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escape and sat passively in his small prison, and she tried not to visualize the ugly body with its thin angular legs and alien head. She shuddered, nevertheless, and quickened her steps. Ellie was Minnie’s daughter, a faithful copy of her mother but taller and less moody. She lived at Heron and attended Harriet and Maria as personal maid. Minnie, maid to Melissa, tried hard not to show her envy. Her own long-cherished dream was to return to Heron, but she was happy enough at Ladyford and willing to bide her time until the Lord saw fit to answer her prayers. A smile played around Ellie’s lips as she reached the kitchen door, kicked it sharply and shouted out to Beth.
    ‘Let me in at once, Beth. ‘Tis most urgent, I swear it.’
    Taken aback by such impudence, Beth sent Ben to admit her and they both looked at her in astonishment as she held out her cupped hands.
    ‘’Tis for Harriet,’ she told them, her small dark eyes glittering with ill-suppressed excitement. ‘’Tis a toad to cure Harriet. I’ve — ’
    Another piercing scream reached them and Beth crossed herself hurriedly.
    Ellie glanced upward. ‘Is that Harriet?’
    ‘Aye,’ said Beth. ‘Screaming her agony and her wits quite gone, Maria says. The master is with her, too, trying to hold her down, for she’s that wild — Oh, I can’t bear to think on it!’
    Ellie’s face had paled a little but she made to pass Beth, who spread her arms wide.
    ‘And where d’you think you’re going?’ she demanded.
    ‘To take this toad to the mistress. ’Twill save Harriet from the plague. My ma told me.’
    Beth snorted. ‘Toad indeed. Well, you’re not taking it a step further. If a toad would cure her then Master Phillips would have prescribed it.’
    ‘But mayhap he doesn’t know of it,’ protested Ellie. ‘’Tis a secret, you see, passed on to my ma by her ma and passed on to her by — ’
    ‘That’s enough Ellie,’ said Beth. ‘I know you mean well, but I’m that weary I’ve no time for such tricks.’
    Ellie turned to her brother. Ben was three years older than she was and at most times a loyal champion.
    ‘You tell her, Ben,’ she pleaded. ‘How you hang the toad by his leg until he dies and the life stuff drips out of him on to the patient. You heard ma tell it, Ben. You tell her.’
    Ben shook his head. ‘’Tis no use, Ellie,’ he said as kindly as he could. ‘And Beth’s had bad news of her own a few moments since. Her own sister is sick of the plague and like to die.’
    Ellie looked at Beth in dismay. ‘So many folk dying!’ she said. ‘I’m afeared. If Harriet dies will we all die?’
    ‘Don’t say such things,’ said Beth. ‘Heron’s a big place and you’re well away from the infection. But now I must get on with some baking for if my sister dies I’ll be bound to see to her poor old husband, for he’s been crippled these past five years and can’t care for himself.’
    ‘You mean you’d leave us?’ asked Ben. ‘Leave Heron?’
    ‘Happen I’ll have to,’ said Beth resignedly. ‘’Tis all I can do for my poor sister and that’s little enough. I could scarce leave her old fellow to starve to death. Still, we’ll wait and see. Pass me the rolling pin, Ben, and Ellie — that toad goes out! This very moment and no ifs or buts! And don’t pull that face. You look just like your mother when she was a girl. Now where are the currants? Oh dear, I’m all at sixes and sevens.’
    *
    An hour passed and Harriet’s screams grew thankfully less frequent as the pain in her head subsided. Her temperature remained high, however, and her delirium increased. She spoke in a rambling voice, quite unlike her own, and for Maria, sitting beside her, the high-pitched murmuring increased her distress. She wondered if Allan would reach Heron in time and secretly hoped he would not. It was a poor sight to see the once beautiful girl in such a condition, her body marred by the dusky blotches which sprinkled the fair skin of