After what seemed an age, they stopped and she thought that now she would be untied and the gag removed, but nothing of the kind occurred. Two pairs of hands hauled her out of the chaise. There was a splashing and the rattle of a chain, then a soft thud like that made by a boat bumping against a jetty. Her bearers' footsteps, too, had a hollow, wooden sound and almost at once she was deposited in the bottom of a lightly swaying boat. They must be going to cross a river – unless – the thought that came into her mind was a nasty one but it lasted only an instant. Pilar had repeated several times since her capture that they had no intention of killing her immediately, she was to be made to suffer first.
Someone took the oars and the boat began to move out smoothly over the water. The surface must be quite calm and waveless. A lake, perhaps, or a pool of some kind? Her nerves at full stretch,
Marianne listened for every sound that might tell her more, but apart from the faint splash of oars and the slightly deeper breathing of the man rowing she heard nothing beyond the cry of an owl in the distance.
The boat drove against a soft bottom and stopped. Once again, Marianne was seized but this time the hands hoisted her on to a particularly hard and uncomfortable back, as though she had been a sack of flour. Her arms were gripped firmly by a gloved hand that might have been made of iron and a bony shoulder dug into her stomach as she lay, bent double, with her head hanging forward.
The man carrying her smelled strongly of the stables, with an underlying odour of rancid oil. The combination was a peculiarly unpleasant one but Marianne had little time to reflect upon it before she felt herself being carried up something that seemed to be either a ladder or some very rudimentary staircase. The treads creaked alarmingly and the climb seemed to go on for ever. At last their progress became horizontal once again and at the same time a mixture of dry, country smells, hay and straw and dust, filled Marianne's nostrils, overcoming the human smell. She was dropped suddenly on to what could only be a pile of hay and almost at once her bonds were loosed, the gag taken from her mouth and the blindfold removed from her eyes.
By the light of the dark lantern carried by one of the men, Marianne saw that she was, as she had guessed, in a large loft three parts full of hay. Just in front of her was a tousle-haired giant, puffing like a grampus, who had apparently been the one carrying her. The other man was still wearing his broad-brimmed hat, long cloak and black mask. Last of all, she saw Pilar come through a narrow opening, which had evidently been formed by the removal of two broad planks from the partition wall.
'Well, here you are. Make yourself at home,' the masked man said. 'You'll do well enough. It's quite dry and the hay is better than bare boards.'
'I suppose I ought to thank you,' Marianne said cuttingly. 'I've always liked the smell of fresh hay. But I should like to know how long you mean to keep me here.'
Before the man could answer, Pilar drew him back with a gesture to him to be silent and it was she who answered:
'You know that already. I wish to prevent you from interfering with the course of justice. You will remain here until a certain verdict has been reached and sentence duly carried out.'
'You call yourself a woman!' the prisoner burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. 'You call yourself his wife! You are nothing but a common murderess, a half-crazy, lying fanatic! Is this how you repay Jason for what he did for you? You see, I know why he married you – he wanted to save your life when it was threatened on account of your father's American sympathies!'
'My father's sympathies were not mine. I should have made my countrymen see where my loyalties were. I did not need Señor Beaufort to marry me for that!'
'Then what did you marry him for? Tell me that if you dare!… No, you dare not, of course! Well, I will tell you. You made him marry you by pretending to be a poor, helpless, persecuted girl. You threw yourself on him for protection because it was your only chance to get him for yourself! You were mad for him, weren't you? Yet you knew quite well that he was not in love with you!'
Pilar's foot, in its pointed shoe, caught Marianne agonizingly under the ribs, making her bite back a hiss of pain. In an instant she was on her feet, hurling herself at her enemy, only to find herself caught and held by the two men who had sprung forward to catch her. Pilar gave a small, contemptuous laugh:
'I said she was dangerous. Remember, she is a murderess who has already killed one woman. I was right, you see, to provide good, stout fetters. Make her fast, Sanchez.'
The giant grasped Marianne's two wrists in one huge hand and dragged her over the hay to where a brand new chain had been riveted to one of the massive beams. On the end of the chain, which was too short to allow of more than a couple of yards' freedom of movement, was an iron ring which could be fastened by means of a stout padlock. In no time, Marianne's right arm was held fast by the manacle, which fitted tightly round her wrist. The padlock snapped shut.
'There!' Pilar said with satisfaction. 'Now one may talk to you without fear of attack. Your movements will not be unduly restricted and you may await the end of this affair with patience.'
'Talk!' Marianne retorted with scorn. 'Do not hope to hear any talk from me, Señora. All I have to say to you is this: as you so rightly recall, I killed one woman because she insulted me, as I also fought the man who sullied my good name, and won! You have dared to carry me off and treat me like this to stop me from saving a man you know to be innocent – a man you swore before God to be true to—'
'He was the first to break that oath – when he forgot me, his wife, and became your lover! He is forsworn!'
'That is between you and your conscience. And I know of no convent deep and dark enough to shut out the crying of an ill-used conscience. But I will tell you one thing: take care, because I shall escape from you – and I shall have my revenge! Now go away, if you please, and let me go to sleep. I am extremely tired.'
As if she had lost all interest in her captors, Marianne yawned outrageously and, disposing the straw so as to make a comfortable nest for herself, she curled up into a ball, like a cat, with one arm tucked beneath her head, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she heard the man in the hat say quietly in Spanish:
'It is best that we should go back now, Dona Pilar. There might be talk… Have you anything more to say to this woman?'
'No. Nothing more. You are right. We should go back. But keep a close watch on her.'
'Have no fear. Sanchez will be in the next loft. And fastened like that, I don't see how she could escape.'
Marianne thought that her persecutors were about to leave her at last but just as she was on the point of moving away, Pilar remembered something. She turned to the giant, Sanchez, and indicating the prisoner, who was still feigning sleep, she said: 'Wait. Go and take all the pins out of her hair. There is nothing like a hairpin for opening locks.'
The man in the hat gave an obsequious chuckle. 'You think of everything, Dona Pilar,' he said admiringly. 'It makes me very happy to think that you are now one of us.'
Marianne was obliged to stifle her fury while Sanchez's clumsy paws burrowed in her hair in search of every single pin, but she stuck to her promise not to speak another word to Pilar. It was all over in a minute. Carrying the lantern with them, the three departed through the narrow, boarded door and Marianne heard the sound of bolts being drawn on the other side and a heavy bar of metal thudding into place, as though in a real prison. This was followed by a dry rustling and thumping, as though bales of straw were being dragged across the door. Marianne heard the masked man's voice say on a note of satisfaction: