Confrontation

‘Your riding coat is torn,’ Roger Nowell said as he stood before Alice Nutter.

‘My pony bolted,’ Alice replied, meeting his gaze.

‘A feast, I see,’ said Roger Nowell, ‘and meat too, on Good Friday, when it is the rule that fish should be eaten.’

‘The poor have their own rules,’ said Alice. ‘The poor must eat what they can when they can. There were no alms from the church or from yourself, or from any other person, given to the Demdike this Easter. I came with provisions of my own. That is the purpose of my visit.’

‘Did you bring that sheep?’ asked Roger Nowell.

‘James Device – I am arresting you for the theft of a sheep,’ said Constable Hargreaves.

‘Prove it!’ shouted Elizabeth. ‘The Demdike have known suffering enough from you.’ She turned to Roger Nowell. ‘And from you, good Magistrate of the Law. I’d like to see the pair of you in the stocks in the quick and handy way you fasten up my kind. I’d like to see you being pelted with rubbish and soaked in day-old piss.’

Hargreaves hit her across the face. She spat at him.

Roger Nowell looked at her with disgust. Elizabeth Device was dirty and ugly. The strangeness of her eye deformity made people fear her. One eye looked up and the other looked down, and both eyes were set crooked in her face. Her hair was already white, although she was not yet forty, and her skin had shrunk tight and sallow over her bones. She had been married once, but she and her children had come back to Malkin Tower to live with Old Demdike. Sometime, perhaps nine years ago, she had been raped. The ragged child Jennet Device was the result of the rape.

Elizabeth was fierce. Begging had never helped her. If she could not gain sympathy, she could provoke fear and dislike.

Roger Nowell looked around at the company – threadbare and drunk, stinking and defiant. He said, ‘We have intelligence that a Sabbat is planned on Pendle Hill. You are thirteen in number. Thirteen is a witch number and the number of a coven to defy the twelve and one that was Christ and his Disciples. You profane the day by eating meat. Your kin has confessed to witchcraft. You will remain under guard at Malkin Tower for questioning and for proving – by whatever means we see fit.’

Alice Nutter stepped forward. ‘And if Sarah Device was dead in the river this morning, would you charge Tom Peeper and Constable Hargreaves with murder?’

‘Putting to death a witch is not murder. It is the law of the Scripture,’ said Constable Hargreaves. ‘ “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Exodus Chapter 20 Verse 16.’

Roger Nowell looked at Alice Nutter. He was puzzled. ‘I am surprised to find you here, Mistress.’

‘Your number of thirteen includes myself. Am I a witch? It includes that ragged child – is she a witch?’ Jennet Device was darting round the door.

Alice picked up her gloves and walked down the steps from the tower.

‘You letting her go?’ said Tom Peeper.

Tom Peeper and Roger Nowell followed Alice out to where she was untying her pony.

‘Mistress Nutter, I am the Magistrate of the District of Pendle,’ said Roger Nowell, ‘I must take these matters seriously. John Law is on his deathbed. Demdike and Chattox are self-accused.’

‘She takes the witches’ part,’ said Tom Peeper. Without warning, he lunged forward and grabbed Alice’s pony. Alice dashed him across the shoulders with her riding crop but his darting twisted face was triumphant. ‘Search her saddlebag, go on, she knows what she’s got in there, and so do I!’

Alice stepped back. Roger Nowell put his hand in one of the leather bags and came out with a handful of cobnuts. He threw them to the ground, keeping his eyes on Alice as he searched and dipped into the second bag. He drew out the handkerchief, soaked in blood.

‘What in God’s name is this?’

‘It is Robert Preston’s tongue,’ said Alice Nutter.

‘She took it to make a Devil’s poppet!’ shouted Tom Peeper.

‘I took it as evidence,’ said Alice. ‘You threatened Sarah Device with ducking and you raped her.’

‘So she says,’ said Tom Peeper. ‘The young lad was kissing her in sport. It was sport, Master Nowell.’

Roger Nowell held the black and swollen tongue away from him. Then he threw that body part into the bushes. He said: ‘Mistress Nutter, I will ask you to attend me at Read Hall at six o’clock this evening.’

Alice nodded her head, mounted her pony, and turned to go. Then she reined in for a moment and said to Roger Nowell, ‘I provided the sheep.’

Hidden in the bushes, the child Jennet Device had seen everything. As soon as the men were gone, she darted out and snatched the cobnuts and went to look for what else had been thrown nearby.