Saraband for Two Sisters (14 page)

It was not therefore surprising that the following day Thomas Gast presented himself at the Priory.

Phoebe saw him coming and—much to my gratification—immediately came to me as though I was the one who could best protect her.

She, Angelet and I went to one of the peeps in the solarium where we could look down on the hall without being seen, and where not only could we see but hear what was going on. Angelet and I had used those peeps in our childhood when we had watched our parents entertaining in the great hall. My sister had thrown herself wholeheartedly into Phoebe’s cause, as I had known she would, and was as determined as I that Phoebe should not go back to the fiery blacksmith. With characteristic enthusiasm she had been busy finding discarded garments which Phoebe would be able to adjust to her ever-increasing size, and materials which could be transformed into baby clothes.

The blacksmith looked less fierce in our hall than he did in the smithy. I missed the glow which the fiery furnace cast over his face and the ring of the anvil which because of him sounded Satanic. I think he was perhaps a little subdued by what would seem to him the grandeur of our home. At the same time he would disapprove of it and I could imagine his thinking of it as treasures upon earth which rot and decay.

Our mother came down to the hall. She looked very fragile confronting that mighty man, but there was that air of dignity about her of which he could not help but be aware.

‘My lady,’ said Thomas Gast, ‘it’s come to my ears that you have my daughter here, and I am come to take her from you.’

‘For what purpose?’ asked my mother.

‘That I may treat her according to her deserts, m’am.’

I could feel Phoebe tremble beside me. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ I whispered. ‘You’re not going. Watch.’

‘It is for that reason that we have decided she shall stay here at least until the child is born. A girl in her condition must not be subjected to harsh treatment, if only for the sake of the unborn child.’

Thomas Gast was temporarily taken aback. My mother was speaking as though this was a child about to be respectably born. He spluttered: ‘I don’t follow you, m’am. It must be you don’t know …’

My mother seized her opportunity. ‘I know what has happened. Poor Phoebe has been seduced by a man who can’t marry her. She is young, little more than a child herself. We must be merciful. There is a new life to consider. I am sure she will realize the error of her ways and that it won’t occur again.’

The blacksmith’s fury broke out. ‘M’am, she be my daughter, more’s the pity. I would she had been strangled at birth rather than bring this disgrace on me and mine. I want that girl. I’ll thrash her till she screams for mercy. ’Tis the only way to cast out the blackness of her sin. Not that it will ever be cast out. She’ll know the folly of her ways when she goes to hell … but first she must have a taste of hell on earth.’

‘She has had that most of her life,’ said my mother tartly. ‘Thomas Gast, your Puritan piety has brought misery to your entire family. We are not going to give Phoebe back to you. She is staying here. We shall employ her in the household, and that’s an end to it.’

The blacksmith was like a lion cheated of his prey. ‘I’d respectfully remind you, m’am, that she be my girl.’

‘That does not give you the right to ill-treat her.’

‘Begging your pardon, m’am, I have every right. Give her over to me that I can help her mend her ways and maybe save her soul from eternal damnation.’

‘If we gave Phoebe back to you, Thomas Gast, and if any ill befell her or the child through your treatment of her, do you know that would be murder?’

‘You seek to bemuse me, m’am. I only want my girl.’

My father had come into the hall. He stood beside my mother and said quietly: ‘You will go now, Thomas Gast. Your daughter will remain here until her child is born. I forbid you to harm her and you are trespassing on my land. I gave you no permission to come here.’

‘You’ve got my girl, master.’

‘Your daughter is here and stays here. Now go, and remember this. The smithy belongs to me and if you wish to stay there you must obey my wishes. If aught happens to your daughter through your ill-treatment I shall accuse you of murder and that will not be very pleasant for you.’

‘I’m a godfearing man, master, who only wants to serve the Lord and do his duty by his family.’

‘Harsh duty, Thomas Gast.’

‘They be my children and I be responsible to God for ’em.’

‘You are also responsible to God for yourself,’ said my father.

‘I, master! There’s no more religious man in these parts. I’m on my knees four hours a day, and I’ll see it’s the same with my family. This girl of mine have brought terrible disgrace on us all and God calls for vengeance.’

‘Mind you do not bring disgrace on us all by your cruelty to your wife and children.’

That stung Thomas Gast to retort. In that moment he was ready to fling away his very smithy in his righteous anger.

‘’Tis a sorry matter when such as I am is chided by those as harbour whores and witches among them.’

With that he turned and went out.

I could see the horror on my parents’ faces as they looked at each other; and I knew what was responsible for it.

It was the reference to witches.

The aura of glory in which I had been living since I went to Phoebe in the barn seemed to evaporate. My father slipped his arm through my mother’s and they went out of the hall together. He was clearly reassuring her.

During the next two days Phoebe would not venture out. Angelet and I looked after her. We had reminded our mother that she had once said that when we were eighteen we should have a personal maid between us—one who would look after our clothes, sew for us, do our hair and take our messages. Well, here was Phoebe and we both wanted her. We weren’t eighteen yet but soon would be.

Our mother, delighted by our sympathy for Phoebe, readily agreed, and at first I was afraid that Angelet with her more appealing ways might win Phoebe from me. But that was clearly not to be. Phoebe remembered what I had done—and I believed she always would. I was her saviour and she told me that was something she would never forget as long as she lived.

‘I’ll be your slave all the days of my life, Mistress Bersaba,’ she told me.

‘We don’t have slaves nowadays, Phoebe,’ I replied. ‘If you’ll just be my maid that’s good enough.’

‘There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for ’ee,’ she answered fervently. ‘You changed everything for me. You’ve even made me love the baby.’

I was very happy.

Ginny told me that Thomas Gast was preaching hell fire every night on the village green.

‘Crowds do go and listen to him, mistress. Once there was just the few … them like himself. They want to stop dancing and singing and have nothing but church and prayers all day long.’

I watched Carlotta with Sir Gervaise. They often went out riding together. They were becoming very friendly, which seemed to please Senara. I heard her say to my mother: ‘It would be quite a good match. Carlotta would never settle in the wilds.’

My mother replied: ‘You were happy enough here once, Senara … until you went away, and then you didn’t want to go.’

‘I liked adventure, but it’s true I often wished I was back. Carlotta is different. I was brought up here. The place where you spend your childhood means something to you.’

Once when I was standing at our bedroom window watching the moon which was nearing its fullness, Phoebe came and stood silently behind me.

I turned and smiled at her. I took great pleasure in her devotion to me and I was constantly amazed that it did more to soothe me than my plans for revenge had done.

‘Look at the moon, Phoebe,’ I said. ‘Is it not beautiful?’

‘’Twill soon be full, Mistress Bersaba.’

Her brows were puckered and she looked anxious. I said: ‘What’s wrong, Phoebe? Everything is going well, isn’t it?’

‘There’s something I think I should tell ’ee, mistress. ‘Tis about the moon.’

‘The moon! What on earth do you mean?’

‘I know you don’t like her, mistress, and that is what have held me back. But ’tis for you to say what should be done.’

‘What are you trying to tell me, Phoebe?’

‘There be a lot of grumbling in the village, mistress. My father have always spoke against witches. And now I be here it have made a hate in him against this house. He’s a man with a mountain of hate in him for all his goodness and that he never laughs or sings, seeing it as sinful. He hates sin, and he hates that you have sheltered me and robbed me of my punishment, and he hates witches. He says he wants to see every tree with a witch hanging on it. Then perhaps we’ll be free of them.’

‘There has been a lot of talk of witches lately.’

‘Oh yes, mistress, ’twas since the ladies came and it was remembered. There’s the one they came to get long time ago at Castle Paling and her fled. But now ’tis the daughter they’m after. She have a look of the Devil in her and she have bewitched the fine gentleman from London. He be always seen with her. There was not many as would listen at first, on account of her being at the Priory. Witches by rights lives in little huts and they’re easy to take. There was some who wouldn’t believe the lady was a witch … not until the toad was found on her pillow.’

‘Oh!’ I gasped. ‘And now …’

‘They’ve had their proof, mistress. They’re going to take her the first opportunity they get and they’re going to hang her on a tree on the night of the full moon. If they can take her easy, they’d like that better, not wanting trouble with the Priory … but if they can’t … well, they’ll take her some way.’

My first thought was: It’s worked. I’ve done this. I’ve roused them up against her, and no one will know that I did it. I shall have my revenge. They will kill her … in a most horrible fashion, and I shall be avenged.

Then I saw her in my mind’s eye being dragged to the pond. Would they tie her right arm to her left leg and her left arm to her right leg and throw her into the water? If she sank she would be innocent but dead and if she floated she would be guilty and put to death.

This was the perfect revenge. Ugly death, humiliation. Carlotta, the dignified lady, to be submitted to such.

Why not? She had taken Bastian from me, and then she had rejected him in his turn for Sir Gervaise—or so it seemed she would. She deserved the worst that could happen to her. I should not be sorry for her.

Since the toad was found in her bed …

Phoebe was looking at me. ‘You’re so good, Mistress Bersaba. You won’t let it happen.’

I pressed Phoebe’s hand and went to my mother.

‘I must speak to you at once,’ I said. ‘Please, quickly … there’s no time to lose.’

Once more she took me into her bedroom.

‘They are going to take Carlotta,’ I said. ‘If they can’t capture her before they’ll take her on the night of the full moon. They are going to kill her … hang her on a tree or drown her … Perhaps …’

‘My child,’ cried my mother, and held me against her. ‘I feared it,’ she went on. ‘That man is wicked. He seeks revenge. And he calls himself Godly. He yearns to inflict torture on everyone. It is not the concept of Heaven that he loves but that of Hell.’

‘What shall we do, Mother?’

‘Thank God you discovered this in time. It is two days before the full moon. They must leave tonight. Your father and I will arrange it.’

That night Senara and Carlotta left and Sir Gervaise, his business with my father completed, accompanied them.

I lay in bed bewildered. I could not sleep. What had I done? I had planned so carefully, and when my plans were nearing fruition I had deliberately ruined them.

I could not understand myself. What had come over me? I hated Carlotta and yet I had saved her.

My mother came into the room and stood by my bed.

‘They are safe,’ she said. ‘They will soon be in Castle Paling.’

I did not answer and she stooped over the bed and kissed me.

‘You have saved them,’ she said. ‘I’m proud of you, my darling.’

When she had gone Angelet said to me, ‘You’ve become a sort of saint. Mother’s proud of you and Phoebe thinks you’re a god or something.’

‘And you know different,’ I answered, and added: ‘So do I.’

Angelet went on talking about witches and I pretended to be sleepy.

‘I think she
was
one,’ was Angelet’s verdict. ‘After all, there was that toad in her bed. How could a toad have got there … and then it disappeared, didn’t it?’

I remained silent, asking myself what had possessed me to do what I had, and the answer was: I did not know.

The night of the full moon passed without incident, for it was soon common knowledge that Carlotta had left with her mother and the fine gentleman from London. This seemed further proof of her special powers. But it was an anticlimax. The fevered excitement had died down. There was to be no witch baiting on the night of the full moon, and Thomas Gast’s pregnant daughter had become a maid at the Priory where her child would be born. It was not the first time that the Big House had sheltered wayward girls, and it seemed in the natural course of events that the affair would soon be forgotten.

Life went on normally at the Priory. We no longer ate in some state in the main hall but took our meals in the small dining-parlour. Estate affairs were discussed between my father and Fennimore, and they were planning together how the estate should be run when they had both gone to sea. There was already a very good manager and he would take over much of Fennimore’s work and everything would be satisfactory, while Fennimore would be doing what he wanted to.

My mother was uneasy at having two men at sea, but as usual she curbed her misgivings and believed in the best.

It was about a week after Carlotta, Senara and Sir Gervaise had left that we had news from Castle Paling. Carlotta was betrothed to Sir Gervaise and they were leaving for London, as he must be close to that city that he might hold his place at Court. He and Carlotta would be married when they reached London and Senara was to accompany them and stay a while with them before returning to Spain.

I thought about Bastian then and I must admit I felt a certain pleasure in his misery, for I was sure he was miserable after being so shamefully treated by Carlotta.