CHAPTER SIXAt the end of the second day with nothing to eat, Arliva was feeling very low and extremely depressed.
‘This just cannot go on,’ she thought. ‘I know that I will collapse soon and then they will do what they want with me.’
Almost as if in answer to her thoughts, she heard the door unlock and the Countess came in.
Arliva did not move from the chair she was sitting in. She just stared at her in a contemptible manner.
“I have just come here to inform you,” the Countess announced, “that we are leaving tomorrow morning to see the Canon who lives a little way from here. He will marry you and Simon the next day.”
She paused obviously waiting for Arliva to make a reply and, when there was silence, she went on,
“You will be married in the private Chapel which adjoins The Castle. Bu
