"I know I must turn his thoughts from me. I know it would be a goodness to do so."
"Then stick in they pins."
The tears started to Melisande's eyes,
"'Tis that old onion. But tears be good. Tears never done no harm. Is it ready, well riddled with pins? He's there. He's behind you. He's tall and handsome and gay. He loves many, but not one of them as he loves himself. Now we'll roast his heart, and as we roast it, you must say with me:
'It is not this heart I wish to burn, But the person's heart I wish to turn . . .'
"Then, my dear, you whisper to yourself the name of her who should be his love, and you must see them together, and they must be joining hands while you do say those words. Say his name and her name . . . and see them bound together in love."
Melisande closed her eyes and repeated the lines after the witch. She tried to see Caroline and Fermor, to see them embrace; but instead she was filled with a passionate wish that she might have been Sir Charles's daughter, that she might have been the one who was chosen for him. Caroline would not stay in the picture. He was there, singing on his horse, leaning over to kiss Melisande, laughing at her, mocking her. And she was there, riding away from him, yet reluctantly, knowing he was gaining on her. Then she thought of the
nun who had broken her vows all those years ago and had died in her granite tomb.
"There!" said Tamson Trequint. "That'll do 'ee both. Now, my dear," she went on, turning to Peg, "here be your image. You stick pins in it every night, just where his heart is, and if you've seen him aright and you've done all I told 'ee, he'll be your lover before the coming of the new moon. Get on with 'ee now."
Peg said breathlessly: "Oh, Mrs. Soady did say she have a stye coming and what should she do?"
"Tell her to touch it with the tail of a cat."
"And Mr. Meaker be feared his asthma's coming back."
"Let him collect spiders' webs, roll them in his hands and swallow them."
"Thank 'ee, Mistress Trequint. Mrs. Soady said as something would be left for 'ee."
"Tell Mrs. Soady her's welcome."
They went out into the woods and the journey back was not so terrifying as the journey to the hut. They were too absorbed in what they had seen to think of the supernatural inhabitants of the wood. Peg was clutching her image and thinking of her fisherman. Melisande was less happy.
They crossed the lawns to the house.
"Quietly now," said Peg.
But Wenna, watching at her window, had already seen them.
Wenna had made up her mind. She would not remain passive any longer, for this was no time for passivity.
That wicked girl had not gone out to meet him; she was too artful for that. Like as not she was holding him off. She was more than wanton; she was cunning.
Wenna imagined her telling him that she was too good a girl to become one of his light o' loves. Clearly she had gone to the witch in the woods for a spell that would make him dance to her piping . . . dance to whatever tune she played; and her tune would be marriage.
So there was no time for delay.
Wenna went down to the kitchen.
Mrs. Soady was sitting at the table treating her eye with the cat's tail. The big tom-cat was on the table and Mrs. Soady was trying
120 IT BEGAN IN VAUXHALL GARDENS
to make him keep still so that she could wipe his tail across her eyelid.
"What be up to?" asked Wenna.
" 'Tis this blessed stye again. My brother be a martyr to 'em, and they do trouble me now and then. I'm trying to cure the thing afore it grows so big as to close up my eye."
"Who told 'ee to do that then?"
" 'Twas old Tammy Trequint. She be very good. I remember how when Jane Pengelly's three had the measles she told her to cut off a cat's left ear and swallow three drops of the blood in a glass of spring water. My dear life, they was all cured by next day. That's Tarn Trequint for 'ee."
Wenna thought: So you knew they was going to see Tamson then? You told 'em to go. You're as thick as smugglers, you two be . . . you and that Mamazel.
She looked at Mrs. Soady who was so fat that she appeared to be sliding off the chair on which she sat. Mrs. Soady's small benevolent eyes smiled at the world through her puffy flesh. There was a lot of Mrs. Soady. It came of feeding herself with titbits all through the day. Not that she'd go short on her meals either! Mrs. Soady loved food. She also loved a bit of gossip—the tastier the better. Which did she love most, hog's pudding or news of the latest seduction, pilchards with cream or what Annie Polgard did to Sam? It was hard to say. Suffice it that both were irresistible.
There was something else about Mrs. Soady. She was the most generous body in the world. She could not enjoy her food completely unless she shared it with others; she could not enjoy her scandals unless she shared them also. It mattered not if it was her master's food she gave; it mattered not if she had sworn to keep the gossip secret. That was how it was with her.
"So you've been a-visiting Tamson then?" said Wenna.
"No, 'tis too far for me and the way through the woods too bony, my dear. I send Tarn a little something now and then. One of the maids takes it for me."
"So they've been to-day, have they?"
"Not so long ago."
"What's the trouble now?"
"Young Peg—she's after one of the fishermen."
"That girl's a bad 'un."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that. She's just what you might call affectionate natured. Some is; some ain't. It turns up in a human being now and then, Wenna, my dear."
"Did young Peg go alone, or did this here affection turn up in someone else?"
Mrs. Soady did not think she ought to tell, but it was going to be very hard not to; and Wenna felt too impatient to get the secret
out of her like a winkle out of a shell. She said bluntly: "I saw them coming in. After midnight. 'Tain't right, you know, Mrs. Soady, young girls going out at midnight."
"My dear, the spell only works at midnight, and going together no harm can come to them."
"So Mamazel had to have a token, eh?"
"Well, why not? 'Tis a bit of fun. Though as Mr. Meaker said, a pretty girl like she be didn't ought to want a token. That's what he did say."
" 'Tis easy to catch flies, my dear, but you want a net to catch a rare butterfly."
"My dear!" Mrs. Soady was overcome by such cleverness. "Do you think then . . . Oh, I don't know. 'Twas just a bit of fun. I remember what I was like when I was a girl." Mrs. Soady laughed softly at memories.
Wenna clenched her hands together. She thought: She's got to go. She must not stay here. And she did not care how she did it; she was going to drive Melisande from the house.
If she went to the master and told him all she knew of her, he would push aside all she had to say. Of course he would. What did he care if she took Master Fermor and broke the heart of his legitimate daughter? What had he cared for Maud? Hadn't he deliberately let her die because of his absorption with this girl?
Very well then. She knew how to attack where it hurt most. He was a dignified man. He was very proud of his position in the county. He might go off to gaiety in foreign parts and London Town, but no spot must tarnish his reputation here in Cornwall.