The Dancing Floor

ONE

They have no definite approaches, but wander about in circular side-tracks, and most savage monsters are concealed in their labyrinth of deception.

HENRY, ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX

It was still dark outside when I woke, sweat-soaked and shaking after another of those awful dreams. The plot changed nightly, the danger differed, but the theme was always the same; a desperate attempt to reach him, through fire or flood or some other monstrous menace, before it happened. Sometimes I saw him, smiling and unaware, deaf to my screams of warning, just before the wave broke or the flames engulfed him. Sometimes he had seen the danger and turned a tormented face toward me, crying out for help, as I beat vainly at the barrier that separated us.

Sometimes she was there, sometimes she wasn’t. But I could always feel her presence, watching and waiting.

My groping hand found the light switch. It took me a while to remember where I was—what hotel, what town, what country. There had been so many different rooms. They were all more or less alike, whether the furniture was imitation Chippendale or imitation Danish modern. This one was imitation Elizabethan, with fake beams across the ceiling and a bed draped with imitation hangings that didn’t actually open and close.

I had learned how to fight the lingering horror of the dream by concentrating fiercely on prosaic details like those, and by playing back, like a recorded tape, the memories of how I had got to…the Witches’ Roost Inn, in the village of Malkin in the county of Lancashire in the country of England. It was getting harder and harder to place myself. I had covered a lot of territory in the past three weeks.

We had planned to start from London, and that was where I began, in the quiet church in Lambeth. It was a museum now, and part of the churchyard had been laid out as a garden. We always assume the sun will be shining when we’re on vacation, but it was raining that day, not hard, just a slow gray drizzle like tears. The little garden had a softer kind of beauty in that misty air. The bulbs made a brave show, crimson tulips and blue scilla, narcissi yellow as sunshine. The gray stone sarcophagus looked less incongruous in that setting than one might have supposed. It was carved with designs as exotic as any that ever graced the coffin of an Egyptian pharaoh—crocodiles, dragons, temples. I sat on the edge of the fountain for quite some time while the rain straightened my hair and darkened the shoulders of my raincoat. There was no one else there. No one at all.

Hampton Court, Winchester Castle, Hatfield House; London to Surrey to Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset and Wilts, and then east, into Suffolk and Norfolk before heading north to my present location. Not from stately home to stately home, though I had seen a few; it was the gardens I sought, the old gardens. I had followed with dogged persistence the route we had planned, driving long miles every day and falling exhausted into bed every night, each time in a different hotel. (Not tired enough to sleep without dreaming, though.) I had avoided the smaller inns and the bed and breakfasts. They were too cosy. I didn’t want to be welcomed like a friend, or chatted up by ye hoste and hostesse.

This inne was smaller than I would have liked, but I had had no choice; it was the only hotel in town. The town was smaller than I would have preferred too; I had planned to spend the night in Manchester, but the events of the afternoon had left me too shaken to go on—first the disappointment of being refused admittance to the place I had come so far to see, and then the accident and its unpleasant consequences.

The accident wasn’t my fault. Admittedly I was in a bad mood because I had been turned away from the gates of Troytan House so unceremoniously—not even by a person, but by a brusque electronic voice. I had known the place wasn’t open to the public, but the anonymous voice hadn’t even given me a chance to explain what I wanted and why. It roused all my worst instincts, which were in the ascendant anyhow, so I headed for the nearest village, thinking I would have tea and try to decide whether to give it up or make another attempt the following day.

It was a small town, and the narrow High Street was congested. As I later learned, it was market day. This, and the fact that I was an American, convinced despite all evidence to the contrary that I was driving on the wrong side of the road, made me proceed with caution. When the boy darted out in front of me I slammed on the brakes, and was thrown forward against the wheel when the car behind rear-ended me.

I hardly felt the jolt; I was too busy looking for the kid, praying I hadn’t hit him. When I saw him standing safe on the sidewalk, conspicuous in his bright blue sweater, I was so relieved I felt sick. Then I saw his face. He wasn’t hurt or frightened. He was grinning broadly, and he was looking straight at me.

He appeared to be about twelve, or, if he was small for his age, thirteen. His sweater, of a particularly garish shade of bright, electric blue, and his gray wool pants might have been a school uniform. He was a nice-looking boy, with a shock of fair hair and features that were probably regular and attractive when they weren’t distorted by that ugly smile. It fattened his cheeks and narrowed his eyes, and I knew, as surely as if I had read his mind, that he had deliberately run out in front of the car—playing chicken, or trying to scare me.

Traffic had stopped and people were gathering around my car and the other vehicle whose bumper appeared to be attached to mine. Ignoring the profane shouts of the other driver, I headed for the boy.

I suppose he had expected sympathy and apologies. The expression on my face must have told him he wasn’t going to get either, but he was slow to react, and I had had a lot of practice dealing with smart-ass twelve year olds. I grabbed him by the shoulder.

He struggled and swore. I had expected that, and had no trouble holding on. I only meant to lecture him, and maybe shake him a little, until he bent his head and sank his teeth into my hand.

My reaction was pure reflex. It was just a slap, it couldn’t have hurt him as much as those sharp white teeth were hurting me, but he screamed as if I had stabbed him.

A nasty scene ensued, as they say. The first to arrive was his mum. I deduced as much from the fact that the boy, still screaming, flung himself into her outstretched arms, though she looked awfully young to be the mother of a child that old. She was a tiny woman, not much taller than the boy, with a fashionably emaciated figure set off by tight pants and fitted jacket. Her smooth, fair-skinned face would have been pretty if it hadn’t been distorted by rage. She added her screams to his, accusing me of everything from child abuse to assault and battery.

I tried to apologize. I wasn’t exactly proud of what I had done, and the crowd that had gathered made me uneasy. Mum finally ran out of breath, but the broken ejaculations that succeeded her shouts made it clear that she wasn’t buying my excuses.

Then a man in the front row of the spectators cleared his throat. It ain’t the first time he done that, Miz Betancourt. Who’s gonna pay for my fender I’d like to know?

He was a big man, who would have made two of her, but when she looked directly at him his eyes shifted and he said no more. The spectators began to drift away and mum, with a last blistering glance at me, put a protective arm around the boy and walked off. He glanced over his shoulder and smirked at me.

The owner of the dented fender remained. I lost the ensuing argument. No witnesses stepped forward to support my suggestion that maybe he had been following me too closely. After I offered to exchange insurance information, or whatever the procedure might be, he gave me a squinty-eyed look, and realization dawned. He wanted money. Call it settling out of court, call it a bribe, by that time I didn’t care. I had a splitting headache and a sick sensation of isolation, the way a new kid in school feels, surrounded by indifferent or mocking strangers. I handed over fifty pounds, and checked into the hotel.

The Witches’ Roost. I’d seen Queen’s Heads and Boar’s Heads and Green Men and other quaint names, but never a witch’s anything. It must refer to some local legend, since several shops had similar names—The Witches’ Cauldron (a restaurant?) and The Witch House. I wasn’t moved to investigate; I was too anxious to get under cover, away from the unfriendly faces and hostile looks.

I couldn’t get away from my accusing conscience so easily. I had never laid a hand on any of my students. I had never even been tempted to do so. I prided myself on my ability to handle trouble-makers, and small-town Midwest schools are still pretty safe. I ought to have been able to control myself.

A boy that age shouldn’t be biting people, though. He was no street kid, scratching for survival; mum’s accent had been refined, if her vocabulary had not. I inspected my hand. His teeth had broken the skin in a couple of places, so I washed and sprayed the abrasions with antiseptic. Some people would say it served me right if they got infected.

Since I didn’t want to go out I was pleased to discover that the hotel had room service. I ordered a club sandwich and a glass of milk, and checked my chocolate supply—adequate, since I had stocked up the day before. It wasn’t until after the waiter had come and gone that I realized I had nothing to read. I had intended to pick up a thriller or a romance, something light and distracting, but the near-accident made me forget. Too late now; the shops would be closed. That was probably true, even if it wasn’t my real reason for not wanting to leave the room. The mounting loneliness of the past weeks had come to a climax. Loneliness has nothing to do with being alone. Sometimes you’re more aware of it in a crowd than when you’re by yourself.

I watched television for a while and then got ready for bed. By then I wanted a book the way some people want a drink, or a chocolate bar—the latter of which I had. For years I had been accustomed to reading myself to sleep. TV was not an acceptable substitute. Looking through a pile of brochures and local magazines the hotel had thoughtfully provided, I found a slim paperback book.

The Pendle Witches.

So there was a local legend. The book had been privately printed; flipping through it I saw photographs of houses in various stages of decay, and a woodcut that showed several people hanging from a gibbet. Not pleasant fare, but it was the printed word. I propped the pillows behind me and opened the book.

By this devilish Art of Witchcraft his head is drawne awrie, his Eyes and face deformed, His speech not well to be understood, his Thighes and Legges starke lame, his Armes lame especially the left side, his handes lame and turned out of their course, his Bodie able to induce no travell.

The victim was one John Law, an itinerant pedlar. On March 18, 1612, he encountered a girl named Alizon Device, who asked him for some pins. When he refused, there came to her a black dog which asked, ‘What wouldst thou have me to do unto yonder man?’ ‘Lame him!’ she said; and before the unfortunate Law had gone a hundred yards he fell to the ground speechless and paralyzed.

So began the infamous Lancashire Witch Craze, which was to end in the death of a dozen innocent people. The victims included Alizon’s brother, mother and aged grandmother.

To a modern reader with the most casual knowledge of medicine it is clear that the unfortunate pedlar had suffered a stroke. In the early seventeenth century the cause of his affliction was equally obvious. Witchcraft! As everyone in Pendle Forest knew, Alizon came from a family of witches.

Elizabeth Southerns, known as Old Demdike, was the matriarch of the clan. She was a very olde woman, about the age of Fourescore years, and had been a witch for fiftie yeares. In 1609 under her guidance her son James and her daughter Elizabeth had sold themselves to the Powers of Evil. A year or so later young Alizon, her teenage granddaughter, had sworn allegiance to the Devil and received a familiar—the Black Dog with whose aid she had cursed John Law.

The Devices were not the only family of witches in Pendle. In fact, as some of them pointed out, they had resorted to black magic in order to defend themselves against their rivals—Anne Whittle, familiarly known as Chattox, her daughter Alice and the latter’s husband. Ironically the two aged women—for Chattox was also in her eighties—may have shared the same cell in Lancaster Castle….

It was at that point that I had stopped reading. The story was new to me, but I had read about the Salem witches and other cases, and I could anticipate how this one would end—the trial, the wild accusations, the unjust, inhuman sentence. I wasn’t even thinking about it when I fell asleep. However, I guess it isn’t surprising that the dream should have taken the form it did: the stake, the faggots piled high around him, the gloating smile on the face of the woman who held a torch, ready to light the pyre.

One of the worst ones yet, that dream. I wiped the cold sweat off my face and looked at the clock on the bedside table. Twenty minutes past five. I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, but I kept seeing faces—the highway robber’s inimical glare, the kid’s grin, the mother’s distorted mouth and wild eyes. Ugly faces, ugly people.

My own ugly mind, rather. It had warped and spoiled everything I had seen since I arrived.

We had planned the trip together, poring over maps and guidebooks, discussing the best route from Sussex to Scotland, locating each stately home and historic garden. Now even the memories of those hours together were tainted. I had been a sentimental fool to suppose that this would be a way of sharing. You can’t share life with the dead.

Sleep was impossible. I got out of bed, plugged in the electric kettle and dumped a packet of instant coffee into a cup. No restaurant would be open at this hour, but coffee and the tasteless biscuits the hotel had supplied would get me moving—not farther north, toward the next stop on the long dreamed-of itinerary, but back to London. It was time to abandon this pathetic pilgrimage and go…Home? There was no such place, not any longer. It didn’t matter where I went, so long as it was someplace he had never been or dreamed of seeing. Money was no problem. I had been spending it hand over fist, but there was plenty left.

A drowsy receptionist checked me out and unlocked the front door. The young woman obviously didn’t give a damn where I was going or why I was checking out at such a peculiar hour. She didn’t offer to help with my luggage either. There are some advantages to being husky and big-boned; one is not dependent on the kindness of strangers, a commodity that appears to be in short supply these days. The suitcases weren’t heavy. I saw no one abroad as I walked down the dark street toward the town lot, where I had left my car.

As I drove out of town the spire of the church showed black against the graying sky, like a giant’s arm raised to strike. The sun would be up shortly. Perfect timing. It was light enough for me to see where I was going but the occupants of Troytan House wouldn’t be stirring for another hour or so.

I had decided not to risk another rebuff from the gateman, but there was nothing to prevent me from walking around the perimeter of the estate and maybe, if I was lucky, getting a glimpse of the grounds through a back gate or a gap in the high metal fence. I just wanted to say I had seen it. It was the culmination of the trip we had planned, and it would be my last stop—a final gesture to memory before I turned my back on it and on the past.

The dawn light darkened again when I turned into a sunken lane lined with high hedges. I encountered no other vehicles, but I had to swerve to avoid an animal that darted across the road. I hadn’t identified the creature; it had been only a blur of brownish-orange, and a flash of glowing eyes. A badger? A cat? If so, it had been a very large cat.

I passed the gate without stopping; paired lanterns on the stone gateposts shone brightly, but there was no other sign of life. A quarter of a mile farther on, I turned off the road onto the track I had spotted the previous day. Unpaved and stubbly with weeds, it followed the line of the fence that enclosed the estate. It was a formidable structure, close-set steel bars topped with spikes, and it looked new. From what I had heard about the present owner he liked his privacy and could afford to ensure it.

I had no intention of trying to climb that fence. Mind you, I could have. It wouldn’t have been easy, but it could have been done. All I wanted was a look inside.

After I was far enough from the road so that the car could not be seen, I stopped. I was wearing jeans and heavy walking shoes, and a denim jacket with big pockets. Stowing my camera in one pocket, and my keys in another, I locked the car and started off along the track. The sun was still below the horizon but there was enough light for me to see where I was going. Unfortunately I couldn’t see anything inside the fence; shrubs and/or the walls of various buildings blocked my view.

It must have rained during the night, though I hadn’t been aware of it. The ground was soft under my feet and the breeze carried the delicate scent of wet green leaves and clean air, and something I couldn’t identify—a faint flower fragrance, like blackberry blossoms. The wild roses would be blooming now back—back in Missouri. Not roses, this fragrance, not from any species with which I was familiar, and I knew many of the old ones. Something wilder, uncultivated—hawthorn? Mist rose from the matted grass of the track and hung like a translucent linen shroud over the hedge on my right. Only an occasional sleepy ripple of birdsong broke the stillness.

I had not been alone for weeks except in the sterile stuffy confinement of a hotel room, not even in the gardens I had visited. They were all open to the public, and if the public had not been present a gardener or custodian had. I stopped looking for a gate or a gap in the shrubbery. I walked, head up, sniffing the air, until a ray of sunlight crossed my path and brought me to a stop.

A rim of red showed over the horizon and the sunlight struck straight as a sword into the tangled greenery at my right. The fence had disappeared, swallowed up by a tangle of brush higher than my head. It was not an ordinary hedge of boxwood or yew or any other garden shrub; brambles and vines and trees were interwoven, almost as if by design, into a matted wall. One vine boasted a particularly vicious looking set of thorns.

I turned and looked back. I had come farther than I had realized. The track I had followed, now no wider than a footpath, wandered off to the left, across a pasture and over a narrow bridge before it vanished into a grove of trees. Some distance ahead the ground rose, culminating in a long ridge whose steep sides showed no sign of cultivation or habitation. On the right side, blocking my view and stretching as far as I could see, was that brambly jungle.

I knew I ought to turn back. My original idea, of walking around the perimeter of the grounds, was looking more and more impractical. Yet the hedge fascinated me. I had never seen anything like it. How far did it extend? Had it been deliberately designed as a barricade?

After I had gone a few more steps I saw a break in the jungly growth. Not a natural break—this opening was man-made, by a chain saw or machete, and beyond lay a narrow passage—a tunnel rather, since it was roofed with the same tangle of vines and brambles that formed the walls.

It was as anomalous as the hedge itself, too narrow for the passage of a machine or a horse and cart, just the right size to admit a single human being—a short one, for when I stepped cautiously into the opening the viny ceiling was not far above the top of my head. I measured it with my hand, cautiously, for the thing was studded with thorns. I am five feet six inches tall. A six-footer would have had to stoop, or get a painful haircut.

I resisted temptation, but not for long. This might be the back entrance I had hoped to find—an unorthodox, unconventional entrance, but that only made it more intriguing. It couldn’t do any harm to have a look.

I pulled on a pair of heavy gloves and walked into a green, wet shade. Under an uneven layer of fallen branches and clippings the ground was soggy. Except for an occasional, startling snap of a twig under my feet the place was deadly quiet; the thorny walls muffled even the sound of birdsong.

I hadn’t gone far before I realized my original assumption had been mistaken. The mass of vegetation couldn’t be a hedge, it was obviously much more extensive. The tunnel curved and angled, sometimes turning back on itself, and it wasn’t long before I had lost all sense of direction. The tortuous path reminded me of a maze like the one at Hampton Court, but such mazes had been deliberately designed, the shrubs planted to form a pattern of open paths. Here the path had been cut through a pre-existing jumble of mixed brush. But for what purpose? It couldn’t have a practical function, it was too narrow and too indirect. An adventurous child might have relished exploring such a labyrinth, but this was no child’s playground. The rotting vegetation underfoot was slippery, the thorns that plucked at my sleeve were sharp enough to tear bare skin.

Outside the sun had risen; a faint greenish light filtered down through the leafy roof. The strange place had a dreamlike atmosphere, as if it had led out of the real world into another dimension or another century. By that time I was so confused I doubted I could retrace my steps. There was nothing for it but to go on. It had to end somewhere.

Another abrupt right-angled turn in the path left me confronting a wall of foliage thicker and darker than any I had seen thus far. The underlying structure might have been an evergreen of some variety, but the branches were interwoven with ropelike strands of honeysuckle and Convolvulus. Through them I saw a glimmer of white.

My gloved hands moved without conscious direction from my brain, tugging at the vines. They resisted with sullen strength and I pulled harder. Then the curtain gave way and a face looked out at me.

Brown streaks ran down its bearded cheeks like the tracks of acid tears. A green stain smeared the leprous white of the horned brow.

I knew what it was, but that knowledge was the last remnant of rational thought. Mindless, overwhelming terror buried my brain like a dark avalanche. I ran, blinded and deafened by panic, slipping and falling, scrambling up and running again. Claws ripped my cheek, ropey arms grasped me. I covered my face with my hands and tore free, feeling the walls close in, the roof subsiding. I knew it was coming, moving ponderously and inexorably on its broken marble feet, its cold stone hands reaching out to grasp me. I knew there was no way out, only a coil of paths that led to a place where something awaited me—something even worse than the crumbling, dead, stone thing that followed, herding me back toward the heart of the maze.

Blinded by tears of terror, arms shielding my face, I went on running until I tripped and fell, face down on the grass.

Grass. I had lost one of my gloves. My fingers caressed the soft carpet, stroked it, dug deep into it. When I raised my head I saw sunlight lying bright along a stretch of clipped, mowed green—a lawn, the triumph of civilization over the jungle. I was out, and the panic was gone. Even the memory of it was remote, like something I had read about but never experienced.

The emotion that replaced it was not relief but pure solid embarrassment. I had seen something else besides grass. They were feet—not stony, broken hoofs, but human feet, neatly shod in expensive brogues and silk socks.

I was tempted to stay where I was and pretend I had fainted or knocked myself out. The feet were obviously those of a man, and they probably belonged to the owner of the estate. Not only had I invaded his property and his privacy, but I had made a spectacular fool of myself. A polite apology and quick withdrawal weren’t going to get me out of this debacle. Slowly and reluctantly I rolled over and sat up.

I found myself staring into the big, brown, astonished eyes of a man who had obviously come out of the house to enjoy a leisurely breakfast al fresco; he was seated beside a table spread with food, and he was as neat and tidy as if he had been tended by a trained valet—black hair smooth, brown cheeks freshly shaved, shirt spotless, jacket pressed, shoes shined. He held a book in one hand and a piece of toast in the other. His mouth was open.

I cleared my throat and croaked, Good morning.

Good morning.

The man continued to stare. His lips had not moved. Was he a ventriloquist? An animated android like the ones at Disney World, his recorded voice out of sine with his programmed movements?

I got a grip on myself. The voice had come from behind me.

The man who had returned my greeting was tall and stout and some years older than the seated man; a fringe of gray hair circled his balding head and the wrinkles in his cheeks deepened as he went on, Good morning, she says. Who the devil are you, young woman, and where the devil did you come from? This is private property. You are trespassing. Grab her, Jordan, I’m going to call the police.

For God’s sake, Dad, calm yourself. The younger man closed his book and put on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, through which he studied me with disgust. I don’t want to grab her. She’s covered with mud and blood and muck. At least let her answer your questions before you call the cops. What is your name, miss?

His cool stare and supercilious tone had a surprisingly therapeutic effect. I still felt like an idiot, but I react poorly to being sneered at. Suppressing an insane urge to throw myself into his arms, wrinkling his neatly creased slacks and smearing mud and blood and muck all over his nice white shirt, I glowered back at him. I’m sorry. I had no idea I was trespassing. My name is Heather Tradescant and I—

What? The older man’s bellow hurt my ears.

I said I was sorry. I didn’t know—

No, no. Your name?

Tradescant. I spelled it. I’m an American. The name is English.

I know. The older man’s frown had been replaced by another expression, one I found less easy to interpret.

I’ll go, all right? You don’t have to call the police, I’m just a dumb tourist who got lost.

I started to get to my feet. A stab of pain shot up my left calf, and I would have fallen again if the older man hadn’t grabbed hold of me. He let out a grunt as his arm took my full weight. You are a big girl, aren’t you? Sit down. He emphasized the suggestion by pushing me into a chair. Give her some coffee, Jordan, she looks as if she could use it.

This is ridiculous, Jordan snapped. Let her go. There’s no need for the police.

Police? His father gave him a reproachful look. I’m surprised at you, Jordan. Does not the Koran tell us to welcome the stranger and tend the wounded? Here’s a poor young woman, injured and lost, and you let her kneel bleeding at your feet, without offering her sympathy or assistance. Have some breakfast, Miss—Miss Tradescant. Have mine. I’ll be right back.

The look Jordan directed at his father’s rapidly retreating form should have raised blisters on his neck. Kneel bleeding at my feet, he muttered. Damn him and his purple prose.

I couldn’t imagine what had changed the old man’s attitude, from hostility to effusive hospitality, but I was not about to object. Jordan’s description of my condition had been rude but only too accurate. My clothes were filthy, my ungloved hand was striped with scratches and my ankle wasn’t the only part of me that hurt. In fact, almost every part of me hurt, including my face. I raised my hand to my left cheek. The stickiness was blood, all right.

My unwilling host continued to stare at me with mild revulsion. Avoiding his gaze I took note of my surroundings. I was where I had wanted to be, and I might as well take advantage of the old man’s unexpected amiability before he changed his mind and had me hauled off to jail.

The table and chairs were garden furniture, fashioned of cast iron in ornate patterns of fat flowers and intertwining leaves. They had been placed under the biggest tree I had ever seen except in photographs. It wasn’t a cedar or a sequoia; some