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Salem, 1692
Date: 9/18/2015, Categories: Historical, Author: WritersFriend, Rating: 9, Source: LushStories
mouth.” Thoughts roiled through Abernathy’s head. “I… I don’t know how it happened. The last thing I remember was the girl turning down the bedsheets. She… she must have bewitched me.” Mary’s eyes widened and a look of fear swept over her face. “Is this true, girl?” Mrs. Abernathy said. “No, ma’am.” “It is true!” Abernathy said. “See there, it’s her familiar.” He pointed at the cat crouched on the foot of the bed. It turned its attention on him and began hissing. “Is that your cat, girl?” Mrs. Abernathy said. “Yes, ma’am.” Abernathy thought he saw a look of doubt waver in his wife’s face. “Will you testify to that in court?” she asked him. “Certainly.” *** Edward Locke tossed and turned in his bed in the room attached to the stables. Sleep would not come. Everything had gone so wrong. That morning, July 19th, five more women had been hanged on Gallows Hill. Counting Bridget Bishop on June the 10th, that now made six. Mary had been in jail for more than a month and was soon to be tried. Edward had no doubt she would be found guilty. The evidence against all the women who thus far had been executed had been paltry. In Mary’s case it would be Abernathy’s word against hers, and who would the jury believe? He couldn’t have imagined this outcome when he slid the note under the front door of the Abernathy house on the 10th of June. Earlier that day, when Abernathy had pulled his horse and buggy into the stables of the House of the Seven Gables, Edward had known what the man’s evil ...