FullReads

The silence seemed magnetic. It held them like a spell. Through it, vague and intangible as the night at first, but gradually taking definite shape, strange thoughts began to rise in the girl’s heart.

She had consented to this adventure from sheer lack of purpose. But whither was it leading her? She was a married woman, with her shackles heavy upon her. Yet she walked that night with a stranger, as one who owned her freedom. The silence between them was intimate and wonderful, the silence which only kindred spirits can ever know. It possessed her magically, making her past life seem dim and shadowy, and the present only real.

And yet she knew that she was not free. She trespassed on forbidden ground. She tasted the forbidden fruit, and found it tragically sweet.

Suddenly and softly he spoke:

“Does the magic begin to work?”

She started and tried to stop. Surely it were wiser to go back while she had the will! But he drew her forward still. The mist overhead was faintly silver. The moon was rising.

“We will go to the heart of the tangle,” he said. “There is nothing to fear. The lion himself could not frighten you here.”

Again she yielded to him. There was a suspicion of raillery in his voice that strangely reassured her. The grasp of his hand was very close.

“We are in the maze,” she said at last, breaking her silence. “Are you sure of the way?”

He answered her instantly with complete self-assurance.

“Like the heart of a woman, it’s hard, that it is, to find. But I think I have the key. And if not, by the saints, I’m near enough now to break through.”

The words thrilled her inexplicably. Truly the magic was swift and potent. A few more steps, and she was aware of a widening of the hedge. They were emerging into the centre of the maze.

“Ah,” said the jester, “I thought I should win through!”

He led her forward into the shadow of a great tree. The mist was passing very slowly from the sky. By the silvery light that filtered down from the hidden moon Naomi made out the strong outline of his shoulders as he stood before her, and the vague darkness of his mask.

She put up her free hand and removed her own. The breeze had died down. The atmosphere was hushed and airless.

“Do you know the way back?” she asked him, in a voice that sounded unnatural even to herself.

“Do you want to go back, then?” he queried keenly.

There was something in his tone–a subtle something that she had not detected before. She began to tremble. For the first time, actual fear took hold of her.

“You must know the way back!” she exclaimed. “This is folly! They will be wondering where we are.”

“Faith, Lady Una! It is the fool’s paradise,” he told her coolly. “They will not wonder. They know too well that there is no way back.”

His manner terrified her. Its very quietness seemed a menace. Desperately she tore herself from his hold, and turned to escape. But it was as though she fled in a nightmare. Whichever way she turned she met only the impenetrable ramparts of the hedge that surrounded her. She could find neither entrance nor exit. It was as though the way by which she had come had been closed behind her.

But the brightness above was growing. She whispered to herself that she would soon be able to see, that she could not be a prisoner for long.

Suddenly she heard her captor close to her, and, turning in terror, she found him erect and dominating against the hedge. With a tremendous effort she controlled her rising panic to plead with him.

“Indeed, I must go back!” she said, her voice unsteady, but very urgent. “I have already stayed too long. You cannot wish to keep me here against my will?”

She saw him shrug his shoulders slightly.

“There is no way back,” he said, “or, if there is, I do not know it.”