Page 33 - The Devil's Arsonist
P. 33
Chapter 16
The Mistress of Wetherden Hall
Sulyard Memorial with Family Coats of Arms
St. Mary the Virgin Church, Wetherden, Suffolk
th
Sunday at Dawn, 11 December 1994, Woodham Ferrers, Essex
We had last night foregone our usual custom of visiting the Bell Inn; not through lack of will
in mind; but because of a great weakness in limb, a strong slurring of speech and a mighty
aching in our heads. On our return from Morwenna’s lair we immediately went to our bed
and into a deep sleep of intoxication along with a large measure of anxiety in my mind and a
chaser of bewilderment in Elisabeth’s. Snuggles was just in his bowls, drunk to the world.
The breaking of the dawn with the new day’s sun, shining through the curtains into our
bedroom, caused yesterday’s excessive libation of mead to be reawakened in our heads with a
vengeance borne of our fondness for such a miraculous nectar. Yet in hindsight, without its
medicinal properties, our sleep would have been troubled into insomnia; such was the parting
revelation of yesterday: who Elisabeth once was; of the truth I had known but hid from her;
for I had been the cause of my beloved’s premature death when she once lived as Elisabeth
Sulyard, mistress of Wetherden Hall.
