Salt on the Midnight Fire by Liz Williams

Author:Liz Williams [Williams, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781914953514
Publisher: NewCon Press
Published: 2023-06-20T22:00:00+00:00

Luna

Luna did not know what it would mean for the Stargazy to come home. She was about to ask Jane Thorn that question when Jane raised her hand and placed it on the door. The air inside the cupola shimmered and shivered and they were somewhere else. Luna blinked. She could still see the cupola, but the wall behind her was covered in shells.

“Oh!” said Luna.

“Jane, my dear, I see you have guests,” said an elderly lady. In a long grey dress and white mob cap, she should have looked severe, but her face was a kindly one, Luna thought. “Are you Miss Stella Fallow’s sisters, perhaps?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Serena said.

“I have met her, and her young friend Davy. A boy’s name, surely? Well, never mind. And Mr Spare was with them. Why, we are almost old friends by now. As you perhaps know, they came to my house,” Miss Parminter said. “Where, in fact, you see me now.”

“It’s full of shells,” Luna said.

“Yes. My doing, and that of my cousin, with whom I live. We chose to make the house in the form of a folly, but of course it is more than a house. It is a crossroads, for the sea ways.”

Jane picked up a shell that had been sitting on the desk in front of Miss Parminter. Luna could see the opposite window of the cupola through her form, very faintly. But it was not so much that Miss Parminter was transparent, ghostly, as that the two places had become superimposed upon one another. “You gave one of these to Stella, Jane.”

“Yes. A letter of introduction. I thought it might be of use, since the Misses Fallow were coming to Cornwall, and sadly it seems that I was right. Louisa has told me that Stella has gone missing.”

“Yes. Last night, with no word. And we don’t know where she’s gone, except we fear that she’s been abducted.”

“Has the ship been spotted?” Miss Parminter said. Luna assumed that she meant the Stargazy, but perhaps not, for Jane Thorn answered,

“No. Not since the winter.”

“Then it is surely due, though I have heard no word.”

Miss Parminter turned to Luna and Serena.

“When folk go missing, from these coasts, under unusual circumstances, it is often because they have seen or interrupted something that they should not have done.”

“You mean, like smugglers?” Luna said, thinking of the pub. “You mentioned that when we visited you.”

“Yes, smuggling or wrecking have traditionally been the two drivers of the Cornish economy, unfortunately, along with fishing and farming. The same people, sometimes,” Jane added.

“But how would Stella have stumbled across anything like that in broad daylight in the middle of having a meal in a pub?”

“I don’t know. But I fear the Morlader’s involvement.”

Jane Thorn said, smiling. “But I’m very pleased to see you, Miss Parminter. I’m bringing the girls to you, to see if you had heard anything. They have just looked through the glass, and glimpsed the Stargazy.”

“Then surely that, too, is a sign that the ship is due,” Miss Parminter said.

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