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Back The Darkest Shore
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

What had Councillor Cleiland told him? Turned out, the captain’s commanding officer, a Colonel Leslie Johns, was a cousin of the Earl of Rothes. How bloody convenient. Seemed the captain had bested him after all. The reverend had no doubt that now Isobel’s charges had been dropped, those against the remaining women would be as well.

Patrick poured himself another dram, ignoring Peter’s plaintive look into his own empty glass.

Silence filled the room, broken only by the spitting of the fire and the voices of passers-by. From elsewhere in the house came the irritating sound of a child crying. Drumming his fingers against the desktop, Patrick chewed his lip.

This would not do. Those women could not go unpunished. It wasn’t right or righteous. Didn’t the Bible say, ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live’? Yet here were Edinburgh and the Queen’s representatives ignoring God’s commandment. Ignoring him, Reverend Patrick Cowper.

Yet what was he to do? He’d tried to keep the good folk of the Weem safe and what happened? Many had turned against him. Turned against him even as he was trying to save their souls from perdition.

It was that fucking captain who ruined everything. Him and his endless letters and entreaties to those in power. Him and his connections.

Was there nothing to be done about him?

Unaware he’d spoken aloud, the reverend jumped when Peter replied, ‘But I think there is, sir. That’s what else I have to tell you.’

‘Och, and what’s that, Peter?’ said the reverend, only half-listening as he tried to formulate plans of his own. Peter was a good lad, but simple. He’d obeyed him in every regard and it still wasn’t enough.

Peter quickly told him what he’d witnessed at the skerries. How it was evident Sorcha and the captain were lovers.

The reverend watched the lad carefully, noting how jealousy thickened his words and clogged his throat. How his cheeks flooded with deeper colour; the way the lad moved a finger around his neck, loosening his scarf. How he shifted in the chair a few times. He buried a smile in a cough. The lad was so transparent. But maybe, just maybe, Peter’s clear affection for Sorcha McIntyre could work to his advantage. It had been hard to get the lad to incriminate her… but he had. Unwillingly. Maybe now she was so clearly involved with someone else, an incomer responsible for their current tribulations no less, it would be different.