The Betrayal of Maggie Blair - By Elizabeth Laird Page 0,70
say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.'"
He looked across at Annie, who with Andrew's rosy face nestled in her arms and Nanny, now twisting one of Annie's curls around her finger, made a picture of sweet goodness that curdled the blood in my veins.
"The angels in Heaven tonight are rejoicing over your repentance, Annie," Uncle Blair said with a happy smile, "as we, too, rejoice. And we will pray for our dear Maggie, that the Lord will work in her heart and bring her to forgive the wrongs that you have done her."
When the long, long prayers were over at last, it was time for bed.
"Grizel, you will sleep in the other room," Aunt Blair said. "Annie will share the box bed with Maggie."
I said nothing, but I pulled Grizel back as she went into the other room.
"Go back to our bed," I whispered to her. "I'd rather share a ditch with a mad dog than sleep in the same bed as her."
Grizel grinned at me.
"Don't blame you either."
"Where are you going, Maggie?" Aunt Blair called out as I opened the door to the next room.
I managed to smile meekly.
"Annie will sleep better without me beside her," I said. "I'm an awful one for wriggling in bed."
She gave me a sharp look but said only, "Well, dear, take a blanket from the press and a pillow too."
I didn't even try to sleep. I lay on my back, looking into the rafters with unseeing eyes, my mind seething with anger and anxiety.
Tam stole into the room so quietly that I didn't know he was there until he laid his hand on my arm, making me start up in fright.
"Shhh, Maidie, it's only me," he whispered. "I've come to say goodbye."
"What do you mean, goodbye?" I hissed back at him. "Tam, why have you done this to me? Why did you bring her here?"
The pale light of a full moon seeped into the room around the ill-fitting shutter, and in its dim glow I could see him look back anxiously toward the door.
"Be careful. She'll hear." His fingers were trembling. "I'd swear she can hear through walls of stone. Oh, Maidie, she made me bring her here! I didn't want to—not at all! After you'd escaped, I knew I had to get off the island too. I wanted to go to Glasgow, where a piper can always pick up a groat or two. But she latched on to me. She forced me to bring her along."
"Forced you!" I said sarcastically. "How could a girl force a grown man like you?"
"You don't know what she's like." He was shuddering all over now. "She was a sweet wee thing at first, all soft and kind. She took me in. And it was true, she couldn't travel alone without a man to help her. I was sorry for her, with the baby coming and all. But when we got to Glasgow, she ... she..."
"She got rid of it, didn't she, Tam?"
"Yes! There was an old woman who used some herbs and did what she was paid to do—you'd not want to know more, Maggie. And after that, Annie turned on me and said if I didn't do what she asked, she'd say I'd caused her to abort her child with witchcraft. She'd got your Granny hanged, and she'd do the same to me."
"But why did she want to come here? What does she want with me?"
"She didn't have anywhere else to go. You're the only person she knows on the mainland. She knew that your uncle was a well-set-up man. Respected. What can a girl do, alone in the world? She reckons she can worm her way in here and make them like her, so they'll speak for her to a respectable family. She wants a good position as a servant, and then she'll try to catch herself a husband. She'll be after that cousin of yours, I can tell you." He covered his face with his hands. "I wish I was a better man, my darling! I wish I was a braver one! I wish I hadn't brought this trouble on you!"
I could never stay angry with Tam for long. I put out my arms and hugged his poor, thin, trembling old body.
"Where will you go, Tam?"
"Eh? I don't know. Anywhere. Everywhere. Edinburgh, maybe."