trying to protect us too.
The repentance stools were right at the front of the church, under the pulpit. We were shoved down onto them and had to sit there facing the congregation, who could stare at us as much as they pleased throughout the four long hours of the service. I knew what they were thinking. I'd not been to our parish church at Kingarth more than a few times a year, but once or twice I'd seen some poor soul sitting on the repentance stool, in the hideous sackcloth robe, and I'd spent the entire service enjoying my feelings of righteous indignation, despising the poor woman who was being punished for slander, or the red-faced man who'd been riotous and drunk.
There was a great rustling and creaking of stiff Sunday boots and a clatter of wood on stone as the people opened their folding stools and set them down on the flagstones, then settled themselves, ready to work their way through the psalms and prayers, waiting eagerly for the sermon.
Most of them had never heard Mr. Robertson preach before. The minister of Rothesay, Mr. Stewart—who was away on the mainland—was a hot preacher. He loved to denounce sinners and proclaim humiliating punishments. Mr. Robertson was standing in for him. I could see in the faces in front of me how curious the congregation was and how they were looking forward to some thunderous ranting from the pulpit. It was Granny and me they hoped to see condemned. They were longing for it.
It was cold in the church and the sackcloth robes were thin, but I was so nervous that sweat trickled down my back.
All too soon, Mr. Robertson mounted the steps to the pulpit, high above our heads. The congregation had been singing the psalm lustily, and now they coughed to clear their throats, gazing up at him.
"I have been commanded by the presbytery," began Mr. Robertson in a solemn voice, "to preach to you today on the subject of witchcraft. My text"—he ran a bony finger down the page of the Bible open in front of him—"comes from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter eighteen." He found the place, cleared his throat, looked up, and paused, making sure that all eyes were fixed on him.
"'There shall not be found any among you,'" he read, "'that shall use divination, or is an enchanter, or a witch.'"
A satisfied hiss went from row to row, and though I didn't dare look up, I knew that heads were nodding. "'Or is a charmer, or a consulter of familiar spirits.'"
The silence that followed was uneasy, and glancing up at the faces for a moment, I saw that some were no longer meeting the minister's searching eyes.
"'All that do these things,'" he went on, stabbing at the book with his finger, "'are an abomination unto the Lord, and the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee.'"
He closed the Bible and looked up.
"Now," he went on, dropping his reading voice and speaking more naturally, "there are those among you who have accused Elspeth Wylie and Maggie Blair of using vile sorcery and witchcraft. But I am punishing them today for the true faults that are proven against them: that they have failed to keep the Sabbath, that they have not come to church at the set times, and that, in the case of Elspeth Wylie, she has used slanderous language and stirred up anger among her neighbors. It is for these sins that they sit before you today in a state of repentance, and if they will confess their sins before the Lord and their neighbors, they will be forgiven in the sight of man and the sight of God. As for the other charge, they will be brought tomorrow morning before a proper court assembled for the purpose, and until that judgment has been given, these women are not to be molested. Let everything be done decently and in order."
The thought of standing before a court made me shudder, but I was comforted by Mr. Robertson's words. He seemed determined that we should be treated fairly and, at the very least, protected from the crowd. I twisted my head around and stared up at him gratefully. Granny, I could tell, was just as surprised. She was blinking rapidly, and a grim little smile creased her cheeks.
"At this point, I shall announce the following punishments," Mr. Robertson went on, pulling a sheet of paper from his pocket. "Alison McKirdy has been found guilty of