Witches of Pendle

Author Name: Stacey Halls

Fleetwood Shuttleworth, a young wife and mistress of Gawthorpe Manor, comes across a letter from the doctor to her husband, informing him that her pregnancy will put her and her baby in mortal danger. As she ponders this terrible news, she encounters a strange woman in the woods of her manor carrying a sack of dead rabbits. She claims that she did not kill them, but they were killed, and then disappears.
Fleetwood forgets about the matter and spends her days exhausted and vomiting, a habit she has become accustomed to after previous failed pregnancies. Her husband rejects her, and she returns alone to her bed and nightmares. Then one day, she rides her horse into the woods of her castle. Her horse spooks and she falls off, only to find herself once again confronted by Alice Grey, the eccentric woman, who treats her wounds and takes her back to her castle. On the way, she discovers that she is a midwife who delivers babies. She offers her a job, and Alice hesitantly agrees. With Alice's prescriptions, Fleetwood's health recovers, and her appetite and rosy cheeks return. However, things do not always go as planned, and Fleetwood discovers two things: that Alice is wanted for witchcraft, and that her husband has taken a mistress who is pregnant with his son.
Fleetwood decides to take Alice away to her mother for a while. After a while, her husband comes to take her back. Upon her return with Alice, she finds herself caught in a trap he has set for them. They are met by men of justice who arrest Alice on charges of killing a little girl using witchcraft. Fleetwood doesn't give up, so she goes to meet Alice in her dark prison. She learns from her that the little girl is her lover's daughter, and that she had been caring for her after her mother's death. However, the child was afflicted with a strange disease and died from its effects.
Fleetwood seeks to exonerate Alice, appealing to the judges and searching for her father and employer, but nothing seems to offer any hope. She then resorts to a last resort: she goes to Alice's lover and forces him to write a statement exonerating Alice and absolving her of this heinous charge. Carrying the statement, she gallops off on her horse, but the pains of labor surprise her, and she is carried between life and death to her palace. Then her husband arrives, and she begs him to go to the court and read the man's testimony. He goes with lightning speed, and Alice is acquitted. She returns with Fleetwood's husband, giving birth to Fleetwood's first child, and remains by their side until they reach safety.