‘And he just let Hazel have it?’ This village was more complicated than I had thought. Maybe there were more people who could help us.
‘The priest’s probably dead.’ Jenna was going to poke the fire but Jack beat her to it.
Mary had another bowl for Jack. The two of them were whispering loudly while Jack took over his usual task of keeping the fire burning. The Petas were still snoring.
‘Anyway,’ Jenna went on. ‘When Hazel came in here and had finished talking to Rosie she saw the bracelet. Mary had pulled it out while she went through her things.’
I looked over and saw that Mary had kept it on her wrist.
Jenna went on: ‘At first Hazel was scared and wanted to know who we were, thought we must be important to have that kind of thing. I suppose we persuaded her that we were just ordinary – although I found that easier than Mary.’ Jenna sniffed. ‘But Mary gave her one of the charms and she used it to trade for all sorts of stuff – bowls, more wood, and even some grain which we stewed up with a few herbs. No meat, of course; that’s rare round here, but we might get a turnip tomorrow.’
‘Oh good,’ I laughed. ‘I’ve always wanted a turnip.’
Jenna prodded me, quite hard as she always did. Even that felt good although I was careful not to spill the rest of my bowl.
‘So at least we will be well fed while we wait to catch the plague and die,’ I muttered as I saw Van start to move.
Mary filled two more bowls and the Petas were soon slurping at the stew. Jenna had remained quiet while that happened. I could see that she had more to say. I waited.
‘It’s Mary’s backpack again. We were going through it. Remember she said she’d raided her bathroom before she came through the tunnel.’
I wondered if I remembered her saying that or not, but I nodded anyway. Mary heard what we were talking about and joined us. I guess she wanted to explain.
‘My brother had terrible acne, it’s better now but he’d left all his old pills in the bathroom. Boxes of them.’
‘And even our brilliant Nurse-Mary didn’t know what they were. She just stuffed them in her pack.’ Jenna gave a sort of grin.
I had the feeling that this was a bit competitive between the two of them. Jenna was trying to score points. I thought I should say something.
‘I don’t think she wants to be a nurse.’ I knew it was a mistake as soon as I’d said it.
‘How do you know?’ snapped Jenna. I didn’t answer but I could feel my face going red. ‘Oh, I get it. She told you that when you spent the night together.’
‘We didn’t …’ Mary saw the look on my face and she stopped.
I could see that Jenna was in a real strop now. I knew it wasn’t worth trying to talk her out of it. I think Jen really believed nothing had happened between me and Mary on that night we’d been stuck together. I just had to hope that moving her on would help.
‘So what about these pills?’
Jenna gave a snort. Mary looked as though she was going to tell me but I gave her a frown. I needed Jen to do this otherwise we’d have days of sulking. We waited.
‘Well not-Nurse-Mary,’ Jenna almost growled. ‘Didn’t read the packaging.’ Jenna paused to let that sink in.
‘And?’ I asked.
‘They’re antibiotics,’ Jenna said, stopping for effect.
‘And they’ll cure this plague?’
‘Don’t know for certain but we’re trying them on Rosie and her daughter.’
I suddenly had a very bad thought. If these pills worked and other people found out then we wouldn’t be able to keep them – there’d be a riot. ‘You told her to keep quiet about this.’
‘I’m not stupid,’ said Jenna, and I think she meant that Mary was. I kept quiet.
But Mary wasn’t going to take that, ‘No of course we made sure that no one would find out. I …’
‘We,’ broke in Jenna.
‘We,’ continued Mary. ‘Mixed them in with some stew and gave it to Rosie and her daughter.’
‘But if it works, surely she’ll guess?’ I thought this could be dangerous.
‘It just so happened that Hazel brought some of the holy water from the church when she brought us the key. She made the two of them drink it, saying that she’d heard someone say it might make her better.’
‘Will it?’ I thought it sounded unlikely.
‘Don’t think so, but if Rosie gets better then she’ll think it’s the holy water and won’t know it’s these pills.’
‘When will you know if they work?’ I wondered how many pills Mary had. Were there going to be enough if we all caught the disease? ‘How many are you giving her?’
‘Ted, my brother, was just taking one a day,’ Mary said. ‘But I think you have to take more for something like this.’
‘And you have enough?’ I stared at Mary and I think she understood the problem.
‘I have to try this for a few days and see.’ Mary was more like Nurse-Mary now. ‘We can’t just let her die if we can save her.’
‘Anyway it’s no use us keeping them if they don’t work,’ Jenna added. ‘We need to know if they do anything.’
‘I’m not sure we can save her daughter.’ Mary turned her head towards the pair. ‘I think this disease is even more dangerous to children.’
‘But you still want to treat them both?’ I asked but felt guilty when I thought that perhaps it wasn’t worth it for the daughter to have the treatment. Both Jenna and Mary gave me a dirty look. At least I’d found something they could share together.
‘What happened to the dead boy?’ Van said, and I wished he’d been a bit quieter although I didn’t think Rosie had heard the words.
‘Hazel took him away in a blanket,’ Mary said. ‘She’s going to bury him in the churchyard.’
‘What happens when Smith finds out and wants him burnt?’ I asked.
‘Don’t think he’s ever going to come in here and count the bodies.’ Jenna stuttered over the word bodies. I wondered how many more there might be.
‘Did you find out anymore about this man Smith?’ I wanted to get away from talking about bodies. ‘You said Rosie didn’t like him.’
‘He’s not from the village,’ Jenna took up the story. ‘Apparently he was brought up here to look after the horses.’
‘Horses?’ I sat up. ‘They said they couldn’t plough the land without paying the manor. If there are horses here then we could use them and no one would know.’
‘They’re not that sort of horse,’ Mary replied.
‘Is there a different kind?’ Sounded daft to me. Field needed ploughing, needed horses, use them.
‘No, these are some fancy breed they use for hunting,’ Mary said. ‘And they actually belong to the king. Some idea that all this moor belongs to him, just for hunting.’
‘Well he’s not here. And wouldn’t he let them use the horses anyway? It’s a bit desperate having us scraping away at the soil. We could do with some help,’ I said loudly. Rosie stirred when she heard that and beckoned Mary to her. Mary had given up trying to keep away from her. Rosie held on to her sleeping daughter and whispered what she had to say.
‘Rosie says there’s a penalty for doing anything with the king’s horses,’ said Mary, coming back with the information.
‘Like what?’ I sniffed.
‘Like they cut off your hands and feet and watch you die slowly.’
‘Oh, right. So it’s more soil scraping tomorrow.’ I felt rather stupid. ‘But this blacksmith. Does he just look after the horses?’
‘Pretty much,’ said Jenna. ‘He used to shoe the horses and make riding gear.’
‘He’d do a few things for the village if they paid him enough but nothing he does is very good. He’s lazy, bad tempered and thinks a
lot of himself.’ Mary pointed to Rosie who must have told her about Smith. ‘He’s often trying it on with the women when the men go off to work.’
‘But now he’s taken over?’ I couldn’t see why the village had let this man give them orders. Maybe there was a penalty for not obeying him.
‘When this new bailiff turned up in the bailiff’s house he gave orders for Smith to be in charge.’
‘Has anyone seen this bailiff?’ I asked, but I didn’t want to share my real suspicions yet.
‘Oh yes, they’ve seen him and his wife,’ Mary sneered.
‘Wife?’ I was even more worried now.
‘They came out in all their fine clothes into the village, walked around and then said everyone had to do what Smith told them while they stayed in the bailiff house.’ Jenna looked at me and I guessed she had the same thoughts as me.
Jenna could see that I was tiring fast. She set me down on some more straw and gave me a kiss, but she still muttered, ‘Nurse-Mary – indeed,’ before I fell asleep.
Freedom
-8-
The next day we ate before we left for the fields. They needed us to work harder, so they fed us. Several of the men sent down to the manor had not returned. I heard Elsa and some of the others talking. No one knew exactly what had happened. Some said they’d gone off to find work in other manors that were paying high wages. The Black Death had killed so many that there was a shortage of male workers and good money could be had if you were prepared to move.
That didn’t satisfy the wives who had been left behind not knowing if their men were ever going to come back. For the village it was another disaster. The men who had left were the strongest.
‘No one to stop them leaving now,’ one of the women told me.
‘Stop them?’ I didn’t understand.
The woman looked at me as though I was stupid but she did explain: ‘They aren’t Free Men. They aren’t allowed to leave the village without permission from the lord of the manor.’
‘Does he own them?’ This sounded stupid.
‘Of course he does. They belong to him,’ said the woman as though I should have known that. ‘But we think the lord is probably dead so there’s no one to stop the men from going.’
‘If he isn’t dead there’ll be trouble,’ said Elsa. ‘He’ll send soldiers. We’ll have to pay for each man lost. Each man has a price.’
‘We’ve got nothing,’ complained one of the younger women. ‘Can’t pay.’
‘Won’t matter. They’ll throw you out of your house,’ someone else said. ‘Alright for you Elsa, you have your soldier. You’ll be alright.’
Oakes looked uncomfortable hearing what she said. I found out that the two soldiers were just local lads. They had never done any fighting – probably why the Petas had beaten them so easily.
The field work was exactly the same. The women took the crop and we hacked away at the soil. It would take about a week to finish this field, but Elsa pointed at the next fields and I saw it would be months. Without more people to work the fields, this village was going to need a miracle to provide them with enough food for winter. Unless the plague killed them first.
As we worked on I realised that Kan wasn’t clanking around in his leg irons. I could see where they’d rubbed on his legs leaving bleeding sores, but they’d gone. I looked around for Van, he’d said he was going behind a tree for a wee and was taking a long time. Suddenly I felt a great bang on my leg. I fell over. Above me Van stood holding his farm tool above his head.
‘Easy,’ I said, wondering what he was going to do.
Van grinned. ‘Stay still and I’ll have the other one off.’ He didn’t wait and hit down on the iron ring on my other leg. The shackle fell apart. ‘Elsa said the blacksmith wasn’t any good. Lucky for us he didn’t make these tools.’
We soon had Jack out of his irons. The two soldiers had moved off and were looking in the other direction. It didn’t seem to bother them. Probably they could see we would be able to work more easily.
I wondered if we should make a break for it now we were free, but where to? We were getting friendlier with the village – the women certainly had taken to the Petas. The women whose husbands had left were particularly friendly.
That felt a bit too much like the Tregarthurs’ plan – providing more people for a tribe on the verge of extinction. I wasn’t sure that Kan and Van had grasped what might be needed of them. I’d tell them later. Keeping friendly felt a good idea.
When we returned to the barn the Smith person wasn’t around. I’d worried what would happen when he saw we’d lost the leg irons.
‘Something’s up,’ Oakes said as he shut us into the barn. ‘Smith has heard something from the valley.’ With that he locked the door.
Mary and Jenna were waiting for us, they seemed quite excited. Mary had exchanged another gold charm for food. I wondered if she’d got the turnip.
‘And Hazel’s given us the key,’ whispered Jenna.
‘So we can get out of here now,’ I said staring at the key hanging from a chain around her wrist. ‘Is that what we do?’
I knew it was a waste of time asking the others, but I waited for Jenna to say something, or to tell me what should happen. But Mary spoke up first.
‘Can’t leave them.’ Mary pointed at Rosie.
Jenna didn’t take any notice of Mary but took a deep breath and said, ‘Where do we go? The only place we can go is back to those stones but there’s nothing there, only packs of dogs.’
‘But …’ started Van.
‘If Alvin’s mum was right we have to take everyone or we’ll never get home,’ Mary interrupted. ‘And we’ve no idea where Zach and Demelza are, or even if they’re alive.’
‘I think we do know where they are,’ I said slowly.
‘Where?’ Jack looked so surprised and I thought he was the clever one.
‘Here,’ said Jen. ‘He’s right here, living in the posh house and pretending to be the bailiff.’
‘Or maybe Smith has set Zach up as the bailiff and is using him as a way to run things,’ I added.
‘And waiting for us to die of the plague,’ said Mary.
‘Are you sure?’ Jack said, probably cross that he hadn’t worked this out. ‘Have you seen him?’
‘No, but that must be what’s happened.’ I wasn’t sure why I needed to convince Jack but I went on: ‘I’m sure Zach’s having a great time. I’d guess that Smith knows what they’re doing but is using Zach. Smith can make up all sorts of orders and say he received them from the bailiff.’
Kan banged his fist on the floor. ‘Should have killed him. We go now. Kill him in night.’
That probably would have been a good idea, but we’d not been up to murdering the soldiers. I wasn’t sure we could murder Zach. Anyway, I didn’t think we were friendly enough with the other villagers to get away with it.
‘We should wait,’ said Jenna. ‘Zach’s going to make some mistake and then we get him and go. We need to let the villagers know he’s a fake then they’ll throw him out.’
‘If they believe us,’ Jack interrupted. ‘It’s going to be hard to overturn what Smith has told them. Especially since half the men in the village have gone. Smith really feels he’s in charge. And he’s told Hazel that there are other troops in the valley. There’s some sort of war going on and they’re training new recruits.’
‘But Jack.’ Jenna turned to him. ‘If we run off in the night there’s nowhere to go. We could stumble out on to the moor and maybe find another village, but that might be worse. They could all have the plague or think we had brought it.’
Jenna nudged me so I knew I had to say something.
‘Jenna’s right.’ I knew that was always a good thing to say and I saw her smile. ‘It’s bad here, it’s maybe even wor
se out there, so we stay and think of a new plan.’
‘Kill everyone,’ muttered Kan. ‘But before that I go sleep.’ And he did.
Sleeping was a good idea. But Mary went over to Rosie, and returned with details of her patient.
‘I think she’s a little better,’ Mary said to Jen. ‘Even her daughter is not so feverish.’
‘You touched her?’ I knew I sounded worried.
‘Had to,’ replied Mary. ‘Have to hope that keeping everything clean protects us.’
‘If that works why don’t they all do that here? It would be easy.’
‘They’ve no idea what causes the plague. They don’t know about germs or bugs or stuff. They think it’s something in the air or something they’ve done wrong. It’s hundreds of years before they discover germs.’
‘They don’t even know anything about rats either,’ added Jack.
‘Must be why they’ve let Zach take the bailiff’s job,’ I said.
Despite aching from another day’s work my head buzzed with questions. I still hadn’t talked to Jenna. There was something wrong and I could see she avoided talking to me. But in the quiet of the barn, with everyone else trying to sleep, this was the time to find out what really happened. I walked over to Jenna, held out my hand to pull her up. She tried to shy away.
‘Jen,’ I said softly and I hoped she would get the message.
‘Not now,’ she said and her face gave away the worries she had.
‘Now, please.’ I bent down and pulled her up. We moved over towards the fire and sat cross-legged.
It was best for me not to say anything, wait for Jenna to talk, but she seemed so very reluctant. I knew this wasn’t going to be good.
Eventually she started. ‘It’s about your mum.’
‘I thought you didn’t have time to talk to her.’
‘I didn’t.’ Jenna stopped and ran her fingers through her hair.
Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 7