Jennet Device, the Last Pendle Witch

The day was grey and the rain pouring. No one was out there. No one, but a little girl, alone in the woods. She wasn't scared. She had no reason to. She knew the Pendle forest better than her own face. The child walked under the branches with hurry. She was already wet to the bones. Her grandmother being too old and blind had sent her in the cold to get some herbs and medicinal plants. She looked up at the sky. The night was close now, but she had to stay until she found one last thing.

Several hours had passed and the sun was now gone. If there were any light, the little girl could have seen her usually auburn hair was now a fiery red because of all the water that fell on her. She knew in her heart she now had barely any chance of finding the last needed flower, but she feared her grandmother so much she wouldn't dare going back home without it. She also knew she would probably die if she stayed in the cold and wet forest, but she had no other choice.

She suddenly let herself fall on the ground, her last hope flying away in the air. In more than nine years of life she never saw the flower her grandmother sent her for. She couldn't tell it to her, and because of the naivety of her age, she hoped there would be a first time. Now that some time was gone and she was still there, she realized there was no escape to this situation.

Fear soon left her too, and she just felt empty. She wasn't crying anymore. The little girl was only looking all around her, her mind wondering what death could look like. She thought she would probably feel nothing, because she already had no sensations in her feet. This is what she was thinking, when suddenly she saw a light further in the woods.

She helped herself up against the tree, all her hopes coming back at the same time at such a speed that her heart skipped a few beats. She squinted her eyes, trying to see through the rain and the shadows.

It looked like the light was approaching her, slowly but surely. She couldn't let her eyes off it. She took a step forward, waited a second. Took another step, waited again. As she made her way through the woods, she grew more confident, and she waited less between each step. As she got closer, she realised the light was actually a lantern, and that it was carried by someone. When this mysterious person saw her, the little girl heard:

"Jennet? Is that you?"

"Mother?"

As soon as she was close enough, she jumped in her arms.

*****

They were now home, sitting by the fireplace. Jennet was slowly getting warmer, and her mother was cooking some soup for the family.

"I told your grandmother you were not ready for that yet. You're too young and too weak. Of course she didn't listen to me. She never does. One day I will take you to the forest and help you find him. But this day has not come yet, so you better go to sleep after you have finished your soup and never take any other orders from your grandmother. Understood?"

"Yes, mother."

"Good girl. Now, eat."

And as she finished her sentence, the woman gave her some soup. The little girl thanked her and started eating to please her, but she was in fact still troubled and shocked by what had just happened. Although she had said she understood, she was only talking about her last sentence. What was her mother talking about?

When her brother finally came home, her mother asked him where his other sister, Alizon, was. He didn't know, but he could only say that she went begging on the road up north, asking for pins. Then it was time for Jennet to go to bed, and she couldn't hear the rest of the conversation.