Part 76 (1/2)
Alizon's first impulse was to catch the child in her arms, and press her to her bosom; but there was something in Jennet's look that deterred her, and so embarra.s.sed her, that she was unable to bestow upon her the ordinary greeting of affection, or even approach her.
Jennet seemed to enjoy her confusion, and laughed spitefully.
”Yo dunna seem ower glad to see me, sister Alizon,” said Jennet, at length.
”Sister Alizon!” There was something in the term that now jarred upon the young girl's ears, but she strove to conquer the feeling, as unworthy of her.
”She was once my sister,” she thought, ”and shall be so still. I will save her, if it be possible.” ”Jennet,” she added aloud, ”I know not what chance brings you here, and though I may not give you the welcome you expect, I am rejoiced to see you, because I may be the means of serving you. Do not be alarmed at what I am going to tell you. The danger I hope is pa.s.sed, or at all events may be avoided. Your liberty is threatened, and at the very moment I see you here I was lamenting your supposed condition as a prisoner.”
Jennet laughed louder and more spitefully than before, and looked so like a little fury that Alizon's blood ran cold at the sight of it.
”Ey knoa it aw, sister Alizon,” she cried, ”an that is why ey ha c.u.m'd here. Brother Jem is a pris'ner i' Whalley Abbey. Mother is a pris'ner theere, too. An ey should ha kept em company, if Tib hadna brought me off. Now, listen to me, Alizon, fo' this is my bus'ness wi' yo. Yo mun get mother an Jem out to-neet-eigh, to-neet. Yo con do it, if yo win. An onless yo do-boh ey winna threaten till ey get yer answer.”
”How am I to set them free?” asked Alizon, greatly alarmed.
”Yo need only say the word to young Ruchot a.s.sheton, an the job's done,” replied Jennet.
”I refuse-positively refuse to do so!” rejoined Alizon, indignantly.
”Varry weel,” cried Jennet, with a look of concentrated malice and fury; ”then tak the consequences. They win be ta'en to Lonkester Castle, an lose their lives theere. Bo ye shan go, too-ay, an be brunt os a witch-a witch-d'ye mark, wench? eh!”
”I defy your malice!” cried Alizon.
”Defy me!” screamed Jennet. ”What, ho! Tib!”
And at the call the huge black cat sprang from out the shrubbery.
”Tear her flesh from her bones!” cried the little girl, pointing to Alizon, and stamping furiously on the ground.
Tib erected his back, and glared like a tiger, but he seemed unwilling or unable to obey the order.
Alizon, who had completely recovered her courage, regarded him fixedly, and apparently without terror.
”Whoy dusna seize her, an tear her i' pieces?” cried the infuriated child.
”He dares not-he has no power over me,” said Alizon. ”Oh, Jennet! cast him off. Your wicked agent appears to befriend you now, but he will lead you to certain destruction. Come with me, and I will save you.”
”Off!” cried Jennet, repelling her with furious gestures. ”Off! ey winna ge wi' ye. Ey winna be saved, os yo term it. Ey hate yo more than ever, an wad strike yo dead at my feet, if ey could. Boh as ey conna do it, ey win find some other means o' injurin' ye. Soh look to yersel, proud ledy-look to yersel? Ey ha already smitten you in a place where ye win feel it sore, an ey win repeat the blow. Ey now leave yo, boh we shan meet again. Come along, Tib!”
So saying, she sprang into the shrubbery, followed by the cat, leaving Alizon appalled by her frightful malignity.
Alizon Defies Jennet.
CHAPTER IV.-THE GORGE OF CLIVIGER.
The sun had already set as Nicholas a.s.sheton reached Todmorden, then a very small village indeed, and alighting at a little inn near the church, found the ale so good, and so many boon companions a.s.sembled to discuss it, that he would fain have tarried with them for an hour or so; but prudence, for once, getting the better of inclination, and suggesting that he had fifteen or sixteen miles still to ride, over a rough and lonely road, part of which lay through the gorge of Cliviger, a long and solitary pa.s.s among the English Apennines, and, moreover, had a large sum of money about him, he tore himself away by a great effort.
On quitting the smiling valley of Todmorden, and drawing near the dangerous defile before mentioned, some misgivings crossed him, and he almost reproached himself with foolhardiness in venturing within it at such an hour, and wholly unattended. Several recent cases of robbery, some of them attended by murder, had occurred within the pa.s.s; and these now occurred so forcibly to the squire, that he was half inclined to ride back to Todmorden, and engage two or three of the topers he had left at the inn to serve him as an escort as far as Burnley, but he dismissed the idea almost as soon as formed, and, casting one look at the green and woody slopes around him, struck spurs into Robin, and dashed into the gorge.