"Do try to eat something, Amabel!" said I, seeing that she held her basin of milk in her hand, as if she hardly knew what it was. "Do try dear, to please me."
I held the basin to her lips, and had the satisfaction to see her drink. Then, as if roused and refreshed, she looked about her and spoke.
"Lucy, why do we not go on to my aunt's?"
"Because the horses must rest, my bonnie leddy!" said Alick, answering the question. "The puir beasts cannot gang a fit farther, without rest and meat, and we will be none the waur of them our ain selves."
"But they will overtake us and find us here!" said Amabel. "I am sure they will. They will track us with the bloodhounds."
"Not they!" I answered. "They have not missed us yet, and when they do they would not know which way to go. The snow will have covered all trace of us."
"And that's true, mem! Believe me, there is nothing to dread; you are as safe here as if you were at Thornyhaugh."
"I daresay you are right!" said Amabel. "But I am bewildered I think. Oh, Lucy! It seems as though it must be a dream; I have dreamed of getting away so often. It seems as if I must wake and find myself still in that woman's power. But I will never go back to her!" she added wildly. "I will kill myself first."
"You must just get her to bed, poor lamb!" said old Tibbie, answering my look of alarm. "The poor bairn is just overdone with a' she has come thro'! Shame on them that brought a sweet lamb to such straits."
As she spoke, she opened a door, on the farther side of the room, and led us into a very small bedroom, in which was a decent-looking bed.