“No, I had no knowledge of them,” Matthew admitted. “And I forbade her to go. But the girl has been disobedient and thoughtless at times. That’s because of her upbringing. But I swear before all that the girl is no witch.”
Now Goodwife Cruff rose to her feet. “Sir, I’ve something to say,” she announced. “I’ve got here what was found in the widow’s house that night.” With these words she took an object from her pocket. It was not the book, as Kit had expected. It was the little copybook.
“Look at that!” Goodwife Cruff demanded. “What do you say about that? My Prudence’s name is written over and over. It’s a spell!”
The magistrate took the copybook. “Does this book belong to you, Mistress Tyler? Did you write this name?”
“Yes, sir,” Kit managed to say again. She could hardly stand. “I wrote the name.”
Matthew Wood covered his eyes with his hand. He looked old and ill.
“Why did you write a child’s name like that? This is a serious matter. You must explain to us why you chose this child’s name.”
Kit was silent. All men and women in the hall jumped to their feet, screaming, “She won’t answer! She’s guilty! She’s a witch! Hang her! Put her to the water test!”
Meanwhile, Gershom Bulkeley quietly took the copybook and studied it carefully. Then he whispered something to the magistrate. Captain Talcott announced, “Silence now! This case will be taken to court in Hartford!”
“Wait a minute, Captain!” called a voice. “There’s a man here who says he has an important witness for the case.”
Kit turned slowly to face a newcomer. At the door of the room stood Nat Eaton. Beside him, holding his hand stood Prudence Cruff. Nat! Kit immediately felt joy and relief.
“Where is the witness?” the magistrate asked. Nat put his hands on the child’s shoulders and gently pushed her forward. “Come here, child,” the magistrate said. Prudence walked straight to the magistrate’s table. There was something strange about her. She was not afraid!
“We will ask you some questions, Prudence,” said the magistrate quietly. “Do you know this young woman?”
“Yes sir,” whispered Prudence. “She is my teacher. She taught me to read.”
“Where did she teach you?”
“At Hannah’s house in the meadow.”
Goodwife Cruff screamed loudly from across the room.
“Do you mean Mistress Tyler took you to Hannah Tupper’s house?”
“The first time she took me there. After that I went by myself.”
It is all over, thought Kit. Gershom Bulkeley still held the little copybook. He passed the book to Captain Talcott. “Have you ever seen this book before?” the magistrate asked the child.
“Yes, sir. Kit gave it to me. I wrote my name in it.”
“That’s a lie!” cried Goodwife Cruff. “The child is bewitched!”
Captain Talcott turned to Kit. “Is it true that the child wrote her own name in this book?”
“It’s true,” Kit answered quietly. “I wrote it for her once and then she copied it.”
The magistrate turned to the child again. “Could you write your name now, do you think?”
“I think so, sir.”
He dipped the quill pen in the ink and gave it to the child. Prudence set the pen on the copybook and started writing. For a moment the room was silent. The magistrate looked at the writing and gave the copybook to Gershom Bulkeley. “Very nice writing, I should say,” Dr. Bulkeley commented, “for a child with no learning.”
“Now Prudence,” the magistrate continued. “You say that Mistress Tyler taught you to read? What sort of reading? What can you read, child?”
“I can read the Bible.”
Dr. Bulkeley picked up the Great Bible from the table and turned the pages thoughtfully. “Read that for us, child, beginning right there.”
Kit held her breath. Then across the silence came the child’s whisper: “Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding…”
Kit felt so proud that she forgot her fear. For the first time she dared to look back at Nat Eaton where he stood near the door. Their eyes met, and suddenly a warm feeling of strength flowed into her.
Everyone in the room was staring at the two Cruff parents who stood with their mouths open in shock and disbelief. Goodwife Cruff’s face darkened. She saw now that she had been tricked. But before she could get at her child, her husband spoke. “Did you hear that?” he asked. “That was really good reading. I’d like to see any boy in this town do better!”
“It’s a trick!” cried his wife. “That child could never read a word in her life! She’s bewitched!”
“Hold your tongue, woman,” shouted her husband back. “I’m tired of hearing about Prudence being bewitched. All these years you’ve been telling me our child was stupid. But look how smart she is! All my life I’ve wished I could read. Now I got someone to read the Good Book to me every evening, and that’s no work of the devil!”
The magistrate had not interrupted this speech. “As I understand, Goodman Cruff, you withdraw your charges against this young woman?”
“Yes,” he answered loudly. “Yes. I withdraw the charges.”
“Adam Cruff!” his wife screamed. “Have you lost your mind? The girl has bewitched you too!”
At the back of the room someone laughed. Was it Nat?
“There is no evidence of witchcraft,” the magistrate announced. “I pronounce that Mistress Katherine Tyler is free and innocent.”
But suddenly Goodwife Cruff found a new target. “That man!” she yelled. “Isn’t he the sailor who was banished from the town for setting fire to houses?” There was a new uproar. The constable looked to the magistrate for orders. “Arrest him,” Captain Talcott said.
“Oh no!” Kit cried in alarm. “You can’t arrest him! He only came back to help me.”
But they were too late. Nat had already left the room unnoticed. “They won’t find him,” a little voice whispered in Kit’s ear. “He told me to say goodbye to you if he had to run away.”
“Prudence!” Kit cried. “How did it all happen?”
“He came and found me this morning. He said he was worried about you, so he came back and heard about the meeting. He said I was the only one who could save you, and he promised he would stay right here and help as long as we needed him.”
“Oh, I’m so grateful to both of you!” Kit was crying again. “I’m so proud of you, Prudence! Will you be all right, do you think?”
“She’ll be all right,” Goodman Cruff said. “Next summer she’ll go to your school, like I always wanted.”
Matthew Wood walked up to Kit. “Let us end all this,” he said. “With your permission, Captain, I shall take Katherine home.”
Chapter Twenty
On the day of the first snowfall Mercy got out of bed. “I love the first snow better than anything else in the world,” she said, her eyes thoughtful and sad. “It’s so beautiful, and it makes the house seem so warm and safe. I can’t imagine that you, Kit, have never seen snow before!”
Kit watched the falling white snowflakes and felt confused. For a moment she shared Mercy’s excitement. But then she decided that she liked palm trees, green leaves, flowers and a bright warm sun much more. Would she ever see them again?
That evening, for the first time since Kit’s arrest, William came to see her. He had stayed away, he explained, because of the illness in the house. He politely asked about Mercy’s health. Kit pretended that she was preoccupied with some chores, so it was Judith who kept the conversation going. “I hope John gets back soon,” she said finally.
“They say in the town that there’s been no word from them since they stopped at Hadley. There’re Indians there, you know.”
Judith stared at William, shocked. Mercy closed her eyes. “I’m surprised you are spreading rumors, William,” Aunt Rachel scolded him.
When it was late and William stood up to go home, Kit was sent to lock the door after him.
“I’ve missed you, Kit!” said William when they were alone in the hallway. “You don’t seem very happy to see me.”
Kit said nothing. How could she say that there had been a time when she had desperately needed him? But there was something more on William’s mind. “Everyone in the town knows that you meant well, and now you can make a fresh start,” he continued.
Kit looked down. “What do you mean by a fresh start?” she asked quietly.
“The Widow Tupper is gone, and it won’t be necessary to see much of the Cruff child. I’m not speaking against charity,” he continued. “We need to care for the poor. But you overdo it.”
“But it wasn’t charity!” Kit exclaimed. “Hannah and Prudence are my friends!”
“Oh, Kit,” said William. “I didn’t want to quarrel with you tonight. But from my point of view, no man would like an unpredictable wife.”
“Then it’s no use, William,” Kit said. She had had a long time to think that night on the riverbank and the night in the constable’s shed. She had never made any decision, but suddenly now it was all clear to her. “You and I would always misunderstand each other. We would always want to change each other. I’m sorry, but I could never care about the things that seem so important to you as you could never care about the things important to me.”
“The house isn’t important to you?” William asked slowly.
“It is,” she admitted. “But not if it means that I can’t choose my own friends.”
William did not seem surprised, only very sad. “Perhaps you’re right, Kit,” he agreed. “I’ve hoped all this year that you would change and learn to fit in here. But now I think I won’t be coming again.”
Kit simply nodded. Then William opened the door and was gone.
Now they seldom had any visitors. During dull winter evenings Kit felt absolutely lonely and wished she would go back to Barbados.
Then terrible news arrived. Two Wethersfield militia men returned from Massachusetts and told a story that on the way back they were attacked by Indians. Four men had been killed and a couple others were injured. These two men managed to escape, but the rest of the party had been taken captive. One of the captives was the young fellow who had been studying with the doctor, John Holbrook. Poor Judith cried for days, and curiously it was William who came to comfort and support her. But of course no one except Kit knew about the grief of Mercy. Kit was thinking about telling her that John loved her, but then she decided against it. Someday the time would come when Mercy could know.
The Christmas season passed, unnoticed, because there was no holiday in this Puritan town, no feast, no gifts. The days went by like any other, filled with work. January passed by, and then February. Kit often thought about Hannah. How was she now? Kit hoped that it was warm and cozy at Nat’s grandmother’s house. She also thought about the Dolphin. Nat had offered to take her with him. What if she had accepted his offer? If she had never come back, would anyone here in this house really have missed her? By now she would be in Barbados. At this very moment she might be already… But she should stop daydreaming. The house was sold, and she was here in New England, and perhaps Nat’s offer had never been serious at all.
But one night she woke from a vivid dream. She dreamed that she and Nat had stood side by side on the deck of the Dolphin, watching the waves. They came into a harbor, and she could already see beautiful palm trees and flowers on the shore. She woke up in the darkness and admitted at last that she wanted to go back. She wanted to go home where green things are growing and never see this snow again! Her tears were streaming down her cheeks, and now she’s made a decision.
After that night, all through the days, Kit started thinking about her plan and the way to tell her family that her mind was made up. Kit hoped that the family would be a little relieved because she had brought so much trouble to them. Well, at least Judith will be happy to have Kit out of the way. Kit had watched William’s face at the Meeting, and she knew that he was only politely taking his time before beginning to court Judith. And Judith knew this very well, too. Indeed, Judith belonged in the new house built by William. Somehow all three of them, she and William and Judith, had really known that all along.
In March the daylight hours, finally, grew longer. One late afternoon, when the family was preparing for supper, there was a knock on the door. “See who it is, Kit,” said Rachel. Kit went into the hallway and opened the door. A thin, ragged figure stood on the doorway. Without a word the man went straight into the kitchen. Judith suddenly dropped a wooden bowl. Rachel came forward, alarmed. The man did not even notice them. His eyes were fixed on Mercy where she sat by the fireplace, and her own eyes stared back, enormous in her white face. Then John Holbrook, because it was him, walked across the room and knelt down in front of Mercy’s chair.
Chapter Twenty-One
In April two marriage intentions were announced in the Meeting House. John Holbrook and Mercy Wood. William Ashby and Judith Wood. The Wood household was busy from morning till night as there was so much to do to prepare for the double wedding that was set for early May.
William’s house was nearly finished. Now he ordered a very expensive set of furniture. Judith knew where every piece would go in the new house, and how to care for each lovely thing. She and William spent their evenings in happy planning, and their happiness was good to see.
Mercy and John had already decided that at least for the first year they would share the Woods’ big house. John had resumed his studies with Dr. Bulkeley. The young man never spoke of his captivity, but it undoubtedly made him stronger. By June he would be ready to accept a small parish to the south of Wethersfield.
During all these preparations Kit quietly made her own plans. Her leaving would be a shock to them, she knew. But there was no real place for her here. The ice on the river gradually thinned and disappeared, and boats began their daily journeys. One afternoon Kit went to the attic to look through her seven trunks. The fine dresses must serve a purpose now. Would they bring enough money to pay her passage on a ship? Surely in Hartford, or even here in Wethersfield, she would find some buyers. But then she stopped and remembered her first day in this house and how lovely Judith looked in the green dress. Kit took it out and put it aside. Then she thoughtfully chose another blue one. These two would be her wedding presents to the girls.
Now all Kit’s thoughts were about Barbados. She would not go back as Sir Francis Tyler’s granddaughter. She would go as a single woman who must work for her living. She could probably work as a governess in one of the wealthy families. She liked teaching children, and there might be a library where she could enjoy reading books. Whatever happens, there will be the blue sky, warmth, fragrance and beauty that she longed for.
One day in April Kit walked alone the road from where she could see the Meadows and, suddenly, she felt strangely homesick. Hannah’s little cottage had been very dear to her. Maybe she did not want to leave this place after all? What if she never walked in the Meadows again? What if she never sat in the kitchen with Mercy or saw Judith in the new house? What if she never saw Nat Eaton again?