Witches (43 page)

Rebecca said a quick, fervent prayer for help, and invoked the strongest enchantment to rid oneself of spirits and demons she could call up. Knowing even as she did it, that it wouldn’t work for her. Couldn’t work. She wasn’t a powerful enough witch to pull it off. Yet she refused to stop. Refused to give up. Amanda was depending on her, too.

Suddenly a churning, towering tornado of icy howling wind swept in from the night and literally scooped up the demons like a steam shovel. Ground them up like hamburger in a blender. The sounds they made were terrible, a million angry hornets. Then the cyclone carried the remnants into the night sky through the drifting snow.

“I’ll be damned.” Rebecca gasped in genuine shock. “It worked. My God, it really worked.” She turned to a gaping Ernie and the biggest grin spread across her face. She began to laugh. “I
am
a true witch. I am.”

Ernie began to laugh with relief, as well, pulling Rebecca into his arms. He hugged her thankfully. “Did you ever doubt it?” he finally asked when they stopped laughing. “I never did.” The look of pure admiration on his face as he stared at her was worth more than any five-figure royalty check she’d ever gotten.

Rebecca gazed out over the pond. The doorway was now a swirling vortex of brilliant light the size of a manhole cover—and it was growing.

“Whoa, look at that thing,” Ernie exclaimed.

Tibby appeared on the middle of the car dash, his tiny eyes shining in the dimness. Ernie jerked, until he saw who it was; then he smiled.

“You did pretty good, old witch,” Tibby squeaked at her, as if he hadn’t been away in her hours of need.

“No thanks to you,” she replied sulkily.

“Oh, so that’s what you think?” The mouse huffed. “Some gratitude. When I’ve been helping you all the time. Me and some...friends. Behind the scenes. You just didn’t know it.”

Rebecca glared at him, but eventually sighing softly, she reached out her hand and he scrambled aboard. “Thanks. I really didn’t believe you’d abandoned me. But you missed all the fun.” She set him on her shoulder where he most liked to be so he could whisper in her ear.

He cocked his little black face at her, his whiskers feathering the air. “Nah, I saw the ghoulies. They ain’t gonna win no beauty contests, I can tell you that.”

“I didn’t know he could
really
talk,” Ernie exclaimed, startled; staring at the grinning rodent.

“Only when he wants to,” Rebecca said smugly.

The mouse laughed.

“He laughs,” Ernie said. “Like an hyena.”

“Yeah, a teeny-weeny one.”

The look of annoyance on the mouse’s face made both of the humans laugh.

Chapter Sixteen

Amanda didn’t sleep. The sounds of other people suffering wouldn’t let her. Time stood still and all she was aware of was the darkness, the heat, the cesspool stench of her prison, and the fear overriding it. She kept waiting for someone to come for her as they’d come for the others.

She prepared herself. She prayed, and as the night wore on, found herself dwelling in the past, her past, more and more. When she wasn’t deep in her melancholy, she attempted to comfort some of the other prisoners. Many were dehydrated, weak from malnutrition, or sick with terror. She couldn’t do much for them without her medicinal herbs, or food and water, and it broke her heart.

In her desperation, she remembered the mysterious Gibbiewackett and how he’d probably helped her once before with Jonny’s life; and although she knew it was pointless (he was, after all, centuries away) she called to him. Not just for herself, but for the others, the tortured as well as the imprisoned.

Help us, Gibbiewackett. Please help.

It did no good. She was still a prisoner among other prisoners in a filthy jail in a century that wasn’t hers.

At times, behind the tortured cries, she thought she heard Amadeus meowing outside somewhere. Was he really out there, searching and pining for her, or was it her imagination? Most likely her imagination, she decided. Because Amadeus still had enough magic that if he was close to her he’d find a way to get in.

Eventually the screams ceased and an ominous silence settled over those around her.

“Sometimes they come and take more of us,” a young girlish voice stated darkly. “Some nights the questioning goes on until dawn.”

“Aye,” another voice from the dark, “but they need live witches for their hangings next week, not dead corpses.”

They heard the key turning in the lock, the sound of doom, and the thick wooden cell door swung open. The prisoners scurried away, fleeing to the gloomiest corners to hide. Even Amanda. What was pride now? The promise of excruciating pain could turn anyone into a coward.

A guard paused in the doorway with a candle lantern. His shadowed face was hard, cold under his helmet. His narrowed eyes searched the room.

“I have come for Rachel Coxe,” the deep voice boomed out. The man had a neatly trimmed beard and massive shoulders under his dirty uniform. A musket held ready in his hands.

Amanda swallowed, a lump lodging in her dry throat, as she sidled against the wall away from the dreaded light. Her fingers skimmed the ragged notches behind her arched back, shaking.

“Mistress Coxe!”

“Thou must go,” one of the shadows beside her whispered. “It does no good to hide. They find thee, anyway, and then it will be worse. A beating before the questioning even begins.”

Amanda swiped the tears from her face with the back of her sweaty hand and moved forward on shaky legs.

“Here I am,” she said.

The guard captured her by the arm, roughly escorted her from the cell and down a narrow corridor. Amanda’s heart was thudding in her chest. She couldn’t think, it was so loud. Her jailer ended up half-dragging her because her legs trembled so much she could barely walk.

She’d never been so afraid. Her mouth so dry her tongue stuck to her teeth, her gaze blurred. She was helpless. She was going to die. She’d always believed she’d be brave in such a situation, but it was never the same when you were the one facing pain and death. You couldn’t make your body and mind behave, that was the problem.

They were outside. Amanda felt the night breezes caressing her face. The smell of roses. Of sweet late-summer grass and shrubbery. She gulped the fresh air down as if she’d been starving for it as the sweat evaporated off her hot skin. The velvet black sky above her twinkled full of stars. The moon round and radiantly white floated above her like a unique Christmas ornament.

How cruel, she thought numbly, to give me this brief taste of freedom and beauty right before they start tearing my limbs apart.

Then it came to her. What were they doing
outside
the jail? The torture chamber was inside.

A huge shadow rose before them. Pranced skittishly. A horse neighed. Then, astounded, Amanda heard Amadeus meowing happily. Coins clinked. Husky men’s voices saying something...

Without warning, the guard who’d had her in his grip lifted her up off the ground and she found a saddle under her and strong arms about her. Unprepared and jolted, Amanda cried out in fear at first. A warm hand over her mouth quieted her, and the arms drew her lovingly backward. A familiar voice whispered in her ear, “Hush, Rachel, my love, be not frightened, ’tis me. I have come to save thee.” Hot lips covered hers as the guard shuffled back into the night.

Joshua!

“You came for me! You really came for me, Joshua.” She moaned, her body quivering with joy. Her tears were now tears of happiness and relief as he pressed his arms tighter around her.

He calmed his horse with gentle words, and said to her, “We are not out of danger yet. Sebastien could at any second discover thee missing and alert the other guards. Come after us. I expect it. I bribed the fellow who brought thee out to me. He is my cousin and believed me when I told him thou were no witch, but falsely accused. That we were to be married.”

It was almost all too much for Amanda to take in. “How did you know what had happened...where I was?” She was so ecstatic he was there and she was free she forgot her
thees
and
thous—
and
didn’t care. Her lover didn’t seem to notice.

Joshua had pressed his knees to his mount’s side and they were heading into the woods at a brisk trot. The crickets and other chirping night creatures produced the loveliest noises Amanda had ever heard.

“This is going to sound...strange...but all the way toward Rivers Grove I had this overwhelming urge
to return. A tiny voice in my mind kept telling me that thou was in urgent peril. It would not leave me be until I had heeded its advice and turned back.”

Again Amanda had the feeling that there was someone watching over her. Protecting her in the best way it could. Gibbiewackett? His Master? Rebecca?

“So I sent two of my best men on to the marketplace with the crops, and my overseer Griffin and I rode with all haste back to thy cottage. The children explained that Sebastien’s men had come for thee. I knew where they would be holding thee. The jail. I came. I bribed the guard to bring thee to me.”

Amanda’s manner grave, she informed him, “Do you realize what you’ve done, Joshua? Sebastien will not let me go so easily. I’m accused of murder as well as practicing witchcraft.”

“Aye, I have heard so. The guard told me. I know that be not true, Rachel. Thou art no murderess, either. The charges be lies. As are all his accusations.”

Hatred underscored his next words. “’Twas the questioning, the torture, I would not abide for thee. Sebastien will not do to thee what he did to my poor brother, Jacob. Once I heard they had imprisoned thee, I swore that. The very fact that he sent for thee whilst I was gone, gave his foul game away. Sebastien will not harm any more innocents, either. I gave my cousin more than enough gold to set the others free once we were away. All of them. Even the ones undergoing torture...if he can find a way to do it.”

“Joshua, you are so good.” Amanda wept, reaching up with one hand and touching his face gently. The very thought of the other prisoners still being trapped in that wretched cell, while she was free, haunted her. Knowing that they would be released took a heavy burden off her. Yet, Joshua had taken such risks.

“But by saving me, my love, you have become what I am. A criminal.”

He sighed understandingly as they moved, ducking in the saddle, under some low branches. “That be true, yet I do not care, Rachel. I love thee and soon I will make thee my wife. I will gladly give up everything I own for thee. When I heard thou were taken I believed my soul would wither from the pain I felt. The loss. My heart cried. I knew then that thou art my life. Nothing must happen to thee.”

Amanda let the tears slide down her cheeks. To find such a love once in a lifetime was rare; twice was a genuine miracle.

“Where are we going?” she asked, trying to hide the fact that she was crying, as she furtively wiped away the tears.

“We are on our way to my Uncle Kasper, my mother’s brother, who resides in Providence. We will stay there with him and his family until we know we are safe, then we will send for the girls and go west. There be land and freedom, a new life, for all of us. Far distant from this place and Sebastien’s abominable inquisition. I have also sent word to my mother through Griffin to continue to run the plantation until she can find a buyer for it, and then she is to follow us, in secret. We will begin anew, Rachel. For thee, I would do this and more.”

The love in his voice, and the sacrifice he was making for her, humbled Amanda. To go on the run. To leave his home and start over again in a foreign place.

Then an awful truth dawned on her. “Send for the girls?” Amanda repeated. The legend of Rachel had also proclaimed the children’s bloody butchering. Had foretold their deaths. “Oh, God, no. Sebastien will have the girls killed when he finds I’ve escaped. I know he will!” Amanda grabbed Joshua’s arm with tight fingers. “We must ride to the cottage and get them. Now!”

“Hush, sweet Rachel.” He laughed kindly. “I thought of their well-being, also. I ordered my overseer to take them along safely with him to my mother before I ever set out to rescue thee. She will hide and care for them until they all come to us.”

Her fear fell away like magic. Maggie and Lizzy were safe. It was unbelievable, but Rachel’s children, like her, had escaped their predestined fate. Had escaped death. Soon they’d be together, Joshua, the girls, and her; away from this cursed place—and Sebastien. Amanda felt like laughing with joy.

Joshua had hesitated, but finished with, “That is why I am alone. Except for an unexpected passenger I discovered on the way. He must have jumped aboard.”

Amanda heard the meow. Amadeus popped his head out of one of the saddlebags, and then he was scrambling into her lap, licking her hands and rubbing against her as if he were thrilled to see her.

“Oh, Amadeus. I didn’t leave you behind after all. You’re coming, too.” She kissed his furry head, hugging him so hard he growled in protest.

“Thank you, Joshua, for bringing him,” Amanda whispered. “I love you.”

Joshua slowed his horse down enough so he could turn her in the saddle and take her fully in his arms. He gave her a long and lingering kiss and held her close. There were tears on his face, too. A minute later, he sent the horse into a gallop again. The shadowy woods went rushing by.