—each under its own flag.
As they entered the crowds going toward the marketplace, Serena asked, “Jeremy, have you had any headway with Mr. Mather and the magistrates?”
“They’ve not entertained me at court, no, and I fear one or more of them behind shutting my column down at the newspaper.”
“So why won’t Cotton Mather see you privately? Secretly if need be?”
“I thought at first simply a matter of his being ill and abed.”
“But now?”
“Now . . . I’m not so sure he’s not been dodging me like the magistrates, Stoughton in particular.”
“But why? If they have your letters and know all that we know, why won’t they look at the sermon you’ve brought?”
“They asked I release it to them, but I would not let it from my sight. I used it to bargain for an audience, but I’m afraid they’ve called my bluff.”
Just then Jeremy saw a bailiff of the court, and he shouted across the street for the man to halt as he rushed toward him, Serena following.
“I’ve missed the magistrates again, haven’t I?” Jeremy asked the thin, frail young man. “What news have you of my petition to see them?”
“Bad news, I fear.”
“What? Say it, man!”
“They are . . .they’ve all gone.”
“Gone? Gone where? On holiday?” Easter was approaching.
“No, gone to Salem.”
“What? They’ve kept me waiting all these many days, only to traipse off to Salem? But why?”
Serena added, “But if they’re in Salem, how can we appeal to them
The bailiff shrugged, his eyeglasses bobbing with the action. “I am sorry. It was, it would seem, a sudden decision and unanimously held that they go to Salem to see the-the
“Indeed? What is it, an apology from the magistrates?”
“Oh, no. A note from Reverend Mather.”
“Increase Maher?”
“No, no, no! Reverend Cotton Mather, for your eyes only.” He gave a glance at Serena. “I must make haste now, sir. I’m to join the court in Salem.”
“But why, man, are they moving on Salem Village?”
“Oh, no, sir! They are taking up in Salem Town—better accommodations.”
The bailiff rushed off on seeing Jeremy’s ire rising like a heated poker before him.
Jeremy and Serena examined the note he held now in his hands as if their fate rested within. “Are you going to open it or hope to stare it open?” she asked.
They found a bakery that served coffee and tea, and at a table with the morning sun cascading through a window that faced the eastern shore, Jeremy broke the seal. He read the note—three terse sentences commanding him to come along to the North Church at precisely seven that evening to talk of “dire matters escalating in Salem” and Jeremy’s “failure to avert calamity” there.
Serena read the note and her features became a mask of confusion. “He sounds angry with you.”
“I get that.”
“As if you contributed to the madness back home.”
“He can’t possibly believe that.” Still the cryptic note had him reading between the lines as well. “Nor can you, Serena.”
“I know, I know, but this is no invitation to church, Jeremy. This is an order.”
“God how I wish the man’s father had not left us all in this . . . stew.”
“Do you think his father meant for his son to take on this task? That the elder Mather planned it for his son?”
“I pray not; the son is not ready for it.”
“You’re frightening me, Jeremy.”
He placed his hands over hers and with hot coffee sending up a stream of smoke between them, he said, “I wish I had more foresight. From the beginning, I worried that Higginson and the younger Mather would fail me and leave me with a knife in my back, and I fear it’s coming to pass.”
“But Reverend Higginson could mean you no harm.”
“Not intentionally, perhaps, but through his failing health.”
“And Mather?”
“I don’t know. Will know tonight, however.”
“Let me come with you! I can tell him a thing or two of Parris and the poison he’s spread.”
“It’s all in my letters, and so far as Mather knows, it’s remained confidential, all of it. No, I must face him alone. He’d take great umbrage if I brought you along.”
“Umbrage? Am I some sort of baggage now on your back?”
“I didn’t mean it that way in the least, Serena, please. I must do this alone.”
“What the deuce could he be angry with you about?” she fired back, drawing a disapproving look from others in the bakery. A Goodwife did not speak in such a tone to a Goodman.
“I-I suspect but can’t be sure that it’s my poor handling of the Salem business, the way I walked out of there that night. Like the magistrates, he’s likely heard reports by now from Corwin and Hathorne on how things went . . .perhaps even how I sort of ran down Mr. Parris with my horse. I don’t know, but it’s likely he’s upset that others learned of my association with him and his father. Maybe he blames me for the flurry of arrests in the village, who knows?”
“Then he’s a fool!”
“Unfortunately, he’s not his father, but not for lack of trying.” Jeremy smiled wanly. “God, how I wish Increase Mather hadn’t left us at such an hour,” he reiterated.
“It could be months before he returns from England.”
“Yes, and by then . . .”
“I am so worried about Mother and Father.”
He stood and came around to her, put an arm around her, and immediately drew stares from some who took offense at the show of affection in public. Even so, the shroud of such opinion here in Boston was relaxed compared to that in Salem.
# # # # #
To get to the docks, they could take several avenues; in fact, there was more than a single marketplace. Rather, every dock had a fish market, and around each fish market, a farmer’s stand, as farm families from the surrounding regions brought produce for barter at each pier.
“From atop those trees,” Jeremy began, pointing, “this place must look like a gaggle of geese descended to fight.”
Serena laughed. “But the noise, Jere, it’d chase off any goose.”
They chose a street named Pawtucket where once a park had flourished but had now become a jail site for the indigent and criminal. It was a large facility with windows overlooking the street and from which prisoners reached out for alms from anyone passing by.
Serena hesitated on seeing this sight. “Why’re we here, Jeremy?”
“You read my mind.”
“What motive have you?”
“I’ve read that some of those accused in Salem, due to the overcrowding in the jails there, are here housed until their trials should be called.”
“I see. And you hope to have a word with one or more of the accused before seeing Mather?”
“You have me, yes.”
As they neared the jailhouse, they saw a strange sight—a lady dressed in beautiful clothes, a manservant
