I'd never seen them before, and yet they seemed to know of me and my family's reputation. Later I learned the midwife was a cousin of Baldwin's and believed, as he did, that my gran had bewitched and murdered his only lawful child. In her mind, she'd every reason to treat me with contempt. The midwife rolled up her sleeves, as did the two others who jumped to the orders she barked, and then the three of them descended upon me. In a flurry they tore off my kirtle, smock, even the rags tied round my feet. The midwife grinned to snatch Nancy's ribbon from my hair and stuff it down the front of her bodice. Before their eyes I was stood there mother-naked. Rough and cold were their hands, prodding and pinching, as they scoured my flesh in search of the witch's teat Nowell had told them to find. A razor in her big red fist, the midwife sheared every last hair off my scalp, humming whilst she worked, as though her grim task delighted her. To make my debasement complete, the midwife bade her two helpers to hold me down with my legs splayed whilst she shaved every last hair off my private parts, for Nowell had told her that removing a witch's body hair would force her to confess.
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