The Green Witch

Chapter Twenty

     Tala was the first to go to bed that night, telling the others she was stressed and tired from the testing. The others offered words of understanding and hoped she would feel better in the morning. The earnestness of their good wishes tore at her heart and she found herself hating herself for being a danger to them. Well, soon they would be rid of her for ever.

     She lay fully dressed on her bed, watching the moon and stars slowly moving across the sky through the open curtains of her window. Dougal and the children went to bed soon after, as they always did. Tala heard them gossiping to each other and swapping friendly, familiar insults, and then she heard them moving around as they got undressed and climbed into their beds. Then silence fell, for a while.

     Drisco and Sarah stayed up for another couple of hours before following their children upstairs, but Edward and Tilly stayed up longer. Tala waited with growing impatience as the soft voices of their conversation drifted up the stairs and through the slightly ajar door of her room. For a while she feared that they might fall asleep in their chairs, but finally, at around midnight, they also climbed the stairs.

     Tala gave them a bit more time to fall fully asleep. Then she stood and went to the door. She listened carefully, but heard nothing but the soft sounds of sleeping. Carrying her coat and boots in her hands, she then went down the stairs, carefully avoiding the step with the creak, and went to the kitchen.

     The cat was there, curled up on the high shelf it had retreated to in order to escape the red mice. It opened a yellow eye to look at her, then settled back down to sleep. Tala carefully put on her boots, which would have made too much noise on the stairs. Then she took a dishcloth from the laundry cupboard. She tied it at the corners to make a crude bag, then went to the pantry to fill it with enough food to last her a few days.

     The creak of the pantry door woke the cat and it jumped down eagerly, trotting over to curl its tail around Tala's leg. <More mutton,> it demanded. <Give me more mutton.>

     Tala cut off a small piece to give to the cat, just to keep it happy and quiet. The cat took it and ran off with it while Tala finished filling her makeshift bag. Then she put on her coat, went to the door and quietly opened it.

     There was a stiff breeze blowing. It blew around the kitchen making the dishcloth hanging from the towel rail fall to the tiled floor with a soft flump. Tala slipped through the door and began closing it behind her before a louder sound could give her away, but then a sudden fierce gust pulled the door out of her hand and threw it wide open so that it hit the iron boot scraper with a loud bang. Tala gasped with fear and struggled to push it closed against the wind, doing do as gently as she could to make as few additional sounds as possible. It closed with a quiet click of the latch and then she waited to see if the noise had woken anyone up.

     The house was still quiet, though. The trees were sighing in the wind but no sound of activity came from inside. Sagging with relief, Tala took hold of her bag of food and hurried away down the path. The wind tugged at her clothes, holding her back as if it didn't want her to leave. She leaned into it and pushed her way forward. She wanted to be well within Pockleberry woods before the family woke up and saw that she was gone. If she could make it that far, she would be safe. The whole country would be ahead of her and she could spend the rest of her life looking for a safe place to hide.

     She couldn't help looking back before a bend in the road hid the house from sight, though. What would they think when they found her gone? Hopefully they would just think that she didn't like Dougal and couldn't bear the thought of marrying him. They would be upset and offended but hopefully not suspicious.They would express their disbelief at her thoughtlessness in running away without saying goodbye, her casual disregard for the hospitality they'd shown her, but then hopefully they would forget about her. She would become nothing more than an anecdote they told to other people. A warning of how some people could throw away a good life without knowing how fortunate they were to have been offered it. Everyone they told would tut and shake their heads at Tala's madness and ingratitude and Dougal would go on to marry someone else. A nice, normal girl who would give him children and who would have no reason to attract the attention of witches and Knights. The whole family would have nice, normal lives totally without trouble or incident.