Daughter of Satan (20 page)

‘You need not concern yourself with me,' said Tamar. ‘Depend upon it, when my time comes, I shall know how to take care of myself.'

Annis nodded her agreement.

Annis was weeping bitterly, her head in Tamar's lap. A terrible tragedy had overtaken Annis.

John – the most simple of all the new Puritans – had talked too freely. He had been arrested and taken to the gaol.

When Annis heard the news she was overcome by her grief. In six months' time her baby would be born, and it was unlikely – judging from what had happened in similar cases – that John would be free in time to marry her before the child's birth.

‘What'll they do to John?' she wailed. ‘Mistress Alton has had her eyes on me . . . smiling in a sly, secret sort of way as though to say, “I knew it would happen to 'ee, Annis Hurly!”'

‘Take no notice of that old woman,' said Tamar. ‘You anger me. Why did you not tell John at once so that he might have married you before this happened?'

‘I don't know, mistress. I must have been half mazed.'

‘You must indeed. But your master will be able to help you. I'll have a word with him. I'll warrant John will soon be home and then I swear I'll make him marry you. If you won't tell him, I'll tell him myself.'

Annis continued to sob wildly.

‘Oh, mistress, you're that good to me!'

‘More good to you than Humility Brown with all his fine
preaching? But for that man, John would not be in prison today. Have you thought of that?'

‘He says 'twas God's will, mistress.'

‘God's will!' snapped Tamar. ‘Mayhap you should ask God to help you now . . . God or Humility Brown.'

‘Nobody was ever as good to me as you, mistress,' said Annis plaintively.

Tamar went down to Richard.

‘You have heard this news?' she asked.

‘That fool John Tyler talked too much. He has a head on him like a bundle of hay.'

‘Richard, what can you do for him?'

Richard shrugged his shoulders. ‘I think it will be seen that a simpleton such as John Tyler can hardly be dangerous.'

‘It is necessary that he does not stay away too long. He has to marry Annis.'

Richard gave a burst of ironic laughter. ‘The men and the maidens!' he said.

But she was quick in their defence. ‘Humility Brown would doubtless say: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”'

Richard smiled apologetically. ‘I crave your pardon . . . and theirs. Tell Annis I will do all that can be done.'

‘I have already told her that.'

He raised his eyebrows. ‘How odd it is that you who persist in your relationship – and shall I say allegiance – to the Devil, should spend so much time bothering yourself with the troubles of others!'

‘If Mistress Alton casts her sneering eyes on Annis, I shall take her cane and beat her with it. Why do we not get rid of that woman? I hate her.'

‘Sometimes I ask myself that. But she is a good cook and she has learned my tastes. It would not be easy to replace her. I fear I have not the necessary energy to try.'

‘Let her be then, but let her remember her place. I'll not have Annis made more unhappy than she already is. I want you to see what can be done about John's release. I know you would help me in any case, but I want you to help quickly. I want him to marry Annis. She loves him and will look after
him – he needs looking after, it seems. And there is something else. Annis is afraid of her mother and father. She dreads having to live at the farm with them, which is what she and John would have to do if they married. I want to keep Annis with me. She has been with me so long, and I could not fancy replacing her. So I want you to have a cottage built for them. There is a spot not far from the Swanns'. They could live there and John could go on working at the farm and I could keep Annis. Will you do this, Richard?'

He hesitated: then he burst into sudden laughter.

‘You take my breath away.'

She kissed him in her impulsive way. He was enchanted, while he still wondered why this should be so.

‘You will, then,' she said. ‘I knew you would. Now will you please ride into the town and see what you can do about John's release?'

She went down with him to the stables and watched him ride off.

Events did not slip into the pleasant pattern which Tamar had planned. For one thing, Richard could not obtain John's release. John had talked seditiously; he had talked against Church and State.

Tamar soothed Annis as best she could. ‘You must not fret, girl. He'll be out soon.'

But he did not come out and the weeks stretched into months. Mistress Alton was now watching her slyly.

‘A nice state of affairs!' said Mistress Alton to Moll Swann. ‘Slip into sin and slip into prosperity, so it would seem. The reward is to the wicked. Have a bastard, and a cottage shall be built for you.'

The housekeeper made a face at Tamar when Tamar's back was turned, and only Moll – who was little more than halfwitted – and Moll's sister Jane could see her. That was all she dared do. She had been afraid since Tamar had come into the house that the girl would prevail on Richard Merriman to send his housekeeper away. Sometimes Mistress Alton felt that it was only her excellence in running his house and his hatred of being disturbed which were responsible for his
keeping her on; she knew she must tread warily, but for the life of her she could not stop herself tattling about Annis. How she wished she had Annis in the kitchens. She would have shown her what she thought of her. As it was, she could not stop talking about her.

‘That Annis,' she said to Moll and Jane, ‘got too big for her boots when the
mistress
of the house, the master's
daughter
, took it into her head that she must have a maid to wait on her. Maid indeed! Now we see Annis getting too big for her petticoats, besides her boots!'

Annis was afraid to go home. Her father had threatened, if she did, to tie her to the whipping-post in the yard and give her the biggest whipping of her life; her mother had said she would help him. Mistress Alton, licking her lips, tried to beguile Annis into going home; but Tamar saw that this did not happen.

Tamar was fierce in her defence of Annis. She hated both Mistress Alton and Humility Brown, who were harsh in their condemnation; she wondered at this time how she could ever have thought Humility noble.

She stopped him at his work one day when she was coming from the stables.

‘How dare you look as you do at Annis?' she demanded.

He did not answer.

‘I hate you when you look like that. Scornful . . . as though . . . as though you would rejoice to see Annis burning slowly in horrible flames that are fanned by devils.'

‘That will doubtless be her fate.'

‘I could not accept a God who allowed that.'

‘You blaspheme,' he said.

‘Mayhap I do. And you are a tyrant . . . So are all like you. Can you not understand that Annis is a broken-hearted woman?'

‘She is a fornicator. She has sinned and cannot hope to escape her punishment.'

‘She
is
being punished. She loves John Tyler, and they keep him in prison. She is afraid of what they will do to him. She is afraid he will not be released before her baby is born. Is that not enough punishment for anything she has done?' He did
not answer, and she went on: ‘It is you . . .
you
. . . who should be in prison. Not John Tyler. You tricked him into going to your meetings, and he is punished while you go free!'

He said: ‘If it were the will of God that I should be taken, then it would be I who was in gaol at this moment.'

‘You madden me! So it is God's will that Annis should suffer thus?'

‘How could it be otherwise? Sin brings punishment, and she has been guilty of the greatest sin.'

‘Have you never committed such a sin?'

He flushed scarlet and looked at her in horror.

‘No!' she cried. ‘
You
have not! You are not man enough. You might take sly glances and think . . . and hope . . . but you escape sin because you are not a man but a . . . a Puritan!'

‘You make excuses for your maid, and perhaps . . . yourself.'

Her rage was uncontrollable at that moment and, lifting her riding whip, she struck at him. The lash came down on his hand as he stepped back, and, watching the red weal spring up, she was instantly sobered and ashamed.

‘You . . . you maddened me!' she said.

‘The Devil was at your elbow,' he said; and it seemed to Tamar that he regarded his hand with a certain satisfaction.

Her anger returned. ‘If you dare talk to me in that strain,' she said, ‘I will do it again . . . and again!'

Then she turned and ran into the house.

Annis' child was a boy, and she called him Christian. ‘In the hope,' said Annis tearfully, ‘that he will grow up better than his sinful parents.'

John was released a month or so after the birth, and he and Annis were married at once, settling into the new cottage near the Swanns'.

The villagers grumbled that the Tylers were the luckiest pair to be met with for many a mile, and it seemed that rewards went to the sinful. That was not what Preacher Brown taught. It was not what the Church taught either! It was easy enough to see what had happened. Tamar had brought this about. Tamar was pleased. Of course she was! Another baby born
out of wedlock! Another to be brought up in the service of the Devil!

As for Mistress Alton, she was almost beside herself with annoyance. She chattered to anyone who would listen. It was only when people demanded to know how she could continue to work in a house whose mistress she believed to be a witch that she began to ask herself what she would do if she were turned away. Then she was a little subdued.

Humility Brown was even more dismayed than Mistress Alton. All during the months of Annis' pregnancy he had tried to persuade Tamar not to give the cottage to the Tylers, and she, being contrite because of the mark her whip had made on his hand, was polite to him until the weal had gone. When it had completely disappeared there was many a stormy scene between them.

‘What would you do if you were in my place?' she demanded. ‘Tell me what I should do if I were a good Puritan.'

‘Pray for the girl.'

‘Prayers would not build her cottage.' She laughed mockingly at him. ‘My words shock you. You expect the heavens to open and some terrible blight to fall upon me. Annis has sinned, you say; and I will say to you what I have said to others: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Would that be you, Humility Brown? I believe it would be. Humility! That should not be your name. Pride should be your name. For the pride of those who are saved, such as you, seems beyond the pride of the damned such as I suppose I am.'

‘You condone sin,' he explained. ‘There are deserving couples in this place who marry in purity. Could you not have given one such couple a cottage?'

‘But I love Annis and Annis is in trouble. But how could you understand that? You never loved anything but good – never hated anything but evil. You would turn Annis out, would you not? Send her home to those wicked parents of hers, whom doubtless you consider good people. It seems to me that your Church has led you a long way from the teachings of Jesus.'

‘You would glorify evil,' he said. ‘There is no denying that.'

With rising temper, she left him.

One summer's day Bartle came home. Down in the town there was the excitement and bustle which the return of the ships never failed to produce.

The day after his arrival he came riding into the stables at Pennicomquick. Tamar heard the clatter of hoofs and she hurried to her window, for the news of his return had reached her immediately on his arrival and she had been expecting his visit. She saw him leave the stables; she saw him come striding across the lawns in his arrogant way, towards the house. He looked up at her window and she hastily withdrew. She was astonished to see how her hands were trembling as she pulled at her bellrope.

Annis came, for Annis still worked for Tamar, bringing her baby, who was now a year old, with her from the cottage each day. Christian was at this moment toddling on the lawn, for he was just learning to take a few unsteady steps by himself.

‘Annis,' said Tamar, ‘if anyone asks for me, say I am not at home. That is all.'

Tamar went back to the window, standing cautiously away, and she saw Bartle approach the child. Little Christian toddled willingly towards him, and Bartle lifted him, and as he held the child high above his head, Tamar heard Christian's shrieks of joy.

Then she stepped back quickly, for Bartle had looked from the child to the window.

He had not been five minutes in the house when Annis came running up.

‘Mistress, the master sent me up to find 'ee.'

‘I told you to say I was not at home.'

‘Mistress, 'twas a lie. I could not say it.'

Tamar laughed angrily. ‘Here is more of Humility Brown's work! You cannot tell a lie when I bid you!'

‘Well, mistress, I did say I would come to your room and, if you were here, tell you that you were wanted below. And,
mistress, 'tis a gentleman as the master says you'll be pleased to see.'

‘I know who is there!' she cried.

Annis kept her eyes downcast. She was a good Puritan now – she and John together – and any manifestation of the peculiar powers of her mistress, while exciting her as they always had done, filled her with apprehension. Humility Brown preached against witchcraft even as the prickers did; and yet one whom Annis loved equally with her husband and child was of that strange and frightening community.

With a suddenness typical of her, Tamar's anger changed to understanding. She laid a hand on Annis' shoulder and said: ‘I saw him from the window. There was no craft in it; and since you do not wish to lie, you may say that I am here, but that I do not wish to come down.'