Page 17 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

“As for your finances, the estate produced two thousand four hundred pounds last year. I have separated your pin money and placed it into a separate account. It was your father's custom to reserve four hundred pounds each year for that purpose, a most generous allowance. Unfortunately, none of it was ever saved. I have now set aside the full four hundred pounds, as it does not appear in the estate ledgers and need not be accounted for.”

He looked from one sister to the next.

“I cannot urge you too strongly to marry as soon as possible. Jane and Elizabeth, that advice applies especially to you, but also to you, Mary. You have done well to pack what must be removed and to clear the master suite. There is nothing more to be done now but wait for the new master to arrive.”

The family visited together late into the evening before Mr. Phillips took his leave.

* * *

The following afternoon, Elizabeth rose from the dining table and said, “I believe I shall go for a walk.”

Mr. Gardiner asked, “Would you care for company, Lizzy? I could use a little fresh air myself.”

“Yes, Uncle. I should appreciate your company. I am saddened that I shall soon lose my favorite walk to Oakham Mount. I have spent so many happy hours outdoors. One does not enjoy the same freedom in London. I certainly shall not be able to walk out alone there, and once I marry, my husband may not permit me such liberty.”

“Yes, Lizzy. You will live under many more constraints than you did with your father.”

They continued their conversation as they walked. When they reached the summit of the mount, Elizabeth looked to him.

“Uncle, have you ever visited the stone circles in the north of England?”

“Do you mean the monument upon Salisbury Plain? Stonehenge?”

“No, sir. Papa and I were reading about a prehistoric monument in Derbyshire called Arbor Low.”

“Ah, yes. You speak of the stone circle southwest of Bakewell. What of it, Lizzy? What interested you?”

“I have read about the ceremonies and rituals believed to have been conducted there. Some suppose it was a place of worship, though no one can say with certainty. One author wrote that Arbor Low was probably a Druid temple, but because its builders left no written record, we may never know who they were or what they believed.”

Her uncle said, “I believe the people who built it studied the stars. Some believe the henge marked the changing seasons and that the ancients gathered there for ceremonial purposes.”

“What does it look like, sir?”

“It is an isolated, windswept place, surrounded by open moorland. The henge consists of a great circle enclosed by an earth bank and a ditch. Two great causeways breach the bank, and at the center of the circle stand at least six smaller stones known as the cove.”

He gestured toward a rotting log.

“The stones that form the circle are quite large, some measuring six to eight feet in length and perhaps three to four feet in width.”

He paced the length of the fallen log. “About this long.”

Elizabeth joined him. “They are massive stones, then.”

“Yes. I cannot imagine how they were moved or where they came from. I never studied the history, but I remember they are unhewn and irregular in shape. The henge is aligned with the setting sun at the winter solstice. Beyond its physical appearance, however, we may never know its true purpose.”

“Uncle, you know so much about the henge. How did you come by all that knowledge if you did not study the history?”

“Lizzy, your Aunt Maddie is from Derbyshire. The village of Lambton, where she grew up, lies but five miles north of Arbor Low. When I was wounded in the war, she and her father nursed me back to health. Maddie and I fell in love while walking through the beauties of that countryside, and we spent many an afternoon at Arbor Low and Gib Hill, the nearby barrow. We drove her father's gig there almost every day throughout one summer. The henge holds a very special place in my heart, though local tradition warns people to keep away on the eve of the winter solstice, for it is then that the veil between the worlds is believed to be at its thinnest.”

“Uncle, are you speaking of magic?”

He smiled. “No, Lizzy. I claim no such knowledge. I am merely repeating what the local people told us. Maddie's father was well known as the village physician, and people spoke freely to him. Through him, they spoke freely to us as well.”

“What did you mean when you said the veil is thinnest?”

Her uncle looked sheepish.

“I knew the moment the words left my mouth that I ought not to have mentioned it, for now you will not rest until you have drawn the whole story out of me.”