Weyward

Altha recounts the night that Grace came to her cottage. They hadn’t spoken in the seven years since the death of Grace’s mother. Altha learned that Grace’s husband was abusive. He beat her and was angry every time she had a miscarriage. She was now pregnant and fearful that he would kill her if she miscarried again. As a result, Grace wanted Altha to give her an abortifacient. Altha agreed and told Grace to come back in one week when the tansy herbal preparation would be ready.

Violet has been left alone in Weyward Cottage and realizes it was once her mother’s home. As she tidies the place, she finds a bureau with a locked drawer in the bedroom. The key in her locket opens it. Inside, she finds a letter from Lizzie to her mother, admitting that she was wrong to fall in love with Rupert.

Lizzie explains that he schemed to kill his parents and elder brother in a carriage accident so he could inherit the estate. He tricked her into helping by saying it was the only way they would be allowed to marry. Lizzie was already pregnant, and Rupert warned that his parents might harm Lizzie’s baby, Violet, about whom she had a dream. Trying to keep her daughter safe, Lizzie sent her crow to fly in front of the horses and startle them, causing the carriage to crash down a ravine. She now realizes that Rupert used her and never loved her at all. She is full of regret: “For I am become like a rifle without bullets, and useless in his schemes. I will never harm another for his sake” (233). After this, Lizzie was locked in her chamber, a prisoner in Orton Hall.

Subsequent letters indicate that Violet’s grandmother was never able to contact Lizzie. The latter died during a hysterectomy intended to cure her nervous condition. Violet now knows the whole truth about her parents. The final document she finds in the drawer is written on parchment. It is Altha’s story of her witchcraft trial.

Kate is busy preparing for her baby’s arrival. Her mother calls and offers to buy an expensive carriage as an early Christmas gift. Kate accepts gratefully and gives the delivery information via email. Afterward, she is horrified to realize that she used her old email address, which Simon can still access. He’ll be able to find her now. She catches her mistake and deletes the message within three minutes, hoping he never saw it.

Later, Kate goes to visit Frederick in the nursing home. He notices that Kate is wearing Violet’s locket. Her resemblance to her great-aunt unnerves him because he believes Violet’s ghost has returned to haunt him. When an orderly tries to calm him, he says, “But it was her. […] She’s the one who sent them. The one who sent the insects” (243).

Kate drives home in the twilight during a snowstorm. She swerves to avoid a dead animal in the road and ends up crashing her car into a ditch. Cold and alone, she realizes that the only way out of her predicament is walking several miles through the woods.

Altha prepares the tansy potion and gives it to Grace. She asks her friend to return and let her know that all went well. A week later, Grace comes back, but she’s been beaten again. Her husband came home drunk early on the night she took the potion. Not suspecting that Grace induced an abortion, he assumed she miscarried again and beat her for failing to give him a son. Grace spends the night at Altha’s cottage. Altha suggests that there might be another way out of her abusive marriage—poison.

Violet spends all night reading Altha’s story. The following morning, her father arrives to announce that Frederick will be returning for the wedding. Later, she decides that she will never marry him or have the baby. She recalls reading one of her ancestor’s secret recipes for bringing on menses. She finds tansy flowers growing in the garden and decides to use the plant to abort the fetus.

Kate is struggling through the snowy woods. Still in shock from the accident, she grows disoriented until she hears the distant call of a crow. Rather than fearing the bird as she did when she first arrived, she now follows the sound and allows it to lead her to the lights of the village.

A few days later, Kate continues her preparations for her impending delivery. Emily has come to stock her refrigerator with all the food she will need in case the baby arrives early. Kate’s mother is due to fly to England the following day as well. Kate feels safe and secure with all the necessary arrangements made and is relaxing that evening when the phone rings. It’s Simon.

Altha has no further contact with Grace, though she wonders how her friend is faring. During the May Day Festival, she goes to join the villagers. While there, she sees a strange vision and is sure that it is Grace: “A girl, standing alone on the green, shadows dancing over her body. Dressed only in a shift, thighs black with blood” (261). Not knowing if this is a vision of the future or the present, Altha goes back home. Still concerned about Grace, Altha climbs an oak tree in the woods that border the Milburn property to spy on her friend. Grace appears unhappy and fearful but otherwise unharmed.

Six months after her miscarriage, Grace is in the marketplace, and Altha follows her out of town so they can speak. Altha urges Grace to poison her husband, but the latter protests that this would be discovered. Altha says that she will find another way, but Grace won’t listen and leaves abruptly.

Violet waits five days for the tansy potion to brew, and then she drinks it. The cramping and bleeding are unendurable: “The pain was overwhelming now. The window rattled, and Violet heard the crack of a branch hitting the roof. There was a rushing inside her, a breaking free, and then a great flood” (268). After the fetus is expelled, she blacks out. Her miscarriage is the vision that Altha saw and mistook for Grace.