Prologue
Oh, if I had only known that day so long ago when I stood outside the parsonage in the cold, aching to belong to that circle of girls who did not want me. If I had only known what they were about,...
Chapter 1
I peered through the naked trees and bushes, toward the house. The girls had gone inside now, and, as always, I was standing alone in the bone-numbing dusk. Candles were lighted and shining in the...
Chapter 2
"Of course, some of the girls are no longer children. Yet they are not allowed to be women. They are not married. There is no place for them in this way of life here. Except to do hard work or stud...
Chapter 3
She accepted my gifts in wonderment. The lines on her face softened. And the wrinkles wreathed a smile. […]I got back into the cart and guided Molasses down the rest of English Street. The cart w...
Chapter 4
"Where have you been?" Mary whispered. "Here I've been sewing all afternoon, and you've been out sporting. You sly fox."I heaped my plate with wild venison stew, corn bread, and boiled clams, then...
Chapter 6
Father got up from his chair and began to pace. "I have always been of the mind that people's affairs are their own," he said. "But that is an Anglican belief. The Puritan community sees people's p...
Chapter 7
And the thought came to me, like the sun through the window. Little Betty was tormented with fear of her father discovering their doings. Perhaps he had already discovered what they were about. And...
Chapter 8
"But also, we couldn't abandon Abigail and Betty. They didn't have the sense to carry this matter through and not be discovered. They needed our advice. So we met with them and told them that they...
Chapter 9
"Is there trouble, Joseph?" Mama was never one to shilly-shally about things. "I feel the hysteria connected with this witch business will get worse before it abates. It is fed on distrust in our c...
Chapter 10
And, oh, the anger flowed through me like a river then. I wanted to run into the room and scream out to all of them that she was lying and what she had told me. I made a move in the kitchen doorway...
Chapter 11
"Oh, dear God!" I murmured. Then an idea came to me. "Tituba, tomorrow you can tell the truth to the magistrates.""Tituba want no more beatings.""They won't beat you.""Tituba's master will, if Titu...
Chapter 12
"Johnathan has come to our way of thinking. You may speak in front of him."Mama raised her eyes. "What convinced you to have a change of heart, young man?""I was in court the day they examined Rebe...
Chapter 13
"I fear the other girls in the circle will make a mockery of me when I testify," Mary confided. She sat in the chair and broke into weeping.I went to put my arm around her. She gripped my hand. "Th...
Chapter 14
As I sat at our table, Tituba's dour words receded in my mind. I felt only happiness while in the bosom of my family. Father was full of news from Boston, having just visited his shipyard there. Ma...
Chapter 15
After a few moments, Mama raised her head. "One of the things you will someday learn, daughters," she said to me, "is that parents are never sure if certain decisions we make concerning our childre...
Chapter 16
Joseph sobered. "I don't think for one God-given moment that Gedney believed the charges. But the others did, and he gave in to them. Alden was taken away, calling the girls liars. He posted bail a...
Chapter 17
"Sometimes I think," Elizabeth said, "that those named as witches are always just a bit different from others."Joseph nodded. "It would seem as such. It's as if the afflicted girls are being given...
Chapter 18
"What do you want from us?" Johnathan asked."Susanna knows," she said softly. Then she turned and pointed to the lifeless figure on the end of the rope, etched against the blue June sky. See how sh...
Chapter 19
"You knew I was working with people like Reverend Wise of Ipswich and Reverend Hale of Beverly. And Reverend Dane of Andover. You knew of John Proctor's petition begging for his life and the lives...
Chapter 20
Oh, I did not know, I did not know! I knew nothing anymore, it seemed. All reason had fled. But through my confusion, one thought pushed its way, like a haunted galleon, through a wall of fog. I co...
Chapter 21
"I wish I could run from this place, Johnathan," I said. "And never have to do with this witch madness again.""We can't. We who know better must take a stand for what is right. And bring our commun...
Chapter 22
She took my hand. "D'ye think I was indeed the witch on the windlass of Sam Endicott's ship? Child, let me tell ye, 'twas always my secret fancy to go to sea. I wished myself on every ship that lef...
Chapter 23
"Are ye sure, Susanna English," he intoned in his best preaching voice, "that everything you have told me here, this seventh day of August in the year of our Lord sixteen hundred and ninety-two, is...
Epilogue
"Let us now diminish the power of those evil angels. Let us send them back, for all time, from whence they came. Will ye not do this with me here today? Will ye not soften your hearts now to this...