Read Online A Break With Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi - Free Book Online Page A

stood before me, fists clenched as she spoke.
    "I was expecting you. If you have come to make trouble, be aware you are uncovering a hornets' nest. You will be sorry."
    "What trouble could I make for you, Ann?" I tried to remain calm, but I was frightened. I was not welcome. Something unpleasant was about to happen between us, yet I did not know the nature of it.
    "I know exactly what I have gotten myself into," she said. "But you do not. So be warned. If you came to probe for my secrets, you may not be happy with what you learn here this day."
    "Ann, I came to appeal to you."
    "For what? I suppose you wish to cast your lot in with us more, now that we have so much attention."
    "I wanted to join your circle before, Ann. But I no longer harbor such a wish. I came to ask you to speak out before it is too late."
    "Speak out about what?" she inquired innocently.
    "Ann, please let there be no deceit between us," I begged. "I wish you no harm. Nor any of the other girls in the circle. But the doctor's verdict about the evil hand being on Abigail Williams and little Betty Parris is not true. We both know such. Someone must speak out now, before the matter is out of hand."
    Her fists unclenched, and she turned away from me. "It is already out of hand," she said.
    I moved quickly to stand before her. "What mean you by that?"
    She laughed. It was a cruel and heartless laugh. "The ministers prayed over us. You should have seen them. They hovered over us like old crows. We couldn't look each other in the eyes for fear of giggling. Of course, that Reverend Noyes from Salem Town is young and a bachelor and rather dashing. I thought I would swoon when he put his hands on me."
    I was, indeed, taken aback by this. And I could not keep my feelings from showing in my face. "Ann, the laying on of hands is holy!"
    Again, she laughed. "You wouldn't think such, from the gleam in his eye."
    "Ann, you're only twelve," I said.
    "But far from a child. Or so people will soon find out."
    Her manner conveyed a threat.
    "Ann, what mean you by that?"
    She started swaying in a little skipping dance around the room. She picked up her skirts and held them out gracefully. She closed her eyes and hummed a tune. When at last she answered, a cold chill went through me.
    "The ministers wish us to name our tormentors."
    I gasped. "Ann! You cannot do that! There are no tormentors!"
    She continued her dancing moves, smiling at me. "We must do it. They want us to name people. This whole town wants it." She stopped dancing and considered me solemnly. "There is so much evil in this town." She sighed. "All my life I have heard of it from my mother. No one knows what she and her sister endured here. And we are plagued by so many other troubles. The elders are looking for someone to blame. We will give them many someones."
    "You will give forth the names of people as witches? When you know you girls are not really afflicted?"
    "We will, and the elders will be glad to know that the cause of the bickering and trouble in this place lies not at their own feet but is the fault of witches living amongst us."
    I understood now. "Is that why you joined the circle?" I asked. "To use it to avenge your mother's enemies?"
    She became angry. Her face twisted into bitter lines. "Yes, my mother sent me! Because she has disturbing dreams of her dead sister and her children. They stretch their hands out to her and implore her for help. My mother doesn't know what they want from her. She sent me to Tituba to contact her dead sister."
    "I am sorry for your mother's sorrows," I said. "Did Tituba help her?"
    "She was about to. She was in a trance one day, when little Betty Parris got frightened.... The child is a dafter. She ruined everything. I warned her about those fits. She wanted to go to her father and tell him what we were about. I told her that if she exposed our sport, her father would have her whipped in public and sent out to live with another family."
    So that was it! No surprise,