The Purbrook Witches

Hampshire 1785

Portsmouth had a naval dockyard and apart from that, and lots of public houses, there wasn`t a lot else. The town had built up around the natural harbour and a large church had been built, dating back to the twelfth century, a few hundred yards from the waterfront. This would later become a cathedral dedicated to St Thomas. This was surrounded by a motley collection of cottages and pubs serving the sailors who came to the docks. The town had spread northwards and eastwards from the shore, beyond the walls surrounding the old town for a little over a mile in both directions, so in total Portsmouth consisted of around four hundred dwellings, and beyond that was open fields and countryside.

As the naval docks were quite important there was quite a lot of regular traffic travelling between Portsmouth and London. Once past the northern extensions of the town the road ran through open countryside for a few miles before beginning the steep climb of the Portsdown hill escarpment. On the ridge at the top of the hill there was an inn which was used as a staging post for horses, as once having dragged heavy coaches and wagons up the steep grade, the horses were usually tired despite having only travelled a few miles. This was in an area known locally as the wide leys, shortened and bastardised over time to become Widley.

On the high ground next to the inn was a gibbet where highwaymen and rustlers were executed. Sheep rustling was a major crime and often those found guilty and convicted to die on the gibbet were often left there for many weeks as the corpses rotted as a grim reminder to the people of what punishment awaited them if they were convicted. Back in the naval docks, the navy had its own justice system and hangings, whippings, beatings and even keel-hauling were quite regular occurrences. It was unusual for a naval man to be hung on the hill-top gibbet, but one was hung there a few years ago when he was convicted of murdering his wife.

Once past the staging inn, the road swept down the more gentle dip slope on the northern side of the hill. At the point where the road swept round a long curve on the heathland outside the next village of Purbrook, there was an ancient thatched cottage which had been there since the mid fifteen hundreds, which was inhabited by two spinster sisters, Gertrude and Matilda Malpass, who were already well into their seventies. The locals didn`t have much to do with the two women, saying that they were strange. Many people seemed actually afraid of them. The cottage was bounded on the road side by a high hedge with only a single gate allowing entry to the property. It stood alone in its own gardens, not that any of the local people ever saw it. Those that walked past the cottage for whatever reason tended to walk on the side of the road furthest from the cottage as they felt safer that way. Those of stronger dispositions who walked along the hedge and peeked over the gate were surprised to find a neat orderly garden although many of the plants growing there were unknown to them. The garden was a strange contrast to the hedge which was wild and straggly with thorns that could whip back in the wind and tear a person`s eyes out if they weren`t careful.

The two spinsters were hardly ever seen in the village which had about fifty dwellings, a small one room school, a church and a small public house. There was a small shop which sold milk, bread, eggs, a few vegetables and the occasional piece of meat from one of the nearby farms. Not much really, but enough for the sparse requirements of the few villagers. The spinsters appeared to grow everything they needed to survive, including a small patch of wheat to make rather heavy dark looking bread. They kept a cow in the pasture behind the cottage which provided milk to drink, butter and cheese, also about twenty chickens for eggs and for eating at special times. Beyond the village church, the country side reverted to open fields and meadows once again, as the road continued heading north towards London. The next staging post and coaching inn was situated just over twelve miles away in a small village called Petersfield. The London stages stopped there for the night on the first day out of Portsmouth on the journey which took three days with six changes of horse teams.

A young woman in the village called Milicent Peters lived there with her husband of a year called Simon. Simon managed to scrape a living by working long hours on a farm just north of the village where he tended the cows, and used a heavy carthorse to plough the land for the crops that the farm produced. His hours were very long, typically from dawn till quite late in the evening when the light faded to the extent that he could no longer see to work, so when he eventually got home to his humble cottage, he usually had a small meal of stew and potatoes, or if it was a special occasion, maybe a bit of mutton or bacon that the farmer gave him on rare occasions, before retiring to bed.

Millicent took in washing for other people in the village and from early morning till evening she was usually found up to her elbows in a deep wash tub over an open fire. In the spring, Millicent discovered that she was pregnant with her first child, and she suffered badly with morning sickness in the early months. This in turn affected her work with her not taking in so much washing, so as a consequence, her already meagre wage shrank even further. The young couple lived hand to mouth and day by day never knowing if they would eat the next day.

Simon did his best to provide for her and the unborn child, but his wage of tuppence a day, didn`t go far. One day in early winter while Simon was working at the farm, repairing fences and digging ditches at this time of the year, Millicent began to feel decidedly unwell. She was in terrible pain and managed to hobble to her neighbour`s cottage to ask for help. The woman who lived there wasn`t a great deal of help, but did send her son who was only six years old at the time, to the farm to get Simon to come home. He arrived to find Millicent writhing on the bed in agony. He didn`t know what to do, so did the first thing that came in to his head, and that was run to the church, to fetch the vicar, who was out with another parishioner, as he feared that Millicent was dying.

He left a message with the vicar`s housekeeper and hurried back home. Before the vicar arrived there was a timid knock at the door and when Simon opened the door expecting to see the vicar, he was shocked and slightly disturbed to find the spinster sisters on his doorstep. The older sister, Gertrude pushed past him and headed for the steep stairs leading to the bedroom, closely followed by Matilda. When Simon protested about the women just coming into his cottage, Matilda just said that his wife needed her and her sister`s help.

Simon asked how they even knew that his wife was ailing and was told that they just knew. Gertrude had been carrying a sack cloth bag obviously with some sort of supplies within it. Several hours later after a lot of screams and wailing from upstairs, Matilda returned downstairs and told Simon that he had a wonderful baby son. Gertrude followed her sister and they quickly left the cottage. Simon`s thanks and pleas to give them something for their help was ignored and the two spinsters left without another word.

Samuel Johnson was a rather unruly lad of twelve years. His father had died when he was a small baby and he had been bought up by his mother who had a hard job controlling the youngster. Samuel could neither read or write and the short time he had spent at the village school had been a waste of time as far as he was concerned and he was unable or unwilling to find any kind of work in the village, so as a consequence spent most of his days down in Portsmouth in the docks, running errands and taking messages for the sailors.

He occasionally got a small pittance from the sailors, but most time all he got was a clip round the ear for being cheeky. His mother couldn`t afford to keep a horse or donkey so Samuel walked wherever he went. It took him about an hour and a half to walk to the docks and rather longer coming home because of the steep hill. One day he had a good day and actually received three pence from an American sailor who had him running round all day long taking messages and fetching things. As a rule, Samuel left the docks at such a time that he could get home while it was still light as once night fell, there were no lights to show him his way, and highwaymen and robbers abounded favouring the hours of darkness for their various crimes. Also, after dark the navy press gangs were busy capturing unsuspecting people to serve aboard the navy`s ships.

Samuel had narrowly escaped getting grabbed by a press gang the month before and it was only when a sailor that he had run errands for, spoke up and told the gang that the lad was taken, that he was released by the gang. It had only just got dark when this had occurred and he didn`t want a repeat of this escapade. Dusk was just falling as he came along the road towards the village and he was too tired to cross the road by the spinster`s cottage as he usually did, like most other people of the village, and just walked along by the hedge. When got to the gate his curiosity got the better of him and he stopped to peer over the gate.

Inside the garden was an apple tree laden with delicious looking fruit. He was hungry having not eaten since a piece of dry bread early in the morning, and the fruit looked really tempting. He thought that the spinster`s wouldn`t miss just one apple, and lord knew, his stomach was crying out for some sort of nourishment. A wisp of smoke drifted lazily from the cottage chimney and also from an outhouse but there was no sign of the residents. Samuel was so taken with the idea of taking an apple or two he failed to notice the large black crow watching him from the eaves of the cottage. After deliberating for several minutes he quickly climbed over the gate and headed for the tree. All the fruit was up quite high so he knew he would have to climb the tree to reach it. As he reached the tree, he heard a loud squawk from the bird which he saw for the first time.

He didn`t pay much attention to the bird as most of his attention was focused on the mouth-watering treat he intended to get. He was just beginning to swing himself up onto the lowest branch when a voice startled him and losing his grip, he tumbled back to the ground landing in a heap at the base of the tree. He looked up to find one of the spinsters looking down at him. This was the first time he had actually seen one of the women and the look he received from her made him quake with fear. The woman extended a hand and offered it to him to help him rise to his feet. He stood shakily, looking round in almost blind panic to try and work out what he should do. The other spinster appeared from somewhere behind the first but Samuel didn`t see where she came from. Between his gasps for breath, he managed to ask how the women knew he was in their garden when he couldn`t see anyone in the garden or the cottage.

In answer the first sister snapped her fingers and seconds later the large black crow flew down from the eaves and landed lightly on the woman`s shoulder. It cocked its head and looked almost quizzically at Samuel. The second sister grabbed hold of Samuel`s hand and led him away towards the door of the cottage. Samuel struggled but the woman`s grip was firm and she continued leading him towards the door. Samuel`s fright finally got the better of him and a dark stain appeared on the front of his trousers as his bladder released.

By the time they reached the door Samuel was crying and pleading to be let go. The woman led him into the scullery and bade him sit on a stool by the table. Samuel didn`t know what to expect as despite his fright and general unease, he had to admit to himself that neither woman had as yet done him any harm. He decided in his mind that maybe they just looked scary, because of the long black robes decorated with brightly coloured beads, and the funny hats they wore. After a few minutes just sitting there, one of the sisters bought a bowl over to the table and placed it front of Samuel. It smelt delicious and looked like some kind of soup. There was also a chunk of bread. The sister who had led him into the cottage just said one word, “Eat” and then left him alone.

Despite being ravenous, Samuel`s first instinct was to run but as he went to rise from his stool, the black crow flew through the still open door and settled on the edge of the table. It stared at him as if to say don`t be silly, just eat. Samuel gave in to his hunger and began spooning the soup into his mouth. The soup tasted heavenly but Samuel had no idea what was in it, only that he had never tasted anything like it in his life. He broke off a lump of bread and it tasted wonderful as well despite its dark colour. Within five minutes he had eaten all the food. The same sister reappeared and gave him a clay cup filled with what looked like milk. It was indeed milk and still warm, presumably just having been milked from the cow. When he had drunk the milk he stood up to leave.

The next thing he was aware of was waking up in his small bed at home, in the early hours of the following morning. When he raised himself up to get out of bed he was surprised to see one lone apple on the floor beside his bed. He did not remember how he got home or putting himself to bed and had only a vague recollection of eating and drinking in the spinster`s cottage the evening before.

When he stumbled down the steep stairs to see if there was anything for breakfast, his mother was working peeling vegetables and barely looked up as he entered the scullery. She didn`t say anything, which wasn`t unusual so Samuel presumed she didn`t know anything about the previous evening. Samuel`s life continued pretty much as normal with him going to the docks every day and returning in the evening, but he seemed to no longer be apprehensive about passing the spinster`s cottage.

One day the following summer the two spinsters were outside tending their garden when the black crow appeared and flew straight to Gertrude`s shoulder. It placed its head close to her ear as if it was talking to her, then after a minute or so flew away again heading towards the centre of the village.

Gertrude quickly called to her sister and both set off at a fast walk towards the village. When they arrived in the centre of the village about five minutes later, the crow reappeared and after circling round the two women headed for one of the cottages and perched on the roof. Gertrude hurried to the door and without even knocking dashed inside. In the one room downstairs she found a crying baby who seemed to be alone.

Matilda hurried through the cottage into the rear garden patch and then back inside to check upstairs. When she came back down she just shook her head and both women hurriedly left the cottage. They went out into the road and had only just got there when a puff of smoke appeared from the roof of the cottage. The crow took off squawking loudly just as a tongue of flame leapt from the thatch roof. A young woman came running up the road from the direction of the small shop, crying as she ran. When she reached the two spinsters, Gertrude calmly gave the crying baby to her. Matilda had dashed back towards the burning cottage, and after a few minutes, the flames died down leaving just a blackened patch of thatch and a small hole.

Matilda walked back to where Gertrude was standing. Several men had come hurrying along to try and fight the fire but by the time they got there the fire had been extinguished. Before the young woman could say anything, the two spinsters headed rapidly away towards home. The crow flew overhead as they approached the heath where their cottage was, and a single squawk seemed to say well done or something in that vein.

Another young tearaway named Isiah Pembroke was often found drunk in the village pub. He was a few years older than Samuel but the two seemed to be cut from the same cloth as they were both misfits with no education and both were often in trouble. In Samuel`s case the punishment he received for his misdeeds was invariably a sharp clip round the ear but Isiah was bigger and his punishments tended to be more of a beating and he often sported a black eye or a cut lip. His nose had been broken so many times that he had lost count.

When Isiah was drunk he became morose and angry and had several times taken his frustration on one or other of the local women. One day Isiah was leaving the pub, rather the worse for wear, when he saw a young girl, probably no more than eight or nine years, walking along the road. He went over and accosted her, trying to make her go with him behind one of the cottages. The young girl screamed and struggled madly as Isiah caught hold of her. He was dragging her by the hair, towards the rear of the buildings when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He tried to shrug it off, but the next moment he was flat on his back in the dirt staring up at Gertrude.

Gertrude motioned for the girl to leave quickly before turning her attention back to Isiah, who was struggling to regain his feet, swearing and shouting and making it quite obvious that he intended to do Gertrude some serious harm. Gertrude allowed him to stand without moving herself and when Isiah ran at her, she snapped her fingers and pointed with her right hand. Isiah flew through the air and landed in a tangled heap against a building. Gertrude strode after him and before he could get up or raise any more protestations, she repeated the same move as before, this time pointing at the duck pond in the centre of the village. Once again Isiah flew through the air and landed head first in the pond. Gertrude just turned and walked away.

The incident had been witnessed by several other villagers including some of Isiah`s drinking pals from the pub. They all stood round howling with laughter as Isiah pulled himself out of the pond. By now Gertrude had disappeared. Once the other men had sobered up a bit, and stopped laughing, it was only then that they began to understand what had actually happened. The other villagers who had witnessed the spectacle were all shocked by what they had seen and they were quite openly afraid. Later that day the story was all round the village with the villagers saying that Gertrude must be a witch or something worse.

People started remembering various other incidents when things had turned out with an unexpected conclusion and many said that at each of these occasions, Gertrude or Matilda or both had been there at the time. The villagers had always said that the two women were strange and had little to do with them and this latest incident reinforced this and made the people even more determined to stay away from them and to give them plenty of room if they saw them in the street. Some of the men were even talking about cutting across the heath next time they went that way to save even passing the cottage.

One of the villagers who had seen Isiah`s humiliation was the house-keeper for the vicar, and she went straight back to tell the vicar what had happened in the street. He listened intently to her story, although even now it was exaggerated with the house-keeper saying that Isiah had been swept up into the air to about a hundred feet and had been thrown from one end of the village to the other, when in fact he had been thrown less than ten feet each time and only high enough to keep his feet clear of the ground. Once the house-keeper had finished her narration, the vicar retired to the church to read up on the phenomena and to pray. He was extremely disturbed by what he considered to be a demon inspired activity.

2.

The villagers knew very little about the two rather mysterious sisters, mainly due to apprehension and a certain amount of fear of what they were reputed to be able to do. This was reinforced by the sisters who kept themselves very aloof and stand-offish. They had little contact with the villagers which suited them just fine, nor did they encourage the villagers to try and make friends with them, in fact actively discouraged it. The high hedge around their cottage proved to be an effective barrier to life beyond the hedge and their reputation did the rest ensuring their privacy.

The only person who had been in the garden was young Samuel and he couldn`t recall any details about the place. He had only fleeting recollections of being fed in the kitchen then finding himself in his own bed. He also remembered the apple that had been by his bed and said it was the sweetest and best apple he had eaten in his entire life.

Even the oldest person in the village, a sharp nosed woman who was getting on in years, said that the sisters had lived in the cottage for as long as she could remember. She wasn`t old by modern standards being only fifty seven years of age, but in those days it was considered practically ancient as the average life expectancy was only around forty two years.

Unbeknown to the villagers the two sisters had in fact lived in the cottage for sixty four years, initially with their parents who had taken the cottage when the two sisters were mere toddlers, then as time passed and the parents died, they had remained there in their home. They had come from a place called Angelsea, a remote island of the north welsh coast, after being persecuted and tortured by the then incumbent of Wales, George Prince of Wales who was destined later in life to become King George the second of England. They were persecuted because of their beliefs and evident power and had been driven from the land. This had happened before, going back over a few hundred years, since the group they had been part of had originally come to Wales from their home in Turkey, far to the east, which many people hadn`t even heard of, and those that had, had no real idea where it was, just somewhere in the east.

The fact that Turkey and all the lands nearby had seen vicious fighting during the crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was lost on the population of the village who really only knew the immediate area. The sisters family had been part of a much larger group when they had arrived in Wales, tracing their roots back to medieval times in Turkey when they been semi-nomadic wanderers. They had learnt their skills at the hands of native Turkish tribesmen, followers of an old time and long forgotten religion and had bought their skills and knowledge with them to Wales. This was one of the reasons they were persecuted as Prince George was afraid of the power they might have and feared they might upset the balance of an already restless country.

When they had been finally driven out of Wales, the group had split into family sized groups and had scattered far and wide across the countries of England and Scotland with some even making a sea voyage to Ireland, not many miles away across the sea.

The families had been masters of what they called white magic as opposed to black magic which was controlled by the devil, so people said, whereas their blend of magic was done specifically for the good with no harm or malice ever intended. The plants that now grew and flourished in the cottage garden included herbs and spices, some of which were used in their white magic rites and some for flavouring or preserving food and all had been bought to the garden in seed form, gathered over many years during the groups wanderings in Turkey and beyond in Asia as far away as Mongolia. They also had some plants which were native to the new world and these seeds had been obtained from sailors in various ports in exchange for simple things like doing washing for the men while their ships were in port.

The powers the sisters possessed had been handed down from their parents and what they could actually was vastly exaggerated by the villagers who seemed to think that it was divine or hellish intervention. Stories had been told and grew over the years to paint the sisters in some sort of supernatural light, but this was far from the truth. They could certainly help people in distress or ailing and could exert a certain amount of natural force, using their bodies as the channel through which those energies flowed. Supernatural they certainly were not, but they did nothing to dispel the stories and rumours that abounded in the village and to some extent over the hill towards Portsmouth.

One story told of how the sisters had visited the hanging gibbet late one night and how they had bought a hanged man back to life. When the sisters had visited the gibbet the convicted man was still alive and the sisters had simply cut him down from the gibbet, taken him back to their cottage and nursed him back to health, which surprisingly didn`t take many days using the their herbs and potions. The man once recovered had been sent on his way under cover of darkness and had headed for London to maybe start a new life if he got that far. The sisters had given him some potions that would aid him if he was captured, mainly by drugging his captors with sweet smelling and tasting fruit candy bars, then while his captors were sleeping, he could escape and continue his journey. That incident had been over twenty five years ago and the sisters had never visited the gibbet again.

The clothes they wore, strange to the villager’s eyes, were throw backs to their distant past in Turkey and was what was worn by the people of their ilk. They were often called witches and this wasn`t so far from the truth as they had all belonged to a coven in Wales. Since they had been driven out of that country the covens no longer existed but old habits die hard. If anyone had taken the trouble to look closely at the sisters clothes they would have seen strange runes and hieroglyphics embroidered on the cloth, all connected with their strange powers. Likewise if they had taken the trouble to try and get to know the two women, they would have found them quietly spoken and overall quite pleasant human beings. Of course no one bothered and the sisters didn`t make any overtures of friendship to the villagers. Again this was something that had always been a part of their lives, always maintaining a certain distance from the people they lived near.

Although the villagers were somewhat afraid of the women, they were in some ways glad that they were nearby as on many occasions they had helped the villagers in time of illness or childbirth, many times over the years practically countless before simply disappearing back to their cottage refusing all words of thanks or payment. They liked it that way as they didn`t feel beholden to anyone which they might have done had they taken payment or accepted thanks.

Samuel had listened enthralled to sailors in the docks at Portsmouth who told tales of lands far away to the east, with tales of Turkey and its strange customs and wondered if they were just mere tales or actual fact. He wanted to believe the stories as he liked the idea of the women being almost super human but also thought that the tales had been exaggerated over the years, blurring the truth to some extent, and further east to a place they called China, as well as to the new world which lay to the west across the ocean, where many of the sailors had been during the American War of Independence which had taken place a mere nine years previously. Samuel was fascinated by these tales and wished he could see the places for himself but knew in his heart that it would never happen.

One spring day in 1788 a violent storm hit the village, bringing torrential rain, thunder and lightning which destroyed half the village either from being struck by lightning or from being flooded. The local vicar who had by now been resident in the village for nigh on thirty years had tried speaking to his superiors about the strange women, particularly after the fire of a few years previously when the fire had been extinguished and the roof miraculously repaired but had received no help or encouragement from that quarter, the opposite in fact with him being virtually told to have nothing to do with the women and if possible to drive them from the village.

He had also read extensively on the subject of witches both white and black and his readings had led him to the conclusion that the women were white witches and posed no threat to himself or the villagers in general. With this in mind he made a decision to go across the heath and speak to the sisters, something which he felt he should have done long ago when he`d first come to the village and heard about the strange pair. So it was some trepidation that he set off across the heath the morning following the storm, praying as he went across the partially flooded heath that he would at least get a civil hearing from the women.

Halfway across the heath he met Samuel who was now a strapping fifteen year old. Samuel still went to the docks on a daily basis and had built himself a thriving business controlling some younger boys who acted as his runners and messengers helping the sailors. The previous year, a garrison of soldiers had been moved into a new barracks in the old part of Portsmouth, only a mile away from the naval docks so Samuel also had a team of runners at the barracks practically full time. The soldiers and sailors knew to go through him for any tasks that needed doing or messages delivered and he had a good reputation among the men. The army officer in charge had gone so far as to issue Samuel and his young workforce with papers that proved they were in legitimate employment in case the press gangs seized them at any time.

Samuel had been caught some years ago and so far only three of his runners had been taken, but released within a few hours after their papers were checked. Samuel had realised quite early on that the sailors and soldiers were prepared to pay extra for any work that his team did during the hours of darkness and for that reason Samuel himself worked through the night if the teams were busy, as often happened when visiting ships were in port. Samuel quite liked working at night as among the usual errands and tasks his teams did he also put the sailors and soldiers in touch with women of ill repute who hawked for trade around the docks and barracks. He found that the men were ready to pay good money for suitable women to take their pleasure with and that was something that Samuel did himself without involving his young runners. He also got something out of it as by now the local women of the night knew him and would often offer him a free session in their beds in the hostelries in the town. It was one such occasion that had seen him work through the night of the storm as the area round the docks had also been badly flooded and he was on his way home to get a few hours rest when he met the vicar.

Since his experience with the women three years ago, Samuel had no fear of them and in fact even exchanged greetings with them if he saw them in the cottage garden or out somewhere in the village. The sisters returned his greetings but never took the acquaintance any further than a polite acknowledgement.

The vicar and Samuel met on the village side of the cottage and stopped to exchange greetings. After enquiring where the vicar was going and being told his destination, Samuel volunteered to accompany him to introduce him formally to the women who the vicar had only seen in passing in the village street and had never spoken to either of them, something which he now regretted.

Samuel turned round and walked back to the cottage with the vicar close behind and when he reached the gate in the hedge he opened it and walked through into the garden which seemed to have been untouched by the night`s storm. The vicar hung back in apprehension and Samuel chivvied him along. The sister`s tame crow was in its usual place on the eaves of the roof and it squawked a warning or greeting, Samuel wasn`t sure which as he and the vicar entered the garden.

They had hardly set foot on the path leading to the front door when it was opened by one of the sisters. The other one appeared behind her and they watched without comment as Samuel and the vicar approached.

Good day ladies Malpass”, Samuel said in greeting, “I have bought the Reverend Dobbs from the village church to see you”.

“Thank you Samuel, you may wait in the garden and we will speak with your minister”. Samuel wasn`t surprised about being told to wait in the garden and in fact had been rather hoping for that reaction as he much preferred being outside in the fresh air. He went and sat down under the apple tree where his lovely apple had come from a few years ago and settled back against the gnarled trunk. He was soon dozing in the warm sunshine and was awoken by the sound of a door shutting. He opened his eyes to see the sisters and the vicar disappearing through the gate on their way to the village. Both women had large satchels round their shoulders but what they contained Samuel had no idea. As the sisters hadn`t woken him as they left he assumed it was all right to remain where he was in the warm sunshine, and within minutes was fast asleep again.

The vicar found that the two sisters were remarkably easy to talk to and wondered why he had been so apprehensive in the first place. They had listened to what the vicar told them about the state of the village following the storm and even given him a nice warm drink which had made him feel relaxed and not at all afraid and was quite happy in their company. Despite being over twenty five years older than him, the sisters set a fast pace across the heath towards the village and the vicar found himself almost trotting to keep up. If he had been more observant he might have noticed that their feet hardly seemed to touch the grass as they walked almost as if they were hovering, and also that they left no trace of their passing on the grass whereas he left shallow impressions of his shoes on the longish grass as he walked. The sisters reached the village first and stopped to look around them taking in the scene of destruction that greeted them. Without a word they separated and headed off independently to different parts of the village, leaving the vicar by the side of the track that served as a road.

The vicar suddenly felt tired and sat down on the grass to rest for a few minutes. He was unaware of anything for several hours and when he awoke it was late afternoon and getting on towards dusk. He got to his feet and carried on walking into the village but stopped dead in his tracks after only a few yards as he surveyed the village. The village appeared as it had twenty four hours previously with no signs of storm or fire damage. Of the sisters there was no sign. The villagers seemed to be unaware of his presence and were going about their business as if nothing had happened. The vicar couldn`t understand this and after recovering from his shock he carried on up the road. The first person he saw was the baker who ran the small shop near the pub and he stopped to speak.

“Good afternoon Mr Hollingbury, how are you doing after the storm last night”?

The baker man looked at him as if he had suddenly appeared from another planet and looked rather puzzled by the question.

“Good day to you to vicar, I`m fine as is my family and as far as I`m aware so is everybody else in the village. I`m puzzled though, what storm are you talking about? We haven`t had a real storm in the village for many years as we tend to be shielded from the worst of the weather by the hill”.

It was the vicars turn to look amazed and confused.

“I apologise sir, my mind must be playing tricks with me. I beg your pardon, good day sir”.

He started walking again leaving a perplexed baker behind him, scratching his head in sheer puzzlement. He came across several more villagers, either finishing their working day, or heading for their cottages and a meal or in a couple of cases younger men heading for the pub. Each person he spoke to, had the same response and it finally convinced the vicar that he was indeed going mad.

He slowly made his way to the vicarage, lost in thought and not really aware of what he was doing. As he walked slowly up the small hill, he felt a hand descend on his shoulder and on turning round he found Samuel falling into step beside him.

“Good afternoon vicar, and what a lovely day it has been. How have you been have you been out for a late afternoon walk”?

“Good afternoon young Samuel, I think I`m losing my mind, did you take me to the spinsters cottage earlier after the storm last night as I wanted to ask them for help”?

“I`ve just come back from the docks after working all night and this morning. I stopped up on top of the hill by the hanging gibbet for a rest and I must have fallen asleep in the sunshine. Time now for some food and refreshment then I`m going back to the docks for another night, as we`re very busy down there with several ships in port as well as a couple of American ones, so they`re keeping my boys and me pretty busy. As regards your other question, this is the first time I`ve seen you today, in fact it’s the first time I`ve seen or spoken to you for some months now”.

The vicar looked decidedly perplexed at this conversation and excusing himself he quickened his pace and hurried for the vicarage. He went inside and shut the door firmly and made sure it was locked. His housekeeper called out to tell him that his evening meal would be ready in half an hour but the vicar just answered that he wasn`t hungry and went upstairs to his small bedroom. Once there he removed his cloak, hat and boots and stretched out on his bed feeling not quite right, but was unable to put a cause to the way he felt. He tried to sleep but his mind kept going over what had taken place that day and wouldn`t let him rest. It was some hours later that he finally succumbed to sleep. Sometime while he slept his house keeper entered his bedroom and left a tray of bread and cheese and a pitcher of milk on his bed stand.

3.

When the vicar awoke the next morning he felt better but still had a nagging feeling that something had gone awry, he assumed in his head so made up his mind to take a trip to the doctor who had a practice in the next village along the main road, in a place Waterville. He was one of the few people in the village who was able to afford to keep a pony and trap so after a simple breakfast prepared by his housekeeper; he readied the trap and set off on the three mile trip to the doctor. As he entered the village he was amazed to see a large number of fallen trees, several of which lay across the road, and a few cottages minus their roofs.

This seemed to trigger something in his head and he started remembering that his own village had been in similar state after a violent storm. Here at least he could see no signs of fire damage from lightning strikes. The doctor’s cottage was on the far side of the village but the road being blocked prevented him talking his pony trap any further. He tied the pony up outside the pub which seemed to have escaped damage free and then started walking further along the road and up the slight hill on the other side. Many of the village menfolk were working cutting the fallen trees into manageable lengths with large two handled saws and several acknowledged him as he walked, sometimes having to climb over fallen tree trunks or push his way through the thick branches.

When he eventually reached the doctor`s cottage he was hot, sweaty and dishevelled and was lucky that the doctor was at home. He was shown into the room the doctor used as his consulting room and offered a cup of tea by the doctor. The vicar explained the strange feelings he had and said that seeing the doctor`s village had stirred something in his subconconcious and that he remembered his own village suffering similar damage although there was now no sign of anything having happened. The doctor listened patiently and then wrote a note for the vicar to take to the chemist`s shop further along the street to get a drug that would calm him down.

Much to the vicar`s surprise he learnt that the doctor knew the two sisters in his village and said that despite their rather fearsome reputation they were good people who would always help their fellow people out. He also said that when he had first started his practice back in 1765 he had visited the sisters and asked their advice about a particularly disturbing case he was treating, at that point in time without success. The sisters had come to Waterville the next day and had miraculously cured his patient after spending an hour with her. The doctor said that when he had been training in a place up north called Oxford, several of his tutors had told stories involving white magic being used to treat and cure various ailments. He said his tutors had told him that sometimes the practioners of white magic, more commonly known as witches could erase memories from a whole community and make it seem as if an event had never occurred by in effect meddling with time and making a day or even longer simply disappear as if it had never been. He thought that this was what the two sisters had done in Purbrook and would explain all the vicars worries and assured him that he was certainly not losing his mind.

The vicar was very thankful for this reassurance and was surprised when the doctor waived his fee. It wasn`t a great deal but was a luxury many villagers simply couldn`t afford so they never saw a doctor sometimes throughout their whole lives. He offered to accompany the vicar back to Purbrook and said he would come with him to speak to the sisters if he wanted him to. The vicar agreed readily, thankful for the support. By the time they were ready to leave, the main road had been cleared of the fallen trees and all the menfolk had retired to the pub for some well-earned refreshment.

It took the two men about a quarter of an hour to walk back to the pub and the vicar was concerned when he found his pony and trap missing. The doctor said it was possibly a youngster playing a trick on him but nethertheless went into the pub to enquire. He came out again a few minutes later with the daughter of the publican who led the two men round the back of the pub to a shady garden beside an orchard. There standing in the shade was his pony and trap, still harnessed but the pony had its nose buried in a nose bag and was eating happily.

The young girl said she had felt sorry for the pony as it had been in the hot sun so she had taken it round the back into the shade and had watered it before giving it some oats in the nose bag that her own pony used. The vicar was thankful for this and offered the girl some money for her trouble and the feed but she declined saying that she was glad she had been able to help the animal. It took around ten minutes back to Purbrook and the vicar went straight towards the heath and the sister`s cottage without even stopping at the vicarage.

He stopped outside the gate to the garden and tied the pony`s bridle to an overhanging branch before leading the doctor through the gate and along the path. The crow was in its usual place and cawed a warning to those inside. The front door opened as the two men approached the door and they were both ushered inside by one of the sisters. They were made welcome in a formal way but were served with some refreshment regardless. It was an interesting conversation that took place behind closed doors that lasted for well over an hour and the sisters explained what they had done.

The doctor had been right in his assumption that they had tampered with time and the sisters said that as far as the whole village was concerned, there had never been a storm or any resultant damage. They said that if anybody kept a calendar, which they doubted, the day would simply cease to exist. Anyone looking back at a calendar in the future would find a blank day which no one could remember. The vicar was very grateful for the explanation and for what the sisters had done for the village. The vicar was preparing to take the doctor back to Waterville from the vicarage, after having a meal prepared by the housekeeper when there was a knock at the door.

The housekeeper answered it and both men heard muffled voices before the housekeeper showed another person into the small parlour. This was none other than Samuel.

“Good afternoon gentlemen, I thought I would call in and see if you were all right reverend as you seemed rather disturbed when we spoke yesterday”.

“Thank you for your concern Samuel, I went to see the doctor in Waterville earlier as I was convinced I was losing my mind but I am all right now and reassured. We have paid a visit to the spinsters Malpass and we are happy with what they told us, so you don`t need to worry about me”.

“I`m glad about that reverend, I assume you must be the doctor, I`ve never met a real life doctor so I feel honoured sir”.

The two men and Samuel chatted for a while over a cup of freshly brewed tea before Samuel related what he had seen that day over the hill in Portsmouth.

It seemed that a storm had hit the town and the docks two days previously and had inflicted quite severe damage to certain parts of the town but the docks had escaped the worst of it just suffering from localised flooding due to an exceptional tide. He said he couldn`t understand how the village had escaped any damage as everyone in town had said the storm was heading north over the ridge of Portsdown hill. The vicar and the doctor exchanged glances and a nod passed between them. The doctor took up the story and explained what the sisters had told him and the vicar a few hours previously, and Samuel listened with wide eyes and without interruption as the story was related.

“I knew the sisters had special powers but I never dreamed they could be so powerful. I guess I was affected by the sisters wiping everybody`s memory of the storm and repairing the damage as I couldn`t recall any storm even though I was in the docks working all that night, so everybody here in the village lost a whole day”.

“Yes indeed”, the vicar responded, “Repaired is probably the wrong word there as they made it never happen so nothing to repair”.

The doctor took up the story relating to Samuel what else had come out of their conversation with the sisters.

“I actually knew the sisters from a time some years ago when they helped with a patient in my care, not well mind you, but enough to acknowledge them in the street. They said that they are only interested in making sure people are looked after and they do that to the best of their considerable abilities. However, they pointed out that as they are now old, older than anyone else in the village or in Waterville as well come to that, and said that despite their powers giving them longevity above what could normally be expected of a human, they are not supernatural or eternal so they will die the same as everybody else in time. They know that at their ages, it`s only a matter of time before they`re called to meet our lord and are currently looking for someone they might be able to pass their skills and knowledge on to.

Your name came up in conversation not as a prospective trainee as mere men are not allowed the knowledge, only females may possess that. They mentioned that they have seen you in the company of a young girl and feel that she might prove suitable for inheriting their knowledge and skills”.

“Ah, that would be young Agnes, she lives with her parents on a small holding up the hill at Widley, not far from the hanging gibbet. She approached me some months previously as she wanted to join my teams of runners working down in the docks to earn herself a few pennies as her family don`t give her anything, other than very basic food and a bed. Her father suffers from something called consumption and has great difficulty working his small patch of land, barely growing enough the feed his family which consists of himself, his wife and three other children apart from Agnes. She`s only just turned thirteen and is the eldest of the brood. I declined to take her into my teams as being a girl she might have been placed in harm`s way as the sailors are none too fussy regarding females if you get my drift. I like her and I wouldn`t want that sort of life for her. I still see her most days as she tends to sit by the road at the top of the hill offering to shine the boots of anyone passing by. As the London stages change horses there, there are usually a few passengers who will give her a penny for shining their boots”.

“She sounds like the sort of young girl the sisters are looking for. I gather they have already decided that her mind is receptive to learning the appropriate skills and knowledge, how they know that I don`t know, I just assume they`ve looked inside her head at some point, strange as it might appear. Do you think she`d be interested in meeting up with the ladies at some point and discussing what they see as her future”?

“Yes I`m sure she`d be willing to speak to them. She knows about their reputation but doesn`t seem that bothered by it. She said to me once that she couldn`t understand why the villagers are so afraid and hostile to them as she thought they were nice little old ladies, a bit strange maybe but certainly nothing to fear. I`ll go back to Widley and see if she`s still by the roadside or if not I know where her family lives so I`ll go there if I need to, to find her. Will you two gentlemen still be around when I come back”?

“Probably not”, the vicar replied. “I was just getting ready to take the doctor back to Waterville when you called. You may come to the vicarage if you want when you`ve spoken to young Agnes, or you can go straight to the cottage and speak to the sisters on your own”.

“Thank you sir, I would prefer to call at the vicarage first as even though I know them I`d still fell happier with someone else there with me, vicar”.

“So be it then, that is not a problem, I`ll expect you and maybe the young lady at some point later”.

Samuel took his leave and headed back towards the top of Portsdown hill where he hoped to find Agnes. As he walked he was thinking that maybe it was time to spend some of the money he had saved from his quite lucrative job and buy himself a small horse or even a donkey to make getting to and from the docks easier and quicker, thinking that he might be able to construct a rudimentary shelter for it behind the house he lived in, not anticipating any objection from his mother.

It took him around twenty minutes to get back to the hanging gibbet and once at the top of the hill he turned right following the road to Portsmouth for a short distance before the road dipped down the steep hill. He was quite relieved when he found Agnes sitting on the grass at her usual spot as he didn`t really like going to her house as the conditions she lived in disturbed him, with rats scurrying everywhere. Her father smoked some kind of weed which he said helped with the pain of his disease and the smoke left a cloying scent in the air which usually made Samuel feel quite sick.

He sat down beside Agnes and told her about what the vicar and the doctor had told him. Agnes seemed pleased and happy about the proposition but wondered how the spinsters knew that she might prove suitable for what they had in mind. Samuel was of course unable to enlighten her on that matter. Agnes decided that there was no time like the present to go with Samuel to meet the sisters.

“We`d better tell your parents where we are going”, Samuel said.

“Yes okay, I`ll run home and tell them. You can sit here in the sun, I`ll be back within ten minutes”.

“Okay, if I drop off into a doze, just kick me awake when you come back”!

Agnes took off at a run along the hilltop track and Samuel settled down to wait.

Agnes`s home was a ramshackle cottage on the southern slope of the hill, and on a clear day you could easily see the docks and the ships lying at anchor out in the broad expanse of Portsmouth harbour near the ancient Norman castle, at Portchester, which was was even smaller than Purbrook with probably only a dozen or so dwellings clustered round the imposing castle, currently used as a prison for French soldiers captured during the various wars of the time.

There was quite a strong military garrison stationed there but they kept themselves very much apart from the few local residents. A ship came in to the upper reaches of Portsmouth harbour near the castle at regular intervals bringing either supplies or more prisoners and that was the only activity that people saw. The road was poor from the bottom of Portsdown hill heading west towards the small town of Fareham and eventually to Southampton, the largest place on that section of the south coast, so bringing supplies into the castle by water was by far the easiest option.

She was back in rather less than ten minutes and grabbing Samuel by the hand they set off down the long slope towards Purbrook. As planned, Samuel headed for the vicarage first but not before Agnes had paused to look over the cottage gate into the garden. The black crow cawed as usual but to Samuel`s ears it sounded different this time, more of a greeting than a warning. The doctor was still at the vicarage, partaking in a drink of some sort with the vicar which Samuel was quite pleased about and wondered if the doctor had remained with the vicar deliberately rather than going home to Waterville as had been the plan earlier, so he and the vicar accompanied the two youngsters back across the heath to the sister`s home.

When they approached the gate the crow cawed loudly again before flying out of the garden and perching on Agnes`s shoulder, much to her surprise and delight. The bird was closely followed by the two sisters who greeted them cordially before inviting them all into the garden. They indicated a bench surrounded by pleasant smelling shrubs and bade Samuel and the two men wait. They took Agnes with them inside the cottage and the door closed behind them. A short while later, Gertrude re-emerged from the cottage carrying a tray on which was an assortment of tasty looking fruit cakes and three metal mugs of fresh milk which she placed on a flat rock in front of the bench before going back indoors.

It was nearly an hour later that the door opened again and the sisters and Agnes came back out. Agnes looked happy and came straight to Samuel and hugged him

“Gertrude and Matilda have told me that I have hidden talents and they want to take me under their wing and teach me everything they know so that I can carry on their work when they`re no longer here. It means I`ll be living here as well so I need to go home and tell my parents and collect my few things. Will you come with me please”?

“Of course I will, what do think your parents will say about you moving out”?

“They`ll be pleased for me, it`ll be one less mouth to fed so it should help them a bit. The sisters have given me my own room, I`ve never had a room all to myself before and it overlooks the garden at the back and there`s a big tree which comes close to my window and it smells lovely, with long purple hanging flowers which makes the whole room smell nice. I think I`m going to enjoy being here and learning all I can about the powers the sisters say I will get within a short while”.

As Samuel and the two men stood up to leave, Matilda placed her hand on the sleeve of Samuel`s jacket.

“Don`t be afraid to call and see Agnes, I know she means a lot to you”.

Agnes looked at Samuel with wide eyes before murmuring a thank you. Samuel also thanked the sisters and bowed to them which made them both cackle with laughter.

Agnes quickly settled into her new lifestyle and proved to be a quick learner. Things changed as a result of her living with the spinsters and the villagers started making an effort to be pleasant to them, no doubt influenced by the presence of Agnes. In turn they socialised more with the villagers and even started attending the church once a month, much to everybody`s surprise. So after a lifetime spent living in isolation just outside the village, they were now accepted and all parties concerned seemed pleased with the way things had turned out. Agnes frequently went out with either one or both of the sisters on their errands of mercy and she soon proved herself to be a competent nurse and midwife despite her young years.

The sisters had visited Agnes`s home a few weeks after she joined them and they had administered a potion to her ailing father which had eased his symptoms considerably and made his life better and easier, to the everlasting gratitude of Agnes and the rest of the family.

With Agnes now living with the spinsters, she and Samuel saw a lot more of each other, as Samuel called to see her most days on his way home. He now got on well with the two spinsters now and was happy that Agnes was settled and well cared for while she learnt. They became betrothed on her fourteenth birthday, just under a year after moving in with the sisters. Samuel`s business was thriving and he was bringing home a good wage each week, even after paying his young workforce which now numbered twenty three boys all of a similar age to him, so not only did he now have a pony, but a small trap and a small cottage of his own in the village.

His mother had tragically passed away six months after Agnes came to the village, as the result of a bad fall during the previous winter which had left her quite poorly and she had never recovered from the infection that had set in after her fall.