Hour of the Witch

Peregrine, now pregnant with her third child, delivers batches of boiled apples and raisins to her loved ones, including Mary’s family and her father, Thomas. Thomas comes again to the Burden household, this time not to plead for Mary back but to threaten her with news of another woman hanged for witchcraft. As they talk, she again suspects that her father, Thomas, and her mother are plotting something behind her back, though she’s not sure what it is. Hannah falls ill shortly after eating the boiled apples and raisins; she ate the largest serving as everyone else thought they were too tart.

Mary suspects that Peregrine or Rebeckah (who helped make the apples) attempted to poison her, though she can’t find a reason why. She wonders if it’s because Peregrine thinks Mary has an interest in Jonathan and, though she found him handsome once, his indulgent gambling and mismanagement of funds repulse Mary. Mary reflects on the trial; she wonders why so much of the discourse revolved around her behavior and not the fact that Thomas beats her. She dreams of the trial ending in her favor and escaping with Henry to somewhere safer, where she might have a child and a better life.