Juicy Secrets Forbidden Tales of Lesbian Love

For a list of the many characters who populate this saga, check out Dramatis Personae.

At Derwold Manor, stark truths are revealed. Elsa has sealed the village off to protect Simon. More than that, she intends to set the stage for a new world order, one where women rule and men are consigned to history. She asks Sadie and Millie to join her, but Sadie refuses. She and Freya arrive back at Beekeeper Cottage only to find Georgia and Millie missing. They are captured by Elsa’s thugs, and reunited with Georgia and Millie, the four of them are imprisoned in the manor. 

Discovering the large rock in the cellar where they are confined is actually an ancient standing stone, Millie manages to tap into its magic, and she and Sadie are transported to an unknown location. 

And now, dear readers, we make our way into the next installment. Read on…

by BlueJean

1

Georgia stood staring at the fallen menhir, hands pressed to her cheeks. When she was finally able to muster up some words, they emerged shrill and panicky. “What the hell just happened? Where did they go?!”

Freya put a hand out to touch the stone but Georgia snatched it back. “Don’t touch it! Where’s Millie? Where’s Sadie?”

“Mum! Calm down!”

“Calm down? Calm down?! I’ve bloody well had enough of this magic crap! I’m putting my foot down, do you hear me? Everyone’s forbidden from doing magic for the foreseeable future. Enough’s enough!”

“They’re probably fine, Mum! It’s the same as when me and Millie went through the stone near Sadie’s house. We came back, didn’t we?”

Georgia breathed out slowly. She closed her eyes, then opened them again. The menhir was still there. Her girlfriend and her youngest daughter still weren’t. This really was turning out to be a shitty day. “Where did they go, Freya?”

Freya shook her head. “I don’t know. If we touch the stone too, maybe we’ll end up wherever they are. We need to try, Mum.”

“Do not touch that rock, Freya! I mean it! Just give me some time to think.”

Assuming Millie and Sadie hadn’t vanished from the universe entirely, where had they ended up? Georgia had only ever half-believed Millie and Freya’s tale of being hurled through time and into prehistory. She’d always had more important things to think about. Things like getting the girls ready for school, tending to bees, or baking bread. Things that kept you sane.

But here was proof positive that people could indeed travel through ancient standing stones. She’d seen it with her own eyes.

When did the world get so fucking complicated?

The door to the basement swung open and Bernie came whistling down the steps with a tray of food in his hands. “Grub’s up, ladies! A nice bit of bacon and eggs’ll take your mind off— eh?” He glanced around the room. “Where’s the other two?”

Georgia rounded on the man. “They just popped out to pick up a newspaper and a loaf of bread. How the hell should I know where they are?! I’d like to know that myself!”

A few short minutes later, Elsa was advancing angrily towards Georgia. “Where are they? Where the fuck are they?!” The furious woman snaked a hand out, and Georgia suddenly realised she couldn’t breathe. “I’ll choke the fucking life out of you, you mother’s cunt! I’ll turn your insides to mush, then burn what’s left! Tell me where they went!”

“They went through the stone, Elsa!” Freya wailed, trying her best to pull Elsa’s hand down. “Don’t hurt Mum, okay?”

Elsa pushed the eleven-year-old away roughly, but that small piece of information was enough to stay her hand, at least for the moment. “The menhir… How could I have been so stupid?! I should’ve known one of them could use it.”

Georgia fell to the ground, gasping for breath. It was like Elsa had sucked all the air out of the room for a moment.

Freya was down on her knees, comforting her mother. She peered up at Elsa with a look of pure loathing. “Why are you doing this to us? I thought you were nice. I thought you were my friend.”

Elsa barely gave her a cursory glance. “I’m nice when people don’t make me angry, child. Right now I’m very angry. I’m only going to ask you this question once, Freya. If you lie to me, I’ll know. If you lie to me, I’ll kill your mother in front of you. Where have Sadie and Millie gone?”

“I don’t know, Elsa! Even Millie and Sadie didn’t know. They went through by accident. Sadie was trying to stop Millie. That’s the truth, I swear!”

There was a long moment when Georgia thought her life had come to an end. Then Elsa, hissing her outrage, turned and stormed off up the steps.

“Kurt! Bernie! Put these two somewhere else, and if either of them escape I’ll scalp the both of you!”

2

Drowning.

Sadie Laine is drowning. Mere seconds away from losing consciousness, and the last thing she thinks is: There’s a tree underwater. An upside down tree trunk.

There’s a baby made of light sitting on the tree. It has webbed hands and feet, and its skin is translucent. She can see its little heart beating through its chest, like a lightbulb flickering on and off. She thinks it might be a kodama. The light-baby/kodama waves to her.

If the tree is upside down, does that mean she’s upside down, too? Or is this the right way up? Hard to make sense of it when your impending death is rushing to meet you.

Then there are things swimming around her. Animals of some kind. They jostle and push her up towards the light. It might be the light of the surface. Or it might be the light people say greets you when you approach the afterlife. Either way, she’s moving towards it, and fast.

When the cool air hits her face, she gasps it in greedily. She’ll never take breathing for granted ever again.

3

Millie sat on the beach in a daze. She remembered the menhir drawing her in, grasping at her like a thousand greedy little hands. Then the cold, salty water had crashed into her like a tidal wave. The next thing she knew she was here, sprawled out on the sand in this unfamiliar place. Sadie was lying next to her, coughing up seawater.

There were naked people congregating around them, keeping a respectful distance but watching intently. And there were seals too, and creatures that looked like both people and seals, their upper halves human, their lower halves resembling flippers.

“Mermaids…” Millie murmured in astonishment.

Sadie sat up and peered around her. “Not mermaids, Millie,” she told her apprentice. “Selkie.”

“Oh.”

“Are you okay?” Sadie asked, pushing the child’s wet hair back from her face.

Millie offered a small nod. “Where are we?”

Sadie stood on unsteady feet, cleared her throat, then addressed the strange congregation in a language Millie had never heard before. “G’nai juwetū mai aggat. Moghū juwetū wedū me qoi weje… uh, m-mūit? mūin?”

The Selkie broke out into laughter. Even those in full seal forms seemed to find Sadie’s bastardisation of their language highly amusing.

One of the Selkie in human form broke away from the small group and approached them tentatively. Sadie thought he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. His skin was a dark bronze, his eyes a piercing blue colour. Dark ringlets of tightly wound hair trailed down his back. And he was naked as the day he was born.

She’d read enough about the Selkie to know they projected some kind of glamour, and was quick to put up her mental defenses.

“You speak our jib-jab bad,” the selkie said.

“I was trying to say ‘thank you for helping us’,” Sadie explained, “and then ask where we are.”

The dark-skinned selkie shook his head, a wry smile playing on his lips. “No. You say: ‘Fudge you plenty much’. And then you say: ‘Where is my haggis?'”

The other Selkie fell about laughing again. Millie began to join in until Sadie gave her a nudge. “Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side.”

“My haggis?” the child piped, her eyes twinkling.

Pausing to straighten her sopping wet cardigan, Sadie tried to project a modicum of dignity. “Well, everyone has to start somewhere,” she said haughtily. “I’ve studied various dialects of the Tuatha, but they were mostly conjecture on the part of the authors. We know they share some similarities with the Proto Indo-European and Celtic languages. Where did you learn English?”

The selkie swept a hand to encompass his people. “We understand your jib-jab, but few can speak it. Our Deu-Kanō… uh, what will I say… bearers? Our bearers speak it well. But the bearers are no more. Reeta was the last.”

Sadie assumed by ‘bearer’, the selkie meant a messenger or representative of some kind. When she glanced down at Millie, the eight-year-old was staring at his penis. She discreetly lifted the girl’s chin, then turned her attention back to the selkie. “We travelled through a menhir by accident. Are we still in Britain? Do you know what year it is? Is that an underwater henge we came through? It looked like a tree trunk.”

The selkie didn’t seem to have much interest in answering any of her questions, if he understood what she was asking at all. Sadie changed tack.

“We need to get back to our village. My friend and her daughter are in serious trouble. Can you help us?”

The selkie shook his head. “We cannot help. We see you breach the henge, so you must be wikkā, but still we cannot help. Reeta trusted humans, but your people stole her.”

Millie stuck her hand out. “Hi, I’m Millie. And this is my teacher, Sadie.”

For one awful moment Sadie thought the eight-year-old was going to grab the fellow’s rather substantial member and give it a good shake.

The selkie took the child’s hand apprehensively. “I am Karnu.”

“Who’s Reeta?” Millie asked, making a heroic effort to imitate Karnu’s mellifluous pronunciation, the rolling ‘Rs’ making her sound like a little motorboat. “And why did they steal her?”

“Reeta… she was our Deu-Kanō. But… no more.”

“If we help Reeta get free, will she help us?” Sadie asked.

There were murmurs amongst the other selkie. Karnu regarded his people for a long moment, perhaps expecting some kind of support from them. When none came he turned back to Sadie and Millie with a deep sigh. “They already give Reeta back, but I do not think she can help. She is… she is Reeta no more.”

That didn’t make much sense to Sadie. Was Karnu trying to say Reeta had abandoned the other Selkie? Or that she had died, perhaps? “Well, where is she?” she said. “Maybe we can ask her ourselves.”

Karnu pointed up past the cliffs. There was a lighthouse up there, maybe half a mile away.

“The lighthouse? Reeta lives in the lighthouse?”

Karnu put his hands to his head. He growled something in his own language, and Sadie thought it might have been something like, ‘We should have let them drown’.

“It is not good for you to go there. Dangerous. Reeta goes through the change. When her cycle is complete, Selkie must be far away. You must be far away. We try to explain to Hailey, but she not listen. Hailey think Reeta still Reeta. You understand?”

“No. Not really,” Sadie said. “Who’s Hailey?”

Karnu shook his head, then shook his finger as well, to better emphasise whatever point he was trying to make. “We already help. You must ask no more of us.” He gestured to his people again. “This is what we have. Our elders are gone, our Deu-Kanō are gone, our teachers are gone. Each cycle fewer pups are born. The Finfolk took our home, your people would take what is left. Now we are just this. Do you see?”

Sadie understood. And with that understanding came an immense sorrow. Were these few the last of the Selkie, then? Was Astris also the last of her kind? The tragedy of it was immeasurable.

“I’m so sorry, Karnu. If my people played a part in your misfortunes, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. But my friends are in great danger right now, and I must put everything else aside if I’m to help them.”

“I understand,” Karnu said. “Go then. I wish you well.” The selkie’s mouth turned up into a faint smile. “I hope you find your haggis.”

Sadie turned to find Millie amongst the small congregation of Selkie. Some of their children were reaching out to touch her hair, laughing gleefully as if it were the greatest of dares.

“Millie, we need to go.”

“Just a minute!” Millie hollered back. “Do you know about dryads?” she asked the Selkie. “Hmm? Hands up who knows about dryads.”

Some of the Selkie raised their hands tentatively. A few flippers reached skyward too.

“What other ‘Before People’ do you know about? Hmm?”

An older selkie in hybrid form raised her hands high above her head. “Fathnach,” she said. “Fathnach.”

“You don’t need to put your hands up for this bit,” Millie said. “You can just shout out.”

“She say ‘Giant’,” Karnu told Millie. “Our Elders taught us the names of the other Tuatha but most have forgotten.”

“Seelie,” said another, then followed that with, “Unseelie.”

“Faeries,” Sadie translated.

Karnu nodded approvingly.

“Who else knows some names?” Millie continued. “Don’t be shy!”

Sadie put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Millie, we don’t have time for this.”

“It’s important, Sadie. I can’t say exactly why, but it is.”

“Maybe it is, but it’ll have to wait. Freya and your mum need us.”

Millie let out a big sigh. “I’ll come back to see you one day, okay?” she told the Selkie. “I think you need to be connected to the other Tuatha. It’s like a broken chain or something.”

Karnu spoke low in Sadie’s ear. “The pup is Old Blood. You know?”

Sadie nodded. “I’ve heard her called that before, yes. How did you know?”

“Selkie see… what will I say… owirā?”

“Aura?”

“Aura, yes. Her aura is strange. We saw one like her, long ago. They… change things. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But always change.”

Sadie regarded Millie thoughtfully for a moment before turning back to Karnu. “We must go. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.”

Karnu nodded gravely, then barked a command to his clan. “Weje snāmi!” We swim!

And with that, the last of the Selkie assumed their seal forms and disappeared into the water.

Millie watched them go with a mournful regard.

“Maybe we’ll see them again,” Sadie told her.

“Mmm.”

“Let’s go.”

“Where?” Millie asked, and Sadie pointed to the line of cliffs in the distance.

“To the lighthouse.”

4

Kurt and Bernie took Georgia and Freya from the basement and put them in a room on the second floor of the manor. Georgia thought it was a pretty decent upgrade – it had an old sofa covered with a dust sheet, and a nice view of the garden – but it scored maximum points for weirdness.

They weren’t the only residents here. The room was a taxidermist’s wet dream, stuffed animals occupying just about every lick of space. Moose, rhino, deer, buffalo and crocodile heads were mounted on walls, exotic birds were displayed in cages, lizards and small mammals occupied tables and pedestals.

“Well, someone’s a collector,” Georgia said morosely.

Freya swallowed the mouthful of bacon she’d been chewing. “They’re horrible.”

Georgia made for the window. Her heart sank when she saw it was not only locked, but had iron bars on the outside. “They weren’t taking any chances, either. As if someone would burgle stuffed animals. Would they?”

“I dunno,” Freya said, flopping down onto the dusty couch. “S’pose some of them might be worth something.”

“Budge up,” Georgia told her, and Freya slid towards one end of the sofa to make room for her mum. Georgia put an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, you know. Sadie’ll come back. She’ll bring the police with her.”

Freya nibbled at her lower lip. “She can’t call the police, Mum.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I… I kind of told Elsa about the things we’ve been doing together.”

Georgia stared open mouthed. “Why? Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m an idiot! Because I thought Elsa was my friend! Because I wanted something that didn’t have anything to do with Sadie and Millie and their stupid witch stuff, something that was mine, something that belonged to just me.”

“Oh, Freya.” Georgia kissed her on the cheek. “Why didn’t you say something? You should’ve told us how you feel.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you. It was hard to figure it out in my head. Everything seems to be about Millie these days, and you and Sadie are too busy being a couple to notice me. I just kind of felt you’d all forgotten about me.”

“It’s my fault,” Georgia said. “I should’ve noticed you weren’t happy. I did notice, but I just thought you were going through a phase. I’ve been so preoccupied with Millie and her issues, I didn’t stop to think that you might be going through a hard time, too. I’m so sorry, Freya.”

Freya gave a shrug, then managed the smallest of smiles. “It’s okay. It doesn’t seem that important now we’ve been kidnapped and Sadie and Millie have disappeared into a big rock.”

“I just hope they’re not trapped somewhere in the past. Is that possible, do you think?”

Freya thought about it, then shook her head. “It didn’t really feel like we were there last time. It was almost like we only went halfway, like we were looking through a window. I always wondered if our bodies were still in the barley field that whole time, but I s’pose we know the answer to that question now.”

“Yeah.” Now it was Georgia’s turn to bite down on her lip. There was another question that needed answering, but some tact was required. “Um… Freya. You’ve been hanging out with Elsa for a while now. Have you and her been doing… you know… stuff together?”

Freya rolled her eyes. “You can say ‘sex’, Mum.”

“Okay. Have you and Elsa been having sex?”

Freya looked at her mum defiantly. “Yes, we have. And don’t even think about telling me off. Not after what the four of us have been doing together.”

Georgia had to fight back her maternal instinct. “I’m not going to tell you off. But it wasn’t a very smart thing to do, was it?”

“What’s that thing they say when you look back on something you’ve done and see it wasn’t a good idea, even though you didn’t see it at the time?”

“‘Hindsight’s a wonderful thing’.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“Fair enough. Doesn’t sex with us interest you anymore? Or do you think what we’re doing is wrong?”

“I don’t think it’s wrong, and I still like doing it with you. But sometimes I just want to do my own thing, you know?”

“I get it. But no more sex with strange people, please. I know that might sound hypocritical of me, but I just need to know that you’re safe, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Give me a hug.“

The two of them held each other closely.

5

When the light had almost faded from the sky outside, Elsa came to them with blankets and a pillow. She was all smiles, as if nearly choking Georgia to death had been of little consequence.

“This is nicer than that dusty old cellar, isn’t it?” she said. “I won’t bother you again tonight. Let’s all get a good night’s sleep, then we can figure out what to do about this mess tomorrow.” Elsa regarded Georgia and Freya thoughtfully. “It might be a bit of a squeeze on that couch… You’re welcome to join me in my room, Freya. Or perhaps the three of us could have some fun together…?”

“I’m staying here, thank you, Elsa,” Georgia said. “And Freya’s not leaving my sight.”

Elsa’s smile had a devious edge to it. “Yes, of course. I wouldn’t dream of getting in the way of a mother and her child. I think what you have together is wonderful. In the new world I envision, there would be no laws against such a thing. No stigma, no judgement. The world is not kind to people like us, Georgia. Do you not long for change?”

“I’m just a regular girl,” Georgia said. “I tend to my bees, I bring up my girls to the best of my ability, I enjoy a glass of wine in the evening. I don’t care much about witchcraft or world domination, you know? I’m old fashioned like that.”

Elsa looked at her with unconcealed contempt. “How shortsighted.”

When she turned to leave again, Georgia called after her. “Sadie’s coming for us, Elsa.”

Elsa wiggled her fingers dramatically. “Ooh, scary! I shan’t be getting any sleep tonight! Face it, Georgia, Sadie ran away. She took Millie and left you and Freya all alone. She’s not coming back to save you.”

Georgia shook her head. It wouldn’t do to provoke this madwoman, but the need to convince herself  Sadie hadn’t given up on them wouldn’t be silenced. “You’re so wrong. You don’t know Sadie like I do. She’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. You caught her off guard, but she’ll be back, and when she comes she won’t be alone. She knows people, powerful people.“ It wasn’t exactly true, of course, but a few embellishments wouldn’t hurt. “And she won’t stop. See, that’s the thing about Sadie – she never stops. She never ever stops.”

6

“Stop!” Sadie wailed. “I need to s-stop!”

The schoolteacher stood hunched over with her hands on her knees, her breath coming in short, laboured bursts. “I’m bloody knackered! Who the hell builds a town on a cliff side?!”

“Come on, Sadie!” Millie trilled, apparently unconcerned with the steep gradient of the hill they were traversing. “We’re nearly there!”

The two of them were halfway up the winding cobbled street that presumably led to the lighthouse. The houses on either side of them were painted in bright colours, but any illumination from the windows was few and far between, which seemed odd, considering the light had almost faded from the day.

“Oh, God, this must be what dying feels like…” Sadie gasped. “What is wrong with these people? They must have legs like bodybuilders!”

Millie took hold of her teacher’s arm and tugged.

The registration plates on the small handful of cars that sat parked along the road had answered two questions, at least: They were still in the UK, and it was still 2022. Sadie thought she recognised the coastal town but couldn’t put a name to it. With its colourful houses and unusual cliff layout, it’d surely have featured on some mid-afternoon TV program or graced the pages of lifestyle magazines.

But it was so quiet. A picturesque place like this would’ve attracted throngs of tourists in the summer months. Instead, it felt like a ghost town. They’d seen little in the way of human habitation down by the harbour, and just as little the further up they travelled, except for a young blonde-haired man leaning out a bedroom window smoking a cigarette, watching them with interest as they walked by. Sadie considered asking him if he knew Reeta, but when she turned back, he was gone, and the window closed.

They came to another curve in the road. It continued on round to the right, heading to some other part of town, then presumably back down towards the harbour. The road leading up to the lighthouse was a simple dirt track, precarious chalk and sandstone cliffs on either side that had given way to landslides in several places. There were two signs here. One read:

Danger! Unstable cliffs. Keep clear.

The other sign was rusty and almost illegible. It read:

Rita’s Motors.

“Is it the same Rita that lives in the lighthouse, do you think?” Millie asked.

“Could be,” said Sadie. “I never heard of a selkie fixing cars, though. Maybe someone just used her name. Let’s keep going.”

Millie was already heading up the steep track towards the lighthouse.

Sadie mustered herself for another climb. “Be careful, Millie! The ground isn’t safe around here.”

7

Freya lay on the couch in the dark, her mother’s breasts pressing into her back. She was tired, exhausted really, but sleep wouldn’t come.

There were no curtains in the window, the moonlight making strange shadows of the creatures that shared the room with them, light glinting off glass eyes, making it seem as if they were staring at her, judging her.

And why shouldn’t they? She was the author of her family’s misfortunes, after all. Her stupid, immature naïveté had got them all into this mess. If she hadn’t told Elsa all their secrets, she and her mum wouldn’t be shut up with a menagerie of stuffed animals, and Sadie and Millie wouldn’t be… well, wherever the hell they were.

Maybe Elsa would just let them go. What use were they to her now, anyway? Sadie and Millie were the ones with magical abilities, after all. And where would the harm be in letting them go? Elsa knew Georgia could never risk calling the police, lest their own activities be exposed.

Or was all of that just wishful thinking? Would it be easier for Elsa to kill them and be done with it? Was she even capable of that?

Her mother’s voice made her start. “Can’t sleep?”

“No. How about you?”

“Well, I’m awake, aren’t I?”

“Ha ha.”

Georgia reached round and encircled Freya’s waist. “You smell nice.”

“Do I? Like what?”

“Like my little girl.”

“I’m not little.”

“You’ll always be little to me. Didn’t I tell you that before?”

“Yeah. That night I came to you in your bedroom. The night we had sex properly for the first time.”

“I miss that,” Georgia murmured, snaking a hand beneath Freya’s crop top. “When all this is over, how about we have some secret nights together, just you and me?”

“What about Millie and Sadie?”

“They don’t need to be part of it. They have their little witchy thing. We can make our own kind of magic.”

“Sounds nice… Put a hand down my leggings, Mum.”

Georgia trailed a hand down to Freya’s flat belly, then inched beneath the elastic of her leggings and knickers. This was neither the time nor the place to be doing such things, she knew that, but that most basic of needs cared nothing for kidnappings or missing loved ones. Indeed, the unfamiliarity of this place and the stress of their situation had honed Georgia’s arousal to a fine edge, as if her body was willing to accept sex in place of sleep as a way to cope with the trauma.

And the way Freya moved her hips against her mother’s fingers, she clearly felt much the same way. The beekeeper’s daughter was wet and warm. Georgia allowed her middle finger to slip inside the girl’s cunt, then introduced a second digit, pumping them back and forth.

No, not so little anymore, Georgia mused. Big enough to take two of Mummy’s fingers. How quickly they grow up.

Freya fumbled behind her, trying to undo Georgia’s trousers.

“Let’s just take them off,” Georgia whispered, and the two of them slipped out of their bottoms and panties, leaving them both naked from the waist down.

“Shall we do a sixty-nine?” Freya said. “Then we can make each other feel good.”

And so, under the ever watchful menagerie of strange, silent creatures, mother and daughter shifted on the couch, Georgia lying on her back while Freya climbed over her. The eleven-year-old smelled musky and delicious, and Georgia wished she were able to see what her mouth was tasting. She pushed a single digit into the girl’s pussy, fucking her with it while she flicked her tongue over the sliver of clitoris that protruded below.

Freya dipped her head between her mother’s legs, lapping at the tart liquor of her cunt. She prised the fleshy lips apart and let her tongue probe as deep as it would go. She liked the earthy taste, the way it clung to her tongue like spiced honey.

Georgia sucked on her daughter’s clit, the tempo of both tongue and finger increasing. The liquid sounds of  lovemaking gave them away in the dark of the room.

They worked each other expertly, intuitively knowing when the other was close to orgasm, pulling back or racing forward as need demanded. And when finally they came, they came together as one.

When they were done making love that way, Freya climbed atop her mother and the two of them pressed their pussies together. There was less urgency this time, so they allowed themselves to savour their joining, gently rubbing against one another until they came again.

“You’ll always be my first born,” Georgia murmured. “Nothing will ever change that.”

“Love you, Mum…”

Sated, they drew the blanket across themselves and drifted into sleep.

8

It was full dark by the time Sadie and Millie reached the top of the cliff. They found themselves in a yard illuminated by a floodlight mounted on an old garage. There was a rusty car chassis lying to one side, but if this place had ever been a workshop, Sadie was sure those days were long gone.

To their surprise, they found a house a few yards away, an old stucco cottage with white walls that must have served as lodgings for generations of lighthouse keepers. And unlike most of the houses in town, this one showed signs of life. Sadie could see light behind closed curtains, and someone was making a heroic effort to sing along with “Ride Of The Valkyries”. The lighthouse itself was dark, perhaps as obsolete as the mechanics yard it neighboured.

“Should we knock on the door first?” Millie said, gesturing to the cottage. “Rita probably lives there, not the lighthouse.”

Sadie wondered if that was a good idea. It wouldn’t be easy trying to explain why a young woman and a child wearing damp clothes were knocking on doors at this hour. She could probably improvise if there was a need, but better to weigh up their options.

“Let’s try the lighthouse first,” she said. “If it’s locked, we’ll come back here and ask if Rita’s home. I’m not sure why a selkie would choose to live so far from the water. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“When Karnu said Rita was going through the change, what did he mean?”

“It’s called the menopause,” Sadie explained. “It happens to women later in life and can be very unpleasant. It’s not something you and I need to worry about for a long while, though. I’ll explain it better another time.”

They made their way over to the lighthouse. Sadie’s concern that the door would be locked proved to be unfounded, and it creaked open.

Another ominous half-open door. The last two led me into bad situations. Am I really stupid enough to fall for it a third time? I guess I am.

If there had been a safe place for Millie to wait, Sadie would have left her behind, but who knew what kind of people lived in that house?

“Stay close behind me,” she told Millie, then stepped across the threshold. She fumbled around on the wall until her fingers settled on something that might have been a switch. When a dim light filled the interior she breathed a sigh of relief. Climbing a seemingly abandoned lighthouse at night was bad enough, but climbing one in the pitch dark was guaranteed brown trouser time.

There were no windows in the lighthouse, so their trespass would hopefully go unnoticed from the nearby cottage. A metal staircase spiralled upwards and out of sight. Sadie gave a frustrated groan, then resigned herself to yet another climb. “Up again. Always up.”

So up they went.

9

When they reached the top of the staircase, even Millie was tuckered out. Sadie parked herself on the last step to get her breath back and rub her burning calves.

A smaller set of steps led up to the light chamber.

“Wait here,” Sadie told Millie and climbed up.

The chamber was darker than the staircase, the only light coming from the hatch Sadie emerged from and the moon shining through the glass canopy overhead. She wasn’t going to risk giving herself away by turning on lights up here.

Still, there was enough light to make out the shape on the floor, round the other side of the central bulb housing, although Sadie couldn’t say exactly what it was. It looked like a large chrysalis of some kind, a greyish-brown cyst that seemed to pulse with life. It reminded her of the humanoid-shaped growth that had marked the old oak back in Derwold, before Astris had abandoned the ancient tree for the seclusion of the forest.

She heard footsteps on the ladder behind her, and turned to find Millie climbing into the chamber. “I told you to wait down there,” she said without much rancour.

“I want to see,” Millie replied. “Wow. I’ve never been inside a lighthouse before.”

“I don’t think this one gets used much, by the look of it.”

“What’s that over there?” Millie said, moving round to where Sadie stood. There was something big and icky on the floor. “Sadie, what is it?”

“That,” said a voice behind them, “is my Aunt Rita.”

Soon to come: Chapter Nine!