The Betrayal of Maggie Blair - By Elizabeth Laird Page 0,111
the light was now so bad, because if I had been able to see the sickening drop, I might not have had the courage to set out along the little ledge that ran between the castle wall and the cliff edge. It was just wide enough to walk along but crumbling in places, and a single false step would have sent me hurtling down onto the rocks. I came at last to the window, a small, square hole at the height of my shoulders. The walls were so thick that I had to peer in to see anything. But then something white and living moved inside it, startling me so much that I nearly took a disastrous backward step. It was only a face, a man's face, pale and gaunt, the eyes wide and staring. He looked more terrified at the sight of me than I was of him.
"Please," I said, "are you one of the Presbyterians?"
"I have that honor." He licked his dry lips. "Are you an unearthly being? Have you come with more mockeries to torment us? I say unto you, get thee behind me, Satan!"
"No!" I looked back along the way I had come, scared in case my voice could be heard. "I'm looking for my uncle, Mr. Hugh Blair of Ladymuir in Kilmacolm. Is he here?"
Two other faces squeezed beside the first to look out through the small space. I heard interest and even excitement ripple back through the dense mass of humanity, and I could sense rather than see the close-packed crowd of bodies inside.
"Who is it?" voices said. "A girl? What's she doing out there? She's asking for Hugh Blair? Where are you, Hugh? Come over here. There's a lassie asking for you."
The displacement of bodies inside the vault stirred the foul air, and it poured out of the window in a nauseous cloud. And then Uncle Blair was suddenly, unmistakably there, inches away from me, and though his lower face was covered with a beard and his head had become as thin as a grinning skull, I knew his eyes and his voice as he cried out, "Maggie! Dear girl! Are you real or a dream? Oh take care! Don't step backwards. There's a terrible drop behind you."
I heard a heavy door crash shut in the castle, and with tense fingers I fumbled for the coins that I had kept and carried so carefully for this moment. I thrust them through the bars.
"What's this? Where did this silver come from?"
"From home. From Ladymuir. Ritchie borrowed it from the laird. I came to give it to you."
He gave a shaky laugh.
"The Lord heard my prayer and answered me in my distress. There are poor souls here, faithful to Christ, in more severe trouble than I am. This will go some way to..."
"No, Uncle, please!" I spoke too sharply, scaring myself, and lowered my voice again. "I came here for your sake, and for the family at home." I couldn't bear to think that this precious money might not help Uncle Blair after all. "I—I risked everything to come here. This money is for you."
It was too dark to read the expression on his face, but I knew that knots of moral struggle would be creasing his forehead.
"It's time to move on, Hugh," came a quiet voice at his shoulder.
"I must go back in, my dear." Uncle Blair's hand reached out, and for a moment our fingers touched. "We must take turns to breathe at the window, or we suffocate. My brethren have already been too patient. I will use these precious coins to buy food, Maggie dear, and I promise I will eat some of it myself."
The pale face of another man took his place, his mouth gaping open, a black hole, sucking in the few precious gasps of fresh air. Behind him came a murmur of voices.
"Your uncle wishes you to know," the man at the window said, "that your coming has cheered him like a shaft of light direct from Heaven."
He moved, and the next man stood at the window. There was more murmuring behind him.
"How are his wife and the children? He has been tormented by fears for them."
"They're well," I whispered. "Ritchie borrowed enough from the laird to pay the fine. They're managing."
Another face appeared.
"Your uncle wants to warn you that you're in great danger if the enemy discover that you came here as our friend. Others who have done so have been thrown in here with us."