Jonas Pike's lantern stops at the shutter. He says he heard a voice in there he did not know, and that at first light he will look in every corner of this house, as he has every right to.

Hour Three: the still

The still-room is the coldest room in the house and smells of every herb in it at once. The copper still sits on its brazier with its head on and its worm coiled down into the cold-water tub, and Hester stands beside it with her arms folded.

The key is in the worm, she says. She put it there herself the day Pike came for the keys, and she has not been able to bring herself to work the still since, because Joan used to work it.

Her receipt book lies open on the bench at a page headed A WATER AGAINST THE PLAGUE. The herbs are listed, and under them the method, in her own words:

Put in your rue, sage, wormwood and angelica, with wine to cover, before all else. Never set fire under a head that is not luted close, for it will lift. When the pot begins to sing, and not before, run the cold water through the worm, or what comes over is steam and not water. Draw it off at the cock last of all, into a clean glass.

Five things to do, and the still will do them in one order only.

Work the still in the order the receipt gives.