Bewitching Their Hearts

Chapter Six

A/N: Sorry for the long wait everyone but thank you so much for your patience! Just a warning, there is some abuse in the last half of this chapter so be aware.

Sang's PoV

Over the next few days the Blackbourne team, as I've come to call them, went around town talking to as many people as they could. Some of the elders refused to talk to them, some believing that there could be no way that a group of outsiders could do what we haven't been able to do while others believed that they are in league with the devil come to trick us and test our willpower. I can see how frustrated the men are becoming having to fight through all of the suspicion or people running to them hysterical at the slightest thing only to have a perfectly logical and obvious explanation given; I don't suppose they are making great progress which seems like something they might not be used to. Even Dr. Green, who always seems to have a smile on his face, has started to wear a perpetual frown.

Mr. North seems to be the only one to have a townsperson willingly talk with him, much to his displeasure. Jade Williams seems to have set her sights on him and speaks to him daily under the pretense of having some new information. Every day I see her talking with him his temper rises higher and higher; I've made a game out of trying to find a plant or object that matches the shade of red his face turns. So far I've matched him to a red chokeberry bush in the fall and as I watch him now get caught by Jade again next to the field I'm collecting potatoes in I start to get concerned as his face is turning closer to a shade of purple.

"Have you anything important to actually tell me concerning the problem you all have gotten yourselves into or do you enjoy being a waste of my time and a thorn in my side?" Mr. North barked cutting off Jade mid-sentence.

"If you keep annoying me with your pointless babbling I will take it to mean you are personally involved in this mess and will bring down the entire force of my team's investigative powers on you which, believe me, you do not want. So I will give you this one warning, stay the hell away from me if you have any amount of intelligence," he growled before stalking away quickly glancing at me as he passes.

Jade watches his walk away in shocked silence before catching my eye. "Has no one ever told you it is rude to listen in on private conversations?" she snaps at me.

"I-I'm sorry, I di-didn't mean to," I stutter. "I was ju-just working in the f-fields when you both walked b-by."

"I saw you watching him as he left," she says as she casually strolls towards me. "Don't go getting thoughts about him in your head. He's mine, my way out of this place. Besides, you don't actually think he would pay you any attention do you? Look at you," she gestures to me with disgust. "You're just a small, ugly, insignificant poor girl. No one could feel anything for you other than pity and you certainly wouldn't be able to keep a man interested for long. You'll soon find your true place on the streets with the other beggars," she says to me.

"Don't worry Jade," I say quietly. "I have no interest in him or any of the gentlemen with him. But he also didn't seem too welcoming of your interests either. Maybe you should back off before you anger him even more." As soon as I say that I know I've made a terrible mistake. Jade's face turns red with anger as she grips my arm tightly enough to that I know a bruise will soon form.

"Mind yourself when you are speaking to you betters you trollop or you might find yourself in the stocks," she snarls before turning and walking back down the street.

Releasing a shaking breath I collect my basket of potatoes and go back home. I spot my mother standing in the kitchen and immediately know this will not end well for me. There is some blood on the front of her nightdress which meant she recently had another nose bleed and she is breathing heavily as if she ran a long distance. That along with the mad glint in her eyes tell me she is having another one of her episodes which always ends in me lying broken on the floor.

"Where have you been all day?!" mother screeches. "Off whoring yourself around again? I know a group of men arrived the other day to finally bring an end to the witches; stay away from them. This town doesn't need you and your whorish ways distracting them from their duty. Those men could only want one thing from you and I'll be dammed if 18 years of keeping you in control go up in flames because of a few pretty faces!" she screams as she lunges towards me.

I stumble back in surprise as her fist closes into my hair; my startled gasp does nothing to stop her from dragging me to my knees. Sharp pain flaring through my knees as they connect with tiny pebbles tells me that mother planned this whether I returned home at a reasonable time or not. I keep the floors too clean for the amount of pebbles I am kneeling on now to be a coincidence.

"You're a whore just like your mother and you brought the wrath of Satan down upon this village, you've brought these witches here! I would turn you in and let them burn you at the stake if it wouldn't bring me and Marie to ruin. Imagine what everyone would say, Marie would never be able to find a respectable husband and we'd be shunned by everyone just because my bastard of a husband allowed that whore to lead him to temptation and the stuck me with the evil product after she went and died birthing you."

A stinging pain races across the side of my face as my mother's slap snaps me out of the daze her words put me in. Surely she can't be saying what I think she is, that I'm not her daughter? But as I think more about it the more everything makes sense. I've never looked like any of my family, they all have brown hair and brown eyes while I have blond hair and green eyes; I'm also much smaller.

A mixture of relief and despair sweeps through me at this realization. Relief that I am not related to her or Marie, that maybe I'm not so horrible that not even my own family could love me. But then again father knows how she treats me and does nothing to stop it. Maybe mother is right and I do deserve all the pain and suffering I've grown accustomed to, maybe this is my penance for the sins my father committed.

With these thoughts racing through my head I fail to see my mother go outside and then return holding something until she pokes me in the back with it. Looking up I see her holding a switch and immediately tense knowing what will soon happen.

"Take off your top now."

I know better than to argue with her by now, that will only result in me getting beaten even more so with shaking fingers I quickly unbutton my top and let it drop to the floor. Bowing my head I try and prepare myself for what is about to come. The whistling sound as the switch is brought down is my only warning of when it starts. With a loud crack white hot pain sears across my back as I bite my lip trying to hold back the cry of pain, crying only makes her angrier which means I get whipped more so it is better if I stay silent and hope she tires quickly.

I count 15 whips before she stops and by that time my teeth have just broken through the skin of my bottom lip. Breathing heavily again she steps back and drops the switch onto the ground.

"Let this be a warning to you should you decide to tempt any men with your sinful ways. Now clean up and go to your room, I want you to pray for forgiveness and I don't want to see you for the rest of the day." With that mother turns around and walks back into her room shutting the door as she goes.

Once I'm able to catch my breath I pull my shirt back on thinking I can find some yarrow in the surrounding forest to use as bandages. Slowly I sweep up the pebbles and bring them as well as the switch back outside before slowly making my way upstairs to my room. I know I should stay in my room for a little while just in case mother hasn't fallen asleep yet but I feel as though I am suffocating so I open my window and crawl out onto the branch that always scrapes outside my room. Slowly I make my way down the tree and into the woods hoping to find some peace in there. Little did I know this would prove to be the best mistake I ever made.

A/N part 2: Yarrow is a plant indigenous to North America that is used basically as a bandage and disinfectant.
Also, I decided to go with Sang kneeling on pebbles instead of rice since this time period I figure people wouldn't waste good food like this and anyone who has been in New England knows that our soil consists of 90% rocks and pebbles so it would make more sense for her mother to use that I think.