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Back The Darkest Shore Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Karen Brooks
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. EXPLANATORY NOTE
  7. PART ONE
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. PART TWO
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. PART THREE
  45. Thirty-Six
  46. Thirty-Seven
  47. Thirty-Eight
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Forty-Eight
  58. Forty-Nine
  59. Fifty
  60. Fifty-One
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. PART FOUR
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Epilogue: Autumn 1706
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. GLOSSARY
  75. LIST OF CHARACTERS
  76. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Finding the relevant piece of paper, Patrick dipped a quill in the ink. He wrote an addendum to Brown’s death certificate and then signed his name under the doctor’s with a flourish. Reading over his orders, he was satisfied.

The witch, Thomas Brown, would be flung upon the western braes and left for the corbies, scavengers, and the elements to consume. And if the incomers wanted to remain, to see what a rotting witch looked like and spend more money in town while they did it, then who was he to deprive them?

Twenty-Six

TWENTY-SIX

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The curse of the first-footer.

14 June 1704

With a heavy heart, Sorcha watched Nettie being escorted out of their cell. Days earlier they’d learned that Captain Ross, along with bailies Bell and Cleiland, had ridden to Edinburgh to obtain a commission from the Privy Council to try them. Confused as to what this meant, why Captain Ross was with the councilmen, it was Sorcha who reassured the women that this latest development worked in their favour — if for no other reason than that if Captain Ross was with the delegation, he would ensure their interests were represented.

Yet, instead of officials from Edinburgh arriving (surely they would have heard by now?) or the captain returning, it was a group of dour-looking men from the presbytery of St Andrew’s who answered the summons. Declaring they wished to see the accused witches for themselves and then report back to Edinburgh, they were brought to the Tolbooth.

Confused and exhausted, the women were now soul-sick and desperate. The news last week about Thomas Brown’s death had been a blow from which Sorcha doubted they’d recover. It changed the terms of their imprisonment. It was no longer a case of if they’d ever be free again, but whether incarceration and torture would kill them first.

Not that Mr Bollard had attended them since they signed their confessions. They’d been told he’d returned home — wherever that was. Hell, said Nettie, and Sorcha was inclined to believe her. That at least was one small mercy. Now they’d only to endure the infection that set into the wounds and which their living conditions did nothing to aid. Even the guards, initially remote but now guilty about Thomas’s death, changed towards them. Isobel said it was because they felt sorry for them. Not sorry enough to give them the food brought by friends and family every other day. But they did at least tell them when Thomas’s body, which had been tossed on the braes ‘like muck from a water closet’ as one guard put it, disappeared.