girl here, or we would have been, but for your kindness."
No one answered. Tam became aware of the disapproving silence at last and seemed to shrivel into himself. Annie, who had eaten with modest delicacy, shooting glances around the table as she assessed one person after another, heaved a great sigh, and, laying down her spoon, said, "Now I know that what everyone says hereabouts is true. You are godly people, full of Christian charity for the hungry and homeless. Anyone else would have thrown a wretched sinner like me out to starve up there on the moss. Oh, sir, mistress"—she clasped her hands and looked beseechingly, first at my uncle, then at my aunt—"if you only knew how sorry I am for the wrong I did to Maggie! How deeply I repent! I've struggled with the evil in my heart, and I've undertaken this long journey, full of perils, only so that I could cast myself on the floor and beg her to forgive me."
She was acting her part so well, with brimming eyes and little catches in her voice, that even I might have believed her if she hadn't lied so blatantly about her baby. Her words made me feel as if I'd been smeared with dirt. I put my hand into the pocket of my apron to feel my father's buckle, afraid that she might somehow have stolen it again already. The touch of it brought back the terrible memory of the trial, Granny's defiance, and the desperate nights in the tolbooth.
"Uncle," I protested. "Don't listen to her. Please!"
But it was too late. I could see that he was touched by the sight of a beautiful sinner repenting, a straying lamb returning to the fold.
"Maggie," he said with his usual gentleness, "this child has done you a terrible wrong, but if her repentance is real, the Lord has already forgiven her, and you must find it in your heart to forgive her too."
I thought I would choke.
"Aunt, please, you don't know her! She's..."
But my aunt was impressed, I could see, by Annie's prettiness, by the curls escaping from her cap, and the dimples in her soft pink cheeks. Annie had now turned her swimming blue eyes on me.
"You must believe me, Maggie! I know now that what I said was—well, not quite true. But I honestly believed it. I really did think Mistress Elspeth had evil powers and had consorted with the Devil. When I remember how she swung the baby around the hearth and cursed him before he died..." She shuddered artistically and stole a look at Aunt Blair. I could see that this shaft had found its mark. "And what I saw, that night at Ambrisbeg—"
"Where you had gone to meet your lover!" I interrupted furiously.
The smile she turned on me was full of understanding sorrow.
"I don't blame you, Maggie, for making up such lies. But it's not true. You know that. I admit that I was—have been a creature of sin. It wasn't earthly lusts that drove me to that place that night. It was the Devil himself, luring me, calling me to the witches' Sabbath. I was even—I admit it freely!—tempted to offer myself to the service of the Evil One! I was willing to let myself be seduced by him!"
"There was no witches' Sabbath," I said hotly. "Granny wasn't a witch. You know that. Be careful what lies you tell."
My anger had been growing like a surging wave, gathering to break in violent spray on rock. I could feel wildness in me. I wanted to make Annie fear me. I wanted to threaten her with Granny's haunting from beyond the grave, to terrify her with incantations and hints of enchantments, but I pulled myself up. I'd seen where the use of that kind of power had led. It was no way out for me.
"How can you know that there was no witches' Sabbath," Annie was asking me in a tone of deadly innocence, "unless you were there yourself?"
"Because I was there! I told you that before. I didn't take part. I watched. I'd woken up and Granny wasn't there. I was angry at always being left alone and I went out to find her. All I saw were some poor old people, the lonely ones of the isle, who had lit a fire to warm themselves and were drinking a drop too much, and dancing and singing for comfort and friendship. Ask Tam! He was there! You tell them, Tam. Did the