The magic of fireflies, p.10
The Magic of Fireflies, page 10
“You have become a dear friend to us, Mrs. Baker,” Mrs. Millner said.
The women looked back and forth over the garden again. Mrs. Baker began to laugh. She started with her usual “Ha!” but something inside her broke through as she suddenly leaned over and slapped a hand on her knee. She raised her head up and howled with laughter. “I thought I was going mad,” she said. “Who would have thought anything else? I never imagined anything like this could ever be possible.”
“No one must ever know. Am I right to trust you with our secret?” Mrs. Millner asked.
“Absolutely,” Mrs. Baker said, sobering up from her outburst. “I have never met anyone so kind and good as you and Miss Lena, and I do not judge a person by any other means. I would never betray either of you. You have my word.”
Mrs. Millner took her by the arm, patted her hand, and thanked her for being a true friend.
Lena was tempted to say something and make her presence known, but she didn’t want to disturb them. She had no idea what they were discussing, but they seemed so happy, and she saw their usual state of contentment with each other as another perfect opportunity to visit Mrs. Sherwood, so she washed her face with cold water from her pitcher before fumbling with her stockings and clumsily tying her stays.
The air was crisp, even in the house, and she was glad to warm herself by the fire for a few moments before she left.
“I’m off to see Mrs. Sherwood,” she shouted.
Mrs. Millner waved, but she noticed that Mrs. Baker was looking at her rather curiously before receiving a nudge from Mrs. Millner that prompted her to wave goodbye, as well. Lena just shook her head and left the two women to indulge freely in their secret conversation.
A Fight in the Woods
It was another beautiful late autumn day, and the sun beamed warmly in the fall sky, but a breeze swept coolly over the fields and rustled through the brilliant red, orange, and yellow foliage.
Rather than going directly to Mrs. Sherwood’s house, she decided it was a perfect day to gather Winterbloom. The clusters of rich yellow flowers now in bloom would be easy to spot in the dense woods beside the Sherwood home.
She hummed quietly as she searched and gathered until she heard something in the distance that sounded like people arguing. She stopped humming and listened carefully, following the voices deeper into the woods and trying to avoid making any noise lest she be heard.
When an enraged male voice bellowed nearby, she instinctively hid behind a large tree for fear of being seen. She had heard the shouts of angry men before and knew all too well how their rage could be deadly.
Peering cautiously from her hiding place, she strained to see beyond the trees. She heard more arguing before finally discovering that it was Mr. and Mrs. Hill, the very Hills who had banished Margaret from their home and whose cousin had recently arrived in Princess Anne County. They were fighting, but not each other. There was someone else with them.
Mr. Hill shouted and waved a thick, knotted stick over his head. Mrs. Hill lunged forward and yanked the other woman by her hair, dragging her to her knees. The woman cried out, but Mrs. Hill continued to pull and shake her head violently.
Lena couldn’t believe what was happening. The woman appeared to be alone and the Hills were attacking her. It wasn’t possible to see her clearly and Lena was too frightened to move.
When Mr. Hill brought the stick down with a forceful blow, it cracked in half over the woman’s shoulder. Mrs. Hill lost her grip, and the woman freed herself and seized what was left of the heavy stick from Mr. Hill’s hand. He had no time to act before Mrs. Hill was hit in the ribs and sent crashing to the ground.
Pushing her hair back from her face, the woman stood tall and screamed, “Get off of my property!”
Dear God! Lena thought, recognizing her instantly. It’s Mrs. Sherwood!
Mrs. Hill did not move again from the ground. She just lay there, whimpering from her injury, but Mr. Hill lunged forward again and struck Mrs. Sherwood with his fist across her cheek.
Mrs. Sherwood stumbled to the side but did not fall and brought the branch down on his arm with a loud crack and then to his chest with enough force to shatter it at the end. He fell back with a great thud, looking up at Mrs. Sherwood as she stood over him. Blood and sweat soaked her hair which clung to her face. She winced at the pain in her shoulder but held the branch high overhead, poised to hit him again. Mrs. Hill crawled over and grabbed Mrs. Sherwood’s skirt, screaming something inaudible at her.
Lena panicked. She knew that she needed to get help right away. She burst from her hiding place, dropped her basket of Winterbloom, and ran as fast as she could in the direction of Mrs. Sherwood’s house.
When she reached the open field, she began to scream as loud as her lungs would allow, “John! John! John!” Again, and again, she called his name as she ran until John appeared from behind his home and hurried toward her.
“It’s your mother, John! She’s being attacked by Mr. and Mrs. Hill in the woods! Oh, John! It’s terrible! They are beating her!”
She continued to babble about what she had seen, her mind racing and her lungs burning, but John was no longer beside her. He was already making his way through the woods.
***
Mrs. Sherwood sat at her table in her small front room, still as stone.
“Are you alright?” Lena asked feebly. It was a stupid question, but she didn’t know what else to ask as she dabbed the cuts and bruises on Mrs. Sherwood’s face with a damp cloth. She removed her blood-soaked kerchief from her neck and started to pull back her shift when Mrs. Sherwood stopped her and pulled it back on.
“Leave it. I’m fine,” she said.
But Lena could see that she was not fine. All along her collarbone and shoulder, the deep purple and blue bruise had already begun to form.
“But Mrs. Sherwood,” Lena tried to reason with her, “it looks awfully bad and needs tending to.”
“Leave it,” Mrs. Sherwood said again.
Lena did as she asked and just continued to clean the wound on her head.
Mrs. Sherwood was emotionless as she spoke, “They came to scold me for looking after Margaret after they had seen fit to banish her from their property and warned me that my actions would have consequences. Who do they think they are? They do not rule me, nor do they dictate our laws. I have every right to help others.”
She pushed Lena’s hand away and stood abruptly, causing the room to spin about her and the wound on her shoulder to throb. She grabbed her arm and huffed angrily, cursing the pain that pounded through her.
“Please sit back down,” Lena insisted as she tried again to attend to her wounds. “Let me get some pokeweed leaves to wrap around your shoulder.”
Mrs. Sherwood reluctantly sat down again just as John returned with the sheriff and said, “Can you see, Sheriff, what they have done to my mother?”
Sheriff Sadler removed his hat and lowered his head to enter the doorway. His light green eyes focused entirely on Mrs. Sherwood as he moved to stand beside her. “Mrs. Sherwood, John has told me that you were assaulted by the Hills. Is this true?”
Mrs. Sherwood did not look at him. She kept her eyes forward and answered stiffly, “Yes.”
“Then you must file charges against them,” Sheriff Sadler said, moving in front of Mrs. Sherwood, determined to meet her gaze. “What they have done is against the law, and they should answer for it.”
Mrs. Sherwood did not respond. Her jaw tightened. Sheriff Sadler knelt before her. “Mrs. Sherwood?” he spoke softly.
Lena was surprised by the familiarity, but then she remembered when Margaret had asked Mrs. Sherwood to speak to the sheriff on her behalf. When she and Mrs. Millner had first moved to Pungo, the local women had conveyed stories about Mrs. Sherwood’s former legal woes with the Capps and Gisburnes, so it became apparent to her that Mrs. Sherwood must have become acquainted with the sheriff during that time. She looked to John for his reaction, but he didn’t appear to have heard it since he was busy leading his younger brothers out of the room.
“Mrs. Sherwood, you must tell me what happened,” Sheriff Sadler leaned closer to Mrs. Sherwood, and Lena felt a slight flush in her cheeks as she began to feel like an intruder in their presence.
“John,” Mrs. Sherwood turned her head to look for her son who was just returning, “please see that Lena gets home safely.”
John nodded obligingly and held the door open for Lena, and looking back as she left, she could have sworn she caught sight of Sheriff Sadler slowly taking Mrs. Sherwood’s hands in his own.
Fate
The weeks that followed that terrible fight in the woods were filled with speculation, concern, and gossip as the news spread across the county.
Mrs. Sherwood was not in the mood for any company, so Christmas and the New Year had passed without Lena being able to see her. Instead, she spent a great deal of time at home and in the South Woods. She had started to feel more homesick than ever before, but she noticed lately that her mother - or the feeling of her mother - had been inexplicably absent from the woods.
Winter was in full fury, and the early March winds burst through the treetops, bending massive limbs and rattling through small branches.
Sitting in her usual secluded spot, Lena tried again to feel her mother’s presence. She closed her eyes and waited, struggling to stay warm by pulling on her hood and gripping her cloak tightly around her shoulders.
“Where are you? Please speak to me.” She squeezed her eyes tighter and felt her breath turn to ice on her lips as she spoke. “Don’t abandon me now.”
“Lena!” A distant voice called, dragging the length of her name. “Lena!”
Keeping her eyes closed, she lifted her face to the sky and listened carefully, her hopes rising that she would once again hear her mother’s voice.
“Lena!” The calling of her name grew closer, and she realized it was not her mother at all; instead, it was the sound of Mrs. Millner calling her from the meadow.
She made her way out of the woods to find Mrs. Millner running in her direction with Mrs. Baker following closely behind her.
“Lena, come quickly.” Mrs. Millner stopped running and calling her name when she saw her emerge from behind the trees. She grabbed her side and panted for air.
“Are you alright? What is it?” Lena asked, moving quickly to close the gap between them.
“Sheriff Sadler… has come… to see you...” Mrs. Millner’s words broke with every attempt to catch her breath.
Lena wondered why Mrs. Millner found a visit from Sheriff Sadler to be an urgent issue and said to her, “That’s fine. I will go and speak with him. There’s no need for alarm.”
She offered to help Mrs. Millner return home, but Mrs. Millner refused. She had more to say. “You were not the only witness in the woods, girl,” she warned. “There was another. Sometimes, we cannot outrun our fate. Destiny finds us. You must try to be strong.”
Lena did not understand. What destiny? And if there was another witness in the woods, they could both give an account as to what happened, and Mrs. Sherwood would be justified in charging the Hills with assault.
“Don’t worry, Miss Lena,” Mrs. Baker assured her. “I’ll help Mrs. Millner. The sheriff and Mrs. Hill’s cousin are waiting for you inside. You should go and speak with them.”
Mrs. Hill’s cousin? Lena thought, so this is the other witness. Suddenly, Mrs. Millner’s warning made sense. Mrs. Hill’s cousin would surely be willing to lie on the Hill’s behalf, professing their innocence and blaming Mrs. Sherwood for the incident. The injustice of it made her furious and she clenched her jaw as she entered the house. She was determined to be strong, as Mrs. Millner had told her to be. She prepared to face her opponent but, in one quick breath, all her inner strength caved into her chest when she entered the house and found Idella Tench standing before her.
Oh, God. Her mind raced.
Despite her initial unwillingness to believe it, there was no denying that Idella was standing in front of her, the very person who had accused her mother of witchcraft and murder.
Images of her mother burning and begging for her life as Idella and the others looked on felt like sharp knives piercing Lena’s skull. She could not see or think clearly, and her lungs would not release the gasp of air she had taken when she first stepped through the door. Everything fell into darkness as she hit the floor with a resounding thud.
***
“My dear girl,” Mrs. Millner spoke tearfully as she dabbed Lena’s forehead with a damp cloth, “awake now and fret not. Sheriff Sadler is gone and will not question you today. He said that you were quite overcome, and he did not mean for you to feel confronted about such a terrible event in such an unannounced way. He gave his apologies and requested to speak with you tomorrow if you are feeling better.”
It took Lena a moment to realize where she was. Sheriff Sadler must have carried her into Mrs. Millner’s room after she fainted. She tried to sit up, but the stabbing pain still pierced her head.
“Now, now, girl,” Mrs. Millner insisted, “you shouldn’t try to move yet. You need to rest for a while.”
“No,” Lena insisted, “I need to speak with Sheriff Sadler today. He must know the truth… he must know what really happened. If he has spoken to Idella,” her voice choked on the name, and a terrible sick feeling coursed through her body. “Idella…” she said again, repeating the name over and over as she tried to come to terms with the fact that Idella was there, in Princess Anne County, and old wounds were opening again.
“I will get her something to eat,” Mrs. Baker announced before disappearing from the doorway.
Mrs. Millner said to Lena, “If you feel like you still want to speak with Sheriff Sadler after you have eaten and regained your strength, you may go to see him.”
“I will take her,” John Sherwood said, his arrival unanticipated. He stood in the doorway of Mrs. Millner’s room, looking down at the hat he held in his hands. “I’ll be waiting out front when she is ready.”
He placed his hat on his head and left, nodding to Mrs. Baker as she slipped into the room and presented a tray of food to Lena.
“There now, try to sit up and eat something,” Mrs. Baker said, shaking her head pitifully and noting the pale look on Lena’s face.
***
As promised, John was waiting in his wagon when Lena walked out to meet him. The food had restored some of her strength, but her legs felt weak beneath her and she had to wrap her arms around her body under a shawl to keep from noticeably shaking. She overheard Mrs. Baker whisper something to Mrs. Millner about how pale she still looked.
There was no time to worry about how she felt. She needed to speak to Sheriff Sadler, so she could defend her friend Mrs. Sherwood. No one from her past should keep her from doing so, not even Idella Tench. But she was not completely naïve. Idella could shatter her new life. The thought made her stomach turn. She wrapped her cloak tightly around her, finding comfort in its constraint.
“Are you cold, Miss Lena?” John was concerned, but he sounded unusually formal and distant. His normally happy disposition was gone, and in its place was anger for what had happened to his mother and fear for what would become of her.
Lena wanted to reassure him. She wanted him to know that everything would be alright, even if she wasn’t so sure of this herself. She gathered the strength to speak with conviction and said, “I am determined to speak for your mother. Sheriff Sadler is a decent man and a good sheriff. I am sure that he will see the truth in all of this and do what is right. I know what I saw, and I saw the Hills attack your mother in the woods on your property that day.”
“Have you not heard? Did no one tell you?” John shook his head in disbelief. “Sheriff Sadler came to see you about what has happened since the attack in the woods.”
Since the attack?” she asked, concerned. “I was only told that there was another witness. I was overcome at first, but I’m not afraid now. I will speak to him and make things right.”
John’s rage was not directed at her, but he spoke angrily nonetheless, and his words descended upon her like a sharp blade, “In the days following the attack, my mother charged the Hills with assault. Since she was on her land, she was assured by the court that she would be awarded damages and your testimony was not needed. But in retaliation, the Hills accused her of being a witch. And since they claim to have a witness, they plan to formally charge her. Sheriff Sadler is not summoning you as a witness to the attack, but as a witness to witchcraft.”
Lena did not answer. Horrific memories of her mother paralyzed her.
Her silence frustrated John. He tried again to make her realize what was happening to his mother. He said, “Do you understand me, Miss Lena? My mother is to be brought up on charges of witchcraft. She’s been falsely accused before, but it was nonsense and never brought to trial. But this is different. It isn’t just speculation this time. Mrs. Hill’s cousin is willing to testify that she saw my mother use witchcraft in the woods. Witchcraft! Can you imagine?”
He huffed an insincere laugh at the absurdity of it all and said, “Not long ago, they were hanging people convicted of witchcraft in the northern colonies. Hanging them! Mothers… daughters… husbands… fathers… even children. For God’s sake, even children! All of them dead in the name of something so ludicrous!”
“Yes, I know,” Lena said quietly.
The more she tried not to cry the angrier she became. She had lived through this once before and was determined never to let it happen again. Resentment burned through her, and she rode the remainder of the way in silence.
***
Sheriff Sadler waited in the center of his office at the jail, his arms folded across his chest and his green eyes intently watching Lena as he asked her to repeat what she had witnessed in the woods.
