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‘These teeth,’ said the herbalist, ‘are from the fresh-robbed graves at Newchurch in Pendle. You have not heard?’

‘I was at Hoghton.’

‘A lurid venture. Head, bones, teeth, scraped out of a grave like worms from a barrel.’

‘The Demdike are locked up.’

‘If they are at Malkin, they are not locked up.

There is a way out.’

‘It is on my land. There is no way out of that tower.’

‘No way out but through,’ said the herbalist. ‘I tell you Jennet Device was in the Dog last night with Tom Peeper, and James Device is more cunning than you think him.’

‘Even if Jennet and Jem robbed the graves, they could not deliver their bag of rot to Malkin.’

‘Certainly they could. I’ll warrant it was Jennet took the brimming head, severed and wormy, and rolled it like a pig’s bladder through the hole.’

‘What hole?’

The herbalist put her head in her hands.

‘And for what purpose?’

‘A spell! Are you mad? Have you lost your wits? I swear they have sewn a poppet and charmed it and stabbed its legs. The teeth are for the pain. God knows – and I cross myself, though it be the old religion – what they stirred into that Devil’s brew!’

‘No!’ said Alice. ‘We are old friends but you are superstitious and I am not. Roger Nowell rode hastily in a damp dawn; that is all there is to it. He may believe it is witchcraft. That does not mean that it is.’

‘Alice, I believe it is witchcraft. Roger Nowell believes it is witchcraft. The name he spoke was Demdike and then that little trumped-up man come for the Assizes –’

‘Potts.’

‘Potts said your name.’

‘Mine?’

‘Alice! You sent the poor fool Robert Preston to me with his tongue bit out, and all the gossip is that you sided with the Demdike cat who did the biting. Stood between a witch and a ducking is what is said at the Dog. I drink there. I hear things. I hear your name too often now. If Roger Nowell does not recover you will be the one to blame.’

‘This is not about witchery.’

‘Alice, I know you are hiding the priest. I am not the only one who whispers it.’

‘He is gone,’

‘Good.’

‘What would you have me do?’

‘Go to Malkin. Discover the enchanted poppet. Destroy it before Roger Nowell dies.’