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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

There were cheers. Doors were wrenched open and figures darted out to join the mob. More stood on their stoops and watched the rabble pass. As the swelling crowd came into view, Sorcha saw who led them. It was none other than the reverend.

Within a few yards, the horde had grown to twice its size. Some remained at a distance, watching, waiting, whether to join or flee, Sorcha couldn’t be certain. But she knew what she must do.

Clearly news of Janet’s escape had spread. The people were looking for scapegoats; just as Gerard threatened, they wanted women to replace the one they’d lost.

They wanted a witch.

There was only one place she and Nettie would be safe.

Ensuring their creels were fastened securely, Sorcha and Nettie darted into Routine Row and began to run up the incline. They bolted past men running towards the High Street, ignoring them. Some women stood in their doorways and cheered. They didn’t dare respond, or look. If they were quick, they should reach the harbour and the safety of the other fishwives and fishermen before the mob found them.

If they didn’t, then God help them.

Forty-Five

FORTY-FIVE

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… it is the fashion to [refer to the witch cases of Pittenweem]… in a strain of mingled contempt and indignation at the superstition and severity of the ‘sapient Bailies of this benighted burgh;’ but it is easy to prove that in that matter they were neither in their creed nor their action worse than their neighbours. The minister for the time, Mr Couper, who seems to have lacked prudence and moderation, was more culpable than they.

— David Cook, Preface to The Annals of Pittenweem, Being Notes and Extracts from the Ancient Records of that Burgh, 1867

‘As far as I’m concerned,’ said Patrick Cowper, pacing the room, ‘we’re better off without her.’ He swung around to face the other councillors.

He’d insisted on bringing them into the cell where Janet Cornfoot had been held so they could see for themselves what her unnatural strength had done. How she’d pried the grating off with her own two hands before leaping from the window. They weren’t to know a bairn could have breathed on the metal bars and they would have fallen. He’d ordered Camron to remove the evidence and sweep the floor. He’d also insisted clean straw be laid and her blankets brought from upstairs. It had to look as if they’d at least attended to her basic needs. She was entitled to that, as the lairds from Edinburgh had been keen to remind him.