New ropes appeared. The guards on either side of me tied my arms. More men were brought in to do the same to Maira, who fought with all her might until she was overwhelmed. The moment had turned with bewildering speed.
‘Drown the witches!’
‘Cast them out!’
‘Witch! Witch! Witch!’
The guards dragged us back to the floodwater. Somewhere in the confusion was Jem, fighting to stay with me, trying to pull me back.
‘Stop! You can’t duck me again!’ I screamed at the guards.
‘This isn’t justice!’ Maira yelled.
At the water’s edge, Dr Blood, who was leading the way, came to a sudden stop.
‘You cannot come ashore here!’ he cried.
Something was wrong. There were raised voices. Gesturing arms. The fuss seemed to be about the little rowing boat that had just pulled in to the shallows, and the group climbing ashore from its prow. Under arms, between shoulders, I glimpsed curly brown hair, a baby in a sling, two sets of yellow plaits.
A huge wave of love came over me. Then total, absolute panic that my family and Susannah had walked straight into this dreadful situation. It was Susannah’s well-bred voice that carried above the crowd.
‘If you truly believe that magic controls the sea,’ she was saying, ‘then I’m the one you should be blaming, not Fortune Sharpe or Maira.’
‘Stop your mouth!’ I cried to her. ‘Go, quickly! Be safe!’
The crowd shrank back, a space opening around the new arrivals. Susannah was standing on the grass, very small, very composed. Bea was in her arms, rubbing her eyes as if she’d just woken up. Mother and Abigail were behind them, leaving the water.
Mr Hopkins elbowed his way through, muttering about charging extra for his time if things didn’t hurry up. But suddenly all of us were herded back towards the king. I felt weak with relief, though all this stopping and starting was doing nothing to steady my nerves.
‘If this is a proper trial, then the defendants must be allowed to speak,’ Mother declared in the same tone she used when handling difficult cows.
Mr Hopkins shook his head.
It was the king himself who seemed to agree with her. ‘Indeed, it has been most unsatisfactory so far. And who are you?’
Mother raised her gaze to look at him directly. ‘Mistress Sharpe. Fortune is my daughter and she’s no witch.’
I should have been surprised at her courage, but I wasn’t. Mother had chased after Old Margaret’s cart with a milking stool, so she wasn’t going to let her own daughter be drowned without putting up a fight. Standing there, fierce-faced, she looked like a Viking warrior. Abigail was a smaller version of the same. I tried not to sob with gratitude.
‘And you are?’ The king’s beringed finger pointed at Susannah. Bea, spotting the glinting emerald on it, reached out with glee.
‘Susannah Spicer, Your Majesty,’ she replied.
‘Spicer, hmmm …’
‘Daughter of my business partner,’ Dr Blood informed him.
The king wafted his hand vaguely. ‘No, no … that’s not who I was thinking of.’
There was muttering. More dagger-sharp glances passing between Dr Blood and Mr Hopkins. I was confused and exhausted and wanting this all to be over. Beside me, Maira let out a huge, fed-up groan.
‘Look, I’ve got a ship to sail. Business to do. So perhaps someone can explain to me why that makes me a witch. What exactly is this all about?’ she asked.
It was me who answered.
‘It’s about fear,’ I said, surprising myself rather.
The king’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Fear?’
Now I’d started, I kept going. ‘There are things, like the sea, that we can’t control. So if we try to blame someone for it, it makes us less scared. And it seems to me that we always pick on the weak ones, the strange ones, the ones who aren’t like us.’
I glanced at Susannah and Jem, at Mother and Abigail. We’d talked about these things between us, in private. We all knew what it felt like to be the person who was singled out.
‘The wave that struck our coast?’ I hurried on. ‘You could blame it on magic or witchcraft. It helps to have a reason, because then you can try to stop it happening again.’
‘I’ve heard enough of this drivel,’ Dr Blood insisted. ‘Guards! Resume the trial!’
And I’d had enough of this nasty little man, of being cold and terrified. My temper was on the rise.
‘Mr Spicer’s son told me all about your business dealings, and what you were after,’ I said to him.
‘You dared to speak of my business to Master Spicer?’ Dr Blood was stunned. ‘As if it were any concern of yours?’
‘Oh, but it is, sir,’ I insisted. ‘My life may be of little value to you, but it is to me. Because of your plans I’m on trial for something I’m innocent of.’
‘Wait,’ the king interrupted. ‘What plans?’
I answered first: ‘Your navy, Your Majesty. Mr Spicer and Dr Blood wanted your protection – that’s what Ellis told me. They knew their cargo was risky. In truth, they probably knew it was wrong. But they needed your naval ships to protect them from attack.’
‘She’s lying,’ Dr Blood cut in. ‘Yet again.’
‘This whole witch trial, Your Majesty,’ I spoke over him, ‘is their way of impressing you and getting you to support their business. It’s never been about evil.’
‘Seize her! Take her to the flood again! Take both of these witches!’ Dr Blood cried.
I braced myself for the soldiers’ crushing grip on my arms. But they didn’t move. No one was looking at us any more. They were nudging each other, pointing at Dr Blood.
‘Ellis, you say? Ellis Spicer?’ the king asked, sitting forward in his seat. ‘The Ellis Spicer?’
It threw me completely. I looked to Susannah, who was hanging on the king’s every word.
‘Ummm … yes,’ I said, without thinking. ‘The acrobat.’
The king’s face changed. For one fear-filled moment, I was sure I’d said a terrible thing, and not only was my own fate sealed but Ellis’s too, wherever he might be. But the king slapped his knees heartily and laughed out loud.
‘Ha! Ellis Spicer! Would you believe such a thing?’ he cried.
‘No, Your Majesty,’ I replied, not having a clue what he meant. I glanced at Susannah, who shrugged helplessly.
‘Do you know that I met this very fellow just a couple of days ago? He entertained me, he and his troupe, on the evening we broke our travel. And what a marvellous performance it was.’
I stared at the king. ‘You saw him? Alive? Ellis Spicer?’
‘Of course. The young man introduced himself by name. I’ve plans to invite him to the palace for our Easter festivities.’
‘Oh, thank goodness!’ I gasped. ‘This is very fine news indeed.’ Susannah burst into tears.
I was thrilled that Ellis was alive, truly I was. I wasn’t sure if it was enough to save Maira and me, though there was no denying that the mood had changed again.
The king was now eyeing Dr Blood with disdain.
‘If what the child says is true then you have duped me, Blood,’ he said. ‘You have enticed me here to Somerset, not to see justice being done, but to further your own ends.’
‘You cannot believe her,’ Dr Blood insisted, very flustered. ‘The girl is evil.’
‘The only evil I’ve seen here in Somerset has come from witch hunters,’ I retorted.
Now it was Mr Hopkins who turned on Dr Blood.
‘I took on this case in good faith,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I shall send my bill directly. Now if someone could bring me my horse, I’ll be on my way.’
‘But Mr Hopkins, Your Majesty—’ Dr Blood spluttered.
‘Enough of this. You’re a good dentist, Blood, but a terrible businessman. Think again on your cargo. Exploration is my new investment. I’ve sent that Raleigh fellow to South America in search of gold. You’d be wise invest in something similar.’
Dr Blood dropped his head in defeat. ‘Yes, Your Majesty.’
‘And for heaven’s sake leave the Spicer family and their acquaintances ALONE!’
*
So it was, like a deck of cards, the trial fell to pieces. And I, for the second time, was saved. It wasn’t all over though, until King James had absolved me of guilt. I was made to stand in front of him, looking suitably meek. It wasn’t hard to do, either, when I trembled from head to foot with cold. Susannah was struggling to hold Bea, who wanted to get to Jem, get to Mother’s plaits, get to the king’s buckled shoes.
The very second my innocence was declared, Bea lunged for the king’s hand. She’d seen his giant emerald ring and wanted to grab it.
‘I’m sorry.’ Susannah blushed, trying to pull her away. ‘But you saw my brother – where?’
‘In a town somewhere miles from here,’ the king said, vague again. ‘Dorset? Devon, maybe?’
Susannah tried to press him but he didn’t seem to remember, or perhaps he was too taken with Bea.
‘So this little cherub is Ellis Spicer’s sister, eh?’ He chucked her under the chin. ‘Do you know what a funny, brilliant entertainer your brother is, do you?’
Meanwhile, I was dying to ask what had happened to Susannah’s crewel-work piece, since no one had mentioned it at the trial. I waited until the fuss had died down. ‘Your Majesty, what did you think of the crewel work Dr Blood showed you?’
‘Mistress Spicer’s design?’
I nodded.
‘Well, she has a talent, that can’t be denied. The queen will admire it greatly, though it wasn’t really to my taste.’
‘You didn’t like it?’
‘I prefer a scene or a picture I can recognise. This piece was rather too elaborate and certainly didn’t prove anything, not to my eyes.’
So the king had looked at the piece and seen only patterns: not an enormous wave or a boy with a yellow feather in his cap running away from the sea. He’d seen what he wanted to see, and passed judgement. How familiar that sounded! If I never saw a needle and thread ever again, I decided, it would still be far too soon.
*
When his carriage was finally summoned, the king seemed almost sorry to go.
‘After an unpromising start,’ he said, ‘that was one of the most theatrical witch trials I’ve ever seen.’
‘Theatrical?’ Maira caught my eye.
‘Indeed.’ He stared into the middle distance. ‘In the words of our wonderful playwright, all the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’
Maira spluttered. Bea crammed her fingers into her mouth and pulled a face. Jem walked away.
I was glad, of all of us, it was Ellis who’d chosen to be a player on the world’s stage. Though I’d a strong suspicion this wasn’t what the king meant; a part of him still seemed to believe that witch trials and entertainment were more or less the same thing.