Saraband for Two Sisters

“Good day, mistress,” said the girl.

I was very curious to know what life was like lived in the blacksmith’s house. I could of course imagine to a certain extent and I pictured myself in such a position. If I had been his daughter I would have defied him, I was sure.

“You work very hard,” I said. ‘Which one are you?”

“I’m Phoebe, mistress, the eldest.”

Her eyes filled with tears and I said suddenly, “You’re unhappy aren’t you?”

She nodded and I went on: ‘What’s wrong?”

“Oh don’t ‘ee ask me, mistress,” she said. “Please don’t ‘ee ask me!”

“Perhaps there’s something we could do.”

“Ain’t nothing you could do, mistress. ‘Tis done, more’s the pity.”

‘What is it, Phoebe?”

“I dursen’t say.”

Strangely enough, as I stood there looking at her I was aware of some understanding between us. And I thought, “It’s a man.”

Then I thought of Bastian and all my bitterness came back to me and a bond between this girl and myself was forged in that moment.

“Of course,” I said, “your father sees sin where others see ordinary pleasure.”

“This be true sin.”

‘What is sin?” I said. “I suppose if it’s hurting other people ... that’s sin.”

I thought of myself leading Carlotta to her death. That was the blackest sin of all.

“But if no one is hurt... that isn’t sin.”

She wasn’t listening to me; she was caught up in her own drama.

I said gently, “Phoebe, are you... in trouble?”

She lifted woebegone eyes to my face, but she did not answer and the fear in her face reminded me of Jenny Keys.

“I would help you if I could,” I said rashly.

‘Thank you, mistress.” She bent down over the earth and went on weeding.

There was nothing I could say to her. If what I guessed might be true then Phoebe was indeed in trouble. I had seen that in her face which I believe Grandfather Casvellyn had seen in me. Did girls change when they took a lover? Was the loss of virginity apparent in their faces? I wondered. For I was absolutely certain that Phoebe had had a lover, and that now she was faced with the consequences. The consequences. A child! Then I was overwhelmed by the thought that it might have happened to me. “I will marry you when you are old enough or before if necessary,” Bastian had said.

There had been a certain recklessness in our loving, for we had not to consider the consequences too seriously. I knew that my parents, shocked as they might have been, would have given me love and understanding. So would Aunt Melanie, and Uncle Connell being the man he was would laugh and say Bastian was a chip off the old block. How different for poor Phoebe Cast. To wear a ribbon, to undo a button at the neck on a hot day, to wear a belt which might hold in the waist of those shapeless black smocks they wore-that would be sinful. But to have lain in the fields or the woods with a man...

I went back to the smithy. The mare was waiting for me. Thomas Cast looked more like one of Satan’s henchmen than ever and I could not stop thinking of poor Phoebe Cast. Yesterday I overheard two servants talking. I had come in from the stables and they were dusting in one of the rooms which led out of the hall. They could not see me so I sat down and listened because what they were saying interested me. One of them was Ginny and the other Mab, a girl in her middle teens who had a reputation among the servants as one who was ready for adventure, and had an eye for the men. As soon as I caught the name Jenny Keys I had to listen.

“She truly were,” Ginny was saying. “White she was but white can turn to black and it could have been that was what happened to her.”

“What did she do, Ginny?”

“Her did lots of good. Why if I could have gone earlier to her I’d have been spared my shame.”

“But you wouldn’t have been without young Jeff for the world.”

“Not now. But then I would.”

“How was Jenny Keys brought out, Ginny?”

“You mean, how was it known what she were? I’ll tell you something. One day two of the servants from the Priory went down to see her. ‘Twas just a love draught they wanted. There was this stableman who wouldn’t look at one of them and all she wanted was to turn his eyes to her. And what did they see ... right there in Jenny Keys’ laps was a toad ... a horrible slimy toad ... but ‘twas no ordinary toad, they did say. There looked out of his eyes something as told them he were the Devil in toad form. They shook with trembling both of them and then they turned on their heels and ran for their lives. ‘Twasn’t long after that one of them took sick and she swore ‘twas something that toad had sent out to her-for he weren’t no ordinary toad. He were what they do call her familiar, and that showed Jenny Keys was a witch.”

“How would you know when a toad was a familiar? There’s lots of them round the ponds. I’ve heard ‘em croaking at night in the spring when they come out looking for a mate and then they go down to the ponds to lay their eggs.”

“They’re just ordinary toads... they ain’t familiars.”

“But toads is nasty things. I suppose it’s because they come out at night.»