The four men stepped forward. I could see the greed in their eyes. I don’t think they cared about the injured man. If he’d been killed then there would be more for them. It couldn’t end like this. All the work of the women, only to be stolen. It was our food as well and there wasn’t enough to go round. I didn’t know what they’d meant by the tithe but it wasn’t fair and it wasn’t going to happen. I stood in their way.
‘Let them have it,’ shouted Elsa. ‘Let them have it or we’re all dead.’
I didn’t move. Elsa tried to step forward but the other women held her back.
Elsa started shouting for her husband, Oakes, to help. But the two soldiers didn’t reappear. Elsa screamed at us, ‘Give it to them or we’re all dead. More of them will come and take everything.’ She turned to the other women. ‘Remember what they did when Longchurch kept their tithe.’
I could see the other women waver. Whatever had happened at Longchurch, wherever that was, must have been pretty bad.
‘No,’ I said, smacking the hacking tool into my hand. I hoped the other men wouldn’t want to fight. I looked them over. I didn’t think they were up to much. I thought they were probably starving. ‘Elsa, give them a couple of loaves and then they can go.’
Elsa did nothing, but Posy and one of the other women passed over two small loaves. The men fell on them. The man on the ground rolled over and grabbed a piece. I was right. They were starving. Then I told them to go.
One called over his shoulder, ‘We’ll be back.’
‘Good.’ Kan took a step towards the departing group. They broke into a run.
We watched them until they were out of sight. Oakes and his soldier friend reappeared. They must have seen it all – from a distance. Elsa was shouting at them saying they should have stopped it, made us hand over the grain. Oakes didn’t have anything to say. He mumbled about us needing to get back to work. We weren’t ready for that.
‘Tell me about this tithe thing,’ I said, looking at the women’s faces. I thought they’d be pleased that we’d saved the grain but they were all so miserable.
‘Don’t you know? Don’t they have the tithe where you come from?’ Posy sounded as though it was incredible that I didn’t understand.
I said nothing, I didn’t want to get into some sort of explanation of where we had come from.
‘It’s for God,’ called out one of the other women.
‘We have to give a bit of everything to the church,’ Posy said.
‘A tenth of everything,’ Elsa explained. ‘The church has to have their tenth. That man was right; they haven’t collected it for a while.’
‘Not since Walter left.’ Posy might have been scared but she was still smiling at Kan.
‘Who’s Walter?’ I asked.
‘He was the priest in the village but they sent for him down at the manor. The plague killed off their own priest. Walter hasn’t been heard of since then. So there was no one here to collect the tithe. We all knew someone would come in the end.’
‘You were going to let them have all the grain?’ Van muttered as though he couldn’t believe it.
‘They would have had a lot more if Walter had been collecting it. A tenth of everything – the bread, the eggs, everything.’
‘Except Oakes’s rabbit I suppose.’ I tried to laugh but none of the women thought it was funny. Oakes still had a tight hold of the dead animal, with blood dripping down his smock.
‘What happened at Longchurch?’ asked Jack.
‘They died. All of them – dead,’ groaned Elsa. ‘Like we will be too.’
The women started to move slowly into the field to start work.
‘How do you know they came from the church?’ Jack shouted after them. ‘Do they usually send a group of starving men to collect it?’
Elsa turned and I could see she was puzzled. ‘No, I don’t suppose they do.’ She turned back to Oakes. ‘Did they look like the church’s men?’
Oakes shrugged.
‘We’ve no idea what’s happening down at the manor do we?’ Posy was braver now.
The women looked at each other and shook their heads.
I thought we needed to find out.
‘Oakes,’ I said loudly to him. He stepped back.
What had just happened had changed the way he was going to treat us. I could see that he wasn’t going to do anything to challenge me. He really was pretty much the same age as me. Some of the women were older but mostly the people left in the village were young. The hard living here made them age fast. They probably didn’t live long either.
And they weren’t treating us like kids, even though that would have happened at home. Or maybe living in that weird world before we’d come through the tunnel had made me learn a lot, grow up pretty quickly. Anyway I thought this was the time to change a few things.
‘Oakes. Why don’t you walk me down to this manor place and we’ll see what’s happening?’
Oakes looked uncertain. But I don’t think he minded getting away from his angry wife. So after a few words to the other soldier he beckoned me to follow him and we left.
‘Trust Alvin to get out of all the work,’ Van shouted after us.
‘We not pay you,’ added Kan.
‘And bring us some rabbits,’ Van shouted again.
We followed the mud track taken by the other men. It went along the side of the hill and after a while I could see smoke rising from the valley. Something was burning.
It was almost dark by the time we returned to the barn. The door stood wide open. Smith had been out on the moor all day with the horses and wasn’t bothering with us. No one showed any sign of locking us in. Jenna and Mary had been wandering about in the village talking to a couple of women who’d stayed behind looking after the smaller children, baking more bread.
‘And chasing chickens,’ Jenna explained, pointing to a small basket holding several eggs.
Everyone had gathered outside our barn to hear what we had to say. Oakes seemed almost too shaken to explain. ‘All dead,’ he kept saying.
Between us we eventually told them what we’d seen. The manor was set in another village down in the valley. I suppose it used to be an easier life down there. It was a large house and must have been quite comfortable.
‘Any toilets?’ asked Jenna. Loos had always been a problem. The stench in our cave had been awful.
‘There was nothing there,’ I said. ‘This plague has hit them hard. Oakes’s right, there was a pile of rotting bodies and no one to bury them.’
‘Wait ’til the king finds out. There’ll be hangings,’ Elsa cried out.
‘Don’t think there will be,’ I answered. ‘Apart from those five that came up for the grain there’s only a few others left. And I don’t think even those men will stay. I can’t see how they could have been from the church.’
‘They’ve broken the pews,’ Oakes said and there was a gasp.
We’d been able to creep round the manor and the other houses. We’d heard a few voices but met no one. In the church the wooden pews had all been smashed. Oakes said it was for firewood. There weren’t enough people to do anything. In the fields the grain had fallen flat and had started to rot.
‘What happened to the lord of the manor?’ Jenna asked.
‘The manor’s been looted. All the doors smashed in. No sign of anyone living there. The lord and his family must have moved off or more likely they’re all dead,’ I said. ‘A lot of the other houses have been burnt as well.’
I was going to tell them all about the burning ruins and some of the bodies we’d seen inside. Oakes gave me a sidelong glance. I don’t think he wanted to tell them all about the terrible things we’d seen and he butted in. ‘We had to leave quick,’ Oakes explained. ‘They were coming …’
I think Jenna knew there was more to tell. I whispered, ‘Later,’ to her and then went on: ‘After a while we heard the sound of horses. Oakes said we should get out of the way and we hid behind a wall. Some men arrived, wandered round the village and then left. I think they were hoping to find food. Oakes said we should get out of there.’
‘Were they king’s men?’ Elsa sounded worried.
‘They looked like thieves,’ replied Oakes.
Eventually the women wandered off to their homes. We moved into the barn and I sat with Jenna and the others by the fire. Rosie and her daughter seemed a little better but they weren’t moving from their bed.
‘I guess we’re lucky this village is stuck up here on the moor,’ Mary said. ‘There’s no road going through here so no one’s coming up to find us.’
‘Except for those men trying to steal food for their tithe.’ Jack had told them what had happened in the fields.
‘So perhaps we’re safe here,’ Van said as he wiped his mouth. He’d managed to persuade Oakes to give him half of the rabbit. We’d all had a bit. ‘How about we kill one of those sheep tomorrow?’
‘Maybe,’ I said slowly. ‘We’d still have this Smith man and Zach the bailiff to deal with. There’s more going on here than we know.’
I thought there was a lot more to worry about. How were we ever going to get out of here? How could we take everyone? Even if we found the tunnel, what would happen if we went into it?
The night started badly. Too many thoughts and the barn floor must have grown more sharp stones. Eventually I slipped into a restless sleep – much worse. My dream took me back, I flew across the moor, rocks streaming past me – suddenly it changed.
I was in a corridor. The place looked like a hospital, even in my dream the smell of disinfectant caught in my throat. Two nurses seemed to drift through me and I followed them through a door. One bed in a small white airless room. The dream was about to turn into nightmare.
Miss Tregarthur lay in the bed. Her face shrunken, her skin yellowed. Her head wrapped in a blood stained bandage.
‘What is she thinking about?’ one nurse asked.
‘Something terrible,’ the other nurse replied, looking at the patient’s staring eyes.
‘Did she just move?’ the first nurse jumped back from the bed.
And did I see Miss Tregarthur’s mouth tighten; her nostrils flare and a look of pure hatred take her face? I was sure all her anger was meant for me.
‘Course she didn’t move,’ said a doctor entering the small room. ‘She’s been in a coma since that strange accident. She won’t recover now. She can’t move.’ He left quickly.
As I watched, the muscles of her face tightened into a snarl – she wasn’t in a coma. I knew she had talked to Jack and Mary, telling them a tale that sent them back into this mystery. Now Miss Tregarthur stayed silent as the nurses busied around the bed, hurrying over everything, in a rush to leave.
‘I’m not touching that bandage,’ they said almost together and ran out of the door.
Leaving me standing at the bedside.
I was alone. I wanted to run, to get out, to wake up. She turned to me, holding me with those terrible eyes, her whole face twisting in a hideous grimace.
Slowly her body started to glow. A smoky red haze rose from the bed, filling the room with a choking heat. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. I sank to the floor as my legs failed to hold me. The end was nearly here. I was going to die in this room.
‘Not yet,’ came the grating voice. She gave a murderous laugh. ‘Not yet.’
The haze cleared, disappearing as though sucked back into her body. I could see her face, almost a smile. Not a nice smile.
And in a corner of the room, in a battered basket, an old dog stirred. Raising himself, he stiffly moved to the bedside and lifted his head to nuzzle his mistress’s hand.
Miss Tregarthur turned her head to her dog, her voice croaked out: ‘Yes Smut, we shall have our revenge.’
Smut gave a low growl and padded back to his basket.
‘Stop it, wake up.’ I felt someone shaking me.
I opened my eyes expecting Miss Tregarthur’s awful face again. I felt arms holding me. I tried to scream but a hand clamped over my mouth.
‘Sshh. Stop shouting.’
Jenna. It was Jenna that held me.
‘Just a dream,’ she said. ‘Go back to sleep.’
I lay back down, not letting go of her. My mind was on fire, flickers of that room, that bed, and that face. I tried to fight off sleep, to make sense of my dream, but I was too exhausted to resist.
Soldiers
-10-
This time a loud bang crashed into my sleep. I jumped up. Was I still inside my dream? No – this was the real nightmare. I shook my head hoping to clear my thoughts.
The rest were on their feet, shapes moving in the dark, just visible in the pale moonlight coming through the window.
‘What was that?’ Jenna said in a loud whisper.
The door had been slammed shut. I heard the lock turn. Muttered voices coming from the other side. Then a grating, dragging sound. We peered through the cracks in the door.
‘Trapped again,’ I muttered. Someone had dragged a heavy cart across the door. ‘They must know we have a key.’
The footsteps moved off, silence again.
‘Bad.’ Van lay back down.
Even if it was bad, and I felt it was, Van was going back to sleep and his brother joined him.
I stayed near the door. Should one of us keep awake to warn everyone if something happened? But what was the point? We couldn’t do anything. I didn’t want to sleep again. Miss Tregarthur’s face flooded into my mind whenever I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to tell the others about my dream. Quietly I slipped to the ground, sitting and watching through the cracks as daylight slowly appeared. But I must have drifted off. Daylight and the sound of horses and of men shouting woke me again.
‘Can’t see,’ said Jenna, standing over me trying to squint through gaps in the barn door. I joined her as we watched flashing glimpses of men on horseback, armed with swords.
‘Proper soldiers,’ Jack announced. ‘They’ve all got the same emblem on their tunics.’
I went to the window hoping Hazel would come. All we could do was worry and we were good at that. The Petas started pacing up and down the barn, Jack and Mary sat in a huddle and Jenna was mostly watching me. Was she expecting me to do something – I didn’t know what? I was just waiting – but what for? Whatever was going to happen next it wasn’t likely to be anything good. Nothing much to eat either.
It must have been after midday when we heard a whispered voice at the slit window.
‘It’s me.’ Hazel sounded scared. ‘Can’t stay, they’re all over the village, checking on people.’
‘Who is?’ Mary was the nearest but we all crowded around the opening. Rosie looked as though she would join us, Jenna held her hand up to stop her.
‘A real knight is coming. He’s sent his men to check for pestilence before he comes. They’re checking everywhere.’
‘What are they going to do if they find someone with the plague?’
‘The what?’ Hazel asked.
‘Sorry, the pestilence,’ Mary said. ‘What happens if they find anyone with the pestilence?’
There was a short silence and then Hazel choked on her words. ‘I heard them say they had to kill anyone who looked sick. They’re all armed with swords. They said the knight wanted to make sure there was none of it here.’
I shivered. There wasn’t much to say after that. Rosie had heard Hazel’s words and she let out a deep moan. Was this the end? I felt Jenna grab hold of my hand. I turned and held onto to her.
‘I have to go,’ Hazel whispered loudly. Her words felt so
final.
Then Van pushed us all out of the way. ‘Got anything to eat?’ He sounded more worried about his stomach than being chopped up with a sword. It made me smile, maybe there was some hope.
Hazel passed one small loaf through the narrow slit.
‘That’s all I could get. The knight’s soldiers have taken everything they could find.’
‘Why have they locked us in again?’ Jack asked.
I wished he hadn’t asked, we all knew the answer.
‘Smith said you all had the … plague – is that what you call it?’ Hazel stammered.
So we were done for, it wouldn’t be long before the soldiers came for us. Although it seemed very quiet at the moment. The soldiers were probably eating the villagers’ food – or maybe they were just sharpening their swords.
‘But we don’t have the plague,’ Mary cried out.
‘Well, we have to convince them that we haven’t,’ Jenna said in her determined voice. She turned to Rosie. ‘How are you?’
Rosie stood up shakily and her daughter joined her. I could see that they were getting better but their bodies were still covered in the black marks. Mary’s pills might have stopped them dying but anyone looking at them would see they had the plague.
‘If they see Rosie they’ll kill her,’ I whispered to Jen. Kill us as well I thought.
‘So we have to get them out of the barn. We need to get them out so there’s no one in here with the disease.’ Jen turned to the window. ‘Hazel, are you still there?’
Hazel muttered something. It wasn’t safe talking to us.
Jenna went on, ‘Hazel, if we get Rosie and her daughter out of here, can you hide them?’
Hazel went very quiet. Why would she want to hide two plague victims? She had children of her own. Helping us would put her in more danger – disease and armed soldiers.
Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 9