Who Is Freya Salem? A Deep Character Study from Hemlock and Hedge

Overview

Freya Salem never sets foot on the page alive, yet she is the ghostly engine that powers every twist in Ruby Loren’s Hemlock and Hedge. Hazel Salem’s recently deceased mother, a Wormwood witch and apothecary owner, leaves behind far more than a failing shop. She bequeaths a trail of encoded clues, a decades-old blackmail secret, and a conditional inheritance that forces her sceptical daughter into the heart of the town’s magical culture.

Before her death, Freya discovered that Olivia Ghoul had used a wormwood‑laced lemon cake to cast a love spell on a competition judge, only for the wrong man—Mayor Richard Starbright—to eat it, fathering Natalia Ghoul. Freya withheld that truth, extracting years of mysterious leverage. Her posthumous planting of an envelope containing a tarot card (The Lovers), herbs, the cake recipe dated 16 May 1990, and the note “He’s the father!” threads Hazel into a mystery that lays bare the town’s buried secrets and forces Hazel to confront her own identity.

This analysis dissects Freya’s character through her actions, motivations, relationships, and the thematic weight she carries, always distinguishing explicit textual evidence from reasonable interpretation.

Plot Role: The Architect of Silence

Freya functions as the story’s absent catalyst. From the moment Hazel opens the envelope in the lightning‑scarred oak, Freya’s hand guides the investigation. Unlike a conventional detective‑figure, she does not act in the present; she has pre‑arranged a puzzle that compels Hazel to dig into Wormwood’s past. Her revealed blackmail of Olivia Ghoul turns the novel’s central mystery from a simple poisoning into a multi‑generational web of silence, power, and uncertain paternity.

Explicit fact: the evidence trail—herb bundle, recipe, card, and note—was hidden by Freya inside a hollow tree trunk well before her death. Hazel concludes that her mother “had known who’d baked the lemon cake. She’d known what had been in it, too … and she’d known Olivia’s intentions when she’d made a cake and displayed a card intended to seduce the man who sampled the cake.” This is the pivot on which the plot turns, because it hands Hazel the same blackmail lever her mother once wielded.

Interpretation: Freya’s choice of the phrase “He’s the father!” on the note may have been a delayed disclosure about Hazel’s own parentage or a broader puzzle piece. Hazel herself wonders whether the message was “a message left for me” about her father. Freya’s ambiguity is a method of posthumous control—she nudges but never tells.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Action

Freya’s character emerges obliquely, painted through the reactions of others and through the artefacts she leaves. She is ambitious in her secrecy, sharp in her grudges, and fiercely protective of her autonomy.

Petty Vengefulness or Strategic Silence?

Elliot Hex, the competition judge who cancelled at the last moment, tells Hazel flatly, “If anyone was petty enough to poison a cake to get even, it would have been her.” That accusation, whether true or not, signals that Freya had a reputation for settling scores. Yet no evidence in the narrative confirms Freya ever poisoned anyone. Rather, she kept the Lovers card as insurance and leveraged it against Olivia for years. This points to a calculating streak: she held a dangerous truth and used it to extract some form of long‑term benefit, possibly to keep the apothecary afloat or to ensure a place in Wormwood’s hostile social order.

Belief in Magic vs. Skepticism

Freya was a practising witch who believed magic was real. She added a protective herb bundle to the envelope—“Negative Energy Stay Away” ingredients that were her own recipe sold to tourists—indicating a practical, apotropaic use of her craft. The condition in her will that Hazel “pursue my studies of witchcraft, and … join the Wormwood Coven” is a direct attempt to draw Hazel into that worldview. Paradoxically, Freya’s own secrecy about the coven and about Hazel’s father may have fuelled Hazel’s scepticism, generating a generational tension between hidden knowledge and inherited belief.

Clarity in Absence

Freya’s greatest act is arguably the planting of the envelope—a gesture that combined a love of puzzles with a desire to reveal a truth she could not speak in life. The reader never learns whether the message was intended solely for Hazel or served some other purpose, but the act itself suggests a mother who, even in death, wanted to shape the narrative.

Chronological Arc

The timeline of Freya’s life is fragmentary, but key events can be sequenced.

Pre‑1990
Freya ran the Salem Apothecary, perhaps already straddling the line between herbalist and witch. She was a single mother who deflected all questions about Hazel’s father, offering inconsistent stories.

16 May 1990
During a cake competition, Freya either witnessed or later pieced together Olivia Ghoul’s use of wormwood in a love‑spell cake. She obtained the Lovers card from Olivia’s deck. The card became a piece of blackmail evidence that gave her power over Olivia for decades.

1990–2017 (approximate)
Freya maintained the blackmail arrangement. The novella hints that the Ghouls may have been obliged to shop at the apothecary as a public show of support, but the full terms remain opaque. She raised Hazel alone, never revealing the father’s identity, and kept her daughter at arm’s length from the coven’s deeper politics.

Shortly before the story opens
Freya, aware of her own failing health (Hazel felt guilt “at not even knowing that my mum had been unwell”), prepared the envelope, concealed it in Wormwood Forest, and drafted her will’s three conditions: keep the shop open, study witchcraft, and join the coven.

After death
Her will sets the plot in motion. Hazel’s discovery of the envelope leads to the unravelling of Olivia’s secret and forces Hazel to decide whether to tell Natalia the truth. In effect, Freya’s posthumous instructions push Hazel into becoming the very kind of town insider that Freya herself had been—guardian of a dangerous secret.

Relationships

With Hazel Salem

The mother‑daughter dynamic is defined by Freya’s simultaneous protectiveness and opacity. She left Hazel a livelihood (the apothecary), a supernatural curriculum, and a bombshell wrapped in a scavenger hunt. Hazel’s internal monologue reveals a mixture of love, guilt, and bafflement: “I’d been so guilt‑ridden by not even knowing that my mum had been unwell, I’d signed on the dotted line without a second thought.” This emotional bind is exactly the kind of lever Freya would have understood. She never told Hazel who her father was, leaving that mystery to echo through the envelope’s contents—perhaps intentionally.

With Olivia Ghoul

Freya’s relationship with Olivia was adversarial and parasitic. Olivia, a fortuneteller who “did not strike me as a likeable woman,” became Freya’s blackmail target. When Hazel confronts Olivia with the missing tarot card, Olivia snaps, “You’re a snake, just like your mother.” That outburst confirms years of resentment and fear. Freya’s hold over Olivia likely survived because the revelation—that Natalia’s father is Richard Starbright, not some powerful magician—would have shattered Natalia’s self‑mythology and Olivia’s reputation.

With Elliot Hex

Elliot Hex’s comment suggests a personal antipathy, possibly romantic or professional rivalry. Hazel wonders “if love and hate were closer than they appeared,” implying that the connection between Freya and Elliot might have been more tangled than a simple feud. No explicit evidence confirms a romantic history, but the text plants the seed.

With Richard Starbright

The old mayor speaks of Freya with warmth: “I had nothing but the greatest respect for your mother. We were very good friends.” Given that Freya knew Richard had fathered Natalia, her friendship with him may have been genuine or strategically maintained. Either way, it contrasts sharply with her treatment of Olivia.

With the Coven

Freya’s insistence that Hazel join the coven, coupled with the coven’s immediate hostility (“You don’t have a single spark of talent,” Natalia sneers), hints that Freya may have been an outlier within the group. She was a witch, but perhaps not one who easily fitted into the Ghoul‑led hierarchy. Her decision to force Hazel into that environment could reflect a hope that Hazel would succeed where she had not, or that Hazel would uncover the truth about Wormwood’s power structures.

Key Decisions and Their Consequences

1. Concealing the truth about the poisoned cake – Instead of exposing Olivia in 1990, Freya kept the secret. This choice granted her ongoing influence over Olivia but also allowed Natalia to grow up believing a false heritage. The eventual collapse of that silence—triggered by Freya’s own posthumous clues—threatens to blow apart the Ghoul family.

2. Leaving the blackmail evidence for Hazel – Freya transformed her secret into an inheritance. The consequence is that Hazel inherits not just a shop but a moral burden. She must decide whether to perpetuate the blackmail or reveal the truth, a dilemma that defines the novel’s climax.

3. Mandating coven membership and witchcraft studies – By making these conditions of inheritance, Freya effectively anchored Hazel to Wormwood’s magical culture. This forces Hazel out of her sceptical comfort zone, culminating in the coven meeting where she is almost cursed and is saved by her talking kitten. Without this mandate, Hazel might never have engaged deeply enough to discover the whole truth.

4. Keeping the father’s identity from Hazel – Whether Hazel’s own parentage is tied to the cake incident is left ambiguous, but Freya’s consistent refusal to name a father left a vacuum that the note “He’s the father!” now fills for Hazel—whether correctly or not. The decision shapes Hazel’s entire sense of identity and fuels her investigation.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Freya’s character intersects with several of the book’s central themes.

Inherited Secrets and Blackmail

The thematic page on inherited secrets explores how families pass down burdens. Freya is the literal transmitter: the note, the card, and the recipe are an inheritance more charged than the apothecary itself. Hazel explicitly recognises that she is “really … following in my mother’s footsteps when it came to the business of blackmail.” Freya’s ghost thus becomes a link in a chain of coercion that outlives her.

Scepticism Versus the Magical

Hazel’s scepticism is constantly undercut by the tangible artefacts Freya left—herbs, spells, a tarot card that still points to a real secret. Freya’s own certain belief in magic, contrasted with Hazel’s resistance, fuels the scepticism versus the magical theme. By forcing Hazel to study witchcraft, Freya ensures that the conflict remains active even after her death.

Self‑Reinvention and Belonging

Freya’s posthumous instructions are essentially a script for Hazel’s reinvention. Freya never seemed to belong entirely to Wormwood’s in‑crowd; perhaps she hoped her daughter would find the acceptance that eluded her. As Hazel realises, “after spending so long trying to get away, I hadn’t been open to the idea that it might be the place where I finally realised my dreams.” This slow embrace of belonging mirrors the path Freya may have imagined for her, as discussed in the self‑reinvention and belonging theme.

The Power of Compound Silence

Freya’s quarter‑century of silence is the book’s deepest example of compound silence. She knew the truth, Olivia knew she knew, and neither spoke. That shared muteness calcified into a power structure that only breaks when Hazel threatens to expose it. Freya’s decision to break the silence after death—through the envelope—is the ultimate paradox: she wields voice through continued silence.

5 Book‑Specific Questions About Freya Salem

1. Why did Freya leave the envelope in the oak tree instead of simply telling Hazel the truth while she was alive?

The text does not provide a definitive motive, but Freya’s method is consistent with her character. She dealt in secrets as currency, and a private revelation after death allowed her to control the timing and the terms. It also protected her from having to witness Hazel’s reaction or from having to explain her own role in the blackmail. The scavenger‑hunt format ensured that Hazel would actively engage with Wormwood and its history rather than receive a passive confession.

2. Was Freya ever the one who poisoned the cake?

The book never states that Freya poisoned anyone. Elliot Hex accuses her of being “petty enough” to do it, but that is an opinion, not evidence. The discovered evidence points to Olivia as the baker who added wormwood for love‑spell purposes. Freya’s role was that of discoverer and opportunist, not poisoner. However, the novel deliberately leaves a wisp of ambiguity around her character so that readers, like Hazel, must weigh the town’s gossip against hard facts.

3. What did Freya gain from blackmailing Olivia?

The novella does not itemise the arrangement, but several hints suggest that Olivia and her family were compelled to patronise the Salem Apothecary. When Natalia grudgingly buys lemon balm and wormwood while announcing “my mother has requested them”, Hazel interprets it as the continuation of a public‑relations arrangement: “The Ghouls shop here and everyone local sees them.” Social legitimacy and a steady trickle of customers may have been as valuable to Freya as money, especially given the shop’s precarious finances.

4. Did Freya actually believe in magic, or was she simply preserving tradition?

All evidence indicates that Freya was a genuine believer. She added protective herbs to the envelope, crafted Negative Energy Stay Away sachets, and insisted her daughter study witchcraft. The conditions of her will were too specific and costly (they risked alienating Hazel) to be mere tradition‑keeping. Freya’s world was one where wormwood could function as both a pharmaceutical and a love spell, and she treated that duality as unremarkable.

5. Who is Hazel’s father, and did Freya intentionally choose not to reveal it?

The identity of Hazel’s father remains unconfirmed by the end of Hemlock and Hedge. Hazel suspects it might be Richard Starbright (which would make her the half‑sister of the current mayor, Gareth) or Elliot Hex, but no smoking gun appears. Freya’s note “He’s the father!” may refer to Richard and Natalia, or it may be a message about Hazel’s own parentage. By keeping the answer hidden, Freya ensures that Hazel remains anchored to the mystery—and to Wormwood—long after the envelope is opened. Whether this was a final protective act or a final manipulation is left for the reader to decide.

For more context on how these secrets play out, visit the ending explained page, or browse the full book guide.