“It was not the empty stare from the eyes that shocked me, nor the cold gray tongue that looked like a piece of old stone. No, the thing that took me aback and near robbed me of my senses was the red scar that ran clear round her neck just above the shoulders . . . a scar that still wept blood down her chest.
“I shuffled backwards across the pentacle, but she showed no sign of approaching me, nor of trying to breach the defenses. She had one last look at the bed, and whispered again.
“ ‘Mine by birth. She shall not have it.’ ”
Carnacki sat back in his chair and smiled.
“I do believe I have given you quite enough clues now,” he said. “But please, let me finish the story. It is time now for you chaps to recharge your glasses for the final push.”
By this time I was also coming to some conclusions as to the nature of Carnacki’s bogle, and I was keen to see if I had guessed correctly. I believe everyone present felt the same, for we refilled our snifters in record time and were soon ready for Carnacki to continue.
“She left the room, footsteps fading along the corridor. Silence fell but I sat there a while longer before rising, pondering my next move. I knew it would cause consternation in the household, but the way ahead was clear to me. I had to persuade the laird to return to the house, and to bring his daughter with him. For only by direct confrontation could this business be finished once and for all.
“Getting the man back to the castle was easier said than done. It required a series of terse telegrams between the post office in Forfar and London which caused a great deal of chatter in the town and cost me several guineas in bills for a carriage to and from Glamis itself. Finally we reached agreement, and all I could do was wait for their return.
“That was to take more than a week, during which time I took in a trip around the Perthshire Hills and met an adversary who was much less benign. But that is a tale for another evening. Suffice to say I spent the time fruitfully and on the day the laird arrived from London with his retinue I was at the door of the castle waiting for him.
“A child I guessed was Lisabet held him tightly by the hand, but as they approached the door she let go and ran past me, heading inside.
“ ‘She seems to have forgotten all about the bogle,’ the Laird said as he shook my hand. ‘Perhaps it is best to keep it that way?’
“ ‘I doubt that very much sir,’ I replied. ‘I have some questions I need you to answer, then you will have a decision to make.’
“He nodded curtly and went inside.
“It was my turn to mind my manners, and I held my peace through a fine supper of salmon and pheasant, washed down with some excellent port. I waited until everyone else had retired, and we were sat in armchairs around a fireplace before I broached the matter at hand.
“The laird seemed surprised at the questions I put to him, but not as much as I would have thought. He poured us a snifter of brandy each, and it seemed he was buying time to muster his thoughts, as if deciding what to reveal to me.
“ ‘There were rumors,’ he finally said. ‘Tales that an attempt such as you describe had been made. You have seen the window . . . you know already that this place has a history in such matters?’
“I nodded in reply.
“ ‘But what in Jesu’s name is my daughter’s part in all of this?’ he asked me. ‘She is only a child, and innocent of any hurts done in centuries past.’
“ ‘The coincidence of the names at least is obvious,’ I replied. ‘But answers may only become clear in time. It may be something in the child’s future that has brought this attention on her.’
“The laird looked pensive at that, but said nothing.
“ ‘With your permission,’ I said softly. ‘I would like to give the lady some rest. I think you will agree that she deserves that at least?’
“It was his turn to nod in agreement.
“We made our way to Lisabet’s room and found the child examining the chalk markings I had made on the floor. She was most excited when I brought out the electric pentacle. Her father gave her a stern warning to haud her wheesht and she fell quiet as I first repaired the defenses, then set the pentacle to work.
“The three of us sat, pressed close together
“ ‘What is it we are waiting for?’ Lisabet asked.
Her father replied for me.
“ ‘A princess,’ he said. ‘Just like you.’
“He ruffled her hair, and at that very same moment the soft footsteps echoed in the corridor outside. We smelled the heady perfume even before she walked through the doorway.
“This time she was almost fully formed. The black velvet robe looked like a hole in the very fabric of space itself, her pale face hovering like a moon above it. The dead eyes turned and stared at the child.
“ ‘You took it,’ she whispered. ‘It is mine by right, and you took it from me.’
Lisabet stiffened but did not cry out, merely stared back at the thing before her.
“ ‘I do not know you, madam,’ she said, so prim and proper that I had to stifle a laugh. ‘Kindly be so good as to introduce yourself.’
The robed figure loomed over us. Once again the only activity from the pentacle was a slight brightening of the azure valve.
“ ‘Madam,’ I said softly. ‘This is not your sister. She has been dead these three centuries and more. There is no place for you here.’
“The darkness thickened slightly and the blank eyes turned towards me. Bloody tears ran from them.
“ ‘Go?’ she whispered. ‘That is my dearest wish. But I know not how.’
“ ‘Let me help,’ I said softly, and uttered the prayer of passing.
“ ‘Adjuro ergo te, omnis immundíssime spiritus, omne phantasma, omnis incursio satanæ, in nomine Jesu Christi.’
“She broke apart, like smoke taken by wind. At the last, a wispy tendril reached towards the child.
“ ‘Lisabet,’ came a whisper.
“Then she was gone.
“ ‘What did that lady want with me?’ the girl asked as I packed away the pentacle and cleaned the chalk from the floor.’
“ ‘She was dead, but did not know it,’ I replied. ‘And she thought you were someone she knew a long time ago.’
“ ‘Well I’m not going to die,’ Lisabet said loudly. ‘I shall live till I’m a hundred.’
“And do you know something, chaps? I do believe she might just do it.”
Carnacki sat back in his chair, a wide grin on his face.
“Before we get to who the apparition might have been, I suppose I had better tell you how it came about.
“You chaps all know that I do not believe in the soul as such,” he continued. “And at first, this bogle almost made me doubt my own convictions. But having thought long and hard, I believe I may have the truth of it.
“It starts in the late sixteenth century, with an attempt by a Scottish alchemist to revive a dead lady. Now I have studied the Great Work to some degree, and have already this evening commented on the amalgamation of the microcosm with the macrocosm. What no one, not the alchemist, nor I, had considered, was what effect the transformation would have on a body already dead. What was transformed was not capable of ascension to the Outer Realms, the macrocosm. It was forced to remain, rooted to its earthly plane, doomed for eternity to roam, seeking something it could never find.
“And you came along and freed it?” Jessop piped up.
“Freed her,” Carnacki said softly. “For there was still something there of the lady she had once been.”
“And who was she exactly, Carnacki?” Arkwright said. “Lady Macbeth?”