The Witch of Blackbird Pond / Ведьма с пруда Черных Дроздов. 10-11 классы - Элизабет Джордж Спир

“What is it, Matthew?” Rachel asked. “Has something terrible happened?”

“Only what we have expected,” he answered gravely. “Governor Treat and the council have been avoiding it for almost a year. Now Sir Andros has sent a message that he is coming from Boston. He will arrive in Hartford on Monday to take over as royal governor in Connecticut. Make a fire in the company room, Rachel. Some people will want to come and talk here tonight.”

One more bit of news reached them before the night. Captain Eaton had missed the wind, and the Dolphin stayed just off Wright’s Island. Kit was meanly glad. She hoped they would have a good long wait, maybe even till winter. Kit decided not to deliver Nat’s package herself till the Dolphin was on its way toward Saybrook.

Chapter Fifteen

“It’s the death of our freedom! It’s the end of all we’ve worked for!” shouted the men in the company room. Kit wasn’t really thinking about the future of the Connecticut colony, but she was curious about one thing. Some time ago William had come, greeted the women, and then knocked on the company room door. Surprisingly, he had been let in, and since then he stayed behind that closed door. “What is William doing in there?” Kit asked. “Why would Uncle Matthew let him in?”

“Didn’t you know?” Judith replied. “William now shares Father’s ideas.”

“How did you know that?” Kit stared at her. “I never heard him say anything about it.”

“Maybe you just weren’t listening.”

It was true, sometimes, when William and Judith were talking about the house, it was difficult for Kit to pay attention. But she knew she would have remembered anything as important as this. Was William ashamed to tell her that he had turned against the King? Or did he think she was too stupid to understand?

“Governor Andros says that signed papers mean nothing to him! We will have to beg new grants for land that we’ve bought and already paid for!” the voices shouted in the company room. Now they could also hear Matthew’s voice, cold and steady. “Whatever happens,” he was saying, “we do not want any shooting here in Connecticut.”

“Why not?” asked another voice. “Should we give up our freedom like Rhode Island?”

“It would only mean pointless bloodshed,” Matthew said clearly.

Finally, about an hour later, a silent group of men came out of the company room. When the visitors had gone, Matthew sat down heavily into a chair. Rachel tried to comfort him. “I know it is a disappointment,” she said. “But will it really change our lives so much? We all will still be together in this house and not lose our rights.”

Her husband shook his head sadly, “That’s not it. Everything we have built here in Connecticut will be destroyed. Our council and our courts will have no real power. If only we could somehow keep the charter itself. This man has no right to take it from us.”

When the girls were upstairs in bed, Kit finally shared her thoughts. “Do they know,” she whispered, “how powerful the Royal Fleet is? They will be defeated in no time.”

“I don’t think there’ll be any fighting,” said Judith. “It’s just that men like Father don’t like dictators. But Dr. Bulkeley says that the charter was never as free as they have made it. He thinks the men of Connecticut have taken advantage of the King’s generosity. Anyway, I agree with Mother. I don’t think it will change our lives much. Men always make a fuss about such things.”

“I’d love to see this Governor Andros,” said Kit. “They say he used to be a captain in Barbados.”

“Maybe we will see him,” replied Judith, blowing out the candle.

The next afternoon many curious Wethersfield citizens came to the bank of the river, waiting to see Governor Andros. Kit and Judith witnessed the arrival of an escort from Hartford, led by Captain Talcott, one of the Wethersfield men who had sometimes joined the meetings in her uncle’s company room. Captain Talcott felt the anger and disapproval of the crowd. “There will be no demonstration,” he announced. “The governor comes here under orders from His Majesty.”

At that moment the first horsemen appeared on the opposite shore. “There he is!” excited voices cried. The party from Boston got on the ferryboats and crossed the wide river to the shore at Wethersfield. There were more than seventy men, all tall and handsome. Governor Andros sat elegantly on his horse. He was a gentleman, an officer of the King, a knight! Who were these farmers to question his royal right? The Hartford escort greeted the Boston delegation. The people of Wethersfield kept a respectful silence. They all knew that this powerful man was on his way to meet with their council and would hold their very lives in his hand.

It was a sad and silent evening in Matthew Wood’s household. Kit and the girls were in bed for some time when someone knocked loudly on the door. Matthew went to open it, and to Kit’s astonishment she heard William’s voice. “It’s safe, sir!” he said. “The charter’s safe, where he can never find it!”

“Thank God!” cried Matthew. “You were at the meeting, William?”

“Yes, sir. Since four o’clock.”

“And the charter?”

“It was there, all the time, in the middle of the table. Sir Edmond made a long speech. It got stuffy in the room, and, finally, someone opened a window. The wind blew out the candles. In this momentary darkness the charter disappeared. They looked everywhere for it, all over the room, and never found it.”

“Was the governor angry?”

“He didn’t show it. He knew the paper wasn’t going to be found. But he chose to ignore it.”

“Yes,” said Matthew gravely. “He had the power in his hands without it.”

“Governor Treat read a statement, and they all signed it. The Colony of Connecticut is annexed to Massachusetts. Governor Treat will be appointed Colonel of Militia.”

“And Gershom Bulkeley?”

“He will be appointed a Justice of the Peace.”

“Hmm,” said Matthew. “The charter – do you know what happened to it?”

William paused. “No sir,” he answered. “The room was dark.”

“Then how do you know it is safe?”

“It is safe, sir,” William repeated confidently. Kit understood that William knew perfectly well where that charter was.

“There are hard times ahead for Connecticut,” said Matthew, who understood it too, “but some day, when the hard times have passed, we will bring our charter out of hiding and begin again, and we will show the world what it means to be free men. Thank you for coming, William.”

Lying in her bed in the dark, Kit knew she had witnessed serious insubordination to the King. Yet in her heart she was glad for her uncle’s small victory. Now she understood for the first time why her aunt had crossed the ocean with that fierce man. In his struggle for freedom Matthew Wood was magnificent. Kit had to admit it – she was proud of him.

Chapter Sixteen

“There will be no Thanksgiving this week,” announced Matthew gravely when he came home the next day. “Here in Connecticut we cannot have our own holidays anymore. Besides, a terrible thing happened last night. There was a band of sailors from a trading ship. I am sorry to tell you, Katherine, that your friend William Ashby was their only victim. The band put devilish pumpkin lanterns with candles inside them in the window frames of his house that are waiting for the new panes. Luckily, the three band leaders have been captured. I hope they will be severely punished.”

Thursday Lecture day, the day of public punishment, was only two days away. Somehow, Kit already knew whom she would see there. By Thursday noon Kit couldn’t keep her mind on her work. An hour before meeting time, she quietly got out of the house and went to the Meeting House alone. She saw them all at once: there in the stocks were the three Dolphin men, and none of them showed any sign of repentance. Nat and the other sailors were cheerfully exchanging insults with some younger boys standing nearby. Kit came forward so that Nat could see her, but he pretended not to have recognized her. Suddenly, she felt tears running down her face.

“Kit,” Nat finally whispered, “get away from this place! Quick!”

But Kit only stepped closer. “This is horrible, Nat!” she cried out. “I can’t stand to see you like this! Is there anything I can do? Are you hungry?”

“I’m quite comfortable, thank you,” he told her. “You can stop pretending now. Anyway, it was worth it. You should have seen Sir William’s face that evening.”

He was impossible! She turned and walked away. At the door of the Meeting House she stopped to read a notice which said that three sailors would stay in the stocks from one hour before the Lecture till one hour after. They would also pay a fine and would never be allowed to come to Wethersfield again. Kit’s courage evaporated. She simply couldn’t go into that Meeting House and sit there, listening to the Lecture together with her family. She had to talk to someone, and there was only one person who could understand her. Anyway, it’s a good chance to bring Hannah the wool, Kit decided. She briefly stopped by the house to pick the package. The family had already left for the Lecture, and even Mercy didn’t see Kit.

At the Blackbird Pond Kit gave Hannah the wool and told her the whole story. “And now Nat is banned from Wethersfield! He won’t be able to leave the ship or to come to see you anymore!” cried Kit.

“Well, that is a shame,” Hannah agreed with a little sly smile. Kit had to smile, too: why hadn’t she remembered that since eight years old Nat had always somehow found his way to Blackbird Pond? Hannah knew that nothing could keep Nat from coming again. As always, here in this house, all things looked much simpler.

“This William Ashby,” Hannah said thoughtfully. “Is the young man courting you, Kit?”

“Well… Yes, I guess.” Why hadn’t she ever told Hannah about William?

Hannah’s kind eyes studied the girl’s face. “Do you plan to marry him?” she asked gently. “Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. How can I tell, Hannah? He is good, and he likes me. Besides, if I don’t marry him, how shall I ever escape from my uncle’s house?”

“Bless you, child!” said Hannah softly. “But just remember that there will be no escape at all if there is no love.”

There was a knock at the door and in came Prudence. She had brought some news about the three sailors. “Nat won’t be able to come to see you,” she told Hannah. “They took them to the Dolphin. But Nat waved goodbye to me.”

Soon they began their reading lesson. Kit had chosen the Psalms to start with, and slowly Prudence was reading out the lines. Then Kit took out a copybook, a small bottle of ink, and a quill pen. “Now I will teach you to write, Prudence. Watch me.” She opened the copybook and wrote the child’s name on the first line. “Now let’s see if you can copy that.” The girl did and was astonished by her own work. Kit and Hannah exchanged a warm smile, but for the first time Kit felt real fear. “Hannah,” she said softly, “I am afraid to go on like this. What would happen if they found us out?”

Before Hannah answered, Prudence looked up. “Don’t say I can’t come, Kit!” she said. “I don’t care what they do to me. I can stand anything, if only you let me come!”

“Of course you can come,” said Kit, hugging the child. “We’ll find an answer, somehow.”