Chapter 3.
They kept her in a place Alistar called Hecuba's lair for about four weeks. It was some deep underground chamber, where the witch Hecuba had accumulated many worldly things of value. Paintings, sculpture, jewelry, furniture and objects pertaining to the dark arts. Tabitha also was privy to see the potions and talismans that Hecuba used in her witchcraft. It was too dissimilar in apothocary methods from that which had been taught in England, by Cecilia, the Healer and Divinator who had brought her up.
She could not recall how she had come to be in this dark abode. They must have drugged her with something in the wine.
They had brought her food, which she refused to eat, until the 4th day, starvation won out and she ate a bit of porridge and water to sustain herself.
A prisoner! Tabitha thought angrily. Of some vile plot. All she could think of was doing herself in. Foxglove, Belladona, Hemlock....Nightshade...it would be easy for someone like Tabitha, who knew the secrets of plants. Perhaps there was some here in this cave.
I would be better off dead! T'would be better off, underground.
Will the townsfolk have missed me? Not if they knew of my past.
I am merely a maiden undone, and no more than that.
She knew of the old tales, the warnings given to young women about evil men, who corrupted and seduced young women against their will, like Alistar Crane.
It was, but a tale that is told.
She had heard of such things happening to many young women, milkmaids, servants, cottage girls caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. So what makes my misery any different from theirs?
Alistar is much worst than those men. He was evil. He has doings with the Devil.
Tabitha wrapped the blanket around herself, chilled to the bone. She looked into the mirror hanging on the cave wall. She stared back at her pale reflection, although nothing other than loss of weight seemed physically altered. And yet, there was something different about her eyes, some quality of sadness that had not been there before. Something deeper, older.....more ancient...
She turned away from her reflection and sat down on one of Hecuba's highback chairs.
"So, I see that the Beauty is up and about. It's nearly mid-day." Hecuba said scornfully.
Tabitha ignored her, staring down at the floor.
"How are you feeling?"
"Nauseous, if you must know." Tabitha said without feeling.
Hecuba's eyes brightened. "Oh, come now. It wasn't as bad as all that. You'll get over it. Will you have a bit of breakfast then?" Hecuba scrutinized Tabitha, as if trying to read her inner most thoughts. Hecuba produced a plate of greasy eggs and ham out of thin air.
"Take it away, I'm going to be sick." Revolted, Tabitha covered her mouth and swallowed back the bile.
Hecuba threw chin head up, as if hearkening to a sound no one else could hear, she drew closer to the young woman and peered into her eyes. She murmurred a few incantations...stood still, waited and then placed her hand over Tabitha's abdomen. A flash of teeth showed in her great smile, Hecuba was grinning ear to ear. She jumped up and down.
"Am I to be kept his prisoner here forever? Vile one?"
"I believe you will be released today. IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!" Hecuba could hardly contain her excitement and vanished from the chamber without another word.
Tabitha took to the fields on her way home from the Crane property. It was not long after that cryptic conversation with Hecuba, that she found herself outside the great house. Hecuba did not explain, nor threaten her.
The gameskeepers gave her a knowing look, nodded their heads as if they were privy to the goings on inside the walls of the house. They said nothing to her as she passed. They slung their muskets over their shoulders...going about the business in seeking the usual Harmony poachers.
For some reason, Tabitha thought, they seemed to be aware of all that occurred. But perhaps, she reasoned, her heightened state of awareness made her intensely paranoid. She consciously avoided the adjoining Russell farm. Careful not to run into Maizee Russell, for she could not bear the burden of what had happened to her with anyone. And who would understand? No one. No one would believe her.
All they would come to know, if she were ever to tell the truth, was that she had once been tried and convicted of witchcraft in the old world.
Tabitha laughed bitterly to herself. This new world was not that much different from the old. Full of the same superstition, prejudice and fears.
It was a glorious day, resplendent with a bright blue sky, birds twittering in the trees and all seemed well with the world. The glorious day seemed to mock her in her troubles. She thought about the old saying "The sun shines as gloriously upon the just and the unjust."
The grasses and wildflowers were knee high, droning with the strum of bees and the fluttering wings of singing birds and butterflies. The early hay mowing would commence soon.
She avoided the main road and kept her solitude by using the wooded paths, used by woodsmen and hunters. The graveyard on the top of the hill seemed to call to her, and she crossed through the gate. Many of the grave stones had been obliterated with the upheavals of freezes and thaws, tree roots and the Harsh New England winters. Their inscriptions were barely legible. Her eyes fell upon the stone cutters shed, where she spied a pile of rubble, the broken gravestones cast aside in a heap. The church sexton kept his tools there. But she liked this peaceful place and continued deeper toward the space designated as unhallowed ground. It was located at the back of the graveyard, in an inconspicuous lonely corner. It was the site where drunkards, the unbaptized and women of ill repute were interred.
Under the shade of a Witch Hazel tree, she sat down out of weariness, then lay back under its bows staring up at the sky through the dapple of foliage. Her arms crossed over her body like a corpse and she slept.
**************************
The sun's arc was low in the sky to the west when Tabitha woke up. One month had passed the solstice since her ordeal. She considered the wheeling of the celestial bodies that signaled the fullness of summer, the promise of growing things, sweet summer nights and the fruition of Harvest Time.
She brushed the seeds and stems from her frock and left the tree, for the sun dipped far below the trees and melted into twighlight. She preferred the twighlight, the winking stars, the rising of the lunar disk, the owl stirring in the thickets, the in-between netherworld that was neither night nor day. She felt somehow, a kindred spirit to the netherworld, as if it were a place for lost souls.
She felt suddenly weak with the first pangs of grief, this thing that had come to her.
"I always thought it was going to be different. I thought it would be sweet and loving...and it would be with a tender young man who cherished me....But it was none of that." She gripped herself and held back the tears, hardening herself to all sentiment and self- pity.
It was rape, and that was all.
Tabitha Lennox left something of herself behind, beneath the bows of that old Witch Hazel tree in the lonesomeness of the neglected graveyard. She left behind something of herself that she could not name.
Another Tabitha Lennox had left her, and she came back to Harmony never again.
They kept her in a place Alistar called Hecuba's lair for about four weeks. It was some deep underground chamber, where the witch Hecuba had accumulated many worldly things of value. Paintings, sculpture, jewelry, furniture and objects pertaining to the dark arts. Tabitha also was privy to see the potions and talismans that Hecuba used in her witchcraft. It was too dissimilar in apothocary methods from that which had been taught in England, by Cecilia, the Healer and Divinator who had brought her up.
She could not recall how she had come to be in this dark abode. They must have drugged her with something in the wine.
They had brought her food, which she refused to eat, until the 4th day, starvation won out and she ate a bit of porridge and water to sustain herself.
A prisoner! Tabitha thought angrily. Of some vile plot. All she could think of was doing herself in. Foxglove, Belladona, Hemlock....Nightshade...it would be easy for someone like Tabitha, who knew the secrets of plants. Perhaps there was some here in this cave.
I would be better off dead! T'would be better off, underground.
Will the townsfolk have missed me? Not if they knew of my past.
I am merely a maiden undone, and no more than that.
She knew of the old tales, the warnings given to young women about evil men, who corrupted and seduced young women against their will, like Alistar Crane.
It was, but a tale that is told.
She had heard of such things happening to many young women, milkmaids, servants, cottage girls caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. So what makes my misery any different from theirs?
Alistar is much worst than those men. He was evil. He has doings with the Devil.
Tabitha wrapped the blanket around herself, chilled to the bone. She looked into the mirror hanging on the cave wall. She stared back at her pale reflection, although nothing other than loss of weight seemed physically altered. And yet, there was something different about her eyes, some quality of sadness that had not been there before. Something deeper, older.....more ancient...
She turned away from her reflection and sat down on one of Hecuba's highback chairs.
"So, I see that the Beauty is up and about. It's nearly mid-day." Hecuba said scornfully.
Tabitha ignored her, staring down at the floor.
"How are you feeling?"
"Nauseous, if you must know." Tabitha said without feeling.
Hecuba's eyes brightened. "Oh, come now. It wasn't as bad as all that. You'll get over it. Will you have a bit of breakfast then?" Hecuba scrutinized Tabitha, as if trying to read her inner most thoughts. Hecuba produced a plate of greasy eggs and ham out of thin air.
"Take it away, I'm going to be sick." Revolted, Tabitha covered her mouth and swallowed back the bile.
Hecuba threw chin head up, as if hearkening to a sound no one else could hear, she drew closer to the young woman and peered into her eyes. She murmurred a few incantations...stood still, waited and then placed her hand over Tabitha's abdomen. A flash of teeth showed in her great smile, Hecuba was grinning ear to ear. She jumped up and down.
"Am I to be kept his prisoner here forever? Vile one?"
"I believe you will be released today. IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!" Hecuba could hardly contain her excitement and vanished from the chamber without another word.
Tabitha took to the fields on her way home from the Crane property. It was not long after that cryptic conversation with Hecuba, that she found herself outside the great house. Hecuba did not explain, nor threaten her.
The gameskeepers gave her a knowing look, nodded their heads as if they were privy to the goings on inside the walls of the house. They said nothing to her as she passed. They slung their muskets over their shoulders...going about the business in seeking the usual Harmony poachers.
For some reason, Tabitha thought, they seemed to be aware of all that occurred. But perhaps, she reasoned, her heightened state of awareness made her intensely paranoid. She consciously avoided the adjoining Russell farm. Careful not to run into Maizee Russell, for she could not bear the burden of what had happened to her with anyone. And who would understand? No one. No one would believe her.
All they would come to know, if she were ever to tell the truth, was that she had once been tried and convicted of witchcraft in the old world.
Tabitha laughed bitterly to herself. This new world was not that much different from the old. Full of the same superstition, prejudice and fears.
It was a glorious day, resplendent with a bright blue sky, birds twittering in the trees and all seemed well with the world. The glorious day seemed to mock her in her troubles. She thought about the old saying "The sun shines as gloriously upon the just and the unjust."
The grasses and wildflowers were knee high, droning with the strum of bees and the fluttering wings of singing birds and butterflies. The early hay mowing would commence soon.
She avoided the main road and kept her solitude by using the wooded paths, used by woodsmen and hunters. The graveyard on the top of the hill seemed to call to her, and she crossed through the gate. Many of the grave stones had been obliterated with the upheavals of freezes and thaws, tree roots and the Harsh New England winters. Their inscriptions were barely legible. Her eyes fell upon the stone cutters shed, where she spied a pile of rubble, the broken gravestones cast aside in a heap. The church sexton kept his tools there. But she liked this peaceful place and continued deeper toward the space designated as unhallowed ground. It was located at the back of the graveyard, in an inconspicuous lonely corner. It was the site where drunkards, the unbaptized and women of ill repute were interred.
Under the shade of a Witch Hazel tree, she sat down out of weariness, then lay back under its bows staring up at the sky through the dapple of foliage. Her arms crossed over her body like a corpse and she slept.
**************************
The sun's arc was low in the sky to the west when Tabitha woke up. One month had passed the solstice since her ordeal. She considered the wheeling of the celestial bodies that signaled the fullness of summer, the promise of growing things, sweet summer nights and the fruition of Harvest Time.
She brushed the seeds and stems from her frock and left the tree, for the sun dipped far below the trees and melted into twighlight. She preferred the twighlight, the winking stars, the rising of the lunar disk, the owl stirring in the thickets, the in-between netherworld that was neither night nor day. She felt somehow, a kindred spirit to the netherworld, as if it were a place for lost souls.
She felt suddenly weak with the first pangs of grief, this thing that had come to her.
"I always thought it was going to be different. I thought it would be sweet and loving...and it would be with a tender young man who cherished me....But it was none of that." She gripped herself and held back the tears, hardening herself to all sentiment and self- pity.
It was rape, and that was all.
Tabitha Lennox left something of herself behind, beneath the bows of that old Witch Hazel tree in the lonesomeness of the neglected graveyard. She left behind something of herself that she could not name.
Another Tabitha Lennox had left her, and she came back to Harmony never again.