In this powerful good-versus-evil story set during the English Civil War, both Grace and Nell's lives are follow When Grace and her sister, Patience, are suddenly taken by a violent illness, Nell is accused of witchcraft.

She is wild and unrestrained, a healer and midwife. She's a Merrybegot, a child conceived on May Morning. Nell, the healer's daughter, is her polar opposite. Grace the Puritan minister's is the golden child of the village, delicate and pure, refined and elegant. Once Nell refuses, accusations of witchcraft are brought against the two women by the minister's two daughters. The existence of the two healers takes a sinister turn when the minister's eldest daughter finds herself with child and turns to Nell for a potion to rid her of the burden. Neatly tied into this mix is the existence of piskies and fairies, all of which conspire to help Nell and her grandmother as they are seen as kindred spirits. Nell is learning the craft of healing from her grandmother as the book opens her grandmother still practices the 'old ways' and supplies the village with potions and curatives as needed.

Set in a small English village in 1645, this is the story of Nell and her grandmother, both healers, who are accused of witchcraft. Set during the tumultuous era of the English Civil War, The Minister’s Daughter is a spellbinding page-turner–stunning historical fiction that captures the superstition, passion, madness, and magic of a vanished age. And all signs point to Nell as the source of the trouble. The minister is convinced his daughters are the victims of witchcraft. Yet their fates collide when Grace and her younger sister, Patience, are suddenly spitting pins, struck with fits, and speaking in fevered tongues. But she is hiding a secret–a secret that will bring everlasting shame to her family should it ever come to light.Ī merrybegot and a minister’s daughter–two girls who could not have less in common. She is the Puritan minister’s daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured. She is a wild child: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife. Conceived on a May Morning, Nell is claimed by the piskies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own.

The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn