The First Witch of Boston

by Andrea Catalano

She had said it was because they had been made for each other, intended from the time they ceased to be stars and took their first breaths in the world of the living.

power resides in gold, and gold resides in power. It matters not who sits on the throne or who controls Parliament. This is the way it always has been and the way it always will be.”

The men in power could not abide by a woman speaking her mind and gaining the admiration of others.

When one has such a spouse, one can only study them in awe, then look round at everyone else to see if they were just as awed.

You see, I had only known men who threw their weight and voices round as though they were kings, as though it were their divine right. Most think they know everything and speak like they do, when it is nothing but empty words. They know naught, most of them. And the louder they are, the less they know. The more they boast, the less they have. The more show they put on in front of lasses, the less show they’ve got for you under the bed linens.”

“I wanted a man who had enough faith in his own worth, his strength, and his mind that he had no need to put on some absurd stage drama. I wanted a man who was confident enough in himself to handle the likes of me.”

When a woman caused too much trouble or spoke too plainly, it seemed, there were those who would take umbrage and use piety as excuse and reason to take her in hand.

A woman skilled in herbals and physic was always a woman both admired and feared.

When a child is birthed, a man is as useful as a newborn foal to a cart.

“If a man needs convincing, he is not worth the trouble.”

It unnerved him that she knew his mind as well as her own.

“Do keep that wife of yours in line. A cunning woman is easily made the handmaiden of the Devil.”

But when people cannot understand something, when they can’t make sense of a thing, they always become fearful. People fear what they do not understand, you see?”

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Seems that when a woman has too much knowledge or skill, or speaks her mind freely, these Puritans take great offense.”

Never underestimate 195how deeply power can corrupt even the most godly.

“My friend Maggie,” she declared in a low voice made raspy by anger and sadness, “dared to be a woman with a profession, a talent, and a sharp tongue. Heaven forbid such a thing, in a woman.”

Men are governed by their whims and passions far more than us women, yet they ascribe such traits to us. It is the purest form of hypocrisy there is. It has existed since the dawn of our time. Think of Adam and Eve. Oh aye, the Devil tempted Eve with knowledge, and she thought to better herself. And so she took the bait, and then Adam grew curious and envious and wanted a piece of it all. Just like a selfish child. But go ahead and tell me again how man is governed by his mind and woman by her heart. They have lied to us from the beginning.

If a man took delight in the suffering of another man, or woman, or child, he was a man capable of much malice. If I were to take away his sleep, he would be 265less likely to unharness his cruelty upon the world. I would clip those evil wings.

I did not fear my own mortality, not at all. But I feared the manner in which we would meet.

I always knew I must die before he did, for God would not be so cruel as to take the sun from my life.

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I don’t deserve your love. Had I not thought the same, so many times, when I thought of Thomas? It seemed as though the heavens finally aligned for us in this our final hour.

“Love makes us whole. Love makes us rise above.”