The clerk sat down. Captain Talcott looked at the girl before him. “Mistress Tyler,” he said, “you have heard the complaints against you. Is it true that you were a friend and companion of the Widow Tupper and that you have entered her house and visited her?”
“Yes, sir,” Kit managed to say.
“Is it true that you and the Widow Tupper practiced enchantments to cause mischief to other people?”
“No, sir! I don’t know what you mean by enchantments.”
At this moment Matthew Wood jumped suddenly to his feet. “I protest!” he shouted.
“Matthew Wood, were these visits to the Widow Tupper taken with your approval?” asked Captain Talcott.
“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.