'm beginning to think you know as much about woodland life as I do.' He sighed sadly. *Well, I'd better go home.'

*What about your den?'

*I forgot. Quick, see if you can find the way in.'

Clumps of fern grew in rotting parts of the bark. Eppie wrenched them aside. *There's no way in.'

*Try there.'

*A hole!'

*Squeeze in.'

*By, it's dark n' spooky.'

*Feel for a rooty sort of branch that sticks out.'

*Got it!'

*It goes up inside the tree. There are handholds. I'll come behind, should you fall. Ouch! Watch where you're putting your feet; you've just crushed my fingers.'

*Sorry!'

She scrambled onto the flattened area within the tree. *It's like Wakelin's loft. It's even got his tiny window.' She peered through the opening where a branch had been hacked centuries ago. In the distance the river pounded.

Fetching down a tin, he passed her a biscuit. *I keep a good supply of victuals for when I come here, wishing to be alone. Make yourself comfortable, my lady.'

She sank onto a heap of green velvet cushions. *Does anyone else know about your lair?'

*When Talia was alive, she and I sometimes sneaked off here when we knew father would not catch us. Thurstan played here when he was a boy. He and his mother came to live with us after the death of Uncle Charles. My father encouraged Uncle Charles to invest in a shipping company owned by a man called Jared Grimley. The company traded in diamonds, lapis lazuli and other precious stones. Jared was married to Augusta, Lady Bulwar's only daughter. After pirates attacked the ship, murdering all aboard, including Jared and Augusta, the company collapsed. Uncle Charles went bankrupt and committed suicide.

*I think father feels guilty about the death of my uncle so he goes overboard to please Thurstan. I'm pretty sure that Thurstan hates father, though it doesn't stop him bothering him when he wants something. Father bought him Bullet, a thoroughbred black stallion. He even gave him the money to buy The Rogues' Inn in Litcombe.'

*Wakelin says Thurstan is horrid to him.'

*Prince Ferdinand once became stuck on a branch. He'd gouged his paw. I climbed out of this window to rescue him. Thurstan must've trailed me into the woods. He was in one of his vile moods. He shouted that he'd soon have my cat down, and hurled a stone. It must've hit me because the next thing I knew it was nightfall and I found myself sprawled over the branch like a tiger in the jungle.'

*Why hadn't anyone come to look for you?'

*Thurstan had lied to my parents, telling them I was sick in my room and didn't want to be disturbed. My clothes were damp from the drizzle. I couldn't stop shaking as I climbed down. I was terrified of finding my cat dead, like the time I found Genevieve, my sister, dead. Luckily, Prince Ferdinand had tumbled onto a vixen's bed of dry bracken. I had often seen your grandfather tend sick sheep, and he had once cared for Prince Ferdinand as a kitten, after father had tried to drown him. So I took my cat to him. He made him better. Ever since that time I have been afraid to climb trees.'

Eppie tried to cheer him. *If you like I've got some blackberries in my basket.'

*I'll fetch them.' He was glad of something to do to distract him from his unhappy thoughts.

She was unscrewing the ivory mounts of the boxwood flute when he crawled back up. *I'd love to play the flute.'

*I like to play the flute because it makes it seem as though I live in Talia's world, a magical place where only agreeable things happen to me.' He reddened, self-conscious that his words might seem whimsical, suggestive that he lived purely in the realms of fantasy. *I could teach you to play the flute, if you like.'

*No!'

*Why not?'

*My pa's a weaver.'

*Why should that be an impediment?'

*I'm too small.'

*I began when I was little.'

She smiled brightly. *Well, all right, if you're sure. Who teaches you the flute?'

*Mrs Hester Grimley. Occasionally, mother and I visit her and her husband in Malstowe. They live in an odd house. It is built on a bridge.'

*I thought your mam was stuck in bed.'

*Agnes, my former nursemaid, is mother's sick-aid. She helps push mother about in a wheeled chair.'

Eppie wafted midges. *A fly's landed on my blackberry.'

*Higher up there's a bat roost. The bats eat thousands of flying insects. Last spring, there were four wren eggs in a nest outside this branch-window. The fledglings were brave, swooping off for the first time. One became so tame that it would perch on my hand when I whistled to him.' He took a blackberry and stared blankly at it in his palm. *When Thurstan returned from Oxford he whistled my tune and the wren flew to him. All the way back to the stockyard I shouted at him to let it go. He chopped its head off with a cleaver.'

*Why would he do such a nasty thing to a sweet little cutty?'

*The wren is the king of the birds. It is sacred and may only be killed on Saint Stephen's Day. Through the act of butchering it, Thurstan became the lord of the year, prevailing over all men. It gave him an excuse to be as callous as he liked towards others.'

*Is that why you was crying? Had your cousin been bullying ya?'

*You must think me feeble-minded to allow myself to become so distraught.'

*Not a bit.'

*Mother says Thurstan is mean to me because he's jealous of me. This morning I took a basting from father after he checked my arithmetic answers and found they were wrong. When I returned to my chamber I looked at my work and realised that my original work had been torn out. On a fresh sheet Thurstan had written the answers incorrectly. He had even made blots with his quill like I do.'

*You ought to tell your pa.'

*He would say I was making it up to be horrid to Thurstan. He knows that I do not like him.'

*It must be awful being schooled.'

*Not everything's bad. Doctor Burndread is a natural philosopher. I like him teaching me about the ways of animals.'

Deep in the woodland a man yelled, *Gabriel, where are you?'

*Thurstan!' Gabriel was horrified to think how late he must be for his studies.

Pelting off, the children soon reached Shivering Falls. A gang of men and boys hung around the plunge pool, circles of water springing from their onslaught of stones. They wore striped blue and yellow jackets, waistcoats and caps. Most were barefoot, trousers rolled over their knees. Some knelt beside the pool, ducking their heads.

Aiming to get a closer look, the children dived for cover behind a willow. Her hand resting upon Gabriel's elbow, Eppie peered, cautiously. Sunlight gleamed on metal around the men's ankles. *Shackles! It's the prisoners!'

Clutching a musket, the guard stood upon the boulder where Gabriel had played the flute.

A stocky, bald prisoner, a scar down his cheek, glared at the guard. *Go on, Boyle, it's sweltering. I could do with a dip.'

The guard was a tall, stooping man, with a gaunt, ascetic face. *What do you take me for, Jag? A dullin? You'd run the moment I took your shackles off. Not that you'd get far with that limp.'

*Mam told me to keep away from them.'

*Let's run through the woodland. We'll come out near your cottage.'

They were creeping away when a dog raced up.

*It's Twiss! Pa must've sent him to fetch me. He's going right up to them!'

Twiss rolled onto his back at the feet of a freckle-faced boy.

Jaggery approached the dog. *Poor ol' dog, yer brain must be jellied-meat in this heat. Tell ya what'll cool ya!' A muscular man, he easily scooped Twiss off his paws, and hurled him.

The dog hit the water with a tremendous splash. Frantically, he paddled back to land.

Spray flew over the amused prisoners as he shook himself.

Picking up a familiar scent, the dog padded towards Eppie. Before he had got far, Jaggery grabbed him, *Like this, don't ya, ya miserable doggy.' Twiss wriggled and whined, trying to shake the man off, to no avail.

Once more, churning waters boiled over Twiss's body.

Afraid to go forward, to where the prisoners stood laughing at him, he attempted to clamber up the steep side of the pool. The rocks were slippery, his plight hopeless.

Eppie was desperate. *I must help him!'

Tiring fast, Twiss slid back, his head submerging time and again.

Gabriel stared into her stricken face. *The guard will do something.'

*He ain't!' She shook off his hand and dashed forward.

*Eppie, come back, it's dangerous!'

At the moment she ran, a slim, brown-haired man, who had sat alone, clambered along the rocks to where the dog floundered.

Jaggery laughed loud and ugly. *That's right, Scattergood, heave him out so I can give him another dip in this midge-infested puddle.'

Skidding to a stop before Jaggery, Eppie stamped her foot. *Oy, just you stop it! Twiss is my brother's dog.'

Jaggery was startled by Eppie's sudden appearance. *What've we got here, a wood goblin?'

Sam Scattergood set Twiss onto his paws, and the dog shook himself. *Do as the girl says, Jag.'

Jaggery was not one to willingly take orders. Twiss whimpered as he grabbed him by the scruff again.

*Come on, Jag, the dog's had enough,' Boyle said.

*Has he? Then what about the girl?'

Before she knew what was happening, Eppie felt herself whisked into the air. Pressed against the prisoner's chest she tasted his sour sweat.

Sam made to wrest her away from the hateful man. Twiss bounded about, afraid to attack.

Gabriel picked up courage and ran forward. Joining in the fray, he kicked Jaggery's shins. *Let her go you, you pit-bull terrier!'

Jaggery grabbed Gabriel by the back of his lace collar. *I'll drown the both of ya.'

Robert du Quesne crashed through the woodland on Ranger, his grey stallion. *Unhand my boy!'

Jaggery took one startled look at this awesome man, his self-important, domineering presence, and released his grasp.

Huddled around, the prisoners stared nervously at the butt of a pocket pistol projecting from du Quesne's silver embroidered waistcoat.

*Where have you been, boy?' du Quesne demanded. *I do not pay Absolom Burndread to sit twiddling his fingers. After your lessons you can expect a severe beating from me.'

Thurstan galloped up on his black horse. Checking that his uncle was not looking, he took his foot from a stirrup and, as his cousin trudged by, dealt him a kick on the shoulder.

Wincing in pain, Gabriel stole a glance back at Eppie.

She knew by his slight nod that, no matter what, they would soon be together again.