The Witch of Blackbird Pond: Chapters 16–21

“Little enough, since we have a constable who is quick to his duty. The three ringleaders are cooling their heels now in his shed, and on Lecture Day they will sit for all to see in the town stocks.”

Kit choked suddenly on a giggle that rose unexpectedly from nowhere. Instantly she was horrified at herself, and in mortified confusion kept her eyes on the wooden trencher before her.

"Whatever they are called, they are the devil’s invention. ’Twas an outrageous piece of blasphemy. I trust they will be dealt with severely.”

No matter how she shrank from the ordeal before her, she knew she could not stay away.

Nat and the redheaded seaman who had painted the Dolphin’s figurehead that morning on the river were cheerfully exchanging insults with a cluster of young bound boys who had stopped to enjoy the spectacle, the two culprits holding their own in an unchastened manner that delighted the onlookers.

"I’m quite comfortable, thank you,” he assured her. “Don’t waste your pity on me. ’Tis as roomy as many a ship’s berth I’ve slept in.”

“Don’t fret, child,” Hannah said philosophically, when Kit had poured out the story. “The stocks aren’t so dreadful. I’ve been in them myself.”

“Well now, that is a shame,” agreed Hannah, unperturbed.

Why hadn’t she remembered that ever since he was eight years old Nat had been finding his way to Blackbird Pond through devious meadow routes?

There were days on end, of course, when Kit could not manage to keep the tryst. But Hannah and Prudence were fast friends now, and she knew that the reading went companionably on.

But today she had had too sharp a lesson in the retribution of this Puritan Colony.

Was there some premonition, she would wonder, that made that moment so poignant, some foreknowledge that this was the last afternoon the three would ever spend together in the small cottage?

Rachel greeted her reproachfully. “You’re very late, Kit. It was wrong of you to stay away from Lecture. Your uncle was very displeased. And John Holbrook walked back with us to say goodbye to you and Mercy.”

Now it seems the doctor is going to publish a treatise in favor of Governor Andros and the new government, and John just couldn’t stomach it any longer.

Her mother, inclined at first to attribute her complaints to moping, took a second look at her flushed cheeks and put her to bed.

Her bout with the malady was short, however. Her wiry young body, nourished by Barbados fruits and sunshine, had an elastic vitality, and she was back on her feet while Judith was still barely sitting up to sip her gruel.

When the onions were cooked to just the right softness, Dr. Bulkeley piled them in a mass on a linen napkin and applied the blistering poultice to Mercy’s chest.

“Time and again she’s been seen consorting with the devil down in that meadow!”

“How dare you speak the name of a good, God-fearing girl? Any man who slanders one of my family has me to reckon with!”

As they stepped into the darkness the clamor of voices struck against them.

Still dazed, Hannah accepted the miracle and the prospect of a journey like a docile child. Then after two shaky steps she turned obstinate. She would not set foot in the boat without her cat.

Mercy stirred and asked, in a quite natural voice, for a sip of water, and Rachel’s haggard face lighted with a smile.

“Now hold on a minute, Matthew,” cautioned the constable at Matthew’s scornful gesture, “you can’t gainsay it. There’s things happen we better not look at too close. The woman’s gone, and I say good riddance.”

She saw now that she had undermined his authority in all eyes by flouting his orders.

Who had inveigled the child with promises, and thought of the hiding place under the willow tree, and persuaded her—no dragged her against her will—to meet Hannah?

The magistrate and the ministers will examine you. If they think you be guilty they’ll send you on to Hartford to wait trial.

Benches and chairs along the two walls were crowded with men from the town, with here and there a sharp-faced woman, cronies of Goodwife Cruff.

At the opposite end of the table sat the two ministers, Reverend John Woodbridge and Dr. Gershom Bulkeley, both famed for their relentless sermons against witchcraft.

We have come here in order to inquire and search into the matter of Mistress Katherine Tyler, lately of Barbados, who is accused by sundry witnesses of the practice of witchcraft.

Captain Talcott eyed the girl before him. Quite plainly he had a distaste for the duty at hand, but his stern soldierly countenance did not soften.

For the last few moments Goodwife Cruff had been vehemently prodding her husband. He rose now obediently.

The bluster was gone from him. He looked dazed.

“Seven different kinds of cake,” Judith counted surreptitiously. “I’ll never be able to have anything half so grand at my wedding.”

Every night she shrank from the moment when she and Judith must make the dread ascent to the upstairs chamber with only the meager comfort of a warming pan.

She resented the arduous preparation for the journey to Meeting, the heavy leather boots, the knit socks drawn over them, the clumsy little footstove they had to lug all the way, that cooled off long before the sermon was finished and left one to sit with stinging fingers and toes, while the breath of the whole congregation rose like the smoke from so many pipes.

Though the bitter cold did not abate, the daylight hours grew perceptibly longer.

A gaunt, ragged figure stood on the step, and as she shrank back a man pushed his way through the door and halted on the kitchen threshold.

She and John had already decided that for the first year at least they had best share the Woods’ ample house.

All at once Kit was aware that this New England, which had shown her the miracle of autumn and the white wonder of snow, had a new secret in store. This time it was a subtle promise, a tantalizing hint of beauty still withheld, a beckoning to her spirit to follow she knew not where.

Kit leaned sideways to see the letters painted jauntily on the transom. "The WITCH! How did you dare? Does Hannah know?”