Face Down under the Wych Elm by Kathy Lynn Emerson Read Free Book Online Page B

her features frozen.
    The corner of one eye appeared to have a distinct droop.
    If Jennet had harbored any remaining doubt, the expression on Lady Appleton's face was enough to tell her that, against all odds, this was the same Constance Crane.
    "Come to gloat?” Sir Robert's former mistress spoke in a raspy voice caused, Jennet suspected, by the dampness in the cell.
    "I am here to help, if I can. Are you innocent of the crime of which you stand accused?"
    "I am accused of murder by witchcraft and my cousin here is said to have killed another man by putting a curse on him. As the old rhyme goes, ‘If I be a witch, the devil thee twitch.’”
    Holding her breath, her hands clasped tightly together, Jennet waited for the quivering and quaking to begin.
    Nothing happened.
    Lady Appleton did not seem surprised. She met Mistress Crane's obvious contempt with a bracing tone of voice. “These charges are untrue. Why were they made against you?"
    "You believe me?” Her face betraying both confusion and relief, Mistress Crane slumped against the wall. Her brief spurt of defiance seemed to have used up all her strength.
    Filled with reluctant sympathy for the prisoner, Jennet wondered how long she had been held in gaol and what means had been used to examine her.
    "I do not know why,” Mistress Crane insisted. “I do not understand any of what has happened to us."
    Tears sprang into her eyes and she dashed them away with impatient fists. She must be embarrassed to be seen like this by her old lover's widow, Jennet thought. Unless she was past caring what anyone thought of her plight.
    Jennet kept her distance but Lady Appleton once more attempted to approach. Mistress Crane's reaction was immediate. Fending off any offer of comfort with a ferocious scowl, she flattened herself against the wall. Lady Appleton retreated, but not before Jennet was able to compare the two of them. For just a moment, they'd stood side by side, illuminated by the lantern. Both had brown hair and blue eyes, but there the physical similarities seemed to end.
    Mistress Crane was several inches shorter and by far the thinner of the two. She had a sharp beak of a nose and a small, pointed chin. Lady Appleton's features were more substantial, to go with a square jaw some said was the outward sign of her determined nature.
    "You must not give up hope, Constance. If you say there was no witchcraft involved, then I believe you and I will do all I can to help you prove it. The first thing we must do is find another way to account for the deaths. If we can prove someone else murdered those people and explain why, the authorities must perforce set you free."
    "Why do you care? You have no reason to help me and every excuse to continue to leave me here to rot.” Her eyes narrowed. “What do you gain by appearing here now?"
    "Justice."
    The simplicity of Lady Appleton's explanation seemed to startle Mistress Crane. She started to speak, then thought better of it. She waited for Lady Appleton to take the lead.
    "To begin with, you must tell me all you know of these two deaths, starting with the names of the victims and how they were connected with you."
    Jennet searched the cramped cell, hoping to spot a chair or a stool. Her mistress would be more comfortable seated. The conditions in the gaol would make her leg throb if they stayed much longer. Ever since she'd injured it in a fall some years earlier, excessive damp troubled her.
    A straw pallet was the only furniture. It moved suspiciously when Jennet poked at it with her toe. Withdrawing her foot a safe distance, she decided that if the two women shared their quarters with a rat, she did not need proof of it.
    "My cousin is accused of killing Clement Edgecumbe,” Mistress Crane said.
    "Who was he and how did he die?"
    "He was her neighbor. He fell into a trance from which none could wake him and after eight hours, died."
    Jennet felt her face pale. She was no expert on herbs but she'd learned enough from Lady