‘A village.’
‘Where?’
‘North-east.’
‘How far?’
‘About seven or eight miles.’
‘What’s the village called?’
‘Kirby. An estate just outside the village, near a wood. It’s a walled garden.’
‘Does it have a name?’
‘Bold Hall. You’ll see the name on the iron gate at the front. He preaches at the chapel on a Sunday.’
A man of the cloth.
‘And that’s where my mother died?’
‘Yes, above Bold’s parlour.’
With one deft slice I cut off his penis and ball sack and he screamed out in agony. Blood gushed from the gaping hole. I stuffed the bleeding genitals down his throat so that his screaming desisted.
I wiped the blood from my hands on his waistcoat and untied the silk scarf from around his neck. I fastened it tight over his bleeding mouth. I stabbed him in his thigh, in his shoulder, in his gut. Blood oozed from the wounds and dripped onto the floor. I cut out his remaining eyelid so that he could get a better view with his one eye. He peered through a curtain of blood that siled either side.
Once I’d got started, I couldn’t stop, Cathy. I cut his ears off, his nose. Blood ran in rivulets down his face and neck. Blood soaked into the yellow silk scarf and into his white collar. Blood trickled onto his gold waistcoat. I slit open his stomach and pulled out the entrails. Blood bubbled and glugged from the slit. His one eye watched me all the time, wide open. I stood over him, panting with the effort of the work, getting my breath back. His insides were a steaming heap of stinking offal. Blood gushed from the wounds. Blood seeped into the cracks of the floorboards. Blood ran in rivers along the wooden grains. I felt cleansed by the act of butchery, as though I was washing something deep inside my soul.
I was in a state of reverie. All I could see was red and black.
I snapped back into the room. Had anyone heard his scream? I had to act quickly.
My heart was pummelling against the cage of my ribs. I furtled through his drawers and found guineas and gold sovereigns. I stuffed them into my pockets, cleaning my knife on his coat. I found a spare shirt in a wooden trunk, ripped my bloodstained garment off and wiped the blood from my face and hands with it. I stuffed it behind the trunk. I buttoned up Hardwar’s shirt, then I walked out of his office, leaving him to bleed to death.
When I got back to the Gallows, Emily had bathed and was sitting on the bed, combing her hair. She looked at me in shock and said, ‘What happened to you?’
‘We need to go.’
‘What’s that in your hair?’
She walked over to where I was standing.
‘Is it blood?’
‘We need to go.’
‘And your fingernails. What’s that under them?’
‘We need to go now.’
‘Go where?’
‘Away from here.’
‘What’ve you done now, William Lee?’
‘Never mind. Get your stuff.’
I put together the few possessions I had and stuffed them into the bag. I looked around the room. I tried to think straight. We’d have to find somewhere safe to sleep. That was the first priority. An inn or a tavern was no good. News would soon spread. We’d be the talk of the town in no time. We had money now, plenty of it, but it wouldn’t be safe to be seen spending it. We were easy to recognise, a dark-skinned man with a white-blonde girl. We would have to find somewhere to hide out until I thought of the next move. We’d need blankets. I stripped the bed, folded some up and stuffed them into the bag. I looked out of the window. It was dark but not late enough for people to be in their beds. We needed empty streets.
‘Change of plan. We wait here. We eat. When folk are asleep, we go.’
‘Go where? What have you done?’
‘I had a little business with Mr Hardwar.’
‘And?’
I told her what Hardwar had said about my mother. I told her about Jonas Bold. That he was the man responsible for my mother’s death.
‘So what did you do?’
‘Mr Hardwar is dead now, I suspect.’
‘You killed him?’
‘I left him to bleed to death. It won’t take long. There wasn’t much blood left after I’d done my business with him.’
‘Cunt deserved all he got,’ Emily said, packing the bag with her things. ‘I’ll go downstairs and get the maid to make you up a hot bath and order some supper for our room.’
While she did this I stripped. I took off my breeches and washed them in the bowl. Using the soap to scrub off the gouts of blood. I watched the water turn pink, then red. I made sure my boots were clean also.
‘So what are we going to do now?’
I went to the window and looked out over the town. All was black. The rooks were ready roosted. It was almost time. I was shaking but I felt nothing.
Emily began to pace the room.
‘All right, here’s what we do. We know where this Jonas lives now, thanks to Hardwar. Good of him, that. But it’s too soon to make a move. We need to think it through. We need to hide out somewhere until we’ve got it straightened out. I don’t know where. Away from the town. Away from people. We need to think about how we’re going to hook Jonas. It’s going to have to be good. We need to find out more about him. The streets will be quiet now. We’ll head out towards this Kirby place Hardwar talked about. We’ll find somewhere along the way. We’ll need these as well as the others you packed.’
She crawled under the bed, pulling out two extra blankets. She rolled them up.
‘It’s warm this time of year, we can sleep rough. I’ve slept under the stars with my father loads of times. We can forage and hunt. There’s plenty of food if you know what you’re looking for. Are you listening to me? William?’
‘Yes, I’m listening.’
She sat on the end of the bed.
‘Well, you’ve got what you wanted, William Lee. You’ve found out who you are. I expect you’re still taking it all in. You poor thing. My dad used to always say, “Be careful what you wish for, Emily, because you might just get it.” It can be a terrible thing, the truth. Nobody really wants it. Last of all, those who seek it.’
Penny Buns and Jew’s Ears
We watched the gloaming spread its shade until the sky was dark and sparkling. We left the Gallows and headed out of town towards the north-east. It was a clear evening and the sky was the colour of spilt ink. Emily led the way along a packhorse trail.
‘That’s the North Star, right?’ she said, pointing to the heavens.
I nodded.
We were carrying the blankets and a bag. I followed in Emily’s footsteps, still taking it all in. I pictured my mother. Alone. Confused. Desperate. Not speaking the language of her persecutors. Being passed from one man to the next. Starving herself to death. I wondered how Hardwar had been sure that I was the seed of Mr Earnshaw, when my mother must have been meat for so many. Perhaps Jonas Bold would know. I was barely aware of our surroundings as we traipsed across meadow, mire and moor.
‘We need to get far enough away,’ Emily said, ‘so that they won’t find us when they come looking. And they will come, you can be sure of that.’
I thought about the trail of people that were after us: Hardwar’s associates, the man we tricked in the graveyard, Dick and his companion. We were building up an army against us.
‘We need to be ready for them. Word will get out soon enough. They’ve probably already started the search.’
We climbed up and into a dense forest. We clambered in the mirk, with just a sliver of moon and a few silver stars to guide us over bracken and bramble. We stumbled at various points, but the earth was soft and we came to no harm. Eventually we arrived at a clearing that was deep enough into the forest to offer us sufficient protection. We lay down where the ground was yielding and Emily wrapped the blankets about us.
‘This will do for tonight,’ she said. ‘In the morni
ng we’ll scout round for somewhere better.’
Emily wanted me to tell her the details of what I’d heard. I told her the gist of it but skipped over the rest. I felt nothing. My violent frenzy had left me hollow.
‘I saw my dad kill this bloke once. He kept killing him but he wouldn’t die. My dad had his hands round the man’s throat, and he was squeezing the life out of him. The man had a neck like a tree trunk. No matter how hard my dad tried he couldn’t squeeze the life out. My dad was so close to the man. They were staring into each other’s eyes. It was intense.’
Had my mother tried to keep me with her? Had she protected me? Hidden me away? Had the men wrenched me from her arms? Did she plead for mercy? Had she cried herself to sleep? I closed my eyes and tried to picture her. Alone. Confused. Desperate. I kept going over it in my mind. She would have fought the men. She would have fought with all her strength. They would have beaten her. Kicked her, whipped her. Tortured her. Used her. Then I tried to rid my mind of the images that came rushing in.
In the morning we searched the forest. We found a clearing deep in the trees and set about making a shelter. I found a fairly straight, young tree and chopped off the branches. Then I used the axe and hacked away at the base of the trunk until I was able to snap it. I found two trees that were close together with branches at a similar height and suspended the felled trunk horizontally across the trees so that the branches cradled it. While I was doing this Emily went off to collect firewood.
Then I cut down lots of leafy branches and draped them over the felled trunk on both sides until there was an A-framed shelter big enough for the two of us to sleep side by side. I collected some more lengths, which I wove in horizontally so that there was a strong cover on both sides. It took several hours and by the time I’d finished Emily had collected a big pile of firewood. The weather was still clement, but all the same, it was good to have a roof over our heads and a means to stay warm.
‘We’ve got nothing to make snares out of,’ Emily said. ‘We could dig a hole along a rabbit track and cover it with bracken. If it’s deep enough the rabbit won’t be able to get out. There’s only really two ways into the clearing. The bushes are too thick roundabouts. Why don’t we block one of the entrances off, then dig a pit along the path of the other entrance and conceal it? A giant rabbit trap, only for people, so that if someone does sneak up on us, they’ll fall into it. We’ve no spade, but we can use our hands and your axe. It’s better than nothing. William, are you listening? I know what you’re thinking about, you know. But it won’t do any good. Do you think your mother would want you to go to pieces? No, that way they win. You owe it to your mum to see this through, so come on, snap out of it. We’ll need to eat something first. And I don’t much fancy munching on bracken. Let’s have a look around.’
Emily had lied to me. But I wasn’t angry with her. She’d lied to save her own skin. As anyone would do in her situation. Besides, she’d been right about one thing – my mother was dead and there was nothing I could do to bring her back. The only thing was to get the man responsible. I’d dispatched Mr Hardwar. Now I had to dispatch Mr Bold.
We spent the morning getting to know the lay of the land. The forest was dense, dark and impenetrable in places. Further on there was a steep clough, with a beck at its base. A felled birch made a bridge over the wider part. We found sorrel and berries. We dug a rabbit trap and a bigger pit for anyone trying to sneak up on us. We blocked the way of the other entrance with layers of thorny branches. We built a fire and found a piece of flint. I used the knife to spark it off. It wouldn’t light at first and I had to peel the bark off the silver birch trees for tinder. Eventually a spark took. We sat around the flames and ate the small amount of foraged food.
‘This Jonas Bold, preaches in Kirby?’
‘That’s what Hardwar said.’
‘Well, let’s take him at his word. He’s hardly likely to lie with a knife under his balls. So this Jonas is a religious man. We can use that. And elderly, I’d imagine,’ Emily said.
‘He set up a hospital to help the poor.’
‘Good, that’s another weakness. I reckon what we do is wait until Sunday. Go to the chapel there and watch him at work. We need to get as much on him as we can. I’m sorry about what happened, William. I really am. This is the only way we can make it good.’
Part of me wanted to just find him and kill him. But I knew that Emily was right. We had to take our time. We had to do this properly. I needed to be sure Mr Earnshaw was my father and Bold was probably the only man on earth who could confirm this.
We dug some more rabbit traps and drank water from the beck. We played cards by the fire. Later we checked on the traps but they were empty. We searched some more and found a warren.
‘We could dig them out,’ Emily said.
‘They’ll just run off.’
‘Well, let’s dig some more traps, closer to the warren.’
The earth was soft near the warren holes and came away in damp clumps in our hands. We dug three more traps and covered them with bracken. We went back to the fire and the cards. We added wood so that the fire stayed at a constant size. Some of the wood was rotten and burned through quickly. Some of it was damp and hissed and whistled as it heated up. Other timbers made a cracking sound as the flames ripped them apart. We checked on the traps every few hours. Nothing. That night we went to bed hungry.
The next day we had no better luck. One of the traps had been disturbed but the hole mustn’t have been deep enough because there was no rabbit inside and claw marks where it had climbed out.
‘We need to dig them deeper,’ Emily said.
We modified three or four of the best-placed traps and waited. But when we checked there was still nothing. We saw two roe deer: a doe and a buck. But we didn’t have a hope in hell of catching them. They were too quick. They flashed their white rumps as they leapt into the dark. We collected more leaves and berries. But we went to bed hungry again that night. In the morning we checked the traps once more.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Emily said. ‘We can’t live like this.’
We were half-starved by now. Crippled with hunger pangs.
‘I’ll go back,’ I said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘To Liverpool. I’ll get us some food. I’ll go at night so I won’t be seen.’
‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ Emily said.
‘It’ll be all right.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ she said.
‘No. No way. That’s asking for trouble. Look, we can’t go on like this. We’ll be dead by the end of the week.’
Reluctantly Emily agreed. So that was the plan. I would go back to Liverpool town in the dead of night. I built the fire up and made sure there was plenty of good dry wood. I left Emily guarding it with instructions to keep it going for when I got back. I walked through the dense forest, over moor and meadow, back into the town carrying the bag. I proceeded very cautiously, making sure to stick close to the edges, ensuring no one could see me. Not that there was anyone around at first. My dark skin was, for once, an advantage. I came across a tavern on the north side of town. The dimpled windows were steamed up and the orange glow of candles flickered along the glass. I went around the back and peered into the kitchen window. The cook was clearing up for the night and putting away some utensils. I watched her cleaning plates and cutlery, washing them, then drying them before putting the plates away in a cupboard and the cutlery in a drawer. She wiped the damp from her hands on the sides of her apron.
When she had finished, she blew out the tallow candles and extinguished the lanterns and then left the room. I waited for a minute or so, then tried the back door. It was open. I sneaked in and crept across the room. It was hard to see what I was doing, with just a little moonlight to guide me, but eventually I fumbled over some matches and a striker and lit a lantern. I had my bag with me. I found a bottle of brandy, some bread, some cheese and some cuts of meat. I found some apples and some t
ea. I also found a pan. I put all these things into my bag, along with some knives, spoons and forks, two bowls, two plates and two earthenware tankards. I found a reel of brass wire and a pat of butter. My bag was full. I blew out the lantern and took that as well. Finally, I pocketed the matches and the striker, and then sneaked back out again.
I wandered back along a different street. As I came to the end and was about to turn up the lane, my eye was caught by a notice nailed to a fence. I stopped to examine it. Along the top of the notice it said: ‘WANTED’. Underneath there were two drawings. One of a dark-skinned man and the other of a pale-skinned girl. Beneath this it read: ‘Hath robbed and murdered. 50 GUINEAS REWARD. Come forward with any information leading to arrest.’
I felt an ice chill travel up my spine.
Several hours later I returned to our camp. It was raining now and I expected to find Emily lying down in the shelter fast asleep, but she was huddled by the fire in the mouth of the shelter, prodding it with a stick.
‘You were ages,’ she said. ‘How did you get on?’
I emptied the bag and shared out our rations across the two plates, then poured a measure of brandy into each of the earthen tankards. Emily devoured first the meat, then the cheese, then the apple slices and finally the bread and butter. She slurped down the brandy in two or three gulps.
‘You did well, William Lee,’ she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. ‘You did really well. And you’re sure no one spotted you?’
‘There was a notice nailed to a fence,’ I said.
‘What sort of notice?’
I told her about what I had discovered.
‘That didn’t take them long.’
We sat and watched the flames die down to glowing embers. After a while, Emily said, ‘So what do we do?’
‘I’ve been thinking,’ I said. ‘The best thing is to hide out here for a few days. No more night raids. It’s a risk we don’t need to take.’
Emily nodded. ‘We’ve got a pan now and some wire to make snares. There’s plenty for us to eat round here. The snares will make it easier to catch a rabbit.’
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