It’s All Fun and Games Until …: Catherine Cavendish’s The Garden of Bewitchment

Evelyn and Claire Wainwright are twin sisters, partners in life, and tired of living in the shadows of their dead parents. It’s time to move out of the family’s stuffy, Yorkshire house and find somewhere a tad smaller. A country cottage nestled on the moors turns out to be the perfect opportunity, a place they can make their own. There’s a town nearby, a lovely stretch of countryside, and plenty of opportunities to spin their collective yarns.

As it turns out, the two sisters aspire to be writers in the Brontë mold, and have their own work in progress, The Chronicles of Calladocia. It’s an ongoing book, peopled by a plethora of characters whose adventures vary from heartfelt romance to grimmer tidings. It’s mostly for fun, though both of the sisters dream of someday seeing it published.

However, Evelyn has begun to notice that something seems to be wrong with her sister. Claire has always been fascinated with the black sheep of the Brontë family, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne’s brother Branwell. Of late, that fascination has begun to take a deeper root than ever before. Now, the silly girl seems to think Branwell has been appearing to her, a visiting specter who talks with her and gives writing advice or unexpected ways out of various conundrums.

Evelyn assumed getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city would help, but the remote locale seems to have drawn out her sister’s psychological oddities and slowly transforming behaviors. While walking along the moors in search of answers, she instead stumbles across something altogether different: Matthew Dixon is a man who lives in a neighboring cottage, is a kindly soul, and a handsome one. Evelyn is struck by him, forms a fast friendship, and a fascination of her own.

However, there are more things on this earth than are dreamt of in Evelyn’s philosophy. When she comes home to discover a strange poltergeist display of destruction that violates her skepticism and sense, she is quick to turn to Matthew, who had his own curious encounter with the bizarre: a childhood discovery of a game called The Garden of Bewitchment that may have been far more alive and dangerous than it initially seemed. Once it presented its darker aspects, he managed to escape it, but when he returned to dispose of it he discovered the game had vanished.

Claire’s own encounters with strangeness culminate in her discovery of that very game in their cottage, and as Matthew confided, it refuses to be burned or buried or otherwise cast aside. This game seems to be biding its time … waiting for some fast approaching event. Is this Matthew playing some kind of trick upon them, or are the Wainwright sisters caught up in a story far stranger than any of the romances they collaborate upon? Catherine Cavendish turns her sense for historical details as well as her gothic horror sensibilities into a playground for dark imagination in the chilling, ghostly novel, The Garden of Bewitchment.

There are a lot of moving parts to The Garden of Bewitchment, a novel that blurs the line between psychological thrillers and supernatural terror. What starts as an account of twin sisters who are enduring a slow but unstoppable falling out goes through a couple of course changes over time, each one adding in new elements of the fantastic until we have a witches brew of seemingly unconnected components that eventually fit together in unexpected ways.

Cavendish’s latest book, The After-Death of Caroline Rand, could well serve as a bookend to this earlier volume. Both novels feature secondary characters who are obsessed with a voice from the past, protagonists who must weather strange situations that put them in surprisingly close proximity to the shades of the dead, and bodily transportation from the normal world into the abnormal one. In the more recent book, it’s Laurel Canyon of the 1960s that is much more than it seems, and here it is a cardboard façade and landscape of a board game that is much more than it seems.

We do not come to a Cavendish horror novel in search of bloody violence and hardcore horrors, and there is little bloodshed to be found in these pages. However, the threats to body and soul are nevertheless dire and when Cavendish turns the screws, the suspense can get intense in short order.

The writing style here is deceptively slow burn in the very beginning, but the author shows a clear affinity for delivering information on the down low while also building the period through telling details and the characters through intriguing touches. Almost from the start we get a sense of Claire’s wrongness, though it initially seems little more than a game or affectation. That is certainly how Evelyn views it, and though the book it told third person, it is Evelyn’s perspective that dominates much of the text. So, when the chapter ends with her dismissing the Yorkshire help (Nancy), only to learn that there is more going on with Claire than she knew, it comes as a genuine surprise for her and a cleverly written foreshadowing for us. Consider how effectively the author teases us with this lengthy excerpt:

Back at the house in Sugden Heath, Evelyn summoned Nancy to the drawing room. As the elderly woman shuffled in, Evelyn wondered when she had grown so old. Nancy had always been Nancy. Ageless and as much a part of the fixtures and fittings of the place as the chaise longue Evelyn sat on now.

Nancy raised pale blue eyes to her mistress.

“You sent for me, miss?”

“Yes, Nancy. I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”

The woman blinked, and for the first time, Evelyn caught a glimpse of something unpleasant behind those eyes. Something Claire must have sensed or witnessed.

The woman folded her arms. “Bad news, miss? What sort of bad news?”

Evelyn swallowed. “Since our father died, my sister and I have become increasingly uncomfortable in this house. It’s too large for the two of us, and the upkeep is expensive.”

“Is it, miss? I understood the master had left you comfortably provided for.”

Impertinent. Servants weren’t supposed to challenge their employers, and her tone and demeanor screamed just that, while her expression had transformed into a look of defiance.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 148

At this point, Evelyn has assured herself that she is in charge of the house, the servant, and the situation. She is an overconfident woman, almost as blind to the truth as she accuses her sister of being. That moment of Nancy’s impertinence throws her off her game, bumps her out of the script she’s written for herself. It’s never a nice experience to be thrown off so easily.

“Nancy, I know you have been with this family for many years.”

“More than forty. Since the master and mistress were first married.”

Did she honestly think this gave her more right to be here than she and Claire? Evelyn moved on swiftly. “You have given valiant service through all those years, but now, I’m afraid, it is time to go our separate ways. I would imagine you have a little put by for your retirement?” Her father had never been a stingy employer, and all Nancy’s needs had been provided for as part of her room and board, which left the wages she earned mostly for herself.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 158

Evelyn is doing her best to restore the “proper order,” but Nancy continues trying her patience and pushing at her comfort zone. It’s a subtle way of adding a mundane breed of unease to what should be a cut and dried situation. Especially when what happens next puts Nancy pretty much in charge of the scene and Evelyn reacting to her:

Nancy nodded. She seemed to have been expecting this conversation. Certainly she showed no sign of shock. No quiet resignation to her inevitable fate either.

Evelyn took a deep breath. “Is there something you would like to say to me, Nancy?”

“Not particularly, miss. I do, as you say, have a little put by, and I have a sister in Bradford who has always said she will take me in if I was left in this situation.”

Evelyn realized she had never even known Nancy had a sister. She knew nothing about this woman who had lived with them all her life. How old was this sister? Nancy must be getting on for eighty if she was a day. She dismissed the thought. None of her business, after all.

“Then it is time for you to take a well-earned rest, Nancy. Miss Claire and I will be moving to a cottage in Thornton Wensley in a few weeks’ time. Hopefully this will give you enough time to sort out things with your sister.”

“Oh, I don’t need weeks, miss. I can leave tomorrow. Today, if you prefer.”

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 164

This could well be game, set, and match with Nancy dominating the scene. Even Evelyn’s half-hearted attempt to reassure herself of her superiority by calling into question Nancy’s advanced age has not succeeded. It’s easily undone:

“What? No. No, there’s no need.”

“I would prefer it, miss. If you don’t mind.”

“But why, Nancy? Have you not been happy here?”

“Not really, miss. Not for a long time, if I’m being truthful.”

“When did that happen?”

“After the mistress died, it became more…difficult. The master didn’t want to have anything to do with the domestic side of things. Then one by one the staff left and weren’t replaced, until it was just me doing everything. Oh, I didn’t mind that so much. I’ve always been a hard worker, but I found it difficult to…to…”

For the first time in this awkward interview, Nancy was clearly nonplussed. The feeling was infectious. Evelyn fought to retain her composure. She had not expected this reaction at all.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 173

And just like that, Nancy’s dominance over the scene is released. Instead of a hand off to Evelyn, however, both characters subsequently flounder for control. Each woman struggles to reclaim control but neither makes much headway:

“Please help me understand, Nancy. Has there been some friction between you and my sister, perhaps?”

Nancy flashed her a look Evelyn struggled to comprehend. The older woman stared down at her hands and clasped them, as if taking comfort in the physical contact.

“I would really rather not say,” she said at last.

“I don’t understand. Why not? Nancy, if something has been troubling you, I need to know. Have I done something to upset you?”

Nancy continued to inspect her folded hands. Evelyn waited, her impatience mounting. What on earth was the matter with the woman? The cook didn’t usually find herself lost for words.

She would wait no longer. “Nancy?”

The woman met her gaze. “I would rather not go into it, if you don’t mind. I’m sure everything will work itself out now. I shall be happy with my sister and you… Thornton Wensley, you said?”

“Yes.” Why wouldn’t the cook tell her what was on her mind? She couldn’t force it out of her, although, right now, Evelyn wished she could. “I am most concerned. Something has clearly troubled you, and I can’t help feeling it is connected in some way with either myself or my sister. Why won’t you tell me?”

Nancy shrugged and shook her head. “I’m sorry, miss. I would rather not say any more. I’ll pack my bags and be gone in the morning. I’ll make sure everything is tidy, clean and all the laundry’s up to date. The baking is all done, and there’s plenty of food in the pantry to keep you going.”

Without waiting to be dismissed, Nancy turned on her heel and limped out of the room, leaving Evelyn too stunned to protest.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 180

The sequence is not terribly heavy in terms of description, but there is a nevertheless cinematic quality to the exchange. One could imagine a terrific guest star (say, Maggie Smith or Helen Mirren) in the Nancy role having a terrific time sparring with one of the younger set, withholding specific information while also managing to build up an eagerness for both the character and the audience to learn what she knows.

Of course, Cavendish’s writing reaches a kind of giddy joy when invoking the supernatural elements. This is not horror comedy, per se, but one can imagine the author wearing a big smile while tightening the screws for her characters and readers.

Consider this passage from later in the book, which finds Evelyn gone to town while looking for her suddenly departed sister, staying overnight in an inn, and having a nightmarish encounter:

Dinner was well cooked, hearty and full of flavor. Whatever else Martha was, she certainly had a way with food. ‘A good plain cook’, her mother would have called her.

After she had finished, Evelyn felt tiredness overwhelming her. It had been a difficult and disappointing day, leaving her bereft and confused. Where could Claire have gone to, if not here, in Haworth?

She retired early, grateful for the cool, soft pillow and clean, sweet-smelling sheets. She drifted off within minutes.

Her dreams were of moorland and swirling mists. She was searching for Claire, calling her name again and again. The curlew circled overhead, and she too seemed to echo Evelyn’s cries as if she had joined the search.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 1979

Situation normal territory establishes the stage and brings Evelyn into the realm of the familiar sorts of dreams. The curlew is a bird she sighted on an earlier walk along the moors, bringing her in touch with something from before. And while there is a bit of anxiety, it is of the real world sort: a sister concerned for her headstrong sibling who has gone and made a bad choice. However, things shift from the everyday to something else soon enough:

Then she heard it, a faint answering cry, coming from far in the distance. Evelyn ran, skipping over rough grass and heather. The curlew continued to circle overhead, keeping pace with her. Claire’s cries were nearer now. More desperate.

“I’m coming, Claire. Hold on, I’m coming.”

And then she saw her. On the ground, her face dirty and blood-streaked, her ankle caught in a vicious-looking mantrap.

Evelyn knelt down beside her and took her in her arms. “How did this happen?”

“He did it to me. He isn’t who he seems to be. Oh, Ev…” Her sobs tore at Evelyn’s heart.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 1986

To this point, there have been a few male characters in the piece. A kindly neighbor, two possible love interests, one ghostly (and possibly unreal) and the other possibly proceeding with an unknown agenda. So, the He in question has limited options …

Claire shuddered and pulled herself away from her sister’s grip. “He’s back. He’s come for me. He’ll take you too. Oh…” She pointed ahead of her, her hand trembling, eyes wide and staring.

Evelyn turned. A man stood mere feet away, dressed from head to toe in black, his face indistinct…until he moved slightly.

“Matthew? But…” No, it wasn’t him. It was…

The face seemed to drift out of focus. As if someone were manipulating a camera lens.

The features settled. Claire whispered. “Branwell. It’s Branwell, Ev. Only it’s not really him.”

“I know it can’t be.”

The man’s features softened again, became unfocused, then clear as again Matthew Dixon stood in front of them. He said nothing, but a smile twitched the corners of his mouth.

Evelyn stared incredulously. “How can this be?”

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 1992

To this point, we are not certain if this is an actual dream, giving us an assessment of Evelyn’s psychology, or some kind of supernatural intrusion. This lends the sequence a subtle, paranoid energy.

He reached into an inside pocket and pulled out a sharp-pointed stiletto. He raised his arm, and Evelyn knew it was meant for her. She screamed.

She sprang up in bed, sweating and breathing hard. A nightmare. But it had been so real. Too real. Every image, every second of it replayed in her mind, and her hands trembled as she clutched at the sheets.

The room was bathed in darkness, black as pitch. She reached for the candle, nearly knocking it over in her anxiety. After fumbling for the matches, she found the box and struck one. It burst into flame, and she lit the wick.

She picked up the candleholder and shone the meager light around the room. The flame threw up flickering shadows, and Evelyn wished she had an oil lamp to provide more illumination. The shadows only made her more scared. That dream had really unnerved her.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 2000

As Evelyn is pulled from the lucid night terror, we can sympathize with her uncertainty. The reassurance that it was nothing but a dream is cleverly asserted. But this is soon undone:

Then a sound. Someone was in here with her. She swore she could hear them breathing. Still clutching the candle in one hand, she edged herself higher in bed, drawing her knees up.

“Is there someone there?” Her voice trembled. She must control it. No reply.

She shone her candle around, slowly, dreading what it might reveal but forcing herself.

A wardrobe at the far side of the room seemed almost alive in the flicker of the candle. The chest of drawers next to it. Had it moved, ever so slightly? No, it had to be her imagination. Farther around the room, the small dressing table gave her a fright, until she realized the other flame and shadowy person she saw was merely a reflection of herself in the mirror.

She moved the candle still further, until she shone it next to her.

A sudden movement. A rush of air. A pair of bloodshot eyes staring into hers, right before the light snuffed out. Evelyn screamed and threw the useless candle to the floor. She stuck her head between her knees, clutching them tightly to her.

The Garden of Bewitchment, Location 2007

Again, Cavendish is not interested in delivering a ton of visual details and immersive description. However, the flow of information has a cinematic relentlessness to it. And all throughout the writer seems to be enjoying herself, making the character (and through her, the reader) squirm just a little bit.

Although I’ve only been reading Catherine Cavendish’s work for a little over a year (starting with the cosmic and gothic horrors of Dark Observation), it’s been a treat to explore the width and breadth of her previous publications. The Garden of Bewitchment is an enjoyable, shivery work from a master of subtle horrors and well-rendered character studies. It’s a novel in conversation not only with the present genre, but with the works of the past, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns a few new eyes toward the subtle creeps of Wuthering Heights. A lovely read for spooky season.

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The Garden of Bewitchment is available in eBook and paperback editions.

Next, we will take a look at a ghost story for middle grade readers, which turns several tropes and expectations on their ears. Mary Downing Hahn The Old Willis Place is available in eBook, paperback, and audiobook editions.

“It’s All Fun and Games Until …: Catherine Cavendish’s The Garden of Bewitchment” is copyright © 2023 by Daniel R. Robichaud. Quotes and cover image taken from the eBook edition, released in 2020.

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