My mother remembers with love a book she read in her youth. She describes it as follows:
“Book was available in the late 50s or maybe very early 60s – I don’t think it was published too long before then but I don’t know . I remember its style being like the Elizabeth Speare books as opposed to say the earlier Girl of the Limberlost.
Brackets are specifics I don’t remember clearly.
Young woman (YW) comes over from [England?] to stay with [distant relatives] in colonial New England. YW’s secret plan is to go back to a [cottage] in the wilds where [her family] used to live and where she believes she will be able to find [money? really don’t remember]. The family she is staying with includes a boy who is in terrible health and is very devout as he doesn’t expect to survive long. There is also an older girl.
There are also two rich brothers, the younger considered the most eligible bachelor in [Boston]; the older considered hopeless as a marriage prospect who accepts fines for not marrying rather than look for a spouse. One and I think both are sea captains.
YW does indeed run off to look for the cabin. Boy, who is convinced she is a witch and has written “witch, witch, witch,” sees her and follows her to bring her back or maybe just report on her. She is exasperated but by the time she discovers him it’s too late to send him back so she takes him with her. On the rugged trip he regains his health and comes to appreciate her.
She doesn’t find what she’s looking for and returns to [Boston] where she is arrested. The boy tries to testify for her but everyone thinks he’s bewitched. The younger brother comes to visit her in jail and promises to wait for her and marry her. The older brother comes in and says if the younger really loved her he’d help her sneak out of jail and would then run away with her – which he then does.”
