Page 13 of Witchbane

My heartbeat slowly returned to normal. ‘I was thinking the same thing,’ I fibbed.

She peered at me and I could tell she didn’t believe me. ‘Anyway, never mind all that. You haven’t answered my question yet.’ She looked at the almost full bags. ‘I would never have returned from my time at the market for hours yet. Your grandmother won’t like it, you know.’

‘I’m sure she won’t but something happened.’ Unable to face him after giving in to his kisses weeks before, I was still mortified at running away instead of coldly telling him I had made a mistake and it would never happen again. I had shown my immaturity, and it irked me to think he might now feel superior to me.

I was at home again now, though, and relieved. How weak was I that I couldn’t continue at my stall because I was embarrassed to see Theo Le Cerf?

She lowered her voice. ‘Whatever it was, you better hope she’ll understand you coming home with so much stock.’

I thought of my grandmother’s reaction and tensed. ‘It really couldn’t be helped.’

She frowned. ‘It’s done now. Anyway, we could do with your help.’

‘With what?’ I asked, noticing several hats and shawls hanging in the hallway. I recognised some of them. ‘The coven are here?’ I couldn’t hide my surprise. I hadn’t expected them to come to the house today and worried why a gathering had been convened. ‘Is Grandmother all right?’

I had known each of these women all my life and my mother had known their mothers and grandmothers, as the generations passed their wisdom down through the female line.

Aunt Sorrel raised a hand. ‘Don’t fret. Your grandmother is well. No, we’re here to cast a protection spell on one of the villagers.’

A sense of unease crept up through me. ‘Why? What’s happened to her?’

She took one of the bags and motioned for me to follow her through to the kitchen, where we would find the door to the basement and Grandmama’s spell room.

Once in the kitchen, she closed the door and lowered her voice. ‘Aggie de la Haye rounded up the others to come here when she overheard two men who were leaving the Witchfinder’s office saying something about him being on the warpath again.’

Trying to keep my voice from quaking, I asked, ‘What do you mean? Is he after someone in particular?’

She rubbed her forehead. ‘We suspect so. And you know how people can make up rumours about women like us.’

I nodded, knowing only too well. ‘So they are here to cast a protection spell on someone.’

‘Yes. Aggie was seen by one of the villagers she fell out with months ago.’

‘Seen doing what?’ I asked, hoping no one had thought to report seeing me dancing with Theo, then concluding that I would have heard by now if that had happened. One way to infuriate both the women in my life was to draw unnecessary attention to us.

‘Apparently casting a spell at midnight during the full moon a few days ago.’ She winced. ‘Up on the cliffs at Noirmont.’

I shuddered. ‘Poor girl. Aggie must be terrified.’

‘They both are.’ She shrugged slightly. ‘Let’s go down and say hello, then you can put these away after we’ve finished our gathering.’

My grandmother glared at me, spotting the full bags in my hands as I took them into the spell room, but kept her annoyance to herself. I knew I would be in trouble as soon as the women had gone, but, relieved at the respite, quickly left the room and ran back up the few steps to the kitchen to wash my face and hands, aware she would want me to do so.

Why did Elias Le Cerf’s son have to come to the market today? I mused as I dried my face. And how dare he act so familiar to me? Still ashamed by my attraction to him, I ran down to the spell room and, dipping my finger in the ash from a spell I had cast after kissing Theo Le Cerf, I marked the inside of my wrist with my sigil. As I made the mark with the remnants of the sage I had used for wisdom and clarity, and thyme to help with the grief I still held and to bring me courage to stand up to this man, I repeated the meaning of my sigil three times.

‘I am Martha’s daughter. I am Martha’s daughter. I am Martha’s daughter.’

Not that I could ever forget who I was, but some weakness in me had blanked out why I needed to remember why I could never be with this son of my mother’s executioner.

I pushed my shame aside and hurried back to join the others. The room was silent as each of the twelve other women grounded themselves in preparation for the casting of the spell. I didn’t know if other covens had thirteen women – twelve of us witches and one a high priestess – but I had grown up knowing that we had this number to represent the thirteen lunar cycles of each year.

I exchanged glances with Aggie and gave the trembling girl a sympathetic smile before joining the circle. Relieved not to be expected to put my shoes back on and relishing the coolness as the throbbing in my feet slowly abated, I closed my eyes.

I took a slow, deep breath and felt myself connecting to the earth. Once my energy calmed and I felt grounded I took my aunt’s hand and that of Clarice Coutanche, who in turn held Aggie’s hand to her right.

The circle complete, my grandmother stepped forward. ‘We come together today to ask our ancestors to watch over us and increase our powers as we cast a spell to protect our sister, Aggie de la Haye.’

We repeated her words.