It had been good to have another man in the parsonage for he and my uncle spent a lot of time together, leaving me free to harness Chestnut and ride away. Mr Lawson Deodat was not ordained but he was giving the sermon this Sunday.at the meeting house.

A droning voice, worse than my uncle’s. The hard chairs felt harder today. We all had to look as if we were very interested. It was hard for me, very hard. An early robin whistled a sweet song, God’s creation. I loved animals, better than people. Betty loved animals too but most of her attention was on her ginger cat, Cinders. Horses were my love but I liked all animals. A competition between bird and pastor resumed. I wanted to giggle. The bird was prettier to listen to and, I wager, prettier to look at. It took a bird to quell my boredom. I glanced around at people around me. Did they feel like I did? Or were their natural spirits so dwindled that they had trained themselves to look interested and pious? A shaft of light came in through the window, illuminating our souls. I wished I was out of the meeting house, outside, on a horse, galloping with wind in my face and in my hair. The air was somewhat stale in the meeting house. I longed for warmer air flavoured with spring. The bird went into song again, beckoning me to leave the meeting house and go outside with him.

I looked at Deodat Lawson’s tall, angular form. I imagined which of the four humours dominated him. Did he perhaps have too much blood that led to bad tempers? Deodat Lawson just droned on and on.

‘Let us take our Bibles and turn to I Peter 5.8. We see there that the Devil is as a roaring lion seeking to devour. “… let us repent of every sin that hath been committed, and labour to practise every day which hath been neglected. Then we shall assuredly and speedily find that the kingly power of our Lord and Savior shall be magnified, in delivering his poor sheep and lambs out of the jaws and paws of the roaring lion.”’

Roaring lion. I wondered what it looked like. A giant Cinders? I’d heard that lions ate early Christians. Who was the lion now? The Devil was, according to Mr Lawson.

Then he droned on. ‘You are to be deeply humbled … considering the single hand of God in singling out this place, this poor village for the first seat of Satan’s tyranny and to make it (as ’twere) the rendezvous of devils, where they muster their infernal forces. It is a matter of terror, amazement and astonishment. To all such wretched souls, granted that they have given up their souls and names to the Devil. If you are covenanted with the Devil, the intercession of the blessed Jesus is against you. His prayer is for the subduing of Satan’s power … and the utter confounding of all his instruments.

‘ARM, arm, arm!’

My eyelids shot up. I woke up. Was he still rambling on? What was he shouting?

‘The omnipotent Jehovah, our God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will strengthen us.’

I couldn’t get my head around that.

‘See that you are fixed and in readiness as faithful soldiers under the Captain of our salvation.’

Captain. Thoughts of handsome Captain Walcott flooded my mind. Well, I wouldn’t mind being a faithful servant under him.

‘Take up the sword of the faith.’

Well, Mr Lawson was using a great deal of military language.

‘Take up your shield for defence.’

What about taking the sword to fight?

‘Our Lord Jesus is the Captain of or salvation. But we must take action too. Prayer is the most potent antidote against Satan.

‘Pray, Pray, Pray.’

Deodat Lawson looked very earnest. He was putting his best into his sermon.

‘Repentance is also of necessity. Let us repent of every sin that Satan may be confounded.’

Gone was the time when I could control myself by gripping my hands so that the whites of my knuckles showed. Gone was the time when I could clench my teeth to stop my yelling out. I was two years older and in love with an older man, Robert, who lived in another world so different from the one I now found myself in. Resentment rushed through my body. Why was I here? In an articulate and strong voice that punctured the air, I called out, for all to hear, ‘Now stand up and name your text, sir.’

Mr Lawson told the brethren to turn to Zechariah 3.2 and read the text as if nothing of note had occurred.

‘And the Lord said unto Satan, “The Lord rebukes thee, O Satan. Is this not a brand plucked out of the fire?” ’

‘It’s a long text which I have found boring.’

Nobody reprimanded me, not even my uncle who appeared frozen on the spot. The brethren were amazed and looked at me in confused fascination as I continued. ‘I know no doctrine. If you did name one, I have forgotten it.’

Before the congregation could catch its breath, Ann Putman interjected. ‘There is a yellow bird sitting on the minister’s hat, as it hangs on the pin of the pulpit.’

I couldn’t better that. My tongue was as silent as a nunnery. Ann Putman was quicker and cleverer than me but her pallid skin and lank hair attested to a sickly constitution. A gloomy daughter of a nervy mother, she was physically opposite to me. I bloomed with health, rosy cheeks mirroring my lips, red and full. We would see who fared better.

‘I have seen a vision of a mass sacrifice, attended by many villagers, who ate bread as red as raw flesh and red drink,’ I said.

Silence.

After both our outcries, murmurs scampered around like mice. Mr Deodat Lawson told everyone to be quiet.

But Ann and I had only got started. She was not going to better me.

‘I believe,’ Ann hesitated, ‘that Rebecca Nurse has affected us girls. I saw the apparition of old Rebecca and she held out the Devil’s book to me and I wrested it from her and flung it away.’

It was as if lightning had struck. People sat as statues.

Deodat Lawson went on: ‘We see evidence of the Devil’s works here today before our very eyes.’

Everyone nodded.

‘I know that not all follow the strict path of Christians.

I have seen, with my own eyes, horse shoes nailed to back doors, stones being hung on the rafters in the stables. I know of the use of sieve and scissors, the white of an egg in a glass, the bible and the key. These things have no place in Christian worship.’ He led us in a very long prayer followed by a hymn.

‘That soe wee may sing in Sion

The Lord’s songs of prayse

According to his owne will

And bid us to enter

Into our master’s joy

To sing eternal Halleluiahs.’

Congratulations to us for singing that in some tune. I saw my uncle quickly exit the meeting house holding Betty’s hand. I followed with Deodat behind us in quickstep.