The Posthorn Inn

by The Posthorn Inn (retail) (epub)

  ‘Madoc,’ she called, ‘it’s Daniels, he’s looking for you and he has gathered a group of ruffians to help him!’

  The eyes of the fire-eater turned towards her, red, then blue as his flame was extinguished and in the awe-filled silence he heard what was said. Hands above his head, he signalled to others and the men who marched with Daniels at their head were balked at every turn.

  It was a while before Olwen realized what was happening. Seeing the men about to surround them, she pulled on Madoc’s hand and dived between two stalls with Morgan following. Squeezing through the narrow gap which took her to a pathway between one row of stalls and another, she found Daniels waiting for them; tall, severe and threatening. Before she could decide what to do next, she found herself being dragged into a tent and pushed out through a flap and into another, while Daniels and his assistants were besieged by instrumentalists dancing around them playing a lively tune. She realized that the entertainers were helping them.

  ‘Why are they helping us?’ she panted. To her alarm, Madoc could not reply; he was gasping for breath and holding his chest in obvious pain.

  ‘A pretty face, why else?’ Morgan said.

  ‘Where shall we go?’ Olwen asked. ‘Daniels knows I am with you, he saw me plainly. We must get away. But where do we go?’ She saw a terrifying future ahead of her, running from everyone she loved, hiding with the brothers, fearing every dawn would herald the day of her capture and imprisonment.

  ‘We have to get back to the house, all our savings are there,’ Morgan said.

  ‘And there we’ll discuss who told Daniels,’ Madoc said quietly looking at her, his face white with exhaustion.

  ‘It wasn’t me!’ Olwen told him, anger momentarily erupting.

  ‘Who else knows?’

  ‘Look, we have to get ourselves away from here before we start arguing,” Morgan said. He looked at Olwen. ‘Best you go out first and see if there are any of Daniels’s men about.’

  ‘How heroic!’ she snapped with the last of her rage. Then she calmed down and concentrated on getting free from the situation she had been forced into by the Morgan brothers.

  A number of young people had joined in the line of musicians and were dancing their way around the stalls. Daniels stopped in the middle of the pathway and held up his hands for them to stop. A formidable figure but completely ignored. Darting to either side, the merrymakers passed him jeering and imitating his pompous expression, leaving him frustrated and determined. Calling to some of the toughest onlookers, he told them to assist or be imprisoned for obstructing him in his duties. The band of men hunting two men and a girl grew to about twenty. In twos, Daniels sent them through the crowd.

  ‘Report back to me at intervals,’ he shouted. ‘I will be at the tent where the fortune-teller has her stand.’

  When he went there, the stand had disappeared. He stood in the vicinity of where he thought it had been, and was startled to see in the distance the conical shape of the canvas tent with its flags waving gaily at the top of it. Either he was losing his mind or the woman had moved! He strode angrily to complain but again he was obstructed by tumblers rolling about his feet, and sellers pushing their baskets of offerings up to his face, and the long line of dancers weaving to and fro. When he finished twisting and turning to escape them, the tent had again vanished, to appear at the spot where he had recently bought ale. The ale stall was nowhere to be seen.

  It was only his innate regard for the dignity of his office and the importance of his standing in the community that prevented him from lying on the ground and kicking his heels like a frustrated child. When Florrie appeared, loaded with spices she had bought to take back to Ddole House, he told her what had happened and said, ‘What is it about these people who will even protect those who have robbed one of their own?’

  ‘It must be because of Olwen’s pretty young face, and nothing more than that,’ she said unconsciously repeating the words of Morgan. ‘These fairground people would have no knowledge of why you want the men, only that Olwen appears to be supporting them.’

  They reached the large crowd watching the powerfully built fire-eater, who, head back, was lowering a lighted torch into his mouth accompanied by gasps of horror and admiration. He seemed to see them out of the corner of his eye. He waved a hand in signal to some unseen person and continued with his terrifying act. He licked a red-hot poker handed to him by an assistant who took it from the nearby fire, using only spittle to prevent his tongue being burned. Taking a pair of flaming torches, he casually rubbed them across his bare torso and down his arms with no apparent discomfort. When Florrie and Daniels pushed into the crowd and moved away, his eyes followed them.

  * * *

  In the tent where she had stopped to allow Madoc and Morgan to recover their breath, Olwen looked out across the still teeming crowds and decided that the best place to make for was the gypsy caravans. There were fewer people about there, but that might discourage Daniels from thinking of them trying to conceal themselves there. Telling Madoc of her idea, he just nodded and she was chilled at the realization that he was almost spent.

  Wherever they went, it would not be very far. And – what then? She pushed aside the unwelcome thought and tried to think no further ahead than getting them away from Daniels. What happened to her then depended on whether or not she was considered an accomplice to them. And, whether or not they were caught.

  The way they had to go was across to the furthest corner where the tents and hurdles hid the oddities for which the audience had to pay before entering. Queues of people stood waiting their turn to see the fattest man, the educated pig who could add and subtract, the pickled, two-headed chicken, and a dozen more of the country’s marvels. As they made their way there, way was readily made for them to pass. Then the tall figure of Daniels spotted them as they wove through the cheerful gathering bent to below shoulder height and he shouted for them to be stopped.

  The fire-eater who seemed to have made himself their guardian angel, moved closer to Daniels and announced that he would cook an oyster in his mouth on live coals.

  ‘Come and see this act of defiance against nature’s cruellest element!’ he shouted, and stepping to where his torch and equipment were in readiness, he took two pebbles from the fire his assistant had kept burning, and asked those close enough to touch them. One man, confident in the man’s certain trickery, burned his hand fearfully when he squeezed the pebble between his hands in foolish bravado. He screamed in agony and as Daniels tried to extricate himself from the tangle of people, more joined the audience to see the performance and he was firmly trapped.

  Olwen did not stop to see why Daniels was not chasing them but hurried to where the caravans stood. Weaving between the beautifully painted vehicles, she had to pause repeatedly for Madoc and Morgan to catch up with her.

  Daniels fought to be free of the mob but he was forced to listen as the fire-prince explained that he would put hot pebbles onto his tongue then place an oyster on top of them and hold them all there until the oyster sizzled. He was deafened by the applause when the trick was achieved, unimpressed when the man showed his discoloured tongue to prove he had ‘nothing in my mouth but what nature supplied at my birth’.

  * * *

  Once Olwen and the brothers were in a field with only the distant, muffled sound of the large assembly to be heard, she stopped, knowing from the look of them that the brothers could go no further. She looked around for some means of hiding themselves until Daniels had given up the search. There was only a broken-down barn, its wooden panels fallen and sloping up onto what had once been the low walls of the building. The ruin was partly overgrown with straggling grass, goosegrass and nettles. There was barely enough room for them to squeeze into the triangular-shaped refuge but, one after another, they did. Feet first they backed into the space; Olwen, last in, could look out and see if and when anyone came. She was sad to realize that she had taken charge of their safety.

  Neither Madoc nor Morgan
spoke but for a long time the sound of their breathing seemed as deafening as the calls of the vendors had been in the centre of the fairground. She hoped that Daniels would delay exploring this far until the brothers were rested and quiet.

  * * *

  Daniels pushed his way through the audience as the fire-prince bowed and his assistant picked up the money being thrown by the appreciative audience. When Daniels had almost managed to reach the edge of the crush someone waved his own watch in front of him, and bowed as deeply as the fire-prince when Daniels snatched it in rage. But when the excitement died down and the fire-prince thought the runaways had had sufficient time, the crowd miraculously dispersed and Daniels gathered up the men he had instructed to help and made his way towards the gypsy caravans. Even then they were pelted with food as they walked away from the closely packed stalls to where a gypsy woman sat plaiting her hair.

  A young woman came out of a caravan dressed in a red, gold-edged dress and headband. She assured Daniels that no such people as he described had passed her, but seeing the brief glance, in the direction of the field where Olwen and the brothers were hiding, he mistrusted her and went on.

  Olwen saw him coming, leading his small band. The sticks in their hands looked larger and more menacing now they were so close to finding them and their faces showed little sign of regret at what they were asked to do. She bit her lip and wondered why she had become involved in such a situation. If only she had told her father or Dan, she thought belatedly. They wouldn’t have allowed anything terrible to happen to Barrass, not if they knew how much she loved him.

  The steps came closer and she could hear the sound of their boots as they waded through the long grass. She looked through the screen of nettles that had hidden the way they entered the small space and hoped their keen eyes would not notice that some were broken. Then she saw feet standing within inches of her head, and a voice said, ‘Olwen-the-fish, you and your companions can come out now.’

  She felt a hand grip her ankle, warning her not to move. Behind her Madoc was hoping that the man had only guessed at their presence. She held her breath. She thought later that if Madoc had not tried to do the same they might have got away. but the effort was too much for his diseased lungs and his coughing soon filled the air, men grabbed the rotting wood and pulled the panels aside revealing Olwen still gripped by Madoc, head down, uselessly pretending to be invisible.

  Morgan had vanished, taken his chance and left before Daniels had arrived. Under Daniels’s instructions, two of the men hared across the field in pursuit. Olwen watched as they disappeared into a small woodland beyond where they stood. They all waited for a while in the hope that the men would return with Morgan, but when they did appear they displayed empty hands to show they had been unsuccessful.

  Daniels arranged for Madoc, shackled at both ankles and wrists, to be taken to his own house, where a room was reinforced and occasionally used as a temporary prison. That he was obviously sick and unfit to face a long walk was to his mind irrelevant. The men were thieves and deserved little sympathy.

  ‘You can go home, Olwen,’ he told her after giving her a lecture about getting ‘mixed up with the wrong persons’. She hesitated to clear herself, still fearing the brothers’ threat to involve Barrass. If she remained silent perhaps they would keep their promise. Although with the threat of the gallows, she doubted if they would remain honourable to their word. They must surely try to exchange information, however false, for their lives? She walked back to the noisy fair with the gaggle of armed men who were discussing their plans to find Morgan and throw him in with his brother.

  While Owen searched dejectedly for her parents, Daniels searched for Florrie. A tearful Emma, convinced of the worse, was looking for Pansy and Arthur, whom she had not seen since they arrived. Others too were looking for lost friends or family and they were easy to spot, their eyes ignoring the multifarious offerings and glancing head-height for the face they wanted to see.

  With the approach of evening the fair had changed its character but had in no way diminished in size or volume. The foodsellers were doing good business, as those who had been kept away by their day’s work arrived to swell the throng. The stall holders with goods left to sell were calling their bargains in a screeching attempt to out-shout the rest. Olwen passed the stall held by Madoc and Morgan and saw that the sheepdog puppy was still there, panting painfully for water, the whites of its eyes showing its distress, and she ran to find a receptacle to fill. It was there that her parents found her, sitting on the ground, with the puppy half on her knees, dipping her fingers in water and coaxing it to suck.

  Olwen told her parents only a little of the story, about how Daniels had captured Madoc, convinced he was guilty of some crime, ‘and him with not enough breath to think of such a thing. Yet he was dragged off to walk the long miles back to Mumbles in chains!’ Spider wanted to go there and then to the Keeper of the Peace whom he could see stalking through the crowd searching for Florrie. He was confused over what had happened to his once happy child, but Mary persuaded him at least to wait until they knew more of what the Morgan brothers had told. Instinctively she knew that Olwen’s behaviour was involved somehow with her affection for Barrass.

  ‘This is something to do with Barrass, isn’t it, Olwen?’ Mary asked.

  ‘Of course not!’ Olwen almost shouted, but the expression on her face showed Mary she had touched on the edge of the truth. ‘You love Barrass very much, don’t you,’ Mary said softly as she hugged her tearful daughter.

  ‘He’s a fool!’ Olwen replied.

  And so am I, Mary silently thought.

  * * *

  Florrie saw Daniels and asked where he had been.

  ‘Looking for you for ages, I’ve been,’ she said. ‘I wonder if you would find David and tell him I am ready to leave, that is, unless you would like to stay a while longer and try some of the entertainments?’

  ‘I’m sorry, my dear,’ Daniels said taking some of her freshly bought packages from her. ‘I have something I must do. I’ll take you to the wagon and find David, then I must ride quickly back to the village.’

  ‘Whatever for? Surely you can relax and enjoy a special event like a Fair Day?’

  ‘Something about the Morgan brothers makes me think…’ he began. He briefly explained about the events involving Olwen, then he looked at her as if trying to decide something. He sat her down near the wagon to wait for David to appear and asked, ‘Do you really love me, Florrie?’

  ‘Of course! How could I ever consider being your wife if the love I have for you is not great and undying?’

  ‘Then I can trust you?’

  She nodded, but crossed her fingers tightly, staring at him in anticipation of some trouble.

  ‘I think the Morgan family are involved in the smuggling,’ he said. ‘I think that the gifts I’ve seen arriving at that poor cottage are payments. William Ddole is more than generous.’

  ‘William Ddole is generous to everyone in the village!’ she replied anxiously.

  ‘More than is easily explained, my dear. And Edwin Prince, why should he help them? And I have seen Oak-tree Thomas calling there with small packages.’

  ‘A sick family and everyone opens their hearts and their store cupboards,’ she argued. ‘It’s nothing more than a good community looking after its own.’

  ‘I found Madoc anything but loyal to the “generous-hearted neighbours”,’ he said. ‘What he had to say makes me ride at once to the houses of William Ddole, Markus and Edwin Prince while they are away from their homes. From what that “grateful” young man told me, I think I will discover some very interesting facts. I’m sorry, my dear, but I will have to leave you to wait for David on your own. I have to gather men and go at once.’

  Florrie tried to hide her alarm but her dark eyes widened and she looked around searching for a way to stop him. It was not the thought of him finding anything in the houses he had mentioned, the men were too experienced and careful for that to hap
pen, but he might not live long if he were so determined to expose them to the authorities. A death to prevent many deaths would not seem unreasonable to them.

  ‘Please, Daniels, won’t you do one thing for me before you go? It’s so rarely we have time together. Just a few minutes and you can go. Please?’

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, amused and flattered by her pleading.

  ‘I want to go and watch the bear dancing but I am more than a little afraid of it, if you were with me then I could watch and forget my fear.’

  ‘How can I refuse such a small request,’ he said, smiling down at her, although every minute was important, and the delay tugged at his patience like a tethered bull.

  Florrie led him to the edge of the fairground where the huge cage was standing open, the floor filled with droppings that smelled most unpleasant.

  ‘Surely you won’t find him here,’ Daniels said. ‘He would hardly be considered entertainment if he was locked in a cage.’

  ‘I hope you won’t be either,’ she said as she gave him a sudden push and locked the door. She held out the key. ‘I won’t let you out unless you promise me you won’t pester William Ddole and the others with this nonsense about smuggling! Rubbish it is, told for mischief.’

  ‘Florrie! Open this door at once! I do not find this joke very amusing!’ He had stumbled and almost fallen to the filthy floor, the near disaster making him white-faced.

  ‘My dear, it’s not for fun. If you go and search for these unknown men, your life won’t be worth as much as the droppings on that cage floor! Promise me, please, that for your life’s sake you will stop this search.’