The Daylight Gate

Stand on the flat top of Pendle Hill and you can see everything of the county of Lancashire. Some say you can see other things too. This is a haunted place. The living and the dead come together on the hill.

Alice knew she was being followed. Let them follow her. They would not come too near.

She heard wings. She held out her arm. It was her bird. He scarred her arm where she had no glove but she did not care because she loved him and she knew that love leaves a wound that leaves a scar.

She had the letter from Edward Kelley. Yet meet him where he may be met – at the Daylight Gate.

‘I have come,’ she said.

For a while nothing happened. The mist that wraps the hill close like a cloak was up to the belly of her pony. She dismounted and stood holding the reins. There was no sound. It was as if the hill was listening.

Then she saw a shape coming towards her. Hooded. Swift. Her heart was beating hard. The falcon flew up into a blasted tree.

The figure stopped a few feet away from Alice and threw back its hood. It was John Dee.

‘I did not expect to see you,’ said Alice.

‘Who were you expecting?’

‘I have a letter . . . from Edward . . .’

‘One of his summoning spirits, I expect,’ said John Dee. ‘None such can help you now.’

‘Are you alive?’ said Alice.

John Dee shook his head. ‘Not as you are. We are standing on a strip of time, what the Catholics call Limbo – in between the worlds of the living and the dead.’

‘Am I dead then?’ said Alice.

‘I am here to set you free. Your body is a shell. Leave it behind. Give me your hand. Let them find your shell abandoned on the ground. They can do nothing to your body once you have deprived them of your Soul.’

‘I never believed in the Soul,’ said Alice.

‘Still stubborn,’ said John Dee.

‘Where is Christopher? Is he safe?’

‘He is in your house at Bankside.’

Alice Nutter smiled. Then he was safe. He would set sail. ‘And Elizabeth?’

‘It is too late for Elizabeth. It was too late long ago.’

‘Release her from that rotting place.’

‘I cannot. Nor can you. There is nothing you can do now, Alice. It is time to go.’

John Dee held out his hand.

She stood in the mist and the failing light. There were only two people she cared about. Christopher was safe. She would never see him again, she knew. Elizabeth was left behind.

She whistled. Her falcon came reluctantly and landed with her on that thin strip of time. She took the gold ring from her finger and fastened it to the bird’s foot. ‘Find him,’ she said. ‘Tell him I cannot come.’

Out of the mist she could hear voices. They were near. John Dee held out his hand like a fiery branch. All she had to do was touch the fire and the prophecy would be ended. She would not burn at the stake. She would be free.

She shook her head. She put her foot into the stirrup and swung up onto her pony. She would not let Elizabeth go.

Love is as strong as death.