Free The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe Page B

longer than was strictly necessary, and then resumed her seat. Appleton gazed on her with distaste. He could already imagine her recounting this minor testimony to her neighbor over a fence post with all the authority attendant on a capital trial. Telt ’em, I did , he imagined her saying. That Dane shan’t think to chahge so much of me next time my foot be pained! Scurrilous hag.
    “Mr. Saltonstall,” Appleton intoned, casting an impatient eye on the muttering audience, “you shall examine the defendant.”
    In the far rear corner of the meetinghouse a pair of boots adorned with overlarge, well-buffed buckles dropped down from where they had been resting, crossed, on the seat of an empty chair. Their owner, dressed in overcoat and breeches of fitted richness, fashionably snug about the elbows, topped by an ostentatious lace collar stretching almost to his shoulders, pulled himself up to his full six feet and ambled to the front of the room. Someone ought to have a word with young Richard Saltonstall , Appleton reflected. I’d slice those curls off myself given half a chance. Richard’s father had never carried himself so. No sooner does God grant favor on your ships than you forget to pay obeisance to God.
    “Thank you, sir,” said the lawyer, his voice polished and confident. “’T’would be my pleasure.” He turned to face the crowded benches and announced “Goodman Peter Petford, defendant, shall submit to examination!”
    The roguish man whom Appleton had noticed rocking and holding his head during the depositions looked around himself and rose, uncertain. Saltonstall gestured him toward a chair at the side of the library table, and Petford seated himself uneasily. In the corner Elias hovered, quill poised to jot down his every utterance. Saltonstall looked to Appleton for approval, and Appleton nodded.
    “Goodman Petford, yeoman,” Saltonstall began, “you stand accused of sundry acts of slander for telling lies most grievous and spreading ill will of Goodwife Dane in the town. You are now before authority. I expect the truth of you.”
    “I am a gospel man,” said Petford, his voice wavering. He hung his head down near his shoulders, gaze averted. Appleton noticed that Petford’s cheeks appeared hollow and dark, the skin of his head clinging to his skull. He looked dreadful, broken.
    “How came you to ask Goodwife Dane to call upon your ailing daughter?” asked Saltonstall, addressing his question boldly to the assembled populace. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, voice booming into every corner of the meetinghouse.
    “I ha’ heard tell that she were able with physick for those ill,” muttered Petford.
    “Who spoke thusly?” demanded the lawyer.
    “Them as took notice of it,” said Petford, unsure. “Goody Dane be known in the town.”
    “And Martha your daughter was some poorly.”
    “Of a Monday she were at her labors in the gahden, only to take to her bed Tuesday eve. One week hence she were dead.”
    “Dead how?” asked Saltonstall.
    “I know not,” whispered Petford. “She cried out in toahments and said she was pricked. Her clothes seemed to trouble her, as though she were boilt up.” His voice caught for an instant, and he paused to clear his throat. “She was in her fits,” he finished.
    “Did Goodwife Dane come direct you called her?” prodded Saltonstall.
    “She did, and expressed no surprise that I would ask her,” Petford nodded.
    “She came to your house to see the child,” Saltonstall confirmed.
    “She did.”
    “How did the aforesaid Dane minister to the child?”
    Petford scowled, thinking. “It seemed she held her head and whispered to her, then fed her something from within her pocket.”
    “What sort of physick did she give the child?” asked Saltonstall.
    “A tincture of some kind, I dasn’t know what.”
    Saltsonstall paced thoughtfully across the room, nodding. “And how smelt it?” he asked, cocking one eyebrow at the