The Sins of a Few Read Online Free

so would likely only deepen her anguish. “I would not expect an untruth,” he said softly.
    “Poor judgment and unrealistic expectations,” she scoffed. “I must say, you have proven yourself well qualified for your profession.”
    “You do not think fondly of barristers?”
    “Why should I? It was they who promised to seek justice and uphold the law when they declared my aunt guilty of consorting with the devil. They observed blemishes on her skin born from more than five decades on this earth and deemed them witch’s marks. They considered her fear of wrongful imprisonment the regrets of a witch who was caught in wrongdoing, and when she stood strong they said she was impervious because the devil himself had laid a hand on her and gave her strength. The court heard these so-called facts and determined her guilty, so you will have to forgive me—or not, because frankly, I do not care—if I do not stand in observance of the ceremony on which you so richly wish to campaign.”
    Nathanial’s heart shifted and sank. The pieces came together all too slowly, delivered in a wall of guilt born from being so far removed from the events that had overtaken the place of his birth. But the truth was, he had been removed—quite literally by distance—and little credence was typically due the idle talk that crossed the great ocean. He may be years removed from any sort of camaraderie shared with this woman, but her impassioned voice was not one to be denied…or doubted. She made herself known as partial, but somehow he felt there were no words, however exaggerated, to lend adequate justice to the horrors of what must have gone on in Salem.
    “Please,” he said. “Tell me what happened.”
    She raised a weary, distrustful brow. “You truly do not know?”
    “I know only of gossip. I want to hear the truth.” He only wished he could hear it from someone other than her, for he wanted not to put her through the pain of retelling it. But he trusted her to speak the truth, and he could settle for nothing less.
    She took a shaky breath, and within it he once again found his regrets. But she forged on. “Your sisters consorted to accuse the innocent. No one but they know when it began, but one of the first claims was against the physician midwife. She caught your oldest sister schooling the younger girls to heat themselves against the fire to claim fever, presumably to earn a reprieve from schooling and chores. Your mother intervened and suggested the midwife would be punished for her conclusion. Soon after, the midwife was brought up on charges.”
    Though his gut churned terribly, his professional training kept him detached. He had to remain that way if any part of her story was true. “Was she hanged?”
    “No. It is believed she was pardoned by the governor himself, though there are only rumors to confirm.”
    “Pardoned by Phips?”
    Faith shook her head. “No, earlier in the year, by his predecessor, Bradstreet. The physician’s husband is said to be of Dunham blood.”
    Nathanial gave a low whistle. The Dunhams were among the wealthiest families in New England. If anyone could procure a pardon from the governor, it would be one of them. “Why was a woman of the Dunham lines acting as a physician here in Salem?”
    Faith shook her head. “No one knows—only that her husband was away for some time and she arrived during his absence. She came to Salem as a midwife, but she had previously apprenticed under a physician. When one was needed here, she accepted the role.” Her eyes narrowed. “And it nearly got her killed.”
    “And the others?”
    “All variations of the same story. Aunt Ruth had apparently scolded several girls—your sisters among them—for being cruel to a litter of kittens. They were spinning them in circles, then setting them down and laughing as the poor creatures fell to the ground, dizzy. The kittens were crying in their distress while your sisters laughed. Aunt Ruth chased the girls away