Today in Salem: News of the witch’s hanging has reached Maine, and the minister George Burroughs’ wife is panicking. Her husband has been in prison for five weeks. Is he condemned? Is she herself in danger? What about the children?
The entire town is already on edge. French soldiers and Wabanaki Indians have been attacking what seems like all of Maine, traveling the rivers and using the storms against the settlers. Today, though, the unexpected has happened: the brutal attackers have retreated, and the town is calm. It’s the eye of the storm, she thinks, and who knows what will happen tomorrow?
With no husband there to protect her, and with very little hope of his return, she needs to escape, fast. But she has no money. She thinks about her kitchen, the bedroom, the stables. What can she sell?
A new minister has replaced her husband, and now she pounds on his door.
“Will you buy George’s library?” she asks. Bewildered, he agrees, and hands her money. But she has no books with her. “Get them when you please,” she says over her shoulder, racing to a neighbor’s house. From door to door she knocks, selling everything: plates, linens, furniture, even the cattle.
Tonight, with a fistful of money and a baby on her hip, she considers her options. Her seven stepchildren will only slow her down, and her own baby needs protection more than they do. She flees with her infant and leaves the other children to shift for themselves.