Weyward

Because of blood loss, Violet drifts in and out of consciousness. When she finally awakens, she realizes that her abortion was successful: “She lifted the candle and pushed back the covers. It had worked. There was nothing of Frederick inside her anymore. She was free” (272). Her next task is to get rid of the residue, but she is too weak to stand.

As Simon prowls the downstairs rooms looking for her, Kate texts Emily and asks her to call the police. In the attic, she notices the bureau drawers are etched with the same “W” as her locket. She pries the locket open to reveal a small message written in Violet’s hand: “I hope she can help you as she helped me” (276). Kate suspects that Violet is referring to their witch ancestor. She uses the key to open the locked bureau drawer. Inside, she finds an old book of parchment. It is Altha’s story, and Kate tensely begins to search its pages for a message that might help her.

Now safely back in her cottage, Altha is working on her story. Even though she promised her mother she would never speak of their family secrets, she commits them to paper to be read by one of her descendants after her death.

Altha’s mother told her that the Weyward women were given a gift. They have a wildness inside and are strongly connected to nature. This gives them the power to heal as well as other powers that men fear:

But our other gift—the bond we have with all creatures—is far more dangerous, she told me. Women had perished—in flames, or at the rope—for keeping close company with animals, whom jealous men labeled ‘familiars’ (279).

Altha realizes that she may be able to help Grace using these powers.

Graham comes to the cottage and is shocked to see his sister in her bloody nightgown. The fetus has been expelled, and he guesses what Violet has done. Warning that his father and the doctor are on their way, he helps her clean the cottage and buries the fetus in the garden.

Kate hides in the attic for several hours while Simon paces around downstairs. She has now read all of Altha’s secrets about the powers of the Weyward women. Seeing the parallels between her life and Altha’s, “rage unfurls inside her” (284). She hears a large flock of crows land on the roof. She gives them a silent message that she is ready and opens the trap door.

During the fall of 1618, Altha is busy tending to villagers who have been struck with fever. At the Christmas service, she learns that Grace has been ill, but she doesn’t know if this is because of the fever or her husband’s beatings.

On New Year’s Eve, a kind neighbor named Adam Bainbridge stops by to deliver holiday gifts, and he also carries a gift from Grace. Later, Altha opens the package and finds an orange along with a figure made of twigs and twine. It is meant to represent a pregnant woman. Altha knows that Grace needs her help again.

When Lord Rupert arrives with the doctor, Graham says that Violet has miscarried. He lies and tells the men that he witnessed the whole thing. Since abortion is illegal in England, the doctor is suspicious, but with Violet and Graham agreeing to the same story, he can’t prove anything.

Later, Graham says that their father wrote to inform Frederick that the wedding is off. Graham stays for a week to help Violet make the cottage habitable. During this time, she tells him how their mother really died. All along, he thought his birth had killed Lizzie.

When Lord Rupert returns, he says that he will send Violet to a finishing school in Scotland, but she refuses to go. She intends to remain at the cottage. Her father is about to protest when she uses her power to set a swarm of bees on him, and he retreats in fear.

Kate climbs down the ladder to find Simon in the living room. Birds are pecking so hard at the windows that they are cracking the glass. Simon is enraged when he sees Kate. He tries to choke her, but she isn’t afraid of his attack. In her rage, she commands the birds to attack: “The window breaks, a waterfall of sharp sounds. The room grows dark with feathered bodies, shooting through the broken window, the fireplace. Beaks, claws, and eyes flashing” (300).

A white streaked crow alights on Kate’s shoulder, and she feels the presence of Violet and Altha beside her. After the birds peck out one of Simon’s eyes, Kate commands them to withdraw and then tells Simon to get out. Shortly afterward, Emily arrives with the police.

Altha is now ready to record the incident of John Milburn’s death. It is New Year’s Day, and she climbs the old oak tree at the edge of his pasture. A white-streaked crow joins her. Its presence convinces her that what she is planning is the right course to take. As Altha sits in the tree, the crow flies above the herd of cattle and dives down sharply, frightening them into a stampede that kills John.

Afterward, she takes Grace into the house to wait for the doctor: “After a time, she put her hand on mine. The sleeve of her dress fell back and I saw the bruises on her wrist, as purple as summer fruit” (305). Altha concludes her tale by saying that she conceived a child with her neighbor, Adam Bainbridge. It will be a girl, and she is determined to stay at Weyward Cottage. She is also proud that her power was able to help her friend.

In September, Graham goes back to school to finish his education. After that, Lord Rupert will cut him off financially. He makes no provision at all for Violet, who has decided to remain at the cottage, take odd jobs, and cultivate her garden. She regrets not giving birth to her Weyward daughter, but the time wasn’t right, and Frederick wasn’t fit to father her child.

In November, Frederick writes to say that Lord Rupert is dead and that he produced documents claiming that neither Graham nor Violet were his biological children. Violet knows the documents are falsified, but the estate will pass to Frederick, nonetheless. He gives Weyward Cottage to Violet, though she maintains the property was already hers and never belonged to the estate at all.

When Graham returns for the holidays, he says that he may get a scholarship for law school. He promises to pay for Violet’s education after establishing his law practice. One night, Violet gets the idea of summoning insects. After their winter hibernation ends, she commands them to infest Orton Hall to punish Frederick: “The air shimmering with insects, in a swarm that grew and grew each year, until there was no escaping it. And Frederick. Trapped there alone. He would never forget what he had done” (310).

Kate’s life returns to normal after the police arrest Simon. Though he might be free in a few years, Kate no longer fears him and doesn’t expect him to come back. Her mother arrives shortly before the baby’s birth. When the little girl arrives, Kate names her Violet Altha.

The story now shifts to August 2018, shortly before Violet’s death. She is looking back over her life and musing about her past. Graham paid for her to earn her first degree in biology. Before she left for school, he gave her the bee brooch that featured so prominently in Kate’s life afterward.

Violet first met Kate at Graham’s funeral when the little girl was only six. She was stuck by Kate’s resemblance to her own mother. Later, when Kate was in the garden talking to a bee, Violet realized that the Weyward line might not be dying out after all. On impulse, she gave her bee brooch to her grandniece.

Two years later, Violet had a nightmare in which she saw a red car bearing down on Kate. The driver was a man with blond hair and a cruel face. Determined to prevent any harm to the child, Violet drove to London. She saw the red car as it neared Kate but was too far away to help, so she summoned a crow. As it distracted Kate, her father shoved her out of harm’s way and died himself. Violet was disturbed that she prevented one death and caused another.

Years later, when Violet tried to visit Kate at her apartment, she was sent away by the blond-haired man with the cruel face from her nightmare. At this point, she realized that she only averted part of Kate’s tragedy. Right after returning to Cumbria, she made a will, leaving Weyward Cottage to Kate. She thinks of it as “mak[ing] amends. She would give Kate her legacy. She would give her a new life. Away from him” (322).

Back in 2018, before she falls asleep, Violet feels compelled to scribble a note inside her locket for Kate to find someday: “I hope she can help you as she helped me” (276). Afterward, she gets ready to fall asleep peacefully.