With a black kitten in her hands, Prudence watched them find a place for her book.
“You are welcome any time, child. I’ll keep your book safe for you. Now, there is a piece of blueberry cake for such a smart pupil.”
Kit smiled to see the cake and the kitten working their magic on Prudence. But there was one more secret ingredient in this cure: love.
“Why do they call her a witch?” Prudence asked when she and Kit were walking back home.
“Because they don’t know her. People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
“I see,” Prudence said finally. “I think Hannah is lonely. Of course, she can talk to the cat, but sometimes she must want somebody to answer her.”
For a moment Kit was doubtful. What was she doing, teaching Prudence behind Goodwife Cruff’s back? As always, she had acted on impulse, never thinking about the consequences. Now it was too late. Yet Prudence had looked so happy. She needed a friend. Wasn’t that worth a little risk?
Kit walked home to spend another dull evening with William. He could talk only about his house these days. Every evening he reported which trees had been cut. Sometimes Kit wanted to cover her ears. She was tired of the house already, even before it was built. Judith, however, took much interest in such details, as if she was comparing it with the house she dreamed for herself.
When the young people all sat together, John Holbrook would bring something to read to them. He loved to read aloud, and they were happy to listen. For all of them the days were filled only with hard work, and the books that John read to them had opened a window to the world. Listening to his voice, Kit thought that John had already become a part of the family. They all liked him now. Yet Uncle Matthew still thought he was weak. For John everything in his life, even the girl he marries, would always be second to his work. Does Judith understand that? Or does she think she can change him?
Suddenly, Kit made a discovery. Mercy sat, as usual, in the shadow beside the fireplace. Her beautiful eyes were fixed on the face of the young man reading from his book. For an instant Kit could look into Mercy’s heart: she was clearly in love with John Holbrook! Kit quickly looked around at the others. Judith sat dreaming with a little secret smile on her face. No one else had noticed. Kit thought that she must have imagined it and wished she hadn’t seen it. Yet she knew she would never forget it as long as she lived. The flame burning in Mercy’s eyes was so pure, so selfless, that Kit felt very sad. Mercy and John Holbrook! How right and how impossible! What must it be to care for someone like that?
Chapter Twelve
School ended in mid-August, and a hundred new jobs waited to be done. Often Kit, Judith and Rachel worked side by side with Matthew in the fields until sunset, and there was not the time to visit Prudence and Hannah.
One sunny day Kit finally had a whole free afternoon. She was walking out the door when her aunt called her, “Where are you going, Kit?”
Kit looked down, not answering.
“Wait,” her aunt said then. “I don’t approve it at all. But I can’t help it either.” She went into the kitchen and brought a small package. It was a piece of apple pie. So Aunt Rachel had known! Kit hugged her aunt and went out. She had hoped to find Prudence at the Blackbird Pond, but instead, as she came around the corner of the cottage, she saw Nat Eaton. “Oh,” she exclaimed, confused, “I didn’t know the Dolphin was here again.”
Hannah stood in the doorway. “More company!” she said happily. “Come inside, you two.”
“Not yet,” Nat said. “The next job is to fix that old thatched roof.”
“Can I help?” Kit asked.
Nat’s eyebrow lifted. “Maybe you could,” he replied. “You can gather the grass while I cut.”
Together they went into the swamp to gather long grass. Then back at the cottage Kit surprised Nat by climbing the ladder on to the rooftop after him where they managed to fix the roof very quickly. When the job was done, they just sat on the roof and rested, looking at the sunny meadows and the river. This was the way Kit used to feel in Barbados. Light as air! For a long time neither of them spoke. “The river is so blue today,” she said finally. “Just like in Barbados.”
“Homesick?” asked Nat.
“Not here,” she answered. “Not when I’m in the meadow, or with Hannah.”
He turned to look at her. “How has it been, Kit?” he asked seriously. “I mean really. Are you sorry you came?”
She paused. “Sometimes I am. They’re good to me, but it’s very different here. I don’t seem to fit in, Nat. It’s these Puritans,” Kit said. “I’ll never understand them. Why do they want life to be so solemn?”
Nat stretched back. “If you ask me, it’s all that schooling and Latin. It takes the fun out of life, day after day. Books, now, that’s different. There’s nothing like a book to keep you company on a long voyage.”
“What sort of books?” Kit asked, surprised.
“I like the old logbooks best, and descriptions of voyages, but once there were some plays from England that were good reading.”
“There’s another thing I wanted to ask you about, Nat,” Kit said. “All this talk against England and the King – I don’t understand it. Why are they so disloyal to King James?”
“I suppose you couldn’t understand because you weren’t brought up here,” said Nat, looking suddenly serious. “There are two sides to loyalty, Kit. If the King respects our rights and keeps his word, then he will have our loyalty. But if he cancels the laws he has made, then we will be disloyal, too.”
“But that is treason!” cried Kit.
“What is treason, Kit? A man is loyal to the place he loves. We can’t always wait for orders from His Majesty in England. Besides, how can a king on a throne in England know what is best for the people in Wethersfield? A man is loyal to the soil he stands on.”
That would please Uncle Matthew, Kit thought. Nat was a New Englander, too, had she forgotten?
“Have you finished fixing the roof yet? It’s time for supper,” Kit heard Hannah call them.
“Supper?” Kit had not even noticed how late it was.
Nat helped her to climb down the ladder. “You will come often to see her, won’t you?” he asked her.
“Of course,” Kit replied. “I worry about her, sometimes, especially when she talks about her late husband as if he were still alive.”
“Oh, that! Don’t worry about it!” Nat laughed. “Hannah’s fine. I guess she is much older than we think, and she’s lived through a lot. She and her husband were in jail in Massachusetts. Then they were branded and sent out of the state.”
“My company always has to hurry off,” Hannah said to them. “Nat, and you, and now Prudence.”
“Who is Prudence?” asked Nat.
Kit told him about the reading lessons on the way back home. She didn’t, however, expect Nat to walk her this time all the way to her uncle’s house. Her family was sitting outside, so the supper must’ve been over. As Kit and Nat came near, William rose to his feet and stood watching them.
“Kit, where have you been?” Judith spoke up. “William has been waiting for so long.”
Kit looked from one person to the other and decided to tell them the truth. “I’ve been helping to fix Hannah Tupper’s roof,” she said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t realize how late it was. Aunt Rachel, this is Nathaniel Eaton, Captain Eaton’s son, from the Dolphin. He was fixing the roof, and I was assisting him.”
Nat and William looked at each other for a long time. Nat turned to Matthew Wood. “It was my fault, sir,” he said, with dignity. “I shouldn’t have accepted Kit’s help.” He looked back at William. Then Nat said goodbye and walked away.
“Why did you have to fix a roof for the Quaker woman?” shouted her uncle when Nat was gone.