Page 59 of Magic Touch
"I think she had herself bound," Esme says, low as if someone from the past might hear her. "I think she somehow hid her child away, but the only way to save herself was to remove her magic from detection."
My gut twists. "Is that what she meant by amputation?"
She nods. "I think so."
"Know the name Forrester and be warned. What does that mean?" I point to Serena's final words.
Esme shrugs. "Maybe he was a lover or the person who turned her into the witch hunters."
"Would Prudence know more?"
"She is quite old, but Serena Meriwether died nearly three hundred years ago." Esme closes the book. "I suppose it's worth asking, though. Family names in the witching world go back centuries."
"Then you think Forrester is Serena's last effort to claim justice for herself and her family?"
"Perhaps." Esme hands me the book and stands.
We walk downstairs and find Prudence sitting with her eyes closed on the porch.
Her look is faraway when she opens them, and it takes a moment for her attention to return.
"Are you alright, Great Mother?" Esme kneels in front of Prudence and holds her hand.
"Fine. What do you need?" It's a few more moments before Prudence seems her normal, sharp-witted self, but she is clear-eyed and attentive.
Esme and I tell her what we read in the journal.
"Forrester was an old family, but they left this area many years ago. There were rumors the family had been killed by the witch hunters, and others said they turned dark and left to avoid persecution by the Witches of Windsor. No one knows the truth of it."
I sit on the other chair and stare out over the lane and yard. Carrying a sack of vegetables, Trina wanders in from the road.
"Perhaps it was a Forrester who set the hunters against my family. It's possible Serena felt she had nothing to lose by revealing the name in her last entry before she killed herself. To write it in a private journal was little risk to her son. As far as we know, no one has read the entry until now." I hate the idea of the woman in the journal dying alone and desperate, and receiving no justice.
"It was a long time ago, William. It is often best to let such things go, as we haven't the power to change them." Prudence waves at Trina. "It looks like the market was bountiful?"
Smiling wide, Trina pulls out some carrots and greens to show us. "It was good to get out as well. I'll just bring these to Anne in the kitchen."
For the first time since her arrival, Trina doesn't make eye contact with me when she speaks. She avoids looking at me and rushes into the house as soon as Prudence nods approval.
Chapter
Sixteen
ESME
Mid-September brings a long letter from Minerva. The temperature has cooled, and I'm sitting on a bench in the back garden next to the stillroom. I like the solitude when no one is working. Since William and I broke off our affair, I need time away from him to manage my emotions.
Minerva tells me how much she's enjoying my shop. She gives me a full report on all my customers, who miss me and ask after me all the time.
Simon jumps into my lap, turns twice, and lies down. He's grown to three times the size he was when he came to my back door, and will grow more still. "I think you will miss the country most of all when we return home." I scratch his head.
"Miss Esme?" Trina calls from the other side of the stillroom.
With a sigh, I fold my letter. "I'm here, Trina."
In a white day dress, she rounds some bushes whose flowers have finished for the year. Only green leaves remain. "Great Mother is looking for you."
Simon hisses at Trina and runs from the garden.
