On the Wondrous Discoverie of Witches

DAMARIS MEREDITH, an American doctor, goes to England to trace her family roots. It takes her back to eighteenth century England where women were tried as witches then burnt at the stake. There is one name that haunts her most, her ancestor REMMY. Slowly she begins to put together the fragments of the past to see how they are woven into the future. After a chance encounter with the archaeologist HARRY CAVENDISH he agrees to help her trace the girl in her nightmares but he too has a secret.She meets the grotesque MISTRESS MERRYMOUTH, who is envious of Remmy and a possible claim on her father's estate....'There may be one who seeks to usurp Sir Toby, my father,' she said urgently and secretly.'And in doing so deny you your true inheritance?'Mistress Merrymouth jumped back slightly. 'You speak plain and true Witchfinder,' she countered evenly.'You wish her dealt with?''She is a witch, one who rides the countryside astride her horse with her hair flying in the wind,' she replied......Damaris also meets one of the most terrifying people in history, the Witchfinder ELKANAH DREWS.Puritan and psychopath as well as a serial killer.In researching her ancestor she is drawn further into her world, her forbidden love affair with the tormented Cornet Denning, her trial and eventual execution for witchcraft. She learns of Remmy's baby, her ancestor, with a vivid description of seventeen-century childbirth and a cesarean without anesthetic. Something that, as a doctor, greatly affected Damaris.'The baby is breached,' the midwife said. 'We must cut it out.'Despite her cries of agony and in the depth of her pain and suffering she heard cries.The babe liveth!Remmy's trial is dealt with in heartbreaking detail as this teenage girl is tried for her life after being cruelly betrayed by her best friend. She confesses to save others just hours before the WITCHCRAFT ACT was repealed. She talks of meeting a devil, but it is a devil in the form of the witch hunter.As Damaris and Harry try to find the key to the past they must deal with a phantom child, a missing ring, a secret admirer and the legacy of her ancestors as she follows the compelling story to its inevitable conclusion...Rich in period detail and based on historical documents it is a remarkable story.Part romance and part true life horror, the past and present entwine in a story of passion, betrayal and sacrifice that spans the centuries and continents, and for Damaris there is one final heartbreaking discovery in this elegantly constructed novel.