Year of Wonders

Content Warning: The source material contains child death, extreme violence towards women, detailed descriptions of traumatic births, symptoms from severe illness, and painful death.

Anna’s body is sore for many days after the mine incident. She hopes Joss might help her carry water from the well when she sees her father approaching her cottage holding a sack full of metal items from the Widow Brown he received as payment for digging graves. Josiah is requiring the bereaved citizens to pay him for digging graves for their loved ones, even if they don’t have any resources. Anna confronts Aphra about his greedy actions, but Aphra says she doesn’t mind since he’s finally become a provider for their household. When Anna sees her father accepting a bale of wool for digging a grave for the Martins, she knows he has gone too far, but he spits at her when she scolds his behavior.

The church begins meeting in Cucklett Delf, and Anna says she likes it because it’s less obvious who is missing from their fold. Her father stops attending church, an action that would typically send him to the stocks, but no one seems to care amidst the current crisis. Since Joss prefers spending his afternoons at the tavern, he declares that he will only dig graves in the morning and even starts digging graves at the homes of sick people.