My stomach growled and I was parched. Goddamn it! Why did I have to be so freaking stupid? I did have some wine left from last night’s meal. I moved to the desk and finished off the few drops that were left in the jug, all but licking it clean. Nope, did nothing for the growling.
I tried sleeping again but I got the same results. Around this time, I began hearing raised voices coming from downstairs. They were muffled through the door though so I couldn’t quite make out what was being said, I strained but to no avail. I was determined to not open the door. I didn’t need to know what was going on down there, it wasn’t my business. A knock on the door sent an electric current through my body.
“It is me, love.”
Matthew. Thank God he had returned.
I opened the door as slowly and as quietly as I could, mindful of how far you could open it before it would begin to squeal on its hinges and he passed through the opening.
Fear was written all over his handsome face. He took me in his strong arms and kissed me. For the moment, I was awash in his scent and kiss and I lost my sense of terror. If only that feeling could last.
“Something is going on in the village. People are milling about everywhere like something is about to happen. They were fixed on me as I rode in,” he told me.
Paranoia gripped me like a vice. “Please don’t leave again. I’m scared to be here alone right now.”
“I won’t leave you, Taryn. I promise.”
The fear of what was to come was totally incapacitating. This was why I had been sent here in the first place. This is the moment the witch wanted me to experience. She wanted me to know what it was like to stand accused. To have everything I loved ripped away from me including my freedom and finally, my life.
I swallowed back the lump in my throat and looked deeply into Matthew’s eyes.
“I need to tell you something. I’ve read enough history books to know what is on the horizon and I need you to know that I love you, Matthew Hopkins. I’ve dreamed of you all my life and even if we don’t escape this day, I will find you. I know you are my soulmate and I will see you again.”
He crushed me to his chest and reaffirmed his love for me while he held me close.
Matthew took me to the bed and made love to me as if he were afraid he would never see me again. He was gentle and touched my body everywhere. He left no crevice unexplored by his tongue. When he spilled his seed inside me, he didn’t pull away. He left our bodies intertwined until his erection softened and he naturally came free. Afraid we would have to leave at any moment, I dressed myself and handed Matthew his trousers. After our nakedness was covered, we pulled the blankets over us and cuddled into each other’s arms.
I fell asleep, warm and safe in his arms and I dreamed of us together in another time and place. Dreamed of a life where we didn’t have to be afraid of what was to come, where we could be happy and grow old together. A dream that could never be.
I was instantly awoken when my worst fears took shape. Our door was beaten down by a group of angry men who had come to take me away. Matthew jumped over me in an effort to stave off their attack, but I knew it was futile. There was nothing that could be done now to prevent history from running its course.
John led the charge. Matthew looked so betrayed and I ached to console him.
“You, John? Why would you do this?” Matthew begged him to explain.
Rope was shoved in my mouth and wrapped around my head. The same rope was used to bind my arms behind my back. They hadn’t even given me the opportunity to say goodbye to Matthew. I pulled against the ropes and the hands that restrained me, but they were so much stronger than me. God, if only I were a witch, then perhaps I could break free and send them all to hell. But I was just me. Just a woman, like all the rest.
Elizabeth jumped through the gaping hole where the door once stood swinging a small stool that had been in the hall. She launched it at John’s head. I don’t know what she hoped to accomplish. She was no bigger than me and we were outnumbered. Matthew himself was being restrained on the ground despite his valiant efforts. I tried to tell her with my eyes to run, but she was fixated on the man who had destroyed her, who was now destroying all of us.
John was amused by her. He ordered the men to take her too and they did not hesitate to bind her.
I didn’t want her to die for me.
John squatted down on the floor and began to speak to Matthew but I could not make out his words. He ordered the men to take us away and I was dragged from the room by rough hands alongside Elizabeth. I knew we were going to die.
At the bottom of the stairs we stopped for a moment. The man began wrapping rope around my body like a cocoon starting at my ankles so I couldn’t run away. I struggled against the rope in my mouth to try to talk some sense into him.
“Shut your filthy mouth, whore. Don’t spread your curses on us!” he hit me in the jaw. My vision went blurry, the voices around me were muffled and no longer coherent. Ringing in my ears brought me back into focus.
One of the men chortled, “I told you we could get the witch, and look, now we have two. We will have to add a stake to the ones we already erected.”
The man who had tied me up, picked up my bound body and tossed me over his shoulder. The other men picked Elizabeth up, much the same way. As they were carrying me out, I saw Harold’s boy hiding beneath a table. He was petrified, I wished more than anything I could tell him that everything would be ok. I wanted to reassure him. God help me.
Elizabeth and I were deposited in the back of a black prison on wheels with thick iron bars across the two little windows. I wanted to jump up and slam my fist against those bars, but the ropes binding me prevented me from doing anything but screaming around my gag. Villagers were cheering. It seemed the whole town knew what was happening today and came out in droves to watch. Everyone knew except Matthew, Elizabeth, and myself. Elizabeth was going to suffer the same fate for coming to my rescue when the mob came for me.
“Elizabeth?” I called, forcing the thick cord out of my mouth. Ropes burned my skin from trying to twist around to see her.
“Yes, I’m here,” her voice came back, strong and steady.
“I’m really sorry this is happening to you. It’s all my fault,” I began to cry. The floor of the carriage was covered in dirt and pebbles and they were digging into my exposed skin.
Elizabeth struggled to move her body closer to mine, like a worm squirming two and fro in her ropes. “It’s not your fault, Taryn. These men are monsters. Don’t cry. Matthew will find us. I just know it. God will show us mercy.”
“I’m not sure God is anywhere near here,” I lamented quietly.
The carriage bumped along the road for what seemed like hours. I couldn’t see much of the scenery to try to deduce where we were. The windows were too high up and I couldn’t raise my body off the floor. All I could see was occasional tree branches, clouds and a few stars here and there. It rained intermittently and there was nothing to stop the water from coming through the bars and soaking us. It was so cold that the droplets froze on my eyelashes, and I shivered uncontrollably. We rolled our bodies together to try to stay warm, but it was difficult. A big bump would jostle us apart and we would have to start all over again.
Eventually, the carriage stopped. Two men jumped from the top and the rear doors were pulled open. “We are home ladies!” I tried to recoil from his grasp, but I had nowhere to go. He grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me out roughly, dropping me on my face in the wet grass. Elizabeth was unceremoniously dumped beside me in much the same manner. Then they dragged us through the stone archway that led to the castle. I hadn’t liked this place when I had come here of my own free will, and now it looked even more ominous to me.
It was warmer inside, but only because there was no wind or rain. There was no fire, and the cut stone made it drafty. The man who held my feet dropped me again and lit the one candle sitting on a lone table. I was shocked when I realized we had been led to the iro
n cage where the other women were being held.
“Untie them, and throw them in with the rest. Mr. Stearne says they will all be dealt with at first light.”
One of the men attempted to run his hands up between my legs while the ropes were being removed from my body. Filled with disgust, I struck out with my foot and caught him in the knee cap. The shock threw him back, I attempted to run, but the other man caught my foot and I hit the floor face first, stunning myself. They took that opportunity to shove me into the cage.
“I trust you will all be nice and comfy in here tonight?” one of the men laughed, kicking the bars hard. “Please try to contain your excitement. I hear there may be a hanging tomorrow!” he laughed maniacally. Elizabeth began to sob. He blew out the candle and plunged us into complete darkness. The men filed out congratulating each other on a job well done.
“Is everyone ok?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” Elizabeth said through her tears.
The other women in the room mumbled unintelligibly. Someone was crying in the corner, rocking back and forth on her heels.
The cell smelled like old hay and feces. A combination that caused me to vomit against the wall. I pushed on the bars to see if there was any give at all, but there was not.
“There is no use in that,” one of the women said. “We've been in here for days. Don’t you think we have tried that?”
I pushed again to no avail. “There has to be some way out of here,” I said. I wished the man had left the candle burning. I couldn’t see my surroundings or the lock on the gate clearly. Hell, I couldn’t see my own hand two inches in front of my face. The room was subterranean and had no windows, only one door, and the door was locked from the outside.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, a guttural cry, voicing my frustration. I gave the door one last kick, just to make myself feel better. The bastards could have at least left us with blankets. It was so damn cold that my fingertips were going numb. I cupped my hands and blew warm air into the hollow and then rubbed them together furiously trying to generate friction to warm myself.
Outside the tower, the rain picked up. It sounded like a cacophony of rocks and pebbles all pelting the stone walls at once. The wind whistled through cracks in the walls and I imagined them collapsing and trapping us beneath the rubble, and the disappointed scowl on John’s face when he saw he would be denied the opportunity to kill us, because the structure had already done so.
I curled my body up tight with my hands between my thighs for warmth. “Father asked me to stay home today,” Elizabeth confessed. “I have been away so much lately, staying overnight at the inn several nights in a row now because I was scared to walk home by myself. He was worried about me, and about my reputation. He thought if men saw me staying at the inn, they would assume I was looking for extra coin by means that weren’t very lady-like,” she was sobbing. “If he had known that John Stearne had taken my virtue, by force non the less, he would have killed him. I should have told my Papa.”
“You did what you had to do. No one can fault you for that,” I reassured her.
“I think Papa knew. He didn’t say he knew, but I could tell by the way he looked at me. It’s why he tried to force me not to go back, but I had to. My family needed my income. I couldn’t let them starve because of me.”
“You hush now,” a voice said from the far side of the cell. The voice sounded strained like she was in an awkward position but could not fix herself. “You don’t give up until we got those ropes around our necks. You hear me? Anything could happen between now and then. We have a merciful God. Just have faith.”
“It’s hard to have faith when you can’t see a resolution to be had,” I said quietly.
“That's what faith is,” she said, “knowing everything will turn out ok in the end. Knowing that God has a hand in everything, even though you can’t see him working. You just know in your soul that he has you.”
I envied her ability to believe that everything would turn out okay while we were rotting away in a dungeon. There may be nothing ahead for us from here. They men could just decide that perishing here was just as good as hanging us. With no food or water, we would only last a matter of days. Dying of starvation sounded like a far more horrifying death than a broken neck to me.
“Taryn, have you ever been in love before?” Elizabeth asked me innocently.
I thought deeply about her question. In all my short-lived romances I had growing up, I had never considered myself to be in love. I had always believed that it took time to fall in love, you had to get to know someone and have shared interests. With Matthew however, I felt like I loved him from the first moment I laid eyes on him. It's really hard to explain, but my soul knew him. Looking into his eyes for the very first time, even before I knew who he was, I knew I belonged to him, and he, to me. At least I had told him how I felt before we were taken away from each other. That was one thing I would not regret.
“Yes, I have.” I told her the short answer.
“With Matthew?”
“I believe so, yes,” I said.
Saying that out loud, was cathartic. I was glad that it was out in the open now. The world could know.
“Did you tell him?” she asked almost as if reading my thoughts.
“Yes. Only hours before John arrived.” Fresh tears ran down my cheeks but it was a silent cry. I cried for everything that might have been. Everything that nearly was.
Chapter Thirty-Five
John
In my mind I saw them burning. I heard their screams, and smelled their charred flesh sizzling and melting off their bones. The smoke seemed so real I could feel it stinging my eyes. The villagers screamed, clapping and dancing around their dying bodies. Ten stakes lined up in a semicircle with a body tied to each one. Front and center, the witch who had tried to steal everything from me. Watching her burn would bring me the greatest joy of all.
Delphine, my mare, was used to the ride to the castle now. Hooves echoed on the cold ground adding a drum beat to my thoughts that played over and over in my head. Matthew’s mount was tied off to my saddle so it wouldn’t be easy for him to follow me. He would already know where I was headed.
It hurt me to leave him the way I had, tethered up like a pig for slaughter on the floor, it was for his own good though. She had to die so that he could live. I kept repeating that to myself like a mantra. Matthew would wake up after she took her last breath. He would be himself again, he would be mine again. I would never allow us to part, and never would he lay with another. He would praise me for saving his life and fall in love with me, his savior, for banishing the witch to Hell.
I wished he could be there for it. What I wouldn’t give to be there the moment the witch's chains broke in his mind and he returned to the man he was once more.
It was too risky to bring him though. Matthew was an incredibly strong man. I could not take the chance of him breaking free and rescuing the girl, or worse, getting himself killed trying.
No, I would not allow that to happen.
The guards had all left the castle grounds. When they saw what was a foot, they took their horses and fled. A fine bunch, the lot of them. To think they represented the crown. They should all be ashamed of themselves. Two of my men blocked the doorway that led down below to the tower’s crypt.
It hadn’t been hard to convince the townspeople of Taryn’s guilt and to convince them that the only recourse was her death. Bringing Elizabeth into it was a bit of a surprise, but her foolish actions helped my cause. Everyone in this town believed that the two of them were casting their evil nets and agreed to help me end them.
“Have they been deposited below?” I asked.
“Yes, Sir. They are in with the rest as you instructed.”
I clapped my hand on the man’s shoulder. “Good man. See to it that Matthew does not gain access to them. That man has the Devil holding onto him and he will stop at nothing to free them.”
“He would have a hard time of it, get
ting passed us, Sir.”
The moon was full, high in the night sky. The stars were mostly blacked out by the rain clouds that had released their heavy burdens throughout the day. It still drizzled off and on, but the storms were beginning to clear. They would be completely gone by dawn, allowing us to light the fires beneath the great pyres. I inhaled and smelled the damp air. It wasn’t cold enough for snow, but it was close. Already the droplets were freezing on the blades of grass and ice slicked the stones of the tower.
“I will be in the rooms the captain of the guard vacated above. Don’t hesitate to rouse me if there are any issues.”
“What should we do if Matthew arrives?” he asked.
“Detain him if you have to, but don’t hurt him under any circumstances. Am I clear?” I would kill a man if they hurt so much as disturbed a hair on his head.
He nodded.
In the tower, I wrote my grand speech. Matthew always delivered a riveting sermon when witches were put to death. Now it was my turn. I thought carefully and put the perfect words onto the parchment with Matthew’s quill. I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips. We were so close now. Soon the witches would burn.
A soft knock upon the door tore me from my task.
“Yes? Please enter,” I called out.
The door swung inward, revealing a large gruff of a man. Deep lines etched his face and his hands were large and calloused. Filthy clothes hung loosely from his well worked body. He met my eyes and smiled.
“The pyres are ready and we added a tenth one for the extra witch we captured. We put the biggest one right up front as you asked. Each platform has enough rope for two witches. You won’t have any trouble securing them. We stuffed dry twigs and branches underneath for kindling and the poles themselves are seated into the ground beneath. I think you will be very happy with our carpentry.”
The Witch Hunter Page 27