The Betrayal of Maggie Blair - By Elizabeth Laird Page 0,7
of his coat.
I had thought that all ministers were like the last one had been: red-faced, old, stout, and angry. I thought they would all have a loud, booming voice and a frowning face. I was so surprised at the sight of this earnest, nervous-looking young man that I craned forward clumsily and set the hawthorn twigs rattling. He picked the sound up at once and came right up to the hedge, then bent down and stared through it, so that our eyes were no more than a foot's length apart.
He started with surprise when he saw me and straightened up. I had to stand up too, though I was so embarrassed I wanted only to bolt into the cottage. He settled his hat back on his head and pulled at the two white bands that fell from his collar over his black-clad chest. He was trying to look dignified, I could tell.
"You'll be Maggie Blair," he said. "And yours is a face I've yet to see in the kirk on the Sabbath day."
He was trying to sound severe but spoiled the effect by giving a gigantic sneeze that made his pale eyes water.
"H-how did you know my name?" I stammered.
"I know the name of every soul in my parish." He wiped his nose on a snowy kerchief that he folded carefully and tucked inside his sleeve. "And I'm discovering things about some of them that sadden me. You live here with your grandmother, Mistress Elspeth Wylie, isn't that so?"
I nodded warily. In my experience, mention of Granny usually involved severe disapproval.
"When was the last time that Mistress Elspeth brought you to the kirk, Maggie, to hear the word of the Lord?"
I looked down. In truth, it had been more than a year since Granny and I had tramped the four miles to the kirk and back again. Once the old minister's coughing had started, he had been like a fire damped down. He'd lost the strength to chase after his lost flock, and Granny was certainly not going to go to him of her own accord. Luckily, I thought of a way to change the subject.
"When's the baby to be christened, Mr. Robertson?" I asked.
He looked harassed.
"What baby would that be? There's one by every hearth hereabouts."
There was only one baby in my world.
"Ebenezer Macbean," I said.
Mr. Robertson raised his thin eyebrows.
"Tomorrow! Didn't you know? The whole parish seems to have been summoned to the..."
He broke off, his eyes fixed on something behind me. I turned to see Granny appear at the cottage door, holding a bucket of water. I knew she'd seen the minister, but she slung its dirty contents in our direction, anyway, making him jump backwards. Then she set it down and marched toward me, her arms crossed on her chest. I couldn't look at her. I was ashamed of her dirty clothes, wild hair, and blackened teeth. Beside the minister, so neat and scrubbed, she looked like a straw man set up in the fields to scare birds.
"Who's this keeping the girl from her work?" she demanded, pretending not to know Mr. Robertson. "Oh, it's you, Minister."
"And good morning to you, Mistress Elspeth," he said gravely. I glanced at him sharply, but he looked more alarmed than mocking. He coughed awkwardly. "I'm glad of the chance to speak with you. I've been at my parish three months already, and I haven't seen you or your granddaughter on one Sabbath day."
Granny's bare, hard-soled feet were planted firmly apart on the rough ground, but now she bent one knee and slapped a beefy hand down onto her hip.
"Pain in my joints," she said. "Ill health. A recurring fever. I'd never be able to walk such a distance."
Mr. Robertson pursed his lips.
"Oh, now, I saw you in Rothesay not one week ago, and it's a full two miles farther to walk."
"I know that fine, Minister." Granny's head was thrown back, and she was staring down her nose at him. "Crawled all the way, didn't I, on my hands and knees. The pain—you can't imagine."
Knowing how fast Granny strode along the lanes, covering the miles at a steady trot, I had to stifle a giggle.
A pink flush of irritation colored Mr. Robertson's cheeks.
"Mistress Elspeth, I have to remind you that it is your duty, both by earthly and heavenly law, to attend divine service at your parish kirk on the Lord's Day. If you fail to do so, you will incur a fine. Do you understand?"