She saw him jump physically, as if she had dragged him down the years from his memories back to the present.
‘Of course.’ His voice was a little husky, but he was smiling now. ‘Leave it with me. You run and play.’
‘Where’s Rob?’
‘Gone to the Souters, I reckon.’
In the lane once more, she skipped towards the Grange, its tall chimneys peeping out from a clump of trees, and the road leading to the Souters’ farm. The day was hot and humid, the heat bouncing off the lane under her feet, the sun brilliant in an almost cloudless sky. Even the breeze which normally blew off the sea seemed to be taking a rest today.
As she reached the wrought-iron gate, Ella paused, thinking she heard the sound of laughter from the undergrowth. She pushed at the heavy gate. It opened reluctantly, squeaking protestingly. She heard a rustle in the bushes that lined the driveway. She stopped, holding her breath. But now there was stillness, the only sound the fluttering of a bird high in the treetops.
She walked slowly up the curving driveway, stopping every so often to listen, fancying she heard another sound like the crack of a twig. She glanced from side to side but there was nothing and no one.
Just as she reached the curve in the driveway which brought the big house into view, a stick hurtled across the path in front of her and at the same time a blood-curdling yell sounded as Jimmy Souter came crashing out of the bushes, waving a home-made bow and arrow.
‘I’ve caught the Sheriff of Nottingham. I’ve got you now, Sheriff. You’ll not escape back to your castle . . .’ Jimmy cupped his hands around his mouth and, as he made a sound like an owl, Ella heard someone trampling through the undergrowth and Rob leapt on to the driveway, with Janice, panting, a few yards behind him. He stopped when he saw Ella and stared. Then he grinned. ‘Hello. Come to play Robin Hood with us?’
‘Ya can play with us if ya like,’ Jimmy Souter volunteered generously.
‘She can’t be Maid Marian. I’m Maid Marian,’ Janice put in swiftly, smoothing back her hair with a preening action. ‘You can be Will Scarlet, Ella, or Friar Tuck.’
‘No, no, she’s got to be the Sheriff of Nottingham, else she can’t play,’ Jimmy said, ‘and I’ve just captured her – him. He’s Robin Hood,’ he pointed at Rob, ‘and I’m Little John.’
‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ Ella said airily. She glanced to her left and saw that her way was clear along a path leading in amongst the trees. ‘I’ll be the Sheriff, if you like. But first – you’ll have to catch me . . .’
And she was away, running amongst the bushes, weaving her way through the trees before any of the other three had realized what she was doing. She laughed to herself as their shouts followed her and she heard them come crashing after her.
She ran on and suddenly coming out of the trees, she found herself on the edge of what had once been a huge lawn, smooth and well kept. But now it was overgrown, the grass long and unkempt. In front of her, across the open expanse of grass, was the house.
She stopped and gazed up at the building. There was no sound of the others following her; they must have lost her trail. She waded through the long grass, so thick it was almost like pushing her legs through water. The old house rose above her, majestic yet so lonely and forgotten. Birds fluttered in and out of a broken first-floor window and ivy crawled, unrestrained, over the walls, suffocating the windows. A sudden sadness gripped Ella’s throat. What a beautiful house this must have been once and what a waste to see it falling into decay. For a fleeting moment she understood Rob’s vow to live here one day.
Her child’s mind could not visualize the adult Rob; could not even imagine herself grown. But she could see the house loved and cared for, the lawns smooth and the borders luxuriant with flowers. She could even picture Rob and herself running across the lawn . . .
A sudden sound from amongst the trees made her glance about for a hiding place. Set at the edge of the lawn and where the wooded area began, was a summer house, the wooden boards rotting and broken, the door standing open, drunkenly half-on, half-off its hinges.
Ella bounded back through the grass towards it and pushed at the door. It scraped on the floor but yielded when she put her shoulder against it. The inside was dim and musty, littered with old tennis rackets with broken strings, a tennis net rolled up loosely and a collection of long-handled mallets. Everywhere was covered with a thick dust and Ella pinched her nose to try to stop herself sneezing.
She hid behind the door as she heard the voices of the other three youngsters coming closer.
‘Where’s she gone?’
‘There she is, in the grass. Look, it’s moving. Let’s get her!’ This from Janice.
‘Dun’t be daft. There’s no track. She’d have made a track through grass that high.’
‘What about the summer house?’
Ella shrank back against the wall, but the rustling of their feet through the grass came closer and she heard the rasp of the door as it was pushed open and a shaft of sunlight crept across the floor.
The dust tickled her nose and Ella could no longer hold back the sneeze. The two boys were upon her dragging her out and Ella screwed up her eyes against the bright light.
‘Back to the forest, Robin. We’ve caught the Sheriff of Nottingham.’
Hustled along by the two boys, their strong young fingers digging into her thin arms, Ella gritted her teeth and set her jaw against making any sound of complaint.
Janice skipped along beside them. ‘Let me hold her – him – too. I want to capture the Sheriff too.’
‘If you’re Maid Marian, you wouldn’t be chasing the Sheriff, now would you? You’d be back at the glade, cooking or summat,’ her brother said scathingly.
Janice sniffed. ‘Tuck’d be doing that.’
‘Yeah, but we ain’t got no one to be Friar Tuck, a’ we?’
‘Well, we just pretend we have,’ Janice spread her hands. ‘I ain’t sitting in the middle of the wood waiting whilst you lot play.’
Ella said nothing whilst they argued. She wasn’t bothered one way or the other whether she joined in their game or not, but anything was preferable to going home; cleaning out the chicken hut was next on her list of tasks.
The ‘glade’ was an area in the middle of the copse on the outskirts of the grounds where the boys had trodden all the undergrowth flat to make it their meeting place for Robin Hood and his Merry Men. To one side, amongst some thick bushes, they had constructed a den, entered by crawling under the bushes and then standing up in the centre.
‘Tie him up,’ Janice said. ‘Ya can use the belt off me dress.’
‘Robin wouldn’t have had something like that—’ Rob began.
‘Yes, he would. Maid Marian would have had a sort of braid belt on. I’ve seen pictures.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Rob said. ‘You go and keep watch if any of his men come after him, looking for him.’
Joining in the spirit of the game, making it up as they went along, Janice obeyed and went to the edge of the clearing, climbing on to the lowest branch of a tree as a look-out. Jimmy, too, staff at the ready, patrolled the perimeter of the area.
Ella giggled and whispered softly to Rob, who was busily tying her hands together. ‘I don’t think Maid Marian would climb trees, but don’t tell her I said so.’
Rob grinned at her, his dark eyes twinkling. ‘She’s not my idea of Maid Marian. But she will insist that’s who she wants to be. Can’t think why. She’d have much more fun pretending to be one of the Men.’
‘Maid Marian was Robin’s girlfriend,’ Ella said slyly.
Rob pulled a face. ‘She’ll be lucky! What you doing here anyway?’
‘I found a shrimping net in the old stable. Your dad’s going to mend it for me. Then I can come shrimping too.’
‘We can’t get rid of you pair, can we?’ Rob said, but he was laughing and Ella giggled too.
‘What you two laughing about?’ Jimmy demanded, moving closer. ‘You ain’t supposed to be l
aughing with the prisoner, Robin.’
Rob put his mouth close to Ella’s ear. ‘Teks it all so serious, does Jimmy,’ and Ella laughed again.
‘’Sides,’ Jimmy was saying again, ‘it’s time I was Robin for a bit. You said I could.’
Rob shrugged good-naturedly. ‘I dun’t mind. Be who ya like.’
‘I’ll be Maid Marian then,’ Ella teased Jimmy, knowing that her suggestion would not please him.
Jimmy prodded his finger towards the birthmark on Ella’s face. ‘Maid Marian wouldn’t be a scar-face,’ he sneered.
At once Ella’s good nature vanished. ‘If you’re going to be horrible, Jimmy Souter, then I’m off home. Undo my hands, Rob.’
Janice slithered down the tree and jumped to the ground. ‘Aw, don’t go, Ella. They run off an’ leave me if I’m on me own.’ She glanced round the other three, from Ella’s angry, red face, to Rob’s embarrassed expression and then her gaze came to rest on her brother. ‘I ’eard what ya said.’ Suddenly Janice raised her hand and clouted him across the back of his head with the flat of her hand. ‘I’ll tell our mam.’
Without waiting for Rob to untie her hands Ella began to run, out of the clearing and through the trees back towards the driveway. They caught up with her at the big gate.
‘Aw, don’t be like that Ella. Come back and play,’ Rob said.
‘Leave me alone,’ she snapped and carried on walking, the other three following her down the lane and away from the Grange. Awkwardly, Ella climbed over the stile into the meadow thinking the others would tire of trailing after her, but they climbed over too.
‘Who’s come across the field trampling all the grass down?’ Rob said.
Ella felt her face growing red.
‘It’s ’er. She did it,’ Jimmy jeered, pointing at Ella. ‘Look at her face. You did it, didn’t you?’
Ella glanced at Rob, who said quietly, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Ella. It makes it more difficult for the reaper to cut it.’
‘She dun’t know any better. She’s only a townie,’ Jimmy scoffed. ‘Townie! Townie!’
Through gritted teeth, she muttered, ‘Untie my hands, Rob. Now!’
‘Don’t you dare, Rob Eland, she only wants to clobber me again,’ Jimmy said.
Walking round the edge of the field they came to the plank bridge across the dyke. Rob went across first and stood watching from the opposite bank whilst Ella stepped on to the two wooden planks. She was half-way across, looking down and watching where she carefully placed her feet, when she heard a scuffle behind her and then Rob shouted, ‘No, Jimmy, don’t!’
Ella looked up to see Rob starting forward towards her and at the same moment she felt a hand push her in the back. Ella lost her balance and, with her hands tied, there was no way she could save herself from falling. Rob, reaching out to her, was a split second too late to catch her.
She fell sideways into the dyke, amongst the thickly growing nettles and into a foot of stagnant water in the bottom of the dyke. She let out a yell of shock as she fell and then as the nettles stung every exposed part of her – face, arms and bare legs – she cried out again.
Ignoring the stings, Rob jumped down into the dyke beside her, his feet splashing into the water. He reached down and pulled her upright and then pulled her up the bank. All the time the nettles grabbed at them, leaving their sting.
On the bank, he untied Ella’s hands at once, but it was too late now. He glared at Jimmy. ‘That was a rotten thing to do.’
Jimmy shrugged. ‘Me? I didn’t do anything. I was crossing behind her, that’s all. I never touched her, did I, our Janice?’ He turned on his sister and his look dared her to disagree.
But Janice was not intimidated. ‘Oh yes, you did. Now I shall tell Mam.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ he pointed at her, ‘else I’ll tell her it was you, not the cat, that knocked her best teapot off the table last week.’
Janice stuck her tongue out at her brother. ‘See ’f I care.’
‘We’d better tek Ella home,’ Rob said, glancing from one to the other of the Souter children. ‘All of us.’
‘You going to tell?’ Jimmy sneered, prodding Ella. ‘Telltale tit, ya tongue will split . . .’
‘Come on.’ Rob took Ella by the arm.
As they walked around the edge of the meadow, Rob leading the way, Ella felt the cold flap of her wet clothes against her back and looking down at the state of Rob’s boots, knew that her back must be covered in evil-smelling, black mud. And all the while the nettle stings throbbed.
‘Gran’ll kill me,’ Ella muttered.
Fifteen
‘Now what have you done, Missy?’
Her grandmother was standing in the middle of the yard, hands on hips. ‘Just look at ya shoes. Ruined! You naughty child. Ya’ll be the death of me!’ With a swift movement Esther moved forward and before Ella could move, her grandmother had delivered a stinging slap to the back of the girl’s leg. Esther’s hand, now covered with the black mud, swung Ella round none too gently, and she saw, for the first time, the slime covering the girl’s back.
‘What on earth were you doing?’
‘Missus—’ Rob began.
‘Be quiet, Boy, I’m asking her. Well?’
The fearsome green gaze bored into her and though her eyes smarted with tears and her face, arms and legs throbbed with the pain of the nettle stings – and now from Esther’s smack too – Ella set her jaw and refused to cry. She returned her grandmother’s stare doggedly.
‘I fell in the dyke coming across the planks.’
‘Then you should be more careful. Can’t you even walk across a bridge without tipplin’ into this muck?’
‘Missus—’ Rob began again, but Esther was moving away towards the wash-house.
‘Strip ya clothes off. It’s a cold bath for you, me girl.’
‘Come on,’ Ella heard Rob mutter to the Souter children. ‘We’d better go.’ They turned and as they moved away, Rob said, ‘You should have owned up, Jimmy. You should have told the truth.’
‘I – I thought she’d tell.’
‘Obviously she’s not a tell-tale, is she?’
Then they were out of earshot and Ella was left standing in the middle of the yard under the burning sun, whilst her grandmother brought the tin bath from the wash-house, placed it under the pump in the yard and half-filled it with cold water.
‘Do as I told you, get them things off. Though how I’m to get that stain out o’ ya dress, I dun’t know. Right, now in you get.’
Ella glanced round.
‘They’ve gone. There’s no one to see you.’
And Ella was obliged to step into the tin bath and wash herself in the middle of the yard. The cold water soothed her nettle stings, but even when Esther saw the extent of the white blisters covering Ella’s arms, legs and even her face, all she said was, ‘Teach you to be more careful.’ She turned away and went back into the house, saying over her shoulder, ‘Up to ya bed and stay there!’
Her body was a mass of stings, throbbing, pulsating, hurting. She buried her head beneath the covers and let the tears come. Tears of pain, humiliation – and anger. Then she felt a hand tugging back the sheet and she clutched it more tightly to her. She didn’t want anyone to see her tears. Then a gentle voice said, ‘Come on, love. It’s Grandpa . . .’ Reluctantly, she emerged from underneath the sheet and with a sob allowed herself to be enfolded into his arms.
‘There, there. Tell me what happened.’
She was silent, still not wanting to tell the truth. She was not sure what her grandfather would do. He might go to the Souters and that would only cause more trouble. Something similar had once happened back home in Lincoln. A group of children had been playing snowballs on the way home and she had thrown one at a bigger boy. In retaliation, he had grabbed her and rubbed snow into her face. When she had arrived home her eye had been swollen and her mother, demanding to know who had done it, had immediately marched round to the boy’s home and
created such a commotion that the boy had never spoken to Ella again and had turned some of her former friends against her too.
From that time onwards, young though she was, Ella had determined to fight her own battles; telling grown-ups only made matters worse.
‘I – I—’ she began now, her burning cheek against his chest, so close she could hear the beat of his heart in her ear. ‘We were playing. I fell off the little bridge into the dyke.’
‘I see,’ he said quietly, and held her tightly, rocking her and stroking her short curly hair, but she wasn’t sure, by the tone of his voice, whether he believed her.
Gently he eased her away from him. ‘Let’s have a look at all these nettle stings. Poor little lass. I bet they’re hurting, aren’t they?’
She bit her lip and nodded. They heard voices in the front garden, just below the open window of her bedroom. Her grandfather stood up and looked out. ‘It’s Rob, talking to your grannie. I’d better go down and see what he wants.’
When her grandfather had left the bedroom, Ella got out of bed and went to the window, kneeling down, so that she could peep just over the sill and look down on them below without being seen.
At the bottom of the orchard, just near the hole in the hedge, she could see Rob talking to her grandmother and waving his arm, gesturing behind him, back towards the direction of the dyke.
‘Oh, no,’ she groaned aloud, ‘he’s telling her what happened.’ She pulled a face to herself. ‘Now Jimmy’ll really have it in for me.’
Rob seemed to be handing a bundle of something to Esther, but from here, Ella could not see what it was. As her grandmother turned and began to walk back towards the house, Ella bobbed down quickly out of sight lest Esther should look up and see her there.
When, a few moments later, she heard her grandmother’s voice in the hall and heard her footsteps on the stairs, she hopped back into bed.
‘I know, I know, Jonathan.’ The sound of Esther’s voice preceded her and then she was there, standing over the bed, a bundle of huge green leaves in her hands.
The Fleethaven Trilogy Page 93