Solstice: Historical fiction about witch trials (The Widdershins Trilogy Book 3) by Helen Steadman

Author:Helen Steadman [Steadman, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bell Jar Books
Published: 2023-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

Wedlock

PATIENCE

My brother was to be married at daybreak, to the by-blow of a gravedigger. First, though, we had to catch his bride, who absconded immediately on learning she would be kept under guard. Due to her lack of forethought, we soon found her in the gravedigger’s hut.

My father would not countenance the prospective bride jilting my brother and destroying his name. After forcibly returning her to the farmstead, there she was kept under close watch by me and Green, who had turned her coat very much in our favour.

The bed was too narrow for three and Driver spent her last two nights as a spinster taking up all the space in the middle, whilst we clung to the sides. As a result, none of us slept and we were all paler than milk come the morning of the wedding.

As we walked uphill, the bell sounded across the valley. The same bell rang for weddings as for funerals and a skilled sexton could make it toll or peal accordingly. Today, the bell tolled.

Following the revelation of Rose Driver’s paternity, we had still not aired her family’s unwillingness to observe the sabbath, and I cursed myself for not addressing that before revealing her bastardy.

Father was so determined to spare his son’s good name that he compromised on all aspects of the nuptials. Because of the Drivers’ reluctance to cross the church threshold, the ceremony would be held outdoors. Father intended to remain in the vestry doorway so he at least stood in the church. All most irregular but he assured us that the marriage would be valid and the child legitimate.

Green and I followed Rose Driver up the hill. She was flanked by her stepmother and grandmother, with her dog loping at heel. Despite exhortations from her grandmother, the bride refused to make any concession and wore her usual undyed wool frock, left her mane uncovered, and in place of a posy, carried her crook as if it were a cudgel. For his part, Earnest faced the vestry door, buttoned up in his best clothes, face stiff and shuttered beneath his tall hat, never once turning to look at his intended.

Despite the early hour, the service was well attended by the Driver widows both, Thomas Verger, big Blenkinsop and the Greens, including Matilda, who was permitted to take the morning off instead of next Sunday afternoon as a boon. Should the bride discover who had sold her secrets to me, she might not be so keen to welcome her former bedmate as a witness.

When the tolling bell ceased, Elizabeth Driver’s eye fell on her family grave and I feared an emotional outburst but she contented herself with a loud sniff and a complaint that there was barely anyone in attendance.

Father and the elderly widow were agreed on one aspect. To avoid undue upset, Thomas Verger would be allowed no formal role in the ceremony. Instead, Farmer Johnson would give away the bride. He collected his ward from the lych gate and escorted her to the vestry door, and we fell in behind.

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