Читать книгу Ye Lyttle Salem Maide. A Story of Witchcraft онлайн

6 страница из 52

“Sit you down beside me, little mistress,” said the Cavalier, “I would ask a question of you. Ho, ho, you are afeared of witches! Why, see the sunset still glimmers red. Have you not a wee bit of time for me, who am in sore perplexity and distress?”

“Nay, nay, good sir,” she rejoined sweetly, “I be no afeared o’ witches when I can assist a soul in sore distress, for as ye telled me, a witch cannot come near one who be on a good errand.”

She climbed up on the trunk and seated herself beside him, swinging her sturdy, bare feet beside his great high boots.

“Can you keep a close mouth, mistress?” asked the Cavalier.

She nodded. Irresistibly, as her companion remained silent a moment in deep thought, her fingers went out and stroked his velvet sleeve. She sighed blissfully and folded her hands in her lap.

“I was telled by a countryman up the road that there is a house in your town which has been recently taken by a stranger. ’Tis a house, I am informed, with many gables and dormer windows.” The speaker glanced sharply at his companion. “Do you hap to know the place?”