This is the story of a high-spirited young girl whose rebellion against bigotry and her surroundings culminates in a terrifying witch hunt and breath-taking trial.

Even before she set foot on the bleak and forbidding shore of Wethersfield, Connecticut, on that April day in 1687, Kit Tyler felt the finger of suspicious pointing at her. A solid cloud of disapproval settled about her as disheartening as the contrast of this gray, barren land to the shimmering green that fringed the turquoise bay of Barbados which had been her home for sixteen years.

Her unconventional upbringing and her luxurious wardrobe were out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt's family—and so were her clumsy efforts at cleaning and scrubbing. Only the Meadows were a sanctuary. Kit claimed them for their sense of freedom and space and light that spoke to her of home. And in the Meadows by Blackbird Pond, she met the lonely bent figure of Hannah, regarded by the colonists as a witch. Here, too, she met Nathaniel Eaton, the Captain's son, with that well-remembered mocking smile in his blue eyes. Of her few friends, though, it was the child Prudence, whom Kit had secretly taught to read, who was to take a singular part in the greatest ordeal of Kit's young life.

Full-color jacket painting by Nicholas Angelo admirably reflects the mood of this outstandingly vigorous, second historical novel by the author of Calico Captive.

From the dust jacket