Sigrid blew out a harsh breath. “That’s the last thing we need around here. A bunch of fruitcakes who don’t understand what they’re dealing with. Probably just a bunch of stupid kids.”
“I think you’re right.” Jenny and Blanca qualified as such, in this matter, at least.
“It’s partly the fascination with Halloween these days.”
“You don’t celebrate Samhain?” Harper knew that most self-proclaimed witches kept to the pagan calendar.
“Of course I do. And I have no problem with children—or even adults—dressing up and enjoying themselves. The problem for me is that people tend to trivialize it, and when untrained people start fooling around with the occult, it can lead to all sorts of bad things. Anyway, come, let me show you around my garden.”
As Harper toured the garden, she recognized many of the plants, some of which were famous in the history of witchcraft.Taxus baccatawas a highly toxic taxine alkaloid that could cause rapid death through cardiac arrest.Strychnos nux-vomicawas the source of deadly strychnine.Ricinus communiswas the source of harmless castor oil, but also of lethal ricin. Monkshood, foxglove, deadly nightshade, poison hemlock,Brugmansia, andLaburnum…they all produced beautiful flowers, and were also poisonous to humans and many animals.
“What, no oleander?” Harper said with a smile.
“More than enough at Delilah’s place, right? Apparently the Perles family planted the original bushes upon their arrival from Galveston. It is said the oleander branch symbolizes the fragile link between sleep and death.”
“Speaking of death, you have quite the poison garden here,” said Harper.
“It’s based on the botanicals wise women have cultivated for centuries. Before physicians and ‘barber surgeons’ pushed them aside, women were expected to plant and tend their own gardens, complete with herbs to address the basic health care needs of the household. And you know what they say: One person’s poison is another’s medicine.”
“I always heard ‘the poison is in the dose.’ ”
“Paracelsus,” Sigrid said with a nod. “Very good. I suppose my point is that most medications are toxic if taken in the wrong dose.”
“I was saying something similar recently. In the course of my studies, I’ve done a fair amount of research on the traditional uses of medicinal botanicals. You and Delilah used these plants to make tonics?”
“I just grow the plants,” Sigrid said. “Delilah mixed the tonics. Her recipes are proprietary, and she kept them close to her chest. She was still working on getting the balance right. Delilah was concerned, as many of us are, about all the viruses—and super-viruses—that are being passed around. She did not trust the pharmaceutical industry and felt her natural drafts provided a special kind of protection.”
“A magical protection, huh?”
Sigrid scoffed. “Not at all. She meant microdoses, and homeopathic remedies.”
“Double, double toil and trouble,” Harper murmured.
“Exactly! As you may know, in the charm, ‘eye of newt’ refers to a mustard seed, ‘toe of frog’ is the stem of a bulbous buttercup, and ‘tongue of dog’ refers to hound’s-tongue, a flowering plant. Delilah painted the charm on the side of my shed, see?”
Painted in red against the white of the shed was “A Charm of Powerful Trouble”:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
“The witches fromMacbeth,” said Harper.
