Shadow on the Highway

by Deborah Swift

  I wiped the duster over the washstand, but when I got to the desk there was a sheet of parchment with Sir Simon Fanshawe’s signature on it. He’d signed it several times. And then I realised – it wasn’t his signature. The ones at the top were more like Mr Grice’s writing. Mr Grice was copying Sir Simon’s signature. Why?

  I had no time to think because when I took the document over to the window to look at it more closely I saw Ralph. He was walking up behind the house, bold as brass, his shirt unlaced at the neck, and leading that roan pony from the market with him. Hurriedly, I put the paper back and ran down the stairs to the servant’s door, curious as to what was going on.

  ‘John Soper tells me Kate was trying to buy this pony.’

  I frowned, but he continued to smile.

  ‘So I persuaded him to part with it. He wasn’t keen – in fact he was damned awkward – but I bartered for it. He wanted some of my lambs when they come, so we struck a bargain. Is she here?’

  ‘Yes. I mean, no. It’s her day off.’ It was the first thing I could think of.

  ‘Oh.’ I could tell he was disappointed, and I was squirming in my shoes. I went to stroke the pony, which blew in my hand and rubbed his face against my side.

  ‘He needs a bit of feeding, but I’ll take him round to the stalls shall I?’ Ralph said.

  ‘No, I mean I think milady’s changed her mind about having another horse. It was a foolish idea of hers; that one of us could ride out with her. And Mr Grice, he’s a sour old stick, and I don’t think he’ll approve.’ The pony seemed to read my thoughts and rubbed harder against my back.

  ‘Oh. Well, I’ll leave him anyway. He’s a docile beast. No trouble. John Soper said Kate drove him a hard bargain, so I’d like her to look at him at least. If it’s for her, she won’t need to pay me. She can do me a favour sometime instead. But if your Mistress will pay, so much the better.’

  ‘She won’t. You’d better take him back.’ I scuffed my shoe in the dirt. It was an expensive gesture, and not the sort of thing Ralph usually did. It was unlike him to give away his good livestock like that, and it bothered me.

  ‘Why are you so flush all of a sudden?’ I asked.

  ‘We’re giving up our goods. Ready for the Diggers life when we’ll share everything. I thought it would be nice to start sharing right away.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Ralph said. ‘You look like dog that’s lost his bone.’

  ‘Nothing. Just tired.’ Up at the window the pale oval of Lady Katherine’s face was just visible. I looked away sharply in case Ralph should see her.

  ‘Lady Katherine must be working you both hard. Is there a chance she’ll let you take some time off on Sunday?’

  ‘I don’t know. I can ask.’ She owed me something, anyway.

  ‘We’re going to the Diggers. You were asking me what it’s all about. Meet us earlier, after six bells, so we know you’re coming. You can both come. Bring Kate too.’

  Only last week he didn’t want me there at all, now suddenly he was inviting me. Or rather he was inviting Kate. I dug in my heels. ‘No. I mean, I might be able to, but Mistress probably won’t let us both have the day off.’

  ‘Shame. Kate’s got no folks round here. It must be lonely.’

  I didn’t respond. He drew me tight and hugged me as if to brace me up. As he pulled away to go, he said, ‘I know you don’t like it at the Manor, but you’ll soon get used to it. And it’s good to know you’re settled whilst we’re getting our Digger community running.’

  ‘What about Mother? Will she join you on the common?’

  ‘No. She’s old-fashioned, she’s used to her little cottage and being tied to the big house. She’s been a tenant of the Fanshawes ever since... since we lost our house. I’ve tried and tried to make her see that a new world is coming, but she just clings to the old ways. She doesn’t hold with what I’m doing, but she’ll not stop me. She knows I’m set on it.’

  When he’d gone I waved at his back for a long while, the pony’s lead in my hand. It had felt awkward lying to Ralph about my mistress. All of a sudden I needed to watch every word I spoke. The pony nuzzled me again with sad eyes. The poor thing, he looked more confused than I did. I led him round to one of the vacant stalls and found him some hay. I could swear he almost smiled. His ears went forward and he was soon happily munching.

  ‘You’re a fine lad,’ I said, patting him on the neck. ‘If you were mine, I’d call you “Pepper” because of your speckled coat, and I’d feed you on linseed and corn.’

  But whether he was mine or not, I could see that now he was here I’d have to explain him to Mr Grice. Worse, I might have to ride out again with Lady Katherine, and who knows what trouble that might lead to?

  I sighed, and wished life was not so complicated. All I wanted was a simple maidservant’s position with a decent wage. And so far, the whole household was mad as bedlam, and nobody had paid me so much as a bean. I watched as Pepper carried on chomping and when one of the stable lads came, I headed back to the house where I knew Mistress Binch would be waiting, wondering where I’d got to. And as for Lady Katherine, I was sure she’d be full of questions. She seemed to have a sixth sense as far as my brother was concerned, always at the window when he appeared.

  *

  Sure enough, the call came later in the afternoon whilst I was winding the handle on the butter churn. A hand clapped on my shoulder and startled me. ‘Lady Katherine wants you,’ Mistress Binch said. She sniffed. ‘I’ve got better things to do than chase round after you, you know.’

  I heard her loud and clear. I’d got used to the way she formed her words now. I bobbed a curtsey and hurried in the house to the big chamber.

  Lady Katherine was back to her stiff manner, stitching a cushion cover, sitting upright in her boned bodice and petticoats. ‘Your brother was here,’ she said. ‘I saw him out of the window. And he brought that horse. It was the same one, wasn’t it?’

  I told her Ralph had bought it for Kate.

  ‘He bought a gift for me?’ Her eyes widened and she put down her sewing.

  ‘No, he bartered it. My brother doesn’t believe in coin.’ I realised I’d said too much and promptly shut my mouth.

  ‘Why?’

  I was suddenly defiant, wanted to put her off her liking for Ralph. ‘He says that’s where the fault lies in the world. It’s one of the ideas of the Diggers. That the earth belongs to all men equally, not just to lords and ladies like you.’

  Lady Katherine laughed. ‘The earth cannot belong to all men equally. What about simpletons, or ne-er-do-wells? These are strange ideas. And does your brother think land-owners like me should be cast out of our houses so that the simpletons can move in?’

  How dare she laugh at him. ‘I don’t know milady.’

  ‘What else does your brother say?’

  I shook my head stubbornly, realising I could get him into trouble.

  ‘We will keep the horse, as it was a gift to me. I will try to persuade Mr Grice to let me ride in the grounds. You will accompany me on my rides out, at least until my husband returns.’

  In the afternoon I mopped the long gallery, but Mistress Binch called me in the middle of it and the next thing I knew one of Grice’s men appeared and grabbed me by the ear. Mr Grice shouted and railed at me. I’d forgotten to move the mop and bucket and he’d tripped over it. Two day’s pay would be deducted from my wages to pay for his ruined breeches. Two days of hard work wasted. I rubbed my sore ear and nearly wept.

  Later when I came up to draw the curtains against the dark, I saw Mr Grice tell Lady Katherine I was a waste of money.

  ‘I have to have someone,’ she said. ‘It would be unseemly for me to be alone in a house full of men.’

  So I waited until the evening before I dared broach the subject of my day off. ‘I know I’ve not been here a month yet milady, but I was wondering – may I have a day off on Sunday?’

  ‘Why Sunday?’ she asked.

&nb
sp; ‘To go to church.’

  ‘You’re lying. Tell me the real reason or the answer’s no.’

  ‘I promised I’d meet someone.’

  ‘Your brother?’

  I shook my head trying to fend off the inevitable.

  ‘Tell me. Then I’ll decide.’

  I sighed. ‘He’s going over to Iver to meet the Diggers, he said I could go with him.’

  ‘You can take Sunday off, as it’s the Lord’s Day.’ I was about to thank her, but then she smiled. ‘As long as Kate can go with you.’

  I curtseyed with my face set like a stone.

  *

  The day we were to go to the Diggers proved fine and bright. Mr Grice had said we might walk out round the grounds, and he seemed distracted. He told us he was going to St Albans to talk business with an army friend.

  We gave his men the slip by going out the back way past the stables. When we set off calves were tottering in the fields, the grass was thick with daisies and the sky full of scudding clouds. This time my mistress changed her clothes in the old tithe barn at the edge of the estate.

  ‘Shall we ride there?’ Lady Katherine’s face was eager, her hair pulled back under my kitchen coif.

  ‘No,’ I said shortly. ‘You ride like a lady.’

  ‘And how does a lady ride?’

  ‘Like she owns the highway.’

  Lady Katherine seemed to find this amusing. ‘Maybe I do,’ she said.

  I ignored her and gestured at her to hurry, though it made me uncomfortable, this reversal where I was telling her what to do again.

  The party of people gathered at the common were a motley bunch, mostly young men, but there were couples with children too. I was glad to see that neither my sister Elizabeth, nor John Soper and his ill-mannered son were present, but my heart gave a little jump to see Jacob Mallinson. Last time I saw him, I’d been crying and my eyes had been all red. I turned away, embarrassed, and pretended I hadn’t seen him. To my surprise when I looked back he was walking over.

  ‘Good morrow, Abigail.’ Jacob took off his hat and waited expectantly to be introduced. Of course – it was my mistress that drew his eye, not me.

  ‘This is Kate,’ I said, helplessly. Something about her poise made her stand out. Jacob would never look at me next to her.

  Jacob was naming himself when my brother appeared all in a hurry. He ignored me, and pushed in front of Jacob, turning his full attention to Kate. ‘I’m so glad you could come. It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?’

  To give Lady Katherine her due, she did not answer but just dipped her head. A pink tinge had found its way to her cheeks, a pink tinge that was even now showing equally on Ralph’s face. Jacob stepped back to give them room.

  Ralph handed her up onto the cart and she accepted gracefully and prettily. But then, of course she did, she was used to behaving like a lady. A niggle of jealousy wormed in my stomach. I struggled up after her with no help from my brother, but Jacob Mallinson climbed up after me and sat at my side. His presence next to me made me hot and tongue-tied.

  The convoy of carts set off along the main track following those on horseback.

  ‘I hear you are working at Markyate Manor now,’ Jacob said. ‘How do you like it?’

  ‘Well enough.’ I guarded my tongue because Lady Katherine could hear.

  ‘It’s just they’re saying in the village that they’re finished, that the Fanshawes have no heir. The land might be sold and come back to the people then.’

  Lady Katherine turned. ‘No. The Fanshawes will keep their lands.’

  Ralph began to talk to her then, quickly and impassioned, trying to convince her of the Diggers’ ideals. I caught the gist of most of it. He said that since Parliament had come to power, all lands granted by the King to landlords and priests were illegal, and that the laws set by the Normans – the ‘yoke of tyranny’ he called it – had been removed. So now the common land should be returned to the common people. ‘Like Winstanley says, how can we have a Commonwealth with no wealth in common?’ he asked.

  As he spoke I could not watch Lady Katherine’s face, but when he had finished her face was stony and she turned her head away. She gripped her seat tight and stared out with troubled eyes at the passing landscape.

  I felt sorry for her, it must feel horrible to be despised by your tenants. I did not dare reach out to comfort her because I was not sure who I was comforting, the Lady Katherine, or the servant Kate.

  Jacob must have caught the atmosphere because he gave me a brief puzzled smile. Even his smile made me feel all bothered.

  When we reached the village of Iver, two men – Mr Whistler and Mr Barton – came out to greet us. We left the horses in a clearing with some of their friends whilst they took us to look at the common land where they had built their Digger community and sowed crops.

  We stopped at a patch of land which showed less weed than the rest of the common. Lady Katherine stayed close behind me, still quiet. I saw Ralph move in beside her protectively, and Jacob on her other side. I got the feeling that while she was there I could have burst into flames and nobody would have noticed.

  ‘Look, the remains of one of our houses,’ Mr Barton said.

  I stared at the tumbledown mud and stick walls, at the bare earth floor. It looked like a place only fit for sheep or goats.

  ‘There were five like this, with two families in each, but they came in the night and tore off the roofs and hacked them down with picks and hoes.’

  I did not dare look at Lady Katherine. I was ashamed. I don’t know what I had imagined, but I knew I didn’t want to live like that, in a squalid hovel with no proper floor and no fireplace, everyone all squashed together in the dirt. I could not imagine why Ralph would either. And Lady Katherine must think us all swine to want to live in such a way. What on earth would she think, coming from her polished oak floors, her tapestry cushions and her fine silks?

  ‘This is where our barley grew,’ Mr Barton said, leaning down to pick out one straggling green shoot. ‘But they’ll not finish us. We’re hoping other places will try it and as one place goes down, we’ll try somewhere else. Like rabbits, we’ll pop up on every bit of common land until there are too many of us for them to deny us our rights.’

  I stood uneasily whilst Ralph asked Mr Whistler and Mr Barton many questions and they pointed out the ruins where cottages had been, the fire pits still visible in the turf, the remains of fences where they had kept pigs and mutton. It looked pathetic to me, like a child’s attempt to build a town with mud and water.

  ‘They fired the houses, beat our women with sticks to drive them away,’ Mr Barton said. ‘Even though we were peaceable. I can still hear the women’s cries in my head, sometimes. Screams and calling out to merciful God.’ He swallowed. ‘It is not something you forget.’ He paused, and rubbed his forehead. ‘But we can’t do it again here, it took the juice out of us and we just haven’t enough men willing.’

  I looked to see milady’s reaction.

  ‘Who did this? Who burnt your houses?’ Lady Katherine’s words were clear and sharp.

  ‘The lords of the manors and the Sherriff. To stop us building it back up. They are not content with keeping us off the land they own, but they want to keep us off our common land too, the land that belongs to all of us, the land we fought for against the King.’

  Lady Katherine had forgotten who she was supposed to be, she was standing very tall, and she opened her mouth imperiously to speak again. I trod hard down with my heel on her foot. She flinched but closed her mouth. Ralph took her silence for agreement and threw her a sympathetic look.

  Ralph and the rest of the men left us then at the clearing with the horses whilst they strode away, talking enthusiastically. They were going to meet with General Winstanley who was the leader of the Digger movement. Winstanley lived close by, lodging with a friend, the gentleman who had taken his family in after the failure of the last Digger venture.

  ‘Winstanley’s given up.’ Barton shook
his head sadly. ‘But perhaps if enough of us show we are still willing, he’ll come back alongside us for the cause.’

  Lady Katherine and I stayed with the other women. Margery, one of the older ones, had thought to bring bread and cheese wrapped in a cloth, and she offered us a share. We spread out the cloth on the ground to keep our skirts from the dirt.

  ‘Do you think Ralph will persuade Winstanley to help them?’ I asked her before I bit into my bread, secretly hoping that she’d say no. I could not imagine a future scrabbling there on the common, worse off than the hunt dogs.

  ‘I doubt it. Winstanley’s looking to try another approach. But your brother won’t give up, and he’ll lead us right enough, he’s got the fire in him. We all like Ralph; his heart’s in the right place.’

  ‘The only trouble is,’ said a younger woman dandling a baby on her lap, ‘it needs organising. There’s some set dead against us, and it’s hard to find a place to meet, one that’s not going to rouse up suspicion.’

  ‘You could meet at Markyate Manor.’

  I turned to stare at Lady Katherine. She couldn’t be serious.

  The younger woman laughed. ‘That’s a good one!’

  ‘No. I mean it. In the old threshing barn,’ Lady Katherine said. ‘It’s empty and nobody goes there. We’ve just been there, haven’t we, Abi?’

  Had she taken leave of her senses?

  ‘But what about the Fanshawes and their servants?’ asked Margery, pausing in cutting the cheese. ‘It would be trespass and treason if they caught us.’

  ‘It’s a cock-eyed idea,’ I said.

  ‘No,’ the young woman said. ‘Kate’s right. It’s the last place they’d think we’d meet. If there’s really an empty barn there, I say, we put it to Ralph, see what he says.’

  ‘He’ll say no,’ I sulked.