A Witch Story - Part one - The Witch cottage

The Witch Cottage

Amongst the good people of the village, it was said that the cottage had been built almost a century or so by a stranger. According to one single report given to the burgomaster, the builder had been hired by a widow just arrived in the village. At that time she had taken residence in one of the few boarding rooms available. She had said she was the widow of the very honourable Mr. Harris, who had left the village about twenty seven years before and never came back. Most of the younger villagers had no knowledge of this Harris gentleman and who was old enough to remember him, preferred to keep the mouth shut and to avoid to say any word about the man, the reason why he left and his honourability.
Without waiting for the burgomaster answer, the builder started to work on the foundations and, with the help of few capable men hired from another village, just few miles away, he managed to have the skeleton of the cottage ready before winter. 
In the meantime, this Harris widow worked to find a source of earnings sewing and doing other jobs for the rich people of the village: the voice she was an absolute angel with a needle spread quickly amongst the good ladies and she kept herself busy during the cold dark winter months.
Not only that word was spread, another one reached the ears of every woman above the age of fifteen: the word of her other abilities and her willingness to help women to live a better life. With an excuse or another, weeks didn't go without someone knocking at her door asking for some kind of help. And no woman missed the advanced payment requested with the promise of a guaranteed success. The services the mysterious woman offered weren't cheap, that was true, but she always found a way on how the applicant could evade the price. S, it happened that the wife of the burgomaster was asked to arrange a private meeting between the man himself and the widow. At first the good lady was a bit surprised but the Harris woman promised her a great success if she was able to make her meet with the husband. "I know your husband is a very busy man but, believe me my dearest, if you can have this meeting arranged, I promise that your request will be true before the next full moon. And in your heart you know it's true and it's the right thing to do. It's not a high price to pay to get what you want, don't you agree". At that point the other one could not have said no. And with the promise to get in touch with an invitation very soon, the good woman left the room of the widow with a feeble hope in her heart and no idea on how convince her husband to meet  her: Horace Montgomery was a very busy man, he used to spend most of his time in his studio, working on things she had no idea about, some other days he left at dawn and was back by dusk and again she wasn't informed of his errands. About his job he was very secretive and didn't share anything with her. Other days he spent most of his time with the reverend, discussing political or religious topics. again she was left out of these activities. She never understood why he wanted to marry her in first place as he didn't want to share much time with her and didn't listen to her at all the few times she had tried to speak with him about their present situation and at some point she had given up. She didn't need his money, because she had her heritance but she longed for his company more than anything else. Unless the majority of the other women, she had the freedom to go wherever she wanted but rarely she left the house, she spent her time hidden in her parlour, sewing or receiving the few friends she had and drinking maybe too much tea. She had stopped to go out for errands to not see the weird stares of the villagers at her slimmer and slimmer figure, her pale complexion, her weary eyes. By the time the Harris widow arrived, the poor young woman was the main topic of the village good people's gossip. 
The burgomaster wife was very much younger than her husband and he had chosen her from a very wealthy family. When the Harris widow made her first appearance at the village they had been married for about five years and still no children. When she heard that the new woman could have helped her to have a baby, she didn't hesitate to visit her, for sure she didn't expect that weird request from her. A maybe older and with better knowledge of the world woman would have been suspicious about that "payment" but not her, she believed in the good nature of people and could not even imagine someone being evil or malicious. 
"Goodie Montgomery where are you going?", a voice called her, relieving her from her own thoughts. She smiled at the middle aged woman, the wife of the reverend Morris, who was walking toward her. She was followed by her oldest daughter, a seventeen old girl betrothed to one of the Governor's sons, and by her youngest boy, who was said was going to follow his father's steps and become a pastor. Behind them was coming the servant, holding the shopping for the family. The  wife of the pastor smiled at the wife of the burgomaster. She was one of the few women in town who felt sorry for her, knowing what meant to be married to an uncaring man. Before marrying the pastor, she was married to a merchant in Philadelphia but the marriage did not last more than one year for the lack of interest of her husband in any family business. "Goodie Montgomery, what a marvellous surprise to meet you on this lovely day", she added trying to cheer her up but with no success. Adele Montgomery seemed to be gloomier than usual but she smiled back politely.