Dying Fall

Pendragon is at peace. We set his soul free this morning. I think that he wants me to live here.’
    ‘Won’t you be lonely?’
    Cathbad smiles. ‘No. I’ll have Thing, and Guy thinks he’ll be able to find me a job at the university. Besides, I like solitude, as you know.’
    ‘What about Judy?’
    Cathbad is silent for a moment, stroking Thing, who has his eyes shut in ecstasy. ‘I’ve got to give her a chance to make it work with Darren. It would be impossible, with me being in Norfolk. I wouldn’t be able to keep away.’
    ‘Even if Michael is yours?’
    Cathbad smiles again, but sadly. ‘Children don’t belong to us but to the universe.’
    Ruth looks at Kate, who is now sitting on the grass pulling up daisies. She may belong to the universe, she thinks, but she’s mine for now and I’m going to keep her close for as long as possible. To her embarrassment, she feels tears coming to her eyes.
    ‘I’ll miss you,’ she says.
    ‘I’ll miss you too,’ says Cathbad, ‘but you can come and visit. And there’s always our psychic connection.’
    ‘And Skype.’
    ‘Skype too has its place in the universe.’
    ‘What has its place in the universe?’ Nelson looms behind them. ‘Should Katie be sitting on the ground, Ruth? It might be wet.’
    Ruth ignores him. ‘Cathbad’s staying in Lancashire,’ she says.
    Nelson nods and Ruth realises that he already knew. ‘You’re a lucky man,’ he says. ‘Ruth and I have got to go back to God-forsaken Norfolk.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t think God has forsaken you yet,’ says Cathbad.
    ‘You sound like my mother.’
    Cathbad brightens. ‘I hope to see a lot of Maureen while I’m living here. It’ll make me feel closer to you, Nelson.’
    *
    Nelson and Ruth go into the garden. Kate comes running up to them and Nelson lifts her onto his shoulders. Max does that, thinks Ruth. She realises that she hasn’t thought about Max for days.
    ‘It’s been a funny sort of holiday for you,’ says Nelson.
    Ruth thinks about finding Clayton’s dead body, about seeing the cloaked figure on the riverbank, about the terrible moment when she thought that Kate was going to die. Then she thinks about the sand on Blackpool beach, about the donkeys, about sailing artificial rapids in a pink plastic boat.
    ‘We’ve had some good times,’ she says.
    ‘And you’ve made a big archaeological discovery. It could make you rich.’
    Ruth grins. ‘Archaeologists never get rich but it could be good for my career, that’s true.’
    ‘And what about us?’ asks Nelson.
    Ruth looks away. ‘There is no us, you know that.’
    ‘You don’t believe that.’
    Ruth turns back to him. Since she has known Nelson, his hair has grown greyer and the lines about his mouth more deeply etched. Knowing that she loves him makes it somehow easier to say what she has to say.
    ‘You would never leave Michelle,’ she says. ‘And I wouldn’t want you to.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Really,’ she lies. ‘I’ve got my life, you’ve got yours.’
    ‘Your life, does it involve that Max fellow?’
    ‘No,’ says Ruth, thinking that this decision must really have been made long ago. ‘My life is just me and Kate and Flint.’
    Nelson looks as if he is about to speak, but in the end he just smiles and, with a flourish, takes Kate from his shoulders and hands her back to Ruth.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Most of the places in this book actually exist. The Pendle Forest and the Pendle witches are real enough, though Dame Alice and her cottage are imaginary. Pendle University is also fictional. Blackpool and the Pleasure Beach certainly exist in all their glory. Thanks to Katie Stainsby for the information about Blackpool Pleasure Beach. All the rides mentioned in book, with the exception of the Raven Falls, can be found at the Pleasure Beach, although the events described are entirely fictional.
    This book is set in 2010, when Blackpool had just been promoted to the Premier League. The statue of Jimmy Armfield at Bloomfield Road was not actually unveiled until May 2011 but I hope Blackpool fans will forgive this slight distortion of the facts. I just wanted Nelson to be able to talk to his hero.
    Thanks to Matt Pope for telling me about the world of the Neo-pagans, though the White Hand are (thankfully) fictional. Thanks to Andrew Maxted for the archaeological information, though I have only followed his advice as far as it suits the plot and any subsequent mistakes are mine alone.
    Special thanks to