Hester

In the past, Isobel Gowdie stands in front of a crowd of villagers as charges of witchcraft are levied against her. She was charged by the local reverend, who attempted to sexually assault her a year ago, and whose wife she provided an abortifacient for. Gowdie’s hair is cut off, and she is stabbed with a needle to “prove” she is a witch. She protects her abdomen, as she is pregnant. After she is stabbed many times, the tester pretends to stab her, then announces she did not feel the alleged final stab, making her a witch. He announces Gowdie will be tried for witchcraft. She fears she is cursed, as she sees red when the words are spoken (a symptom of synesthesia).

When Isobel is eight, her mother tells her of Isobel Gowdie, who did not hide “her colors” and was accepted by villagers until a year of crop failure, during which she was accused of witchcraft. The villagers burned Gowdie’s house, leading the woman to stand on her roof and announce she is a witch and the Devil’s lover. She then purportedly escaped. Isobel’s mother doesn’t “have the colors” (22), but advises Isobel pray daily and prepare for the day when she will need to be strong like her ancestress. Over the next few weeks, Isobel’s mother grows increasingly ill and dies after warning her daughter to keep the colors secret one final time.

Isobel begins working at an embroidery shop that specializes in white embroidery on white fabric. Her colors fade, which helps her learn to read, though she has to hide the skill at work, as her employer does not approve of girls reading. A large order comes in from America, leading her to dream of one day living there and sewing beautiful things. Isobel’s father discourages this dream, insisting “it is best for a girl not to want anything grand” (28) and urging her to focus on marrying well.

The villagers feel anxious at the announcement that Isobel Gowdie will be tried for witchcraft and encouraged to name members of her “coven.” They are encouraged to report one another.

Isobel meets her future husband, Edward Gamble, an apothecary, after burning her hand. She compliments his salve as magical, despite her long-ingrained fear of witchcraft. Despite their age difference (Isobel is 17, Edward 30), he courts her with gifts. Edward wishes to learn the secret of life and death, which he believes is held by Indigenous or enslaved peoples in America. He proposes marriage, promising Isobel a comfortable life with her own sewing room. She accepts, content to marry for practicality rather than romance.

Despite her pain in their sexual encounters, Isobel is pleased to have a prosperous husband. She settles into domestic life, planning for a family, learning to cook meals that Edward likes, and sewing colorful designs in her new sewing room. When Edward injures his leg, she tends to him while maintaining a distance so as to not imply him weak. Isobel finishes sewing a banner for his apothecary, which leads to a local shoemaker asking her to make one for his shop. She is startled when the colors return as she thinks of the project, which feel like a message from her mother. Edward refuses to let her work, so she does so in secret. Later, Isobel learns he, following his injury, became addicted to laudanum and opium. He has accrued debts and is sentenced to the poorhouse. Isobel hurriedly gathers her most precious possessions, hiding them in her clothes and making them look as insignificant as possible. As the couple is taken to their new room in the poorhouse, she vows to use her sewing to free them. 

An examiner questions Isobel Gowdie as she gasps, delirious with thirst. He twists everything she says into confessions of witchcraft. She moans her admission that she had intercourse with the Devil, which Isobel’s mother and aunt remember as a triumphant cry. Several women do not believe Gowdie is a witch, but fear saying anything lest they be accused themselves. 

After three days in the poorhouse, Isobel’s father retrieves Isobel and Edward. Between what he salvaged from Edward’s shop and his own contribution, he managed to pay off Edward’s debt. He tells Edward to take Isobel to America. Isobel’s father slips a small bag of coins to Isobel, which she hides from Edward. She weeps as she bids him farewell.

En route to Liverpool, Edward studies the single apothecary book he managed to keep. He signs on as a ship medic to earn him and Isobel free passage to America. Isobel worries he will abuse opium again. The couple boards the New Harmony, whose captain, William Darling, Isobel admires. She suffers seasickness on the first days of the journey, and on the third day, must help Edward drain a large abscess in Darling’s side, aided by Ingo, the first Black man Isobel has ever met. The next morning, Ingo reports Darling has a fever, and that it will be “bad for all of [them]” if Darling dies (49). Unable to locate Edward, Isobel treats Darling using her mother’s remedies. When he recovers, she notes the embroidery on his bedclothes, which Darling reports as his own work, citing the peace he gains from stitching. She sits with him throughout the day while he recounts how he came to be a ship captain. When he falls asleep, Isobel seeks Edward, but Ingo reports Edward too sick “to be seen by a lady” (51). She worries that Edward is abusing opium. She returns to Darling and admits her dream of sewing for a living in America, expressing a desire for silk threads.

The next day, Darling thanks Isobel for saving his life with a packet of beautiful silk threads. Her colors suddenly become overwhelmingly vibrant. When she regains composure, she uses the threads to stitch pictures from her childhood, stopping days later when Edward appears and cries for help. A crew member helps Isobel hide from Edward. She considers helping until she realizes the ring from a barrel could be used as a large embroidery ring, which would make her work easier. She sews day and night, embroidering pictures of her home as well as Scottish history and folklore. Isobel records her and her parents’ names, and then a representation of Isobel Gowdie.

After 33 days at sea, the New Harmony approaches Salem. Darling offers to have Edward onboard again, despite his seasickness and abuse of opium, which Isobel takes as a sign that “America is indeed a land of new opportunity” (57). Despite Darling’s explanation that Salem comes from “salaam”—the Arabic word for “peace”—she finds the raucous docks overwhelming. An older woman, Sally Higgins, grabs her and warns about the Devil, then collapses. Edward kneels to help Widow Higgins. Several local boys call Widow Higgins a witch, but Darling chases them off. Intuition causes Isobel to turn, and she sees a man reading a book while he walks; this is later revealed to be Nat Hathorne. Isobel notes the contrast between this dramatic figure and the “riffraff and scurry of the wharf” (59). A breeze catches her cape, revealing the pictures she’s stitched inside. Nat notices, but she hurriedly hides the pictures.

Isobel spots the embroidery in a Black woman’s clothing—that of Mercy—and thinks it magical, fretting that her long weeks spent feverishly sewing at sea have diminished her ability to differentiate reality from her colors. Her group encounters the dramatic man from earlier, and Darling greets him as Mr. Hathorne, saying he brought new books from London on this voyage.

At Charter Ale House, an American seaman implies prejudice against Scottish people. Edward introduces himself as a doctor, falsely claiming he is trained in surgery. He then reveals his intention to travel with Darling to Bermuda, leaving Isobel behind in Salem. She is conflicted about this plan, as she is disappointed in him but does not wish to be alone. She retreats to their rented bedroom, finding comfort in embroidery. Isobel falls asleep thinking of the possibility of the New World and Mr. Hathorne.

In a new settlement in Salem, Major William Hathorne instructs his son John on the importance of protecting their community from Satan’s work; he gives John a copy of a book used in England and Scotland to “discover” witches. He studies the text carefully.

In the morning, Isobel discovers Edward passed out from alcohol on the floor. She hears a man apologize to “Nat”—Mr. Hathorne—that his story will not be published that week. She explores Salem, passively watching for Nat and dreaming about dresses she plans to design. Isobel encounters Widow Higgins, who apologizes for frightening her. She assures the older woman that she was unafraid. Widow Higgins asks about Isobel’s embroidery, if she will work for hire, and which church she will attend. She advises Isobel to be witnessed attending church weekly and offers to show her a cottage she owns, as Darling advised Isobel live there while he and Edward are at sea. Something about Widow Higgins makes Isobel uneasy, even as the older woman recommends where she can find embroidery work.

When Isobel returns to the inn, Edward announces she will be renting the widow’s cottage, brushing aside her protest that she would have liked to see the house beforehand. A Black wharf runner named Zeke guides the couple to the cottage. He praises the stitch work of his cousin, Mercy, whose work Isobel saw at the docks, though he denies Isobel’s claim that Mercy’s work is magic. Zeke points out local landmarks, including “Witch Woods,” which he cites as a thing of the past. Isobel likes the cottage, which reminds her of her childhood home. Mercy arrives with her children, Ivy and Abraham. Isobel wants to befriend the woman and ask about her sewing, but Mercy avoids meeting her gaze. The children happily show Isobel eggs and goat’s milk, which they brought in exchange for using the cottage’s well. She tries to offer the water for free as a gesture of friendship, but Mercy refuses. Mercy prepares to leave until she sees Isobel’s mother’s gloves with their fine embroidery. She tells Isobel about a potential embroidery job and then quickly leaves.

The next day, Zeke helps Edward and Isobel set up the house, advising Isobel on what to plant in her garden: He suggests she “plant a rainbow” (77), which inspires a stitching project.

Isobel Gowdie waits in prison the night before her scheduled hanging. She hears her husband outside, distracting the guards, and Reverend Forbes’s wife, Margret, frees her and encourages her to run. Gowdie does, not looking back.