Once Faith had learned to read and write, Maria brought out the Grimoire, their greatest secret, kept in the kitchen under lock and key, in a bureau drawer with a false bottom, so that even if someone jimmied open the drawer, they’d come upon nothing more than two large wooden spoons.

“This will belong to you someday,” Maria told Faith.

Faith was delighted with this news. “Which day is that?”

“A day when you’re very grown-up and I’m a very old woman.”

Maria had hired a carpenter who went from town to town. He chinked the holes in the walls of the cabin, then rebuilt the shed for the goats so that it would no longer shake in the wind and he helped Maria to lay down a path of blue stones that reminded her of Hannah’s cottage. When Maria claimed there was an underground stream nearby, the carpenter had grudgingly dug their well, surprised when he hit a pool of fresh, clear water.

“It’s a talent to be able to find water,” he told her. It was said only witches could do so, for they could not drown and had an affinity with water that people used against them. There were those who said they could smell water, and that water had the scent of sweet iris to such women. Maria planned to pay the carpenter with the last silver coin, but instead he asked for her help in exchange for the work he’d done on the house. He had unending headaches and his hands had begun to shake. In time he would not be able to earn his living. He had figured out that Maria Owens practiced the Nameless Art, and if she could help him, there would be no debt to pay. Maria gathered barley and vervain from her garden to boil, then wrapped the mixture in white cloth to place on the man’s forehead. She said words in a language he didn’t recognize, both forward and backwards it seemed. He could not keep his eyes open, and he slept all night in the barn with the goats, without nightmare or dreams. In the morning, his head was clear. He came back to thank Maria. “You have a rare talent,” he said solemnly.

That was when she knew what her future would be. Maria would forsake love entirely, and turn her talents to the healing arts. She lit a lantern on the porch that the carpenter had built, and then she waited. She was far from town, but the lantern could be seen by anyone wishing to venture this far. They would spy the yellow light, and then the fence, and then the garden that was carefully tended, and they would know they were welcome.

A Simple Witch’s Garden

Sage, for headache.

Summer savory, for colic.

Green wormwood for wounds, mix with vinegar or rum, then apply.

Hyssop, for the lungs.

Colt’s foot and flaxseed, for coughing.

Motherwort, to quiet the nerves.

Sweet balm tea, for fever.

Horseradish, mixed with warm vinegar for aches in the feet.

Mallows, steeped in milk for dysentery.

Savory, to give good fortune.

Parsley, to see the future and make wise choices.