Chapter 25: Altha

Summary

• Altha reflects on wishing she had parchment and ink in the dungeon to record her thoughts before being executed.
• She reminisces about her mother teaching her to read, write, and understand the properties of herbs, but there are other teachings she isn’t ready to discuss.
• Altha recounts her mother changing after visitors from Clitheroe; her mother released a crow they had raised, which symbolized loss.
• Her mother insisted on staying indoors except for church, fearing for their safety due to village suspicions of witchcraft.
• The mother’s health deteriorated, and she avoided contact with the outside, suspecting the natural world as essential for their well-being.
• Altha's mother succumbed to the sweating sickness despite Altha's diligent care following her mother’s instructions on her herbal remedies.
• After her mother’s death, Altha often thought of Grace, her only other loved one, who had married and seemed happy from a distance.
• Altha, uninvited to Grace's wedding, secretly watched the ceremony, noting the change in her own life without her loved ones.
• The prosecutor in Altha's trial calls William Metcalfe, who accuses Altha of witchcraft and the murder of his son-in-law and wife.
• Metcalfe recounts his wife Anna's illness and death and blames Altha and her mother for her demise after they offered their healing services.
• Grace’s father suggests Altha and her mother are not normal women, insinuating that Altha's mother bore her of the devil.
• Overwhelmed by the accusation against her and her mother, Altha cries in court, and the courtroom reacts with whispers and stares.
• The prosecutor labels Altha as the "devil’s whore" and blames her for the death of an honest man, insisting she’s a blight upon society.
• Despite the emotional strain, Altha refuses to hide her face again, confronting the prosecutor with a defiant stare.