Chapter 16: The Empty Valley

I did not push the door open.

I stepped back from the crack of light.

I walked down the corridor with my own footsteps loud in my ears.

Any wolf would have served.

I had known it was a bargain.

He had said so on the first night, plainly, and I had said yes.

It still felt as though someone had pulled the floor out from under me.

I didn't cry, because there was no time for it.

I went to my room and put on boots and my mother's old wool coat.

I took the keys to the estate truck from the hook in the kitchen passage.

Aunt Margery was in the east corridor with a tray of tea.

"Where are you going?" she said.

"To see my valley."

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"Is Lucan..."

"He's busy," I said, and kissed her cheek, and went out.

The road to Wintermere climbed for two hours, through pine forest and then through bare rock.

I drove with both hands on the wheel and let the cold air through the cracked window keep my head clear.

I had not seen the valley since the day I left it.

At eighteen I had been put in the back of a Graymoor car with a blanket on my knees.

I had not looked back.

The pass opened at noon.

Below me the valley lay white and quiet between two long ridges, with the river frozen in its bed.

I stopped the truck at the top and looked.

There were gates at the lower end of the road.

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