Midsummer's Eve by Philippa Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

robe. He was there. He was leading them … inciting them. I could not believe that this was the Rolf I had always known. He had always been so kind, so understanding about everything. He could not be so cruel. I knew that he loved the old customs. He liked to experiment. I could imagine that he would wonder how easily people would revert to less civilized days.
    I saw the cottage through a gleam of light. They were close now, waving their torches. They were all shouting and I could not hear what was said except that it was something about the witch.
    Then someone called: “Come out, witch. Show yourself. Don’t ’ee be afraid. We won’t ’urt ’ee … leastways no more than ’ee have hurt us.”
    I gasped. She had come out of the cottage. She must have been in bed for she was in a nightgown, her grey hair streaming about her shoulders. Their torches lit up her face and I saw the fear there.
    I felt physically sick and would have turned away but Jacco was close to me and I could not move. His horrified eyes were fixed on the scene.
    “What do you want with me?” she screamed.
    “You’m going to see, missus. What’ll us do with her?”
    Someone spoke. They were all listening. Could it be Rolf telling them what to do? I wondered.
    “That’ll do …” shouted someone. “What they’ve allus done. Duck her in the water. If she drowns she’s innocent. If she floats it’s with the help of the Devil and proves she’s one of his.”
    “Where did the Devil kiss ’ee, Mother Ginny?”
    There was a burst of coarse laughter.
    “Oh no,” I murmured. “She’s only an old woman.”
    Jacco nodded, his eyes staring at that terrifying scene.
    They had attached a rope about her waist. She was screaming and fighting them. One of the men gave her a blow which knocked her to the ground.
    “Jacco,” I cried, “they’ll kill her. We’ve got to stop them. Papa would.”
    Jacco rode forward. “Stop it,” he cried. “Stop it.”
    No one took any notice of him. They were all intent on getting Mother Ginny to the river. She called curses on them as they dragged her along the ground.
    I was sobbing. “We must do something. What would our father do?”
    But we lacked his strength and authority. We were only children and whatever we did would be of no avail. There was murder in the air. I had seen something in those people that night which I never would have believed could be there. For the first time I had witnessed the fury of a mob. These people who went about their ordinary daily rounds had undergone a remarkable change. There was a side to their nature which I had never known existed. They were cruel. They delighted in inflicting pain. They wanted revenge, an eye for an eye. Tregorran’s mare; the Cherry baby; the rain; the heat; the Poldeans’ boat. They wanted revenge and they were going to have it. And Rolf was there … leading them on … making them aware of how witches were treated long ago. Rolf … whom I had so much admired; who had been a hero to me, whom I had loved. That was the most startling and disturbing revelation of all. They were uneducated people … ready to be led … but he … I felt I knew what was in his mind. He was obsessed by the old ways, old customs. He wanted to see if people would react today as they had long ago. But this was a human life … I felt I could never trust anyone again.
    I wanted to go to him, to tell him I was here, to beg him to stop this. But he was their leader. I could never forget that. Jacco and I were, after all, only two children. We could not stop them even though Jacco was my father’s son.
    I wanted to shut it all out of my mind, forget what I had seen, go right away. I did not want to know what was happening by the river. I feared something even more terrible was going to happen. But even if I did run home, I should never forget.
    I could hear the shouts by the river.
    “She won’t sink,” said Jacco.
    “No, the river’s not deep enough.”
    “Not by