Page 40 of The Changeling

‘Aye, I ken about the Witchcraft Act, hinny, but surely it’s a law against those who cast curses and other evil spells? No’ an old cunning woman like me who has sworn to do no harm?’

‘Nan, you dinna understand. Pastor Knox thinks any kind of charming is witchcraft. Your amulets, your cunning book, your omen staves, your chants to keep the bees from swarming, your rituals on May Eve or All Hallows’. All of it is forbidden, all of it is punishable by death.’

Nan was ashen. ‘Is the man mad?’ she said hoarsely. ‘He’d kill an old biddy for having a charm-stone strung about her neck? Why, half the folk in the country do the same!’

‘No’ anymore.’

Nan put her hand up to cover her amulets. ‘But how are we to keep ourselves safe?’

I shook my head. ‘I dinna ken, Nan. He wants us all biddable and meek, doing naught that he thinks is against the word of God. But his God is cruel and vengeful. I fear for the future; I fear for what lies ahead for us.’

‘Have you seen what is to happen?’

I nodded. ‘Just glimpses, Nan. Terrible glimpses.’

She took a deep breath, then took off her amulets and thrust them into her pocket. ‘Forewarned is forearmed,’ she said grimly. ‘I’m glad I came to see you.’

‘How did you ken where I was?’

‘Lass, the queen canna take a step without the whole country kenning. Why, as soon as she sent notice to Falkland that she was on her way, the staff here were ordering barrels of wine from St Andrews, and a boy was sent galloping to the River Tay for fresh caught salmon, and another to Monzie for my heather honey, for they ken there is none better.’

‘I meant, how did you ken I served the queen?’

‘Why, Robbie told us, of course. He knew we were worrit sick about you. That’s my other reason for coming to see you. It’s clear to me the lad is eating his heart out for love of you. I wanted to ken if you felt the same.’

My face grew hot, and I could not meet her eyes.

‘I see. Well then, what do you plan to do about it?’

‘What can I do?’ I said unhappily. ‘His father will never let us wed.’

‘Och aye, he’ll marry some milksop of a lady and be miserable all his days, poor lad. Would you condemn him and you to a life without love just because of that?’

Startled, I met Nan’s mischievous eyes.

‘Now you think just because I’m an old woman, and never married, that I dinna ken what I’m talking about? I never wed because I saw no reason to let a man get his hands on all I’ve worked for. Doesna mean I never bedded one!’

Nan cackled at my expression. ‘No need for me to tell you who, or how many! That’s my business. What you need to ken is that those preachers dinna like a woman living her own life and making her own choices, and so they make up a whole set of rules and regulations to keep her in line. In the olden days, a man and a woman would just get handfasted for a year and a day, and if they dinna suit, could part and go their own ways with no harm meant and no harm done. None of this being wedded till death do us part, regardless of how cruel the man might prove to be.’

She gave me an affectionate pat. ‘Anyway, it’s your life, hinny, and your body, and so dinna let some preacher tell you what to do with it. Just take care to keep it private. What busybodies dinna ken canna hurt them. I brought you a wee bag of herbs that will help you from conceiving a child, if you should decide to bed the lad. Just drink a brew of it the morning after.’

I was scarlet now. She went on relentlessly, opening the pouch to show me the herbs within by the light of the lanterns. ‘Now take a good look so you ken what to forage for. That one is wild carrot, and that’s meadowsweet. Those green leaves are pennyroyal, and that’s wormwood – take care no’ to take too much. Those bright yellow flowers are rue …’

A sharp jerk of my heart. I laid both hands on my chest.

Nan stopped talking. ‘What’s wrong, lass?’

I shook my head. I felt as if an iron band had been locked about my throat so tightly, I could scarcely breathe, let alone speak. Beside me, Carlin stood stiffly, her hackles raised, staring into the darkness under the hedge. A low growl reverberated through her gaunt body.

Nan did not notice. ‘Have I shocked you? Och, I’m sorry if so. But I canna bear to see you and the lad both so unhappy, just because you canna have a preacher mumble a few words over you in a kirk. Men! Always wanting to tell a woman what to do.’

This was one of Nan’s favourite topics of conversation, so she did not notice how silent I was, how unsteady on my feet. At last she wound down, and said she’d better be getting back to the inn: she had a long ride home in the morning.

‘And you’re looking very cold and pale, hinny, best get yourself to bed too. Just ken that we love you dearly, that you are still our lass, and you can come home anytime, even if you come with a babe in your belly. We’ll take care of you, no matter what.’

I thanked her incoherently, hugged her tight, then through a mist of tears watched her sturdy figure stride across the village square to the inn, where Duff was tethered, his head hanging low. My chest hurt, my heart thrashed as frantically as the wings of a bird in a net. I turned, my hands still pressed against my heart, and looked into the shadows.

What had seemed moonlight and moonshadow became the figure of a woman wearing a circlet of twigs. I was so close to her I saw her crown was made of hawthorn, just beginning to bud, and she had a strange black pattern inscribed between her brows. A crescent moon, crossed by an arrow broken into a V.