Wildflower Witch by Susanna Scott

Author:Susanna Scott [Scott, Susanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Sybil’s second letter to Flora

Hello again dearest Flora,

I hope by now you are coming to terms with your ancestry. I have no doubt that Hester and Bill kept even a whiff of this from you. It was for your own protection and I completely agreed with them.

As the saying goes, you're a big girl now and you deserve to know who your blood relations are, especially as you will be living in their village. When I say ‘their’, it is more true than you might think.

The Gardwickes, of which you are one, the Peverels and the Harkers are the oldest families in this village. They have all been here constantly since the time of Hilde, our ancestor in Anglo-Saxon times and other ancestors possibly well before that. Neolithic remains have been found that indicate the constant presence of a community or settlement here since at least that time.

The Gardwicke story starts with Hilde. That would have been her only name at that time, but it would have been qualified by a word or two describing her. For example, Alfred the Potter or Edwin the Farmer. Hilde was Hilde the Geard Wicce. Geard was a garden or enclosure such as the wildflower meadow and Wicce simply meant ‘wise woman’. Over time this became the regular surname we use now- Gardwicke.

As the wise woman of the village, she was both healer and midwife. Her cures came out of her garden from the herbs and flowers she grew there. Her potions and medicines were passed down through the years, at first through the oral tradition. You will see them written down at a much later date – remembered by generations afterwards - in the earlier pages of the large leather journal on the shelf, along with later entries. I hope you make good use of it.

She was one of the most respected people in the community. There are records of her in the Peverel’s archives. Among other historical accounts, it has her acquiring a large parcel of land behind her cottage. Or rather exchanging the land for being on call whenever any of the Peverel family were ill or with child, giving her services for free. You will probably see where this is going.

Yes, that parcel of land is now the wildflower meadow behind our cottage. Gallipot cottage has been lived in by members of the Gardwicke family since Hilde’s time even though it has had a few transformations. You can see now why I wanted it to stay in the family, can't you?

Unfortunately, as things are today, women don't always want to settle down with families. I didn't myself, but as long as there is Gardwicke blood here, then I feel that my job is done. You are a true Gardwicke. Now I should explain what that means in reality and that is the most difficult part. Perhaps not as difficult as the revelation in my first letter but still tough to grasp.

As I said, wicce meant ‘wise woman’, a healer and later – ‘witch’.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.