“Let me take a look at yer face, Annie.”
“Don’t make a fuss! Folk’ll stare!”
Slender, pale fingers glided over the assortment of rosy apples piled high in a wooden crate. The woman hidden beneath a long, black shawl appeared to be giving the fruit careful consideration. In truth, her ears were tuned to the conversation of two other women nearby.
“Annie, it looks bad. Real bad.” A heavy sigh was heard.
“Well, what am I to do, Bess?” Annie replied. Her voice was deep and musical. A middle aged voice. Rich with life and experience. And now, quivering and broken.
“You’ve got to get out of there!” Bess’ voice was fervent with worry.
A short pause preceded the answer. “And where am I to go?” Another pause, wherein it was imagined that Annie was looking around the marketplace. “Keep yer voice down!”
“You come home with me, that’s where.”
“And then he’ll know just where to come lookin’ for me, won’t he? No! I won’t put you and Tom and the little ones in harm’s way.”
“But…” Bess was at a loss for words now.
The silence became thick and cloying in the ears of the woman standing by the apple cart. Her hand had stopped moving over the shining lumps of fruit.
“I’m a damned woman,” said Annie, and her pretty voice was twisted with the struggle not to weep. “I know he’ll kill me one of these days, and no one will even take notice. Who notices whether the laundress is Annie or any of a dozen other poor women?”
“You mustn’t say such things!” Bess hissed.
The figure in the black shawl whirled around. Her nut-brown eyes quickly found the two huddled women, and without hesitating, she stepped forward and approached them with a readiness that seemed almost hurried. “I beg your pardon most sincerely,” she said in a low, smooth murmur.
Annie and Bess both turned to stare at the newcomer. Four eyes widened with alarm, clearly worried that their conversation had been overheard. Their faces were plump and pleasant, faintly lined but far from old. Their hands were clasped together, frozen in the same position they had been while speaking to each other. The rainbow of crimson and violet bruising along one cheek and circling the nearby brown eye betrayed which of them was Annie.
“You have nothing to fear from me,” said the woman in black, and her own dark eyes moved between the two faces imploringly. “I swear to you. I only wish to help.”
Bess glanced at her friend. Annie’s eyes remained on the intruder, and her expression became soft and despondent. “How would you help, ma’am?” she asked in a whisper. “There’s no help for women like me.”
The stranger lowered her eyes and drew in a very slow breath through parted lips. She held the breath a long while as if contemplating something very somber, and her porcelain brow tightened. “First, you must both swear an oath that you will never speak of me or this conversation, to anyone else. Ever.” Her gaze darted up sharply, searching each of their faces.
Annie and Bess both gaped for a moment, blinking and staring, before turning to each other. Bess lifted her eyebrows and shrugged. Annie sighed heavily and nodded. Pressing her lips together, she looked back to the curious woman who had approached them. “Aye, we swear,” she said gravely.
Suddenly, there was in the stranger’s hand a small leather pouch, secured with a drawstring. Both of the women before her looked down at it with blank, questioning faces.
The words came out in a sudden rush, murmured very softly, while the woman in the shawl leaned in close to avoid being overheard. “Soak these overnight in water, then drain the water off and make a tea with it. Put honey in the tea or he will taste it.” She abruptly took Annie’s hand and pressed the pouch into it. “Be sure that he drinks all of it at once.” Her eyes met Annie’s again. “And he will trouble you no longer.”
She did not linger to see how long it would take for the meaning of her words to fully sink in. A hard squeeze was given to Annie’s hand, and then the shawl was drawn hastily over her face while she turned and strode away into the bustling marketplace. She only wanted to put as many steps as she could between herself and the two women. She did not wish to think that she had just told a woman how to murder her own husband.
