The Witch Hunter

by Candace Adams

  I loud noise jolted me awake and Matthew lept from the bed protectively. “What the devil!” he exclaimed. The window was wide open, and a huge orange cat sat on the sill. Its green eyes were fixated on us menacingly. His tail flicked back and forth, and a growl emanated from his throat. He sat in a crouch that cats often got before pouncing and his claws were extended past the tips of his paws.

  “How did that get up here, we are on the second floor!” I squealed.

  “It doesn’t need a path. That is the familiar of Joan Fern. The witch probably sent him here to spy on me,” he threw his trousers on to deal with the beast.

  I pulled the covers up tight around me. “What does it want?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, and I don’t mean to ask it.”

  The orange beast hissed at him as he drew near and swiped his long claws at his hand. Matthew pulled back and narrowly missed them. He grabbed one of his heavy leather boots from the floor and swung it at the animal, knocking him out of the window to the ground below. He grabbed the window shutters and pulled them shut, latching the lock after to avoid any other unwelcome visitors.

  Matthew crossed himself ominously. “Why was that cat here?” I asked.

  “Yesterday, we began Joan Fern’s interrogation. It was brought to our attention that she has a daughter after the guards went back to her home to confiscate her belongings. They brought the child to the castle and we informed her mother that we have her. We thought we could use the girl as leverage against her mother during the trial. We planned to get the girl to testify against her. But as it turns out, the girl is deaf and mute. I have no idea what to do with her now. I left her in a cell at the castle with food and blankets. I’m assuming Fern sent the cat to try to discern what’s going to happen to the girl. But I have no idea how she did it from behind iron bars.”

  “A child?” I asked. “And she is all alone in a cell? That’s terrible. How old is she?”

  “We were told she is nine years of age,” he sat down beside me. “There are no homes for parentless children in this side of the country. We may have to put her on a carriage to London to be cared for there.”

  I sighed, “Children who are sent to those places often end up in workhouses where they are worked from dawn until dusk with very little to eat. Oftentimes they die in those horrible, soulless places, and with her condition, it could be really bad for her. Matthew, isn’t there any other possibility for her?”

  “None that I can come up with, but I’m trying. There is also the problem of her mother being an accused witch. No respectable family would take her in hearing that,” he said, sadly. “I believe wholeheartedly in punishing witches. But it breaks my heart when children are involved.”

  “Why send the cat though?” I asked.

  “John told the witch we were going to throw the girl in the torture chamber and interrogate her too. She’s either trying to scare us with the cat or it was just eavesdropping for her.”

  “Well if it was eavesdropping, it is terrible at remaining hidden,” I said.

  He pulled the heavy drapes closed across the window, ensuring the latch was in place firmly. He pushed on the window and when he was happy with its security he turned and left it behind. He brushed his hands off on his thighs. “If you don’t feel safe here, we can get a room elsewhere. We don’t have to remain here.”

  “Here is no different from anywhere else,” I said. “If you are correct, and that cat really was a familiar and not just a lost cat, and it managed to find us here, it probably doesn’t matter where we go. If it wants to find us, it will.” I snuggled into the pillow under my head, “Come back to bed.”

  I remembered a time when I was a child and my neighbors had a ugly black dog that always managed to escape their house somehow. He was friendly but skittish. Wouldn’t really let anyone close to him unless he already knew them. But this dog would do everything in his power to get outside, and then he would sit at the edge of that neighbor's yard and watch me through my bedroom window.

  Our neighborhood was on a hill, so sitting there, he was eye level with the glass. It used to unnerve me to always see him there, just watching. This went on for months before his owners got tired of it and found the dog a new home. Now, after the meeting with the cat from hell, it had me curious if the dog had a more sinister motive. What if a witch had been watching me all along? What if they had been waiting patiently while I took interest in the witch hunts, or what if they had put the idea in my head in the first place.

  That was nonsense. It was just a dog. The longer I was here no more paranoid I became of supernatural things that couldn’t possibly have occurred. But that dog gave me pause now. He had the same look in his eyes that the cat had. Like it was the same beast in a different body. It made my skin crawl.

  “Matthew, can I come with you tomorrow. I would like to meet the girl,” he paused as he slid into the bed beside me. His mouth was hard. He pondered his words very carefully.

  “I’m not entirely sure that is a good idea, love. The things we have to do to get the women to talk. They are not pretty. I’m not sure that is a view of me I would like you to see,” he said.

  I turned towards him and kissed his lips. “You told me you are not as bad as I have been led to believe, and now you tell me what you do is not suitable for me to see,” I kissed him again. “So, which is it?”

  He nuzzled the tip of my nose with his. “Taryn, you wouldn’t be able to interfere. If you tried to protect a witch from us because you didn’t believe in what we were doing, I don’t know what the implications of that would be,” he rolled his hips against me. “It would likely make you look very guilty to anyone who witnessed it.”

  I laced my fingers through his, “I know. I wouldn’t prevent you from doing your job. I really just want to meet with the child. Maybe if I talk to her I can help figure out what to do for her.” I cuddled into his embrace, becoming nice and warm.

  “If that is what you desire, then that is what shall happen.”

  His words came slow and low. The hard muscles in his body relaxed and became slack. It did not take long before he was softly snoring beside me. I listened to the steady rhythm of his breathing and it didn’t take long before I was drifting off as well.

  I dreamed I was home having dinner with Sam and my parents. My mother was in her usual business suit with her lovely chestnut colored hair up in a tight bun and my father was in slacks and a button-down shirt. Sam was in her trademark, body-con sheath with the hem a few inches above her knees and her favorite boots.

  Everyone was laughing and talking about their day. I sat at the opposite end of the table, utterly alone. I didn’t engage or offer conversation. I only listened and watched, but I knew I didn’t belong there. I watched Sam’s mouth as she laughed and laughed. I loved her like a sister once and now she seemed so alien to me. They were all pretty strangers.

  The longer I watched them, the less I knew them. Their features distorted until I didn’t recognize them. Their voices morphed until I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

  The table and food were gone. We were walking together down a busy Boston street. I stayed paces behind them, all alone. My father turned to me, urging me to join them. I waved him on ahead and stayed on my own.

  The world changed again. My parents were gone but Sam and I sat upon the couch in our rented split-level home. She was speaking animatedly about a man she had meant, and it was completely meaningless. I stood and walked away leaving her there and laid down on my bed by myself.

  Lightning struck outside my bedroom window and I saw the large black dog staring in at me. The thunderclap shook the room to its foundations.

  My eyes shot open. I had left the dream and woke back safely in bed with Matthew’s arms around me. His hot breath on my shoulder. The storm that had awoken me raged outside. The wind whipped and the rain pummeled the window, but the latch was fastened and the shutters held fast. I pulled Matthew’s arms tighter around me and closed my eyes.
This time sleep came, thankfully, with no dreams.

  Chapter Twenty

  John

  I excused myself from Matthew, Taryn, and Elizabeth. Damn that woman. As soon as she was near to him, I no longer existed. I could not stand seeing the look of gross infatuation that had taken over my only friend.

  I was ashamed to admit that for a few years now, I had fancied us in a relationship of sorts. I guess in a way we were as colleagues, but to me it had always felt like more than that. I often felt that when I spoke to him, he could see inside of me. He understood me in a way no one had ever cared to do before. I would be damned to lose him now. Especially to her.

  I have been with more women than I can count. I’ve been passionate. I’ve been forceful. I have taken and received carnal pleasure, but never until my time with him, have I ever felt a desire in me that went unrequited.

  I didn’t admit to myself that these feelings existed until I saw the way he looked at Taryn and I knew then that he was lost to me forever. I felt such a jealousy then, it forced me to be aware of things that I had not been aware of.

  I could never tell Matthew how I actually felt and confess to him what my true desires were. For a man to have a desire for another man, my career would be over and I would be tried for the very sin that I condemn for. It wouldn’t do any good anyways. He only had eyes for Taryn. He never so much as glanced in my direction with anything other than friendship. I watched his mouth curl into a smile and imagined what it would taste like to run my tongue across his lips. Goddamn that infernal witch! That’s what she was, a witch, and Matthew was falling for her spells. I had to save him from her, no matter the cost.

  The stool made a screeching noise as I dragged it away from the empty spot at the bar. Harold didn’t wait for me to call him over, just slid an ale in front of me and went back to drying glasses.

  “Long day, Mr. Stearne?” he asked me.

  I grunted in response with the mug to my lips.

  Elizabeth pushed past Harold and grabbed an old apron from behind the bar.

  “There you are! If you want to earn your pay girl, you need to work! I haven’t seen you since this morning! Samuel has been delivering food and drink to all the men and cleaning all the tables on his own. What excuse have you?”

  He put his hands on his hips and glared at the girl.

  “I’m sorry, Sir. I was helping Miss Taryn get new dresses in town. You instructed me to take care of her needs for Mr. Hopkins. You did say to make sure she had everything she needed.”

  She tied the apron tightly behind her back and smoothed her dress down. I watched her hands run down her ass and remembered how she had looked naked in the moonlight. I didn’t have the energy to get her back in my room tonight though.

  Harold clicked his tongue at her, “I meant make sure the girl isn’t hungry or thirsty. I didn’t intend for you to be touring the countryside with her.” He tossed the rag on the counter with a splat. “You know there is talk that the woman is a witch, don’t you? Do you want people thinking that you are aligned with the likes of her?”

  She shrunk under his scrutiny, “I’m sorry, Sir.”

  “You’re not a witch, are you girl?” I spoke up from my seat almost directly behind Harold. I smiled at her as all the color drained from her face.

  “Well?”

  “I…I…” she stammered.

  “It’s either a yes or a no,” I felt my smile stretch my mouth. “Is it a hard question?”

  Elizabeth stomped her foot, “I am not a witch, and neither is Taryn.”

  “You watch your tongue, girl. I won’t have you taking that tone with one of our guests. You go home for the night and think about how a young lady is supposed to act.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes, but she kept her gaze fastened to mine. She ripped the apron off and balled it up, throwing it back where she had taken it from. Her lip began to quiver. Dropping her arms down by her sides in defeat, she turned to leave.

  “You had best apologize to Mr. Stearne for your outburst before you go,” Harold said.

  “Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said. “I’m sure the girl didn’t mean anything. Probably just left-over effects from her company today. The woman is a very strange creature and Elizabeth spent a great deal of time with her. One could say, she is bewitching.”

  “I’m very sorry I was rude, Sir. It will not happen again,” she spat the words in my direction and made a run for the door. Every man in the building watched the exchange and my comment of Taryn being “bewitching" did not go unnoticed.

  Whispered voices were exchanged all around the room. I felt a flutter in my stomach. Everyone was discussing Taryn and her penchant for evil in hushed tones. It wouldn’t be long now and I would be rid of the girl.

  As if on cue, the heavy door swung open and Taryn walked in with her head held high. She looked as if she had tears in her eyes but she was fighting back the emotion. She and Matthew had been outside for quite some time. Perhaps they were having their first lover’s spat.

  I smiled in spite of myself.

  Matthew followed behind her, a few paces behind with a forlorn look on his face.

  I raised my hand to beckon to him, but thought better of it.

  I would have lots of time with him tomorrow to make him see that she was not right for him.

  “Did you see the look in the witches’ eye as she passed?” a man close by asked.

  Another man responded, “Oh, he is in for it tonight. He will be lucky if he has testicles in the morning. She is going to curse him for sure,” both men laughed at the joke.

  I slid my empty mug to Harold and headed for my room.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Taryn

  Matthew awakened me by nuzzling his face into my neck and gently running his teeth against my skin, “Are you ready for the day, my love?” he asked running his tongue along the ridge of my ear.

  “If you keep doing that, we are going to stay in bed all day,” I giggled.

  “Well we can’t have that. We have a job to do,” he said in my ear. He hopped out of bed and dressed himself quickly. I stretched and sat up, but I was definitely feeling the lack of caffeine this morning. If only there was a Dunkin Donuts on the way.

  Matthew pulled the drape back and sunlight wafted through the glass. The storm had passed during the night and it looked to be a very beautiful morning. The birds were chirping in the trees, enticing me to get up and get moving. Matthew seemed to be in a very cheerful mood. He had a smile on his face and a pep in his step. He obviously wasn’t suffering from caffeine withdrawals.

  I dressed myself in one of the new dresses Matthew had paid for and joined him at the window. “It's beautiful today,” I said.

  “Not half as beautiful as you,” I leaned on the sill looking out over the beautiful countryside. He had an arm on each side of me, leaning into my body with his face over my shoulder. I placed my hands on his and smiled. Waking up with him every day, wearing fancy gowns, chirping birds and beautiful blue skies, it seemed as though I had fallen into a Disney movie.

  “Are you still going to let me go with you today?” I asked tentatively. I really hoped he hadn’t changed his mind even though I can't say I would blame him if he did.

  He kissed my cheek, “I am. But I’m going to reiterate to you that it is imperative that you do not interfere. You may see a lot of things that you do not like, but you have to understand that they are necessary.”

  I nodded, “I won’t say a single word. I promise. Cross my heart,” I said, making a little ‘x' on my chest with my finger.

  He chuckled, “It may not be as easy as all that. I believe we will be swimming Joan Fern today. Did you read about that in your studies?” he asked me.

  I held my breath for a moment trying to think of the best response to that. “I did. That is truly barbaric though. You don’t really believe that a witch will float, do you? Anyone you put in that pond is going to drown,” I said in one long breath.

  “
I do believe it. And that is why it is done,” he looked down at me into my eyes. “Remember you are in our world and our beliefs may not be your own.”

  “It's just so monstrous.”

  “Are you sure you can do this?” he asked me.

  I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know how I would possibly watch them kill a person and be ok with it, much less not try to stop them. There was no doubt in my mind that the woman would die if they swam her. People just don’t float when thrown into water hogtied, unless they were already dead. “I’ll be fine,” I said. How was I going to pull this one off?

  “Come, let’s have some bread and wine before we set off.”

  He moved towards the door, looking behind him ensuring I was there. I followed closely behind him. He almost put his hand on the doorknob when a knock sounded from the other side.

  “Matthew? You still in there? Come on, the day has started, let’s get to the castle!”

  Any happy mood I had, evaporated when I heard John's voice. Outwardly, I held my composure, but on the inside, I threw my hands up. John made the pit of my stomach hurt. If I had eaten, I would be in danger of vomiting.

  Matthew opened the door revealing his cohort who was smiling from ear to ear. “It's swimming day!” he announced gleefully, doing a little dance step in the hallway. He kicked his boots against the floor and his cape billowed behind him as he danced around in circles.

  “Only you would be positively ecstatic about the prospect of drowning women,” Matthew said to him, pushing past and starting down the stairs. I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

  John stopped dancing and followed. “Not women, witches. Satan’s hand maidens, devils' whores. Besides, she won’t drown. Old Joan Fern is guilty as sin.” I rolled my eyes from behind him. I hated his callous attitude towards the women. They were just puppets for him to play with, destroyed at a whim. He was a dangerous individual.