Hex Appeal by Kate Johnson

Author:Kate Johnson [Johnson, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008551124
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Essie had heard of people being run out of town, but never into it. She and Josh were herded like errant sheep into the village, trailed by the two young lovers who had taken the opportunity to gain the moral high ground, because at least they both still had their clothes. Even if they hadn’t exactly been wearing them when the girl’s father found them.

‘Fornicators!’ the older man shouted. He wore a short cloak and a hat with a tall crown, and his doublet was too short and strained across his belly. But the sword he carried looked quite real, and he was using it to prod them ahead of him along a track beside the hedgerow. Essie’s wrists had been bound with a belt and Josh’s with his own shirt.

‘We found them naked,’ shouted the young woman.

‘Cavorting for all to see!’ added her lover.

‘Hypocrites,’ Essie snapped back at them, and not just because they’d been out gathering nuts in May. Something about that young woman drew her attention. No wonder she wants to deflect attention. She’s got power, I’m sure of it.

But Essie wasn’t about to drop anyone else in it. Her mind raced. What could she do? Her magic was not very useful in this situation, and even if it was she’d be sent straight to the ducking stool.

The village opened up ahead of them, and Essie didn’t immediately recognise it, especially since her glasses were lost in the meadow. That’ll be fun for some future archaeologist. Sheep grazed the open land that sloped down to a large, muddy pond, and the cottages that surrounded it had a distinct air of ‘hovel’ about them. The road was dried mud, heavily rutted from wheels and hooves. The people who came out of their houses to watch the entertainment wore the same kinds of woollen dresses and doublets as the two lovers who were now decrying them as fornicators.

‘Just checking,’ Josh muttered, as he trudged along beside her, ‘but fornication is bad, right?’

‘Not if you do it right,’ muttered Essie. Hah, as if you’d know, said a spiteful little voice inside her.

‘They are ungodly!’ shouted the stout man. ‘And incite others to join their licentiousness!’

‘’Tis true,’ shouted the younger man. ‘They made us join their filthy games.’

‘We are but goodly people, and I a maid,’ the young woman added hurriedly.

Essie snorted.

‘Do you know any Bible verses?’ Josh said from the corner of his mouth.

‘It may surprise you to know that wasn’t high on my mother’s list of priorities,’ Essie replied.

‘Call the witchfinder!’ shouted the stout man, and Essie stopped dead.

‘The witchfinder?’ she said.

His piggy little eyes gleamed malevolently. This was the sort of man, Essie recognised, who was still alive and well in the twenty-first century, complaining to the council about litter louts and young people who played their music too loud. Only here and now – whenever now was, and she suspected she had an idea – he had an awful lot more power than merely complaining.

‘Oh aye,’ he said, waving his sword at her.

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