A New Darkness by Joseph Delaney Page B

Calders get away with it. It made me feel weak, as if I was a soft touch. For now I shrugged away the worry; there were more important things to be concerned about.
    “I don’t mind,” I told her. “Money isn’t everything. All that matters is that you try to be a good spook. I’d like you to meet some of my family now. They live in the farm just the other side of this hill.”
    “I’ll bet your mam and dad are nicer than mine,” Jenny said.
    “They’re both dead now. My eldest brother runs the farm. He has a wife, Ellie, and a little girl called Mary, and a baby son too. Another of my brothers lives there as well. He’s called James, and he’s the local blacksmith. He has his forge on the farm.”
    “What knocked down all those?” Jenny asked, pointing to the huge swathe of felled trees as we began the descent. “Was it a storm?”
    “It was far worse than a storm,” I told her. “One day I’ll tell you all about it. It’ll be part of your training.”
    The trees had been knocked down by the Fiend; he’d chased after me, and I’d taken refuge in the farmhouse. There were lots of things to tell Jenny, but most of them could wait for another time.
    My own apprenticeship had been cut short. I hoped that she would get her full seven years. And I hoped that I would be good enough to train her.
    Mam’s rosebush was still growing up the farmhouse wall, but instead of the usual brilliant display of County red, the blooms and buds were blackened by the early frost. Usually it didn’t strike until October.
    Ellie came to the door, drying her hands on her apron. Her face lit up, and she gave me a hug. “Oh, Tom, it’s good to see you!”
    “It’s good to see you too, Ellie. This is Jenny,” I said, by way of introduction. “She’s my first apprentice.”
    I saw Ellie’s eyes widen in surprise at that, but she smiled warmly and gave Jenny a hug too.
    Little Mary came running up to me. “Uncle Tom! Uncle Tom!” she cried. “Have you come to kill another bog?”
    “Not this time, Mary,” I laughed. By a “bog,” the child meant a boggart. On my last visit, she had been very interested in the local boggart I’d dealt with; it had been a dangerous stone-chucker.
    “Come in and see the baby,” Ellie said, beckoning us inside. So we went into the farmhouse kitchen and then up the stairs.
    “This is Matthew,” Ellie said, lifting the baby out of its bed. “It’s made Jack so happy to have a son.”
    I knew that my brother would love both his children equally, but for a farmer it was something special to have a son who could help with the tough physical work, which only became harder as you grew older. The first son inherited the farm, too. The others were found trades. My dad would have found it difficult to find someone to take on his seventh son, but Mam had intervened. It had been her idea all along for me to become a spook’s apprentice.
    “Would you like to hold him, Tom?” Ellie could see the reluctance on my face; she shook her head and sighed. “He won’t break, Tom. Babies aren’t that delicate!”
    She was right. I was nervous about holding babies because they were so small and their heads were floppy. Of course, little Matthew was a few months old now, so he was much stronger than Mary had been when I first saw her—she’d been only six days old. So I held the child for a few moments, and Matthew stared up at me with his wide-open blue eyes and made little gurgling sounds.
    “Could I hold him, please?” Jenny asked.
    “Of course you can, love.” Ellie took the baby from me and handed him over.
    “Where’s Jack?” I asked.
    “It’s Friday morning. He’s gone to the market at Topley with James,” she replied.
    Of course. Friday was market day. I’d been away from the farm for so long that I’d forgotten its routines. The Friday visit to the local market, straight after morning milking, had been part of my life. Still, they’d be back before noon, and I was looking