Nathan let his head drop, apparently pulled down by the weight of his overwhelming grief. When he looked up again, he stared straight at Matthew Appleton with an expression of pure agony. “The infant is the ultimate sacrifice,” he said. “Our children’s blood in exchange for powers great enough to strike down any man!”
Matthew’s face turned a ghastly shade of white. I wanted to go to him, to offer my assurance that Nathan was lying. But even after everything that had been said, it wasn’t yet my time.
Quakers throughout the room had put their silence aside, and the meetinghouse began to hum with their voices. More than a few people demanded that Nathan reveal the witch.
“You’ve given your warnings,” John Lewis called out above the other voices. “Now give us her name!”
Nathan stared at me with unabashed hatred. “The spirit commands me to reveal the witch!” he thundered, pointing a finger in my direction. “It was Selah Kilbrid that I saw in vision, selling her soul to the Devil.”
A hushed silence fell over the meetinghouse as every eye turned in my direction. I sat ramrod straight under their gaze, my chin slightly raised. Nora and Anne kept a firm hold on each of my hands. Henry was poised to spring at the first hint of danger.
“You’re mistaken, Nathan,” Anne said calmly. “Selah is not a witch.”
“The spirit is not wrong!” Nathan cried. His nostrils flared and his eyes blazed like a maniac. “Selah Kilbrid is the Devil’s whore!”
Confusion and shouting took over the meetinghouse. Several women hurried to get a safe distance away from me.
“Mark Flanders lost a heifer two days ago,” a man shouted from the crowd.
“It died of acorn poisoning,” William yelled back angrily.
“Maybe it was Selah and she just made it look like the cow had eaten too many acorns,” another shouted.
“Maybe you need to shut your mouth before I come over and shut it for you!” William shouted, standing to face the man.
“Let the witch speak for herself!” the man yelled back.
During this exchange, Henry came over and pulled me protectively to his side. Nora and Anne also stood, keeping close. Allison started to walk toward me, only to be stopped by her mother, who looked uncertain. When William joined us, Henry leaned over to whisper something in his ear. William nodded and then hurried toward the back door.
I stood stone still, my heart pounding painfully as my name spread through the crowd outside, bringing more people into the meetinghouse to see me. The space in the middle quickly disappeared, taken up by those being pushed forward to make room.
“Order!” Gideon bellowed, standing on a bench. “We will have order in God’s House!”
One by one, people fell silent, waiting for what the Elder would do next.
“Selah, please step forward,” Gideon instructed.
I did as he bid me, brushing past Nathan on my way. Henry stayed at my arm, a threat to anyone who dared harm me.
“Selah, are you willing to answer some questions?” Gideon asked. He was all seriousness, but from the concern in his eyes, I knew he meant to help.
I nodded and turned to face the crowd. Looking out at the mass of people, I was amazed by my complete lack of fear.
“Are you a witch?” he asked.
“No, I am not.” My voice was strong, without the slightest quiver.
“Did you sell your soul to the Devil?”
“No, I did not.”
“Do you bear a mark below you left breast?”
Gideon never would have asked this question if he had known the answer. I looked back at him imploringly, practically begging him with my eyes to ask something else—anything else.
Misinterpreting my silent pleas, Gideon simply asked the same question, just louder this time. “Do you bear a mark below your left breast?”
The crowd was growing restless from my prolonged silence. “Yes, I do,” I started hesitantly. I then tried to explain how it got there, but the shouts from the crowd drowned out my next words. Gideon’s next question also went unheard in the uproar.
“She’s a witch!”
“Put her in the dunking chair!”
“Lock her in the stocks!”
As men and women cried out all around me, Henry, Anne and Nora stayed at my side, unflinching at this latest revelation. Of course, Nora already knew I had this mark, as did the rest of the Goodwins, since it had happened at their home.
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, saith the Lord!” Nathan thundered. “She is an abomination before me and must be destroyed!”
“Hang her!” several people cried at once.
A man tried to grab me, but Henry took him by the coat and threw him to the floor. Pushing me behind him, he pulled out the pistol and aimed it at the crowd. In his other hand was a dagger that I had somehow missed earlier.
Gideon continued to call for order, though nobody paid any attention. Slowly, Henry moved toward the back door, his pistol and dagger keeping the crowd at bay. It looked like we would be riding to Philadelphia tonight.