BooksBarbecue
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

‘Come to the manse when you’re finished. I want to ken how you went. Then we’ll go to kirk and pray. Together. After all, it’s Sunday. The Lord’s day.’

‘Reverend,’ said the Stuart brothers in chorus. Half-expecting them to fall into step beside him as they too had to venture to the harbourfront for material to wrap the corpse in, the reverend was strangely disconcerted when they didn’t.

It was as if he, the saviour of the Weem, the man who brought stability back to the town, was now a pariah.

PART FOUR

February to May 1705

It is much easier to believe that the crowd, satisfied in their own minds of the reality of Cornfoot’s compact with Satan, dreading the fearful consequences of her malice, and indignant at the Privy Council for refusing to prosecute… took the law into their own hands.

— Privy Council Minute, Murder of a Pittenweem Witch, 15th February, 1705, Annals of Pittenweem, Being Notes and Extracts from the Ancient Records of that Burgh,1526–1793

image

… it’s very well known, that either of them (the magistrates [bailies] or minister of Pittenweem) could have quashed the rabble, and prevented that murder, if they had appeared zealous against it. I am sorry I have no better news to tell you, God deliver us from those principles that tend to such practices.

— A Letter From a Gentleman in Fife to his Friend in Edinburgh, 1705

Fifty-Three

FIFTY-THREE

image

’Tis certain that Mr Cowper, preaching the Lord’s day immediately after in Pittenweem, took no notice of the murder, which at least makes him guilty of sinful silence.

— A Letter From a Gentleman of Fife to his Friend in Edinburgh, 1705

Looking at the pious faces of the congregation, the warm, shared smiles, the exchanged nods of peace and understanding, Sorcha wanted to scream. She wanted to rage at them, ask how they could sit there as if there wasn’t blood on their hands, in their hearts. How could they act as if nothing had happened? Was it really just a fortnight ago that many of these same people had taken part in the most brutal and bloody of murders?

She didn’t have to close her eyes to see Janet’s body. To recall the great weeping gashes, her broken limbs, shattered jaw, and her blood. So much blood. To remember the cart being driven back and forth over the door, crushing her even further. At least she’d been dead by then and couldn’t feel anything.

But Sorcha did. A mixture of impotent wrath and futile sorrow that bruised her very soul.