“The hell-kite went to the priest at West,” she explained.
Anny’s eyes lighted.
“Then so will I,” she said promptly.
“That you shall not.” Pet laughed raucously. “Look you, Ann Farran,” she said, “if you do so there’s other things that Pet can do. Send Hal Grame and you to Colchester to the Castle to rot your lives out in the foul dungeons they have there.”
This was the last. Anny, who was by this time thoroughly frightened, had been brought up along with the other Island children to fear Colchester Castle worse than death, and, indeed, the stories of the dungeons current at that time were very terrible, the civil war being only just over. She began to cry.
“I will wed with him,” she said.
“Secretly on this boat to-morrow night?”
Anny gasped. Nevertheless, she shrugged her shoulders and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good! The Captain comes to-night to hear of it; will you wait to see him?”