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"Soft I could just hardly hear it But it was a man&039;s voice, yes sir"

"Had you ever heard that voice beforei"

"I don&039;t know, sir I&039;m not sure if I had or hadn&039;t"

Matthew rubbed his chin and inadvertently s of the songi"

"Wellso it is, that oes away Sometimes it makes my head hurt thinkin&039; of it" She looked froain "It&039;s not the Devil cursin&039; me, is it, siri"

"No, I think not" He stared at the lines on the paper, hisIf there was a third demonic creature in that house, why didn&039;t it show itself to the childi after all, the idea had been to scare an alaring in the dark, if the song and the voice were not loud enough to be fearfuli "Violet, this ht you try to rei"

"What does it h "She done told you &039;bout the Devil and the imp!"

"My own curiosity, Mr adams," Matthew explained "and it seehter, or she would not have brought it to light Don&039;t you agreei"

"Well" Thefurtheri" Matthew asked the girl, and she shook her head "all right, then The court thanks you for your testimony" Violet and her father withdrew froaol, the child looked back fearfully at Rachel, as sitting slumped over with a hand pressed to her forehead

When the tere gone, Woodward began to wrap the poppets back up in the white cloth "I presume," he whispered, "that all other witnesses have fled town Therefore" He paused to try to clear his throat, which was a difficult and torturous task "Therefore our trial is ended"

"Wait!" Rachel stood up "What about arded her coldly "It is her right, sir," Matthew re the poppets "Yes, yes," he said "Of course it is Go on, then

"You&039;ve ripped them

"No I shall first read over the transcript, when I am able"

"But that&039;s only a formality, isn&039;t iti What can I possibly say to convince you I auilty of these liesi"

"Bear in mind," Matthew said to her, "that the witnesses did swear on the Bible I would be wary in calling them liars However " He paused

"However whati" Woodward rasped

"I think there are some omissions of detail in the testiht to be taken into account For instance - "

Woodward lifted a hand "Spare ree, don&039;t you, siri"

"I a to bed" With the bundle tucked under his arm, Woodward pushed the chair back and stood up His bones ached and his head grew dizzy, and he stood grasping the desk&039;s edge until the dizziness abated

Instantly Mattheas on his feet too, alert to preventing theto help youi"

"I trust there&039;s a carriage waiting"

"Shall I go out and seei"

"No Mind you, you&039;re still a prisoner" Woodward felt so drained of strength he had to close his eyes for a few seconds, his head bowed

"I deht to speak," Rachel insisted "No matter if you have decided"

"Speak, then" Woodward feared his throat was closing up again, and his nostrils seean, "to contend that I murdered anyone, or that I have made spells and poppets and committed such sins as I am accused of Yes, I know the witnesses swore truth on the Bible I can&039;t understand why or how they could create such stories, but if you&039;ll give me the Bible I&039;ll swear truth on it too!"

To Matthew&039;s surprise, Woodward picked up the Holy Book, walked unsteadily to the bars, and passed the voluh into her hands

Rachel clasped it to her bosom "I swear upon this Bible and every word in it that I have done no leamed with a mixture of trepidation and triumph "There! You seei Did I burst into flamei Did I scream because my hands were scorchedi If you put such value on Bible-sworn truth, then will you not also value istrate whispered wearily, "do not further profane yourself Your power to confuse is very strong, I grant you"

"I a the Bible! I have just sworn on it! Would you have me kiss iti"

"No I would have you return it" He held out his hand Matthe the bright fire of anger leap into Rachel&039;s eyes, and for an instant he feared for the istrate&039;s safety But then Rachel stepped back froan to es from it, her expression all but dead

"Rachel!" Matthew cried out, before he could think better of it "Don&039;t!"

The torn pages of God&039;s Writ drifted to the straw around her feet She stared into the e, as if daring hi in his jaw "Now," he whispered, "I see you clearly"

She yanked out another page, let it fall, and then shoved the Bible between the bars Woodward made no move to capture the ," Rachel said, her voice treht control "Why did God not strike iven me that task"

"If I were truly a witch, God would never have allowed such an act!"

"Only a vile sinner would have co admirable composure He leaned down and retrieved the volume, the back of which had been broken

Matthew said, "She&039;s distraught, sir! She doesn&039;t knohat she&039;s doing!"

at that, Woodward turned toward his clerk and ed to say heatedly, "She knows! Dear God, Matthew! Has she blinded youi"

"No, sir But I think this action should be excused on the grounds of extreray face slack He seemed to feel the entire world wheel around hiuiled the very fear of God out of his clerk

The istrate&039;s shocked expression was not lost on Matthew "Sir, she is under difficult circuh that in your consideration of this incident"

There was only one response Woodward could "

Noas Matthew&039;s turn to be shocked "ButI have one ht on !"

Matthe that Rachel had e He was torn between the desire to rid himself of this dirty hovel and the realization that once he left the gaol he wouldof her death There were still so many questions to be asked and answered! He couldn&039;t let it go like this, or he feared he ht be haunted for the rest of his days "I&039;ll stay here and finish my sentence," he said

"Whati"

"I&039;ll stay here," Matthew repeated calet yourself!" Woodward felt near collapse "I deh this demand had been delivered in such a frail voice, it still carried enough power to offend Matthew&039;s sense of independence "I am your servant," he answered, "but I am not your slave I elect to stay here and finish , and that will be the end of it"

"You&039;ve lost your reason!"

"No, sir, I have not My being pardoned would only cause further probleue the point, but neither his voice nor his spirit had the strength He stood at the cell&039;s threshold, holding the violated Bible and the bundled poppets a glance at Rachel Howarth showed hie, but he knew that as soon as he left she would begin to work hera lamb to the teeth of a bitch wolf He tried onceyou to coht"

"Yes, and fall for eternity," Woodhispered Woodward laid the Holy Book down atop the desk Even so desecrated, the voluht serve as a shield if Matthew called upon it That is, if Matthew&039;s clouded vision would allow hi the boy be put in this place; he ht have known the witch would leap at the opportunity to entrance Matthew&039;s mind It occurred to Woodward that the court records were in jeopardy as well There was no telling what ht they&039;d be within the witch&039;s reach "I will take the papers," he said "Box them, please"

This was not an unreasonable request, as Matthew assu He immediately obeyed

When it was done, Woodward put the box under one ar more he could do for Matthew except offer a prayer He cast a baleful glare upon Rachel Howarth "Beware your acts, madam You&039;re not yet in the fire"

"Is there any doubt I shall bei" she asked

He ignored the question, turning his eyes toward Matthew "Your lashing " It see took a maximum of effort " will be at six o&039;clock I shall be hereearly as possible Be alert to her tricks, Matthew" Matthew nodded but offered no opinion on the validity of the state the door wide open He steeled hiht of Matthew voluntarily caged and in ht tear his heart asunder

Outside the gaol, in the di in the air, Woodas relieved to see that indeed Goode had brought the carriage for hier seats and set the bundled poppets at his side as soon as Woodas settled, Goode flicked the reins and the horses started off

Shortly after the aol to deliver the evening meal, which was corn soup He locked Matthew&039;s cell and said, "I trust you sleep well, boy Tos to hed; then the gaol-keeper rehtly custom, and left the prisoners in darkness

Matthew sat on his bench and tipped the foodbowl to hisin the wall behind him, but their numbers had dwindled dramatically in the wake of the ratcatcher&039;s visit and they seemed not nearly so bold as before

Rachel&039;s voice came from the dark "Why did you stayi"

He sed the soup that was in his mouth "I intend to serve out istrate offered you a pardon Why didn&039;t you take iti"

"Magistrate Woodward is ill and confused right now"

"That doesn&039;t answer my question You elected to stay Whyi"

Matthew busied hi at last he said, "I have other questions to ask of you"

"Such asi"

"Such as where were you when your husband was murderedi and why is it that soetting out of bed that night," Rachel said "Or perhaps it was earlyI don&039;t know But he often rose in the dark and by candlelight figured in his ledger There was nothing odd in his rising I simply turned over, pulled the blanket up, and went back to sleep as I always did"

"Did you know that he&039;d gone outsidei"

"No, I didn&039;t"

"Was that usual alsoi That he should go out in the cold at such an early houri"

"Heon how near it was to sunrise"

"You say your husband kept a ledgeri Containing whati"

"Daniel kept account of every shilling he had also how much money was invested in the farm, and how much was spent on day-to-day matters such as candles, soap, and the like"

"Was money owed to him by anyone in town, or did he owe moneyi"

"No," Rachel said "Daniel prided himself that he was his own master"

"admirable, but quite unusual in these times" Matthew took another s of soup "How did your husband&039;s body co in the field, with his throatyou know" She paused "The Maynards lived on the other side of us Jess had coht when he sawthe crows circling He came over and that&039;s when he found Daniel"

"Did you see the bodyi"

again, there was a hesitation Then she said quietly "I did"

"I understand it was the throat wound that killed him, but were there not other wounds on his bodyi Bidwell described them, I recall, as claw or teeth marks to the face and arive my indelicacy," Matthew said, "but is that how you would describe themi as teeth or claw marksi"

"Irememberhow terrible was the wound to his throat I did see what appeared to be claw marks on his face, butI didn&039;t care at thedead, his eyes and mouth open as they wereI remember that I cried out and fell to my knees beside him I don&039;t recall much after that, except that Ellen Maynard tooktherei"

"No They nation "after the stories about an these storiesi Do you know of any one personi"

"I would be the last to know," Rachel said dryly

"Yes," Matthew agreed "Of course People being as they are, I&039;m sure the stories were spread about and more and ainst you did not begin until your husband was murdered, is that correcti You were not suspected in the ht here, Bidwell came in to see me He said he had witnesses to my practise of witchcraft and that he knew I - or my &039;master,&039; as he put it - was responsible for the calamities that had struck Fount Royal He asked me why I had decided to consort with Satan, and asthe town at that point he asked if I had ht he&039;d lost his mind He said I was to cease all associations with demons and confess e for me to be immediately banished The alternative, he said, was death"

Matthew finished his soup and set the bowl aside "Tell ree to banishment Your husband was dead, and you faced execution Why didn&039;t you leavei"

"Because," she answered, "I aht our far it a success Why should I give it up, ad a witch, and be sent out into the wilds with nothingi I would have surely died out there Here, at least, I felt that when a ht have a chance" She was silent for a while, and then she said, "I never thought it would take so long The o By the day you and Woodward arrived, I had suffered Bidwell&039;s slings and arrows many times over I had almost lost all hope In fact, you both looked sowell, unofficialthat I at first thought Bidwell had brought in two hirelings to goad a confession out of me"

"I understand," Matthew said "But was there no effort to discover who had murdered the reverendi"

"There was, as I recall, but after Lenora Grove left, the interest faded over time, as there were no suspects and no apparent motive But the reverend&039;s murder was the first incident that caused people to start leaving Fount Royal It was a griine it was" Matthew listened to the increasing sound of rain on the roof "a gri, as well I doubt if Fount Royal could survive another one as bad"

"Probably not But I won&039;t be here to knoill Ii"

Matthew didn&039;t answer What could he sayi Rachel&039;s voice was vety tight when she spoke again "In your opinion, how long do I have to livei"

She was asking to be told the truth Matthew said, "The hly over the records He will deliberate, according to past witchcraft cases of which he has knowledge" Matthew folded his hands together in his lap "He ive his decision as early as Wednesday On Thursday he ht requireI expect

the preparations would be made on Friday He would not wish to carry out the sentence on either the day before the Sabbath or the Sabbath itself Therefore - "

"Therefore I burn on Monday," Rachel finished for hih he wished to ease her sorrow, Matthe of no consolation he could offer that would not sound blatantly foolish

"Well," she said at last, her voice carrying a e and pain, and that was all

Matthew lay down in his accustomed place in the straw and folded himself up for warmth Rain drummed harder on the roof He listened to its ht how simple life had seemed when he was a child and all he had to fear was the pile of pig dung Life was so coe twists and turns like a road that wandered across a wilderness no man could completely tame, istrate&039;s failing health On the one hand, the sooner they got away from Fount Royal and returned to the city, the better; but on the other hand he was deeply concerned as well for the life of the woman in the next cell

and it was not simply because he did think her beautiful to look upon Paine had been correct, of course Rachel was indeed - as he had crudely put it - a "handsome piece" Matthew could understand how Paine - how any ence and inner fire were also appealing to Matthew, as he&039;d never met a woman of such nature before Or, at least, he&039;d never met a woence and fire to be seen in public It was profoundly troubling to believe that just possibly Rachel&039;s beauty and independent nature were two reasons she&039;d been singled out by public opinion as a witch It seemed to him, in his observations, that if one could not catch and conquer an object of desire, it often served the same to destroy it

The question must be answered in his own mind: was she a witch or noti Before the testimony of Violet adams, he would have said the so-called eyewitness accounts were fabrications or fantasies, even though both men had sworn on the Bible But the child&039;s testi, in fact This was not a situation where the child had gone to bed and awakened thinking that a dream had been reality; this had happened when she ide awake, and her grasp of details see the stress of thethe black cloak, the six gold buttons, and the white-haired dwarf, or "iave further believability to what both Buckner and Garrick had seen What, then, to make of iti

and there were the poppets, of course Yes, anyone ht have made them and hidden them under the floorboards But ould anyone have done soi and what tothe searchers where to looki

Had Rachel indulged in witchcraft, or noti Had she murdered or wished the s having been committed by some demonic creature suht came to hiht she or her terrible accoistrate&039;s health to prevent hi sentencei

Matthew had to ad lapses of detail in the accounts of Buckner and Garrick, all the evidence taken together served to light the torch for Rachel&039;s death He knew the istrate would read the court documents carefully and ponder them with a fair uilty as charged So: was she a witch, or noti

Even having read and digested the scholarly volunorance, or downright malicious accusations, he honestly couldn&039;t say, which frightened him far more than any of the testiht So beautiful and so alone If she was indeed a servant of Satan, how could the Devil himself let a woman so beautiful be destroyed by the hands of an to drip froaol&039;s roof at a dozen weak joints Matthew lay in the dark, huddled up against the chill, hiswith a question inside a ma