The Hairy Tree — Frieda Gates

The 400-year-old Scottish legend of Sawney Beane continues. After the public execution of the infamous Beane cannibals, many tales and ballads about the heinous clan spread throughout the British Isles. When a story called The Hairy Tree begins to circulate in the town of Girvan and beyond, Dora, a herbalist who knows the rumored Beane survivor, decides to write her own account. On the fateful day of the Beane clan's execution in Leith, Dora helps her friend Kate MacCreadie exchange her damaged infant for the beautiful, healthy baby of a raven-haired Beane daughter. As Elspeth MacCreadie perishes, Elspeth Beane is allowed to live. No one, not even Kate's husband and town sheriff, Ewen, suspects the switch. After three years of being spoiled and pampered by the women, Elspeth starts to assert herself, and Kate begins to feel misgivings about her deceitful act. Kate becomes convinced that Elspeth has the Beane bad blood and fears that she has been cursed. To Kate, Elspeth is contaminated and her attitude toward the child is forever changed. Now a teenager, the comely Elspeth and her licentious, wicked behavior capture the attention of the town. It is 1606, a time of serious witch-hunts in Scotland, and Elspeth finds herself accused as a witch.