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About whether it was a kidnapping--

My speculations went in the opposite direction, at first thinking only of the abductor. Then as I saw all the doubletalk about Mary Katherine and what she saw, and began thinking about how apparently neither girl screamed or even gasped, I started to wonder. If Elizabeth went without making a fuss, though, I believe it was b/c she was fooled or conned into thinking she'd be back very soon. If she left w/o thinking she'd be back VERY soon, then I think a young man or teenage boy is involved. However they got her out of the house, it's clear that their intentions were terribly misjudged by her immature mind.

One other possibility is that there never was an abductor, that Elizabeth was leaving and told Mary Katherine what to say when she was discovered missing. That seems unlikely b/c I think Mary K. would have broken down long ago. Even if Elizabeth went out of the house with no help from anyone, I'm sure she'd have had someplace she planned to go, and it that's what happened, whoever had offered to shelter her was apparently a snake in the grass--and naive Elizabeth was no match for this person's evil and cunning.

Even if she planned to run away, even if she went semi-willingly, there is just no way Elizabeth is to blame for this thing, and I'm sure she's paid dearly for any misplaced trust she had.

Since we know that Mary K. had another room available to her to sleep in, then if Elizabeth planned to run away, wouldn't she have made sure to bribe or fool or persuade her little sister to sleep in her own room that night? That way, no one would have known what Elizabeth was doing.