The Hourglass Running

Alice Nutter returned to the Rough Lee. The herbalist was waiting for her with the poppet.

‘Now do you believe me?’

Alice nodded. She was shaking. She did not tell her about the head. ‘Will you help me?’

Together they packed the chest with silver and clothes, and had the stable boys load it onto a cart hitched to the herbalist’s donkey, and away she went with money to take two horses and a coach to Manchester the next morning.

Alice secured her jewels and cash and deeds of deposit in a soft leather bag and hid the bag in the passage that connected her study and bedroom. She took several vials of liquid from her cupboard, and as she did so, she saw Edward Kelley’s letter where she had put it on the day that it burned.

She took it out.

And if thou callest him, like unto an angel of the north wearing a dark costume, he will hear thee and come to thee. Yet meet him where he may be met – at the Daylight Gate.

She put the letter inside her dress.

Then she opened a small box and took out a tiny mirror. The mirror had a silver rim and a silver back and its glass was made of mercury. This was the mirror that John Dee had given her.

There was one thing left: the vial of elixir.

She went to bed. She turned her hourglass to start its running. She would rise by 2 a.m. and be gone before three o’clock.