‘Aye, well, you must keep your ear to the ground now, son. Listen out for whispers of what takes place. The boy’s family took him straight to tell all to Magistrate Wright and he is keeping record of any such happenings to better hunt down the evil that breeds here. Papists and witchery. What should become of us if we fall victim to a curse? Hay harvest fails, we lose the livestock come winter and we starve. I must protect the farm and all that work it as best I can.’

A moment of silence.

‘I thought witch jars are strongest when buried? Or – or burned?’ Daniel asked.

Father opened the door. ‘This one is strongest here. Where the magistrate can see it and be assured of our innocence.’

Flesh Will Pay

The door opens and Bett throws something on to my bed, tearing me from imaginings of life as Daniel’s wife. Of the life that’s soon to be mine.

‘What’s this?’ I ask.

‘Sunday best.’

‘For what?’

‘For God.’

I sit up, pulling the blanket to my chest. ‘Church isn’t for me,’ I say.

‘It is now. Magistrate’s on the lookout.’

‘But none questions that I go to my own church of a Sunday …’

‘They will now. Show your face with the rest of the village.’

She leaves, door swinging closed behind her, and I take a better look at what she has given me. A coif, not much different to the one I already own, but for the holly leaves embroidered on in black thread, silky under my fingers. Such beauty as I never dreamed of possessing.

Gabriel walks beside me all the way, too close so that I can smell his skin in the hot air.

‘Stay next to me, lass,’ he says. ‘For once I saw that witch-girl and her Devil-sister from the plague hill lingering here ready to curse any passing, like she did to me, though I am strong enough to withstand it. I shall keep you safe.’

Shadow bristles in my eye. I wish now Mam had not given him the salve to cure his pox. He would not be so bold, then. I breathe deep, bite the inside of my cheek to bring me back to myself, before my fury takes hold and the dog overpowers me.

My laughter is spiked with hate. ‘I hardly need protection from a lass and a child.’

‘These aren’t no ordinary ones, but riddled with hellish magic and ready to harm any person on their way to church. Have you seen her, that witch? Wild hair, and those eyes, nowt earthly about her.’

Growl shudders my bones. I bite down harder, and blood fills my mouth. I stop and look him in the eye. ‘Happen they ask for nowt more than a kindness.’