He speaks to her of familiars and witchcraft. There was something fiercely intelligent, almost masculine, in her gaze, and though she was crouched down and I standing, for a moment I felt afraid, as though I was the one who had been discovered.Ī few days later Fleetwood has a disturbing conversation with Roger Nowell, an older family friend of hers and Richard. Her face was long and narrow, her eyes large, their color unusual even from a distance: a warm gold, like new coins. She re-reads the blunt, frightening words, “…if she finds herself once more in childbed, she will not survive it, and her earthly life will come to an end.” Fleetwood encounters a strange woman, so camouflaged by her shabby, sodden, earth-colored clothing that she is almost impossible to see. She is upset because she inadvertently discovers a letter to her husband from a physician. In her tenuous emotional state, being the mistress of Gawthorpe Hall is cold comfort. The story opens with Fleetwood blindly seeking refuge in the woods surrounding her stately home. It is her husband Richard’s dearest wish that his wife be safely delivered of an heir and, God-willing, a spare. Mistress Fleetwood Shuttleworth is pregnant for the fourth time: her previous three pregnancies ended in miscarriages. That and a young wife’s desperate wish to bring a healthy baby to term. There is great religious tension in England because “demonstrations of loyalty” to the Crown do not easily co-exist with the “old ways of faith.” That struggle is at the core of The Familiars. England is ruled by King James I, a Protestant monarch. The Familiars is set in Pendle Hill, Lancashire, a site famous for the witch trials of 1612.
But when Alice is accused of practicing witchcraft, Fleetwood must decide whether she can trust her for the sake of her unborn child. After three previous miscarriages and with a baby on the way, Fleetwood Shuttleworth leaps on the opportunity for assistance from a midwife, Alice. Stacey Halls’s The Familiars is set against the backdrop of the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612.
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