shine of his solitary front tooth as he grinned.
"I hid them in a haystack down by the lane. Your uncle's not the man to appreciate my music, so I thought."
"God bless you, then, Tam," I whispered. "I'll never forget how you saved me from the gallows."
But I was speaking to an empty room. He had already slipped away.
Chapter 20
Tam's disappearance hardly made a stir the next morning.
"Where's old Tam?" Uncle Blair asked, looking around vaguely as we took our places at the table for morning prayers. "Did he slip away in the night like the wee shadow he is?"
Annie pursed her lips.
"He's not a very good person, I'm afraid."
I had to clamp my mouth shut to stop myself from flying out at her, and in doing so I bit my tongue, which hurt so much that I couldn't have spoken, anyway.
"I'm sorry he's gone," Uncle Blair said. "I would have liked to express my gratitude in due form. He was wonderfully brave to rescue our dear Maggie as he did from the Rothesay tolbooth, even though he had to tell untruths to achieve it. And he was clever also to send her off the island with that good man Archie Lithgow."
I could see that Annie didn't like that. Her eyes shifted from side to side as she tried to think of a dart to prick me with, but fortunately Uncle Blair had already opened the Bible and had begun to read.
There was a stir at the door as we finished our breakfast, and Mr. Barbour, our stout, red- faced neighbor, came in. My uncle jumped up from the table with unusual eagerness, almost upsetting his bowl.
"What is it, Stephen? Has he come?"
"Has who come?" asked Aunt Blair, bewildered.
"Mr. Renwick! It's Mr. Renwick, isn't it?" Ritchie said eagerly. "Is he in Kilmacolm already?"
She frowned at him.
"Mind your tongue, Ritchie. Maggie, Grizel, get along to the barn and look for eggs. Take Annie and show her where the hens like to lay. Go on!"
She almost shooed us out of the kitchen.
Annie lingered by door, pretending that she'd dropped something and was looking for it, but I saw that she was only trying to eavesdrop. I dragged her away.
"Ouch! Don't hold my arm so tight. You're hurting me," she complained.
I let go reluctantly. I was longing to get her away from the house, so that at last, out of earshot of the family, I could pour out my fury. Grizel looked from me to Annie and back again.
"Never mind the eggs. I'll gather them in," she said with one of her jerky nods, and went into the barn.
Annie dodged my arm, trying to follow her.
"No, you don't," I said. "You're coming with me."
She hesitated, then shrugged, and followed with surprising meekness as I led her down to the kail yard, out of sight and hearing of the house.
"Maggie, listen," she began, as soon as we reached the rows of sprouting cabbages.
"No. You listen to me." I knew her poisoned tongue. She'd got around me cleverly, the night we'd met on the shore of Bute, with her tears and her entreaties. I was determined to speak first before she could try her tricks on me again. She had the sense, I could see, not to try and rouse my pity again.
"You're a thief!" I said hoarsely, my throat thick with fury. "A hypocrite! A lying, sneaky snake!"
She was standing with her hands on her hips, mocking me, and her insolence angered me so much that rage clotted up my words. I could say no more but only stammer and choke on my tears.
"Well," she said at last, as I spluttered to silence. "I can see that I've made you cross, Maggie, but—"
"Cross? Cross?"
"But," she went on smoothly, "what else could I do? Where else could I go? I didn't know anyone, and I need a new home as much as you do. You must admit, it's very nice here, in spite of all the praying and preachifying. Your aunt's a good housewife, I could see that at once. Linen, dishes, everything of the best. You ought to be grateful to me. Did you really want to live in that hovel in Scalpsie Bay with that old witch for the rest of your life?"
The urge to batter the smile from her face was so strong that I turned and pummeled the trunk of the rowan tree that stood at the corner of the kail yard.
"I'm not going away, you know, just because of you," her