She was nursing her babe on her knee as if it was alive. Owen stood before Ellis Pritchard.
'Be silent,' said he, quietly. 'Neither words nor deeds but what are decreed can come to pass. I was set to do my work, this hundred years and more. The time waited for me, and the man waited for me. I have done what was foretold of me for generations!'
Ellis Pritchard knew the old tale of the prophecy, and believed in it in a dull, dead kind of way, but somehow never thought it would come to pass in his time. Now, however, he understood it all in a moment, though he mistook Owen's nature so much as to believe that the deed was intentionally done, out of revenge for the death of his boy; and viewing it in this light, Ellis thought it little more than a just punishment for the cause of all the wild despairing sorrow he had seen his only child suffer during the hours of this long afternoon. But he knew the law would not so regard it. Even the lax Welsh law of those days could not fail to examine into the death of a man of Squire Griffith's standing. So the acute Ellis thought how he could conceal the culprit for a time.
'Come,' said he; 'don't look so scared! It was your doom, not your fault;' and he laid a hand on Owen's shoulder.
'You're wet,' said he, suddenly. 'Where have you been? Nest, your husband is dripping, drookit wet. That's what makes him look so blue and wan.'
Nest softly laid her baby in its cradle; she was half stupefied with crying, and had not understood to what Owen alluded, when he spoke of his doom being fulfilled, if indeed she had heard the words.
Her touch thawed Owen's miserable heart.
'Oh, Nest!' said he, clasping her in his arms; 'do you love me still- can you love me, my own darling?'
'Why not?' asked she, her eyes filling with tears. 'I only love you more than ever, for you were my poor baby's father!'
'But, Nest — Oh, tell her, Ellis! YOU know.'
'No need, no need!' said Ellis. 'She's had enough to think on. Bustle, my girl, and get out my Sunday clothes.'
'I don't understand,' said Nest, putting her hand up to her head. 'What is to tell? and why are you so wet? God help me for a poor crazed thing, for I cannot guess at the meaning of your words and your strange looks! I only know my baby is dead!' and she burst into tears.
'Come, Nest! go and fetch him a change, quick!' and as she meekly obeyed, too languid to strive further to understand, Ellis said rapidly to Owen, in a low, hurried voice -
'Are you meaning that the Squire is dead? Speak low, lest she hear. Well, well, no need to talk about how he died. It was sudden, I see; and we must all of us die; and he'll have to be buried. It's well the night is near. And I should not wonder now if you'd like to travel for a bit; it would do Nest a power of good; and then — there's many a one goes out of his own house and never comes back again; and- I trust he's not lying in his own house — and there's a stir for a bit, and a search, and a wonder — and, by-and-by, the heir just steps in, as quiet as can be. And that's what you'll do, and bring Nest to Bodowen after all. Nay, child, better stockings nor those; find the blue woollens I bought at Llanrwst fair. Only don't lose heart. It's done now and can't be helped. It was the piece of work set you to do from the days of the Tudors, they say. And he deserved it. Look in yon cradle. So tell us where he is, and I'll take heart of grace and see what can be done for him.'
But Owen sat wet and haggard, looking into the peat fire as if for visions of the past, and never heeding a word Ellis said. Nor did he move when Nest brought the armful of dry clothes.
'Come, rouse up, man!' said Ellis, growing impatient. But he neither spoke nor moved.
'What is the matter, father?' asked Nest, bewildered.
Ellis kept on watching Owen for a minute or two, till on his daughter's repetition of the question, he said –
'Ask him yourself, Nest.'
'Oh, husband, what is it?' said she, kneeling down and bringing her face to a level with his.
'Don't you know?' said he, heavily. 'You won't love me when you do know. And yet it was not my doing: it was my doom.'
'What does he mean, father?' asked Nest, looking up; but she caught a gesture from Ellis urging her to go on questioning her husband.
'I will love you, husband, whatever has happened. Only let me know the worst.'
A pause, during which Nest and Ellis hung breathless.
'My father is dead, Nest.'
Nest caught her breath with a sharp gasp.
'God forgive him!' said she, thinking on her babe.
'God forgive ME!' said Owen.
'You did not — ' Nest stopped.
'Yes, I did. Now you know it. It was my doom. How could I help it? The devil helped me — he placed the stone so that my father fell. I jumped into the water to save him. I did, indeed, Nest. I was nearly drowned myself. But he was dead — dead — killed by the fall!'
'Then he is safe at the bottom of the sea?' said Ellis, with hungry eagerness.
'No, he is not; he lies in my boat,' said Owen, shivering a little, more at the thought of his last glimpse at his father's face than from cold.
'Oh, husband, change your wet clothes!' pleaded Nest, to whom the death of the old man was simply a horror with which she had nothing to do, while her husband's discomfort was a present trouble.
While she helped him to take off the wet garments which he would never have had energy enough to remove of himself, Ellis was busy preparing food, and mixing a great tumbler of spirits and hot water. He stood over the unfortunate young man and compelled him to eat and drink, and made Nest, too, taste some mouthfuls — all the while planning in his own mind how best to conceal what had been done, and who had done it; not altogether without a certain feeling of vulgar triumph in the reflection that Nest, as she stood there, carelessly dressed, dishevelled in her grief, was in reality the mistress of Bodowen, than which Ellis Pritchard had never seen a grander house, though he believed such might exist.
By dint of a few dexterous questions he found out all he wanted to know from Owen, as he ate and drank. In fact, it was almost a relief to Owen to dilute the horror by talking about it. Before the meal was done, if meal it could be called, Ellis knew all he cared to know.
'Now, Nest, on with your cloak and haps. Pack up what needs to go with you, for both you and your husband must be half way to Liverpool by to-morrow's morn. I'll take you past Rhyl Sands in my fishing-boat, with yours in tow; and, once over the dangerous part, I'll return with my cargo of fish, and learn how much stir there is at Bodowen. Once safe hidden in Liverpool, no one will know where you are, and you may stay quiet till your time comes for returning.'
'I will never come home again,' said Owen, doggedly. 'The place is accursed!'
'Hoot! be guided by me, man. Why, it was but an accident, after all! And we'll land at the Holy Island, at the Point of Llyn; there is an old cousin of mine, the parson, there — for the Pritchards have known better days, Squire — and we'll bury him there. It was but an accident, man. Hold up your head! You and Nest will come home yet and fill Bodowen with children, and I'll live to see it.'
'Never!' said Owen. 'I am the last male of my race, and the son has murdered his father!'
Nest came in laden and cloaked. Ellis was for hurrying them off. The fire was extinguished, the door was locked.
'Here, Nest, my darling, let me take your bundle while I guide you down the steps.' But her husband bent his head, and spoke never a word. Nest gave her father the bundle (already loaded with such things as he himself had seen fit to take), but clasped another softly and tightly.
'No one shall help me with this,' said she, in a low voice.
Her father did not understand her; her husband did, and placed his strong helping arm round her waist, and blessed her.
'We will all go together, Nest,' said he. 'But where?' and he looked up at the storm-tossed clouds coming up from windward.
'It is a dirty night,' said Ellis, turning his head round to speak to his companions at last. 'But never fear, we'll weather it?' And he made for the place where his vessel was moored. Then he stopped and thought a moment.
