The Familiars

Set in Lancashire, England, in 1612, during the real-life Pendle witch trials, The Familiars follows Fleetwood Shuttleworth, the seventeen-year-old mistress of Gawthorpe Hall, as she fights to survive a dangerous pregnancy while becoming entangled in a sweeping witch hunt.

In early April, Fleetwood discovers a letter among her medical papers from a doctor she does not remember, warning her husband Richard that she cannot survive another pregnancy. Already pregnant for the fourth time after three miscarriages, she flees into the woods, where she encounters a strange young woman with golden hair and amber eyes crouched among dead rabbits. The woman disappears before Fleetwood can learn her name. When Richard returns and presents a silver baby rattle, revealing his desperate longing for an heir, Fleetwood cannot bring herself to confront him about the letter.

Roger Nowell, the elderly local magistrate and family friend, describes how a young woman named Alizon Device, an accused witch in his custody, cursed a peddler, leaving him partially paralyzed. Roger explains familiar spirits: demonic creatures in animal form believed to serve witches, considered the surest proof of witchcraft. He confides a broader ambition to demonstrate Lancaster's loyalty to King James by rooting out witchcraft, hoping to advance his reputation at court.

Days later, Fleetwood's horse throws her, and the same golden-haired woman reappears. She calms the horse, splints Fleetwood's wrist, and identifies herself as Alice Gray, a midwife from Colne. Fleetwood confides about her lost children and the doctor's warning, then offers Alice five shillings a week to save both mother and child. Alice agrees and begins treating Fleetwood with herbal remedies and bloodletting. Fleetwood's health improves dramatically: Her sickness decreases, her hair stops falling out, and she feels the baby quicken for the first time. However, she secretly witnesses Alice arguing in the forest with Elizabeth Device, Alizon's mother, and says nothing.

At a dinner at Roger's estate, Read Hall, Roger announces that Alizon's entire family has confessed to witchcraft and is imprisoned in Lancaster gaol. He reveals that a gathering at Malkin Tower, the Device family home, on Good Friday included a plot to blow up Lancaster Castle and free the prisoners. His key witness is Jennet Device, Alizon's eerily composed nine-year-old sister, who has confirmed every name on his list.

When Fleetwood's ruby necklace goes missing and a chambermaid implies Alice stole it, Alice storms out of Gawthorpe. Nick Bannister, a former magistrate, then arrives with a sealed letter from Roger and reads the list of Malkin Tower attendees aloud. Alice Gray's name is among them.

Fleetwood rushes to warn Alice at the Hand and Shuttle inn. Alice insists she does not know the Devices and refuses to explain why her name appears on the list, but warns Fleetwood not to trust Richard and tells her to examine the household ledger. In the steward's study, Fleetwood finds supplies being sent regularly to Barton, her supposedly empty childhood home. She rides there that night and discovers a pregnant woman living in the house: Richard's mistress.

After two days locked in her chamber, Fleetwood accepts her mother Mary Barton's invitation to travel to Kirkby Lonsdale, taking Alice under the alias "Jill." Mary confirms she knew about Richard's mistress, Judith Thorpe, and warns that if Fleetwood fails to produce an heir, Judith's child could supplant her. Fleetwood also discovers a ledger entry for a marriage license and fears Richard plans to marry Judith after Fleetwood dies in childbirth.

During weeks at her mother's house, Alice tends to the pregnancy while Fleetwood teaches her to write her name and reads King James's witch-hunting treatise Daemonologie aloud. Fleetwood confides about her first marriage at age four to an older man who abused her, from which her mother secured an annulment. When Richard's sisters visit unexpectedly, Fleetwood accidentally calls Alice by her real name instead of "Jill," potentially exposing her as the wanted woman. Richard arrives and insists Fleetwood return to Gawthorpe. She agrees on the condition that Alice accompany her.

The carriage arrives at Gawthorpe to an ambush. Roger arrests Alice for the murder by witchcraft of Ann Foulds, a child from Colne whom Alice had cared for. Richard reveals that Mary inadvertently exposed Alice by mentioning a midwife called "Jill" in a letter. Fleetwood is devastated, knowing she led Alice into the trap.

At Lancaster Castle, Fleetwood bribes her way into the Well Tower dungeon, a pitch-black underground cell where prisoners are held without food or light. Alice tells her the truth: She loved a man named John Foulds and cared for his daughter Ann, who had seizures. Ann died while Alice was at work, and Alice was accused of killing her by witchcraft.

As the assizes, regional court sessions presided over by traveling judges, approach, Fleetwood campaigns to free Alice. She and Richard request Alice's release from Roger, but he refuses, threatening that Jennet Device could be coached to name Fleetwood among the Malkin Tower attendees. Fleetwood writes to the presiding judges, Sir Edward Bromley and Sir James Altham, and persuades Roger's wife Katherine Nowell to deliver the letters secretly. She hosts the judges at Gawthorpe and defends Alice publicly, but Roger arrives uninvited and reveals that one of the accused was Fleetwood's own midwife.

The night before the trial, Fleetwood sneaks out of the Red Lion inn in Lancaster, where she is staying to be near the proceedings, with her dog Puck and Richard's musket. She rides to Colne and confronts John Foulds at gunpoint, demanding a written statement that Alice did not murder his daughter. Foulds admits Roger paid him to cooperate with the accusation. She secures the testimony, along with a line absolving Alice's friend Katherine Hewitt, who has also been arrested. Riding home through the dark forest, she falls from her horse and is attacked by wild boars. Puck fights them off, but Fleetwood goes into premature labor.

Puck runs to Gawthorpe and leads servants back to find Fleetwood. Richard rides to Lancaster, bursts into the courtroom during Alice's trial, and reads aloud Fleetwood's statement and Foulds's testimony. The jury acquits Alice. Richard brings her back to Gawthorpe, where she delivers Fleetwood's son, saving both mother and child.

Richard Lawrence Shuttleworth is born on August 20, 1612, the same day 10 accused witches are hanged at Lancaster. Alice is the only one acquitted. Katherine Hewitt is found guilty and hanged because the final line of Foulds's testimony absolving her was too illegible for Richard to read in court. Richard confesses that the doctor's letter was actually about Judith, written by a doctor who visited her after she lost a pregnancy. The marriage license was for the steward's niece. Fleetwood's central fear had been misplaced all along.

Alice slips out of Gawthorpe without saying goodbye while Fleetwood sleeps. Fleetwood discovers a crescent-moon birthmark on her son's arm matching the scar where Alice drew her blood. In the great hall, she notices the letter "A" carved into a blank panel above the fireplace in Alice's unmistakable shaky handwriting. She laughs and cries, knowing Alice is alive and free.

In an epilogue set five years later, Fleetwood has two sons. She learns King James plans to lodge at Barton and rides there alone to set the house on fire, ensuring the king cannot stay in the place where she was abused and where Richard kept his mistress. As she watches the flames, a red fox with amber eyes emerges from the trees, holds her gaze, and disappears.