“I knew it,” cried Nat. “Kit! What kind of a game is this?”
“Hannah…she’s in terrible trouble, Nat. They burned her house. Please…can you take her on the Dolphin? She is here, on the shore.”
The two men pulled Kit inside the boat. All at once she was crying hard like a baby. Nat put his hand on her shoulder. “Tell the captain we’re going to the shore,” Nat shouted to the sailors on the deck. “It’s all right, Kit. We’ll take you both on and get you some dry clothes. Just hold on a few minutes more till we get Hannah.”
On the shore Hannah was sitting in the company of her yellow cat which miraculously managed to escape the crowd and the fire. The old woman accepted the offer and climbed into the boat. “Where are we going, Nat?” she asked.
“To Saybrook, to visit my grandmother. You’ll be good company for her, Hannah. Come on, Kit, we’re leaving.”
“I’m not going, Nat. All I wanted was to make sure Hannah’s safe,” Kit protested.
Nat frowned. “I think you’d better come with us, Kit,” he said quietly. “This is our last trip before winter. We’ll find a place for you in Saybrook and bring you back next spring.”
Kit shook her head, “I can’t, Nat. I have to stay here.”
“Oh, of course,” Nat said slowly. “I forgot. You’re getting married.”
“Actually, it’s Mercy,” Kit corrected him. “She’s terribly ill. I couldn’t go. I just couldn’t, not now.”
Nat looked intently at her and took one step nearer. His blue eyes were very close. “Kit,” he started saying, but was interrupted by the voices from the ship. “Hey, there! Are you coming?”
Nat jumped into the boat. Kit stood watching as they pulled away from the shore. Nat turned to look at her. He raised an arm silently, and Kit raised her arm to wave back. Then she turned and walked back towards home. She couldn’t watch them reach the Dolphin because she was afraid she would jump into the water again and beg them not to leave her behind.
On the way home Kit met no one. She reached the house without any danger. Kit crept into the house through the back door and entered the kitchen. “Is that you, Kit?” Aunt Rachel greeted her. “We decided to let you sleep. Dr. Bulkeley has been here all night. He says Mary’s fever is going down!” In her joy, Aunt Rachel did not even notice Kit’s wet dress and hair.
Chapter Eighteen
Back at home, Kit suddenly felt both very tired and relieved. How beautiful and safe their house looked! The regular breathing from Mercy’s bed sounded almost normal. Dr. Bulkeley had said that Judith might even get up this morning. Uncle Matthew was preparing to go back to his work. Kit couldn’t let him go without speaking to him. “Uncle Matthew,” she said softly. “I heard what you said last night to those people, and I want to thank you for it. I’ve been nothing but a trouble to you from the beginning, and I don’t deserve your kindness.”
Her uncle studied her from under his bushy eyebrows. “It’s true I did not welcome you into my house,” he said at last. “But this last week you worked so hard, Katherine. I was wrong about you. Our own daughter couldn’t have done more.”
Suddenly Kit wished with all her heart that she would stand here before her uncle with a clear conscience. She promised herself to tell him all some day when Hannah’s safe.
Later that noon Matthew came back for a meal with his family. Even Mercy asked for a drink of water. The mood was high, and that’s why this time they were not alarmed by the knock on the door. Matthew went to open it, and they heard a man’s voice, “We have business with you, Matthew, that can’t wait. Better call your wife, too, and that girl from Barbados.”
Rachel and Kit walked into the company room. There were four visitors: a deacon from the church, the constable of the town, Goodman Cruff and his wife. They were not excited this morning. They looked serious and grave.
“I know you don’t believe in witchcraft,” the constable began, “but you may change your mind. Last night we couldn’t find that old Quaker woman. She ran away somehow, and we seem to know how. We’ve searched the whole town this morning, but here’s not a trace of her. Don’t see how she could have gone that far.”
Suddenly, Kit felt sick and dizzy. Now Goodwife Cruff’s husband cleared his throat. “I didn’t rightly see it myself,” he apologized. “But there’s someone who saw her big yellow cat running out of the house with a great fat mouse in its mouth, and it never let it go. That mouse was Hannah Tupper!”
“She’s gone straight back to Satan!” cried Goodwife Cruff now looking at Kit, “but she’s left another one to do her work! They found something when they searched her place. Look at the letters on it, Matthew!”
The constable took something out of his pocket. It was the little book Kit presented to Prudence.
Matthew took the thing in his hands and turned it over. “Ask her where it came from?” hissed Goodwife Cruff. Matthew looked at his niece’s white face. “Can this be yours, Katherine?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” Kit whispered.
“Did you know you had lost it? Was it stolen from you?”
“No sir. I knew it was there. I took it there myself – it was a present. Hannah was my friend! I’m sorry, Uncle Matthew, I wanted to tell you, as soon as I could. I used to go to see her, on the way home from the meadow. Sometimes, I took things to her.”
“Why? I don’t understand this, Katherine. I forbade you to go to that woman’s house!”
“I know. But Hannah needed me, and I needed her. She wasn’t a witch, Uncle Matthew!”
Matthew looked at the constable. “I am sorry,” he said, “that I have not controlled my own household. But the girl is young and ignorant. It’s all my fault.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Matthew,” the constable said. “I’m sorry, but we have to lock this girl up. She is charged with witchcraft!”
“That is ridiculous!” cried Matthew. “How long do you intend to keep her?”
“Until the trial. Tomorrow Captain Talcott will question her first. Then there’ll be a jury trial in Hartford.”
“What if I give you my word that until tomorrow I’ll keep her locked in her room upstairs?” tried Matthew.
“What good is his word?” demanded Goodwife Cruff. “Has he known where she was these past months?” Kit felt numbed by the hatred in the woman’s eyes and thought that Goodwife Cruff wanted to see her in jail.
“Don’t worry,” the constable answered. “The girl will be safe with me.”
Kit stood numb. Rachel started crying when she handed Kit her coat. Then they walked together all the way to the constable’s house, and saw how Kit was locked safely in the shed. The shed was empty with just a pile of straw in one corner. There was no window either. Inside Kit leaned against the door. Tears were running down her cheeks. In the late afternoon the constable kindly brought her supper and a thick blanket. “We never had a girl in here before,” he said.
“And what about the others who had been kept here? What happened to them?” asked Kit.
“Well, one was banished from the colony. The other one was hanged. But I don’t think they’ll be so hard on you. You’re so young. Probably they’ll just brand you, or cut off an ear.”
After his words Kit couldn’t eat. She began to shake, and the blanket didn’t warm her. Was there anyone who could help her? John Holbrook, maybe. But he was far away in Massachusetts. Nat Eaton? He was halfway down the river. William? Of course! William could help her! Why hadn’t she thought of him before? William had a position in this town. The thought calmed her. She imagined him coming to save her. Dear reliable William! Perhaps he would come tonight. Kit sat down on the floor and waited for William. But it was Rachel who finally came instead. Long after dark Kit heard her whisper outside the shed wall. “Kit? Can you hear me? Are you all right?”
“Yes! Oh, Aunt Rachel, I’m so sorry! They’ll never forgive me. What do they do to witches?”
“Nothing, child,” whispered Rachel. “They won’t do anything to you. We’ll think of something. The questioning will be in the morning. If there’s something you haven’t told, you must tell them everything.”
Encouraged by her aunt’s visit, Kit now felt less panicky. She sat down and thought about her chances. Nobody in the town would have much sympathy for her. Goodwife Cruff had hated Kit since that first day on the Dolphin. What if they discovered that Prudence too had visited Hannah? What had poor Hannah ever done to harm these people? But Kit had promised the poor child that it’d all be all right. How could she have been so stupid?
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning the constable took Kit to the Town House. The building was full of people. At a table at the end of the room sat Captain Talcott and a group of town selectmen. Her uncle sat in his place among them, frowning. At the opposite end of the table sat the two ministers, Reverend John Woodbridge and Dr. Gershom Bulkeley, both known for their sermons against witchcraft. Kit’s heart sank. There was no one, no one in the whole room, except her uncle, who would defend her. William had not come.
Soon Captain Talcott began his speech: “We have come here to question Mistress Katherine Tyler, of Barbados, who is accused by witnesses of the practice of witchcraft. Mistress Tyler, come forward.” Kit got up and stood facing the magistrate across the table.
“Listen to the charge against you.” A clerk read ridiculous statements which, to Kit’s horror, ended with the words “for which by the law of God and the law of the Colony you deserve to die”. Then the clerk continued: “Mistress Tyler, you are accused by Goodman Cruff with the following. Firstly, you were a friend and companion of the Widow Hannah Tupper of Blackbird Pond, an alleged witch who has disappeared in a suspicious manner. Secondly, you are guilty of devilish actions, which have caused illness and death in this town.”