Chapter 14
14
SALEM, 1692
The small boat cut through the water with ease with Ambrose using the oars and not even breaking a sweat. He was a skilled sailor and spent his days fishing and helping out in the harbour, when he was not scouring the boats to procure new books for the bookstore. His boat and face were not out of place, giving no one cause for concern around the wharf. Isadora lay under the thick, scratchy blanket that he had thrown over her and did not move, trying her best to breathe deeply. The ocean gently lapped at the side of the boat, lulling her into a dreamlike state, and she had not realised that she had fallen asleep until she felt the salty sea air on her face and heard Ambrose’s voice whisper her name. She opened one eye and looked at his handsome face, then lifted her hand and gently trailed her fingers across his cheek.
‘We are far enough away from the farms for you to sit up now,’ he said.
‘Where are we?’
The sky was midnight black now, it had been dusk when Ambrose had come to get her.
‘The south fields, no one will bother us here.’
She nodded. ‘I am weary, Ambrose; it seems a life of adventure does not agree with me.’
Ambrose laughed. ‘Izzy, ’tis not adventure that has tired you so, it is running for your life.’
A look of sadness crossed his face that made her heart almost tear in two.
‘Why is this happening? I do not understand, all we do, or all my aunts do, is try to help the villagers in their times of need and ask for nothing in return that they cannot offer.’
He let out a sigh so loud it felt as if it enveloped her shoulders with the weight of it.
‘It is those girls, they are afflicted and laying the blame on any person who may have crossed them. Those Putnams are the worst, but the Parris girls and Mercy Lewis are just as bad. They have been pointing their fingers at anyone who they have taken a dislike to, and they dislike Lenora very much. She called them out and said it was they who were bewitched after they accused Goodwife Nurse. I thought perhaps they would leave your aunts be because of Lenora, but they are gathering strength in their numbers and accusations. I think that my uncle may have had a hand in it too.’
Isadora looked at him. ‘How so?’
‘I heard him talking, he is angry that Lenora will not accept his offer of marriage. He is also aware of the size of your homestead and that you have no men to run it for you.’
‘I do not understand. Why would she marry him, she loathes him. And what about the size of our homestead?’
Ambrose took hold of her hand. ‘You are women who live without the guidance of any man. You keep a distance from the village and the reverend has been excusing your aunts from the sermons at the meeting house because of Lucine’s illness. Those girls turned around and pointed their mean, horrid fingers at your aunts and now my uncle, who has been looking for any excuse to get revenge on Lenora for turning his offer of marriage down, has been rubbing his hands together with glee. He has waited for this day to come; I would not be surprised if he prompted those Putnam girls to name your aunts at the meeting house in front of the whole village.’
‘Where does that put me?’
Ambrose took her other hand in his; they sat opposite each other, knee to knee.
‘When they find you, they will arrest you as well, for if your aunts and mother are witches then are you not one too?’
She pulled away from him. ‘Nay, I am no witch, and neither are my mother or aunts, and you know that, Ambrose Corwin. Take me back to the village now and I shall tell them this, I will tell everyone that it is all lies. Those girls are the ones who are in a pact with the devil, just let me get my hands on Ann Putnam, I will show her what ’tis like to be bewitched when I pull every hair from her head with my fingers. How many innocents have already been hanged because of them? Goody Bishop was no witch, not one of them were. They even accused the Reverend Burroughs – ’tis madness.’
He grabbed her hands again. ‘I know this, Izzy; I know they are making mischief of the worst kind. I was trying to explain to you what it is like in the village, it is as if they are all scared of each other and pointing fingers at any person that may point them back. And my father is sitting as a judge on the trials, enjoying every moment of it. I hear him talking to the other judges late into the night. Judge Stoughton is enjoying the trials and the fuss that goes with them. My uncle is even worse, I have heard terrible tales of the things he does to get the accused to confess, he hath no shame or no morals. They say they are doing God’s work but cannot one person see that only the devil himself would want to see innocent women and men tortured and hanged for crimes they have not committed.’
Izzy began to sob, unable to stop the tears from falling freely down her cheeks. Ambrose stood up and, balancing precariously, managed to lay the blanket on the bottom of the boat.
‘Come, let us rest. We can lie here and think about what we can do about it all on the morrow.’
She realised that the fear and the running through the woods had exhausted her, and she did lie down. She patted the space next to her. ‘Lie with me, Ambrose, I do not know how long we have together. Let us spend this time as wisely as we can.’
She held her breath as he lay next to her, the boat rocking from side to side with the movement. It soothed her soul; Izzy rested her head against Ambrose’s shoulder, glad of the warmth from his body so close to hers. This could be her last night on this earth if the sheriff caught up with her. If she was to die accused of witchcraft she may as well add sinner to her list. Puritans were forbidden to touch one another unless they were married. They may as well stamp ‘fornicator’ onto her forehead with a branding iron before they hanged her as a witch. Isadora knew she was neither, she was a good girl with a family of strong women who needed no man to make their lives better. They farmed what they needed and grew herbs and flowers to heal the sick. How had it come to this?
‘Look at the moon and the stars, how they twinkle so brightly for you, Izzy.’
She looked into the night sky. The clouds had cleared and there was a full moon high above their heads and hundreds of tiny stars. ‘’Tis so pretty, it looks as if they are shining for us both.’
Ambrose turned to look at her. ‘Not as pretty as you. I love you, Isadora English, and I have done ever since I laid my eyes on you when I was four years old.’
He leaned closer, making Izzy’s heart thrum with both fear and passion. Their lips were almost touching, and she wanted that more than anything, to feel his gentle kiss. She filled the gap and crushed her lips against his, expecting him to pull away but he did not, he pulled her closer and they lay that way, lips pressing against each other’s, hearts racing. Izzy did not want it to stop but Ambrose broke the kiss as if he knew she could not.
She reached out and clasped his rough, warm fingers in her delicate, cold ones and squeezed. ‘I have loved you since that day too, Ambrose Corwin, even though you did laugh at me when I fell into the pond and had to be dragged out by Lenora covered head to toe in sticky mud.’
He laughed. ‘Oh, yes. You were more mud than girl that day, but still I loved you and I love you now even more than all of those stars up in the sky. I am scared for you; I do not think I could live a life without you in it or your aunts – they are more family to me than mine own.’
She realised that his shoulder was damp, yet it was not raining, and then she lifted a finger to her cheek and saw that it was her tears that had made it that way.
‘If they find us together you will hang too, Ambrose. They will not care who your father and uncle are, they will make an example of you. If they catch me, please take care of the book, I know it’s important – I just don’t know why. The only thing I can do for my aunts and my mother is to keep it safe. I fear if your uncle got hold of it, he would use it for things that he should not.’
‘Then they shall hang us together for I shall not leave you alone. We have hidden it in a safe place so they cannot lay their dirty hands upon it. I have never told another soul about the bookstore since the day we let our friends come to buy books. When they asked about visiting again, I told them it had been torn down in a storm and the books ruined by the rain. It will forever be our secret.’
‘And I have wished deep in my heart for it to vanish so it will stay hidden forever, it will be our secret for all of eternity.’
Her heart felt as full as the sky full of stars with her love for this boy who was almost a man lying next to her. She could not let him hang with her for no crime other than loving a woman wrongly accused as a witch. She would not let that happen. She knew he must be tired, he went out at first light in his boat to fish. When he wasn’t fishing, he was down at the marina buying and selling books that merchants brought in on the boats. Ambrose loved books as much as she loved flowers.
‘Let us try and sleep. We may feel better and find some kind of way to get out of this trouble that we have both found ourselves in through no fault of our own.’
Ambrose squeezed her hand gently and let out a loud yawn. ‘At least we will have tonight, just the two of us.’
He closed his eyes, and she listened as his breathing began to slow. Her heart was broken despite how full of love it was. There was one thing Isadora English was not and that was a coward. She would not let her mother and aunts face the gallows alone and she would not let Ambrose swing with a rope around his neck because he was foolish enough to fall in love with an English woman.
After enough time had passed that she could move away from him without waking him, she did. Soundlessly, she slowly undressed until she was in nothing but her shift. Rolling her dress into a ball she drew back her arm and tossed it as hard as she could towards the shore, which was not too far away. The boat rocked and she held her breath, for if Ambrose was to wake and see what she was doing he would try to stop her. The dress landed on the stony shore, mere inches from the water, and she removed her boots next, throwing them onto the stones. As careful as she could she put one foot into the cool water lapping at the sides of the boat. Expecting it to be bitterly cold she was thankful it was not. It was chilly but she could wade through it without too much difficulty to get to the shore. The fish tickled her skin as they darted around her legs, her undergarments held high above her. She felt the soft sand move between her toes; it was not as unpleasant as she had thought and for a moment she wondered if it would be better to lie down in this water and let herself drown. It would be kinder than Sheriff Corwin’s rope around her neck. But then she thought of her aunts and mother. They should be together; they were stronger together. She would not leave them alone – if she could not save them, she would join them.
As she reached the shore there was a crow perched on a rock, watching her, and she smiled. ‘Hades, my old friend, have you come to guide me home?’
The bird let out a gentle caw and took off, swooping towards her and landing upon her shoulder.
‘Thank you, take me to them and, when you are done, please take care of Ambrose for me.’
She felt foolish speaking to a crow the way she would to a person, but Hades had been in her life since she could remember and been there for her through the best and the worst of times. She knew he would not let her down.