Upstairs in the barred nursery, Hildy and Ynen waited and waited. For a long time they were sure that whatever had happened between Mitt and their father, Mitt would come and unlock the nursery door any moment. They had great faith in Mitt’s resourcefulness. But when the island women came and brought them lunch for two, even Ynen gave up hope.
“I don’t think Mitt was even trying to make Father understand,” Hildy said angrily. “And now he’s just forgotten us. His kind are all the same!”
“I don’t think he would forget,” Ynen said.
“Yes, he would. He had a perfect chance to escape on his own, and he took it,” said Hildy.
“I thought he felt he owed us—” Ynen began uncomfortably.
“He didn’t feel anything of the kind,” said Hildy. “His whole idea was that we owed him everything, because of his rotten life in Holand!”
This was so exactly the kind of thing Mitt had said himself that Ynen could not argue any longer.
Long hours later they were trying to play I Spy. Hildy was far too dejected to concentrate. “I give up,” she said. “There’s nothing beginning with T in this room.”
“Table,” Ynen said drearily.
The door opened just then, and Lithar shambled in. Hildy did not realize. “How was I to know it was something as stupid as that!” she snapped, thoroughly bad-tempered.
Lithar stared at her, shocked. “I don’t think I want to marry you,” he said.
“That goes for me, too!” Hildy retorted. “I hate the sight of you!”
Lithar turned plaintively to Al, who had followed him in. Behind Al came two of the large men, with Navis between them. “Al,” said Lithar, “I don’t have to marry her, do I? She’s not womanly.” Al laughed and patted him on the back.
“There, Hildrida. You have just received your first compliment,” said Navis. “Possibly your last, too.”
“Where’s Mitt?” Ynen said to Al. Al laughed and shrugged. “You do know, don’t you?” said Ynen. “Have you killed him?”
Al chuckled. “Say hallo to your pa like a good boy.”
“Not until I’ve told you what a foul brute you are,” said Ynen.
“He’s not very nice either,” Lithar complained. “Let’s go away.”
“After you,” said Al, and everyone went out of the room again, leaving Navis standing by the locked door.
Hildy and Ynen stared at Navis. He looked tired, dirty, and depressed. Hildy felt sorry for him. She was almost certain she was glad to see him. She went toward Navis to tell him so. But she did not quite dare and stopped. Then she somehow ran at him without thinking and threw her arms around him. For just a second Navis looked surprised. Then Hildy found herself being hugged, picked up, and swung round, and her father looking more pleased and more upset than she had ever seen him. When Ynen came shyly up, Navis spared an arm for him, too, so that they all hung together in a bundle.
“Who warned you to get away?” said Navis. “How did you manage in that fearsome storm?”
“Nobody. It was an accident. Mitt and Libby Beer and Old Ammet helped,” they said, and they tried to tell him about their adventures in Wind’s Road. After a little, Navis let go of them and sat down to listen, pressing two fingers to the corners of his eyes as if he had a headache. They could not help noticing that he frowned and seemed to press harder every time they mentioned Al or Mitt.
“Why did you come here?” Ynen asked him at last. “Was—is Al in your pay? I saw you talking to him in Holand.”
Navis looked up at Ynen in surprise. “Of course not. You must have seen him the time he came to offer—for a large sum of money, naturally—to tell me of a plot against the Earl. You can’t imagine how often people did that,” Navis said. He sounded very depressed. “I found Al very uncongenial. But I mentioned the matter to Harchad, and, ironically, I remember Harchad telling me in return that he had put an agent in the Holy Islands to keep Lithar in line, in case the North attacked. If I had known it was this same Al, I would have stayed well away. I came because there are boats here—prepared to pay high for being taken North—and trying not to hope there might be news of you two. But it seems that Al has decided that Harl would pay more for us than I would pay for a boat—which I’m sure is true—so we are being sold back to Holand.”
There was a wretched silence.
“Wouldn’t Uncle Harl let us go,” Hildy asked, “if we all signed something to say we didn’t want to be earls?”
Navis shook his head, with his two fingers lodged hard above his nose. “He doesn’t trust me. He never has. Besides, I kicked him in the stomach when he came to arrest me. He was so annoyed that he came out in the Flate after me himself, in spite of the storm. He nearly trod on me while I was lying in a ditch. By which I knew he wouldn’t easily forgive me.”
Ynen laughed, though he was sure it was no joke. “But didn’t Mitt try to warn you?”
He saw his father’s forehead crease. “If Mitt is the boy who tried to blow up the Sea Festival—yes, he did. I thought he was lying and asked the guards to take him away. Al took charge of him after that. Is this one more mistake I’ve made?”
“Yes,” said Ynen.