The Betrayal of Maggie Blair - By Elizabeth Laird Page 0,37

'Shall I pray with you, Mistress Elspeth? Your judgment is upon you, and an hour from now you will be standing before the Throne of Grace to answer for your sins.' And Elspeth snaps at him, 'Thank you, Mister Minister, but I'll pray for myself,' and she cries out, 'Lord Jesus, I'm no witch, but I'm a sinful old woman and I pray you to forgive me!' and then she adds, 'And your mother, the good Virgin, can put in a word for me too.' Well, they all took that to be sheer blasphemous papistry, Maidie, as well she knew, and it maddened the Inverkip fellow, who shouted, 'Do your duty, Mr. Greig! Let's hear no more from this whore of Satan!' And you know what, I do believe that's why she brought in the Virgin Mary, just for a last poke in the man's eye, and because she wanted to get the business over."

I couldn't speak for a minute. At last I said, "Do you think it hurt her, when Mr. Greig did it?"

"I don't think so. All over in a minute." He patted me kindly. "The crowd went quiet when it was done, then that fool starts up again, preaching and calling for the fire to be stoked up, but I caught sight of Donnie Brown being taken off by the sheriff's men. I was afraid he'd blather about me and get me taken up too. With luck, he'll stick to Elspeth's story about the Devil flying away with you, but he's an old blabbermouth, and I won't trust him to keep quiet. I need to keep out of the way of things, Maidie, till the fuss has died down."

The bark of a dog below made us both shrink back into the little cave. We peered out cautiously but couldn't see anyone.

"You must get going," Tam said, "before all those fools have had enough of fires and burning and come back home."

"Go where? Tam, I've been racking my brains! How can I get away? No one will take me in a boat. There's not a single person..."

His face had broken open into a big, sloppy grin.

"Ah, but there is, Maidie, and I've been so clever I hardly know myself. It's all fixed. You're to swim with the cattle across the narrows to Colintraive on the mainland."

I stared at him in horror.

"Swim? I can't swim! You know I can't! I'll drown!"

He ignored me.

"I saw that fellow in Rothesay—Archie Lithgow, the head drover. You don't know the man, but he comes here every year to round up the cattle and walk them down to the markets in Glasgow. He knew your daddy. He worked with him. Good friends, they were. Well, the idea popped into my head as soon as I saw him walking along the high street of Rothesay. 'Hello, Mr. Lithgow,' I say. 'And have you come to witness the execution of the witch?' He gave me such a look, as if I was a louse he'd found in his hair, but I was very glad to see it. 'What a lot of nonsense!' he says. 'I've known Elspeth Wylie for years. She's a foul-mouthed old cuss of a woman, but she's no more a witch than I am. And neither's her granddaughter. I'm just glad that poor Danny Blair isn't alive to see this day. I don't know how the girl escaped from the tolbooth, but if I could help her now I would.' You see, Maidie? Wasn't I just the brilliant one? 'Oh, but you can help her, Mr. Lithgow,' I say straight out. And I tell him how I got the better of Donnie Brown, and he claps me on the shoulder and bursts out laughing and says if you'll just get yourself up to the muster place at Rhubodach, he'll see you across to the mainland and take you down as far as Dumbarton. 'Once you've crossed the Clyde, it's only five miles or so down to Kilmacolm,' he says. 'She can walk it easy in an hour or two.'"

I was staring at him with horror.

"Tam, I can't! I told you, I can't swim! I'll drown like my father did."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," he said airily. "The men go over in a boat. You'll be all nice and dry and carried across like the little queen you are."

I should have felt grateful, but I felt hollow inside at the thought of leaving my island, my only known world, however dangerous