Her husband was saying something ineffectual, like “now, now” but he didn’t stop her. Mrs. Merley tried to interrupt. She looked weary and distressed, her eyes red-rimmed. “It’s just that we don’t like your predictions,” she said. “We don’t want any more killings.”

“It’s not my fault,” Rose tried to say. Her throat was dry. “I didn’t make anything happen.” There was a rumble among the congregation as Mr. Emerson dragged his wife away. The Merleys looked sorry but went along, avoiding Rose’s eyes. She felt numb and something was wrong in her chest. It was hard to breathe. Mrs.

Emerson’s accusation still rang in her ears. And she could hear other voices, too, like the buzzing of insects. “What’s she got to do with it?” “They say she knows things.” “It sounds unnatural.”

Someone was trying to get Rose to move. She realized one of the church wardens had come up through the crowded aisle. “Please, please,” he said soothingly. “Come this way, come this way,” and he gently urged the crowd back and escorted Rose and her family up the side aisle and out the vestry door.

“So sorry. She’s terribly upset,” he said.

“Of course she’s upset, my poor child!” Mom cried before realizing he had been apologizing for Mrs. Emerson. Dad put his arm around Mom. Rose’s hand was gripped hard in Jerram’s. He said nothing, just pulled her toward the parking lot and their car.

“How could she?” Mom kept asking as they got in.

“You don’t want to pay any attention,” Dad said as he maneuvered the car into the road. “Grief does strange things to people.”

“There’s no excuse for a thing like that,” Mom replied. “No excuse at all. And in a church!”

Tituba, Sarah Osburne, Sarah Good, I know now how you felt, you first three accused witches of Salem, Rose thought. I am going to my own home but it might just as well be to Ipswich Prison with you. I’d been so complacent when I gave my report in Mr. Keller’s class, hadn’t I? Looking at it all like some smarmy psychiatrist. Simple case of mass hysteria, all paranoid delusions. What had I known about it? Absolutely nothing at all.

Eighteen