‘How can she get out?’ Hazel probably was looking for excuses. ‘There’s a cart over the door. I couldn’t move it by myself.’
‘Get Posy … help,’ said Kan through a mouthful of bread.
‘But …’ Hazel started.
‘I’m better,’ Rosie called even if her voice was weak.
‘But …?’ Hazel said again and it was a question.
Maybe she hadn’t heard of anyone surviving this disease. Some people must have survived. It didn’t kill everyone, surely?
Mary said something to Jack before she answered. ‘Hazel. Maybe that holy water you brought her made her better. Something’s worked. Rosie’s not dangerous to anyone now.’
I was glad Mary didn’t explain about the pills. If we did get out of here we didn’t need anyone to find out we had some sort of cure. Mary couldn’t have enough pills if that happened. But did Mary really have any idea whether Rosie could still pass on her disease? Hazel didn’t say anything.
‘Please Hazel.’ Rosie joined us and poked her head up to the window so Hazel could see her. The black marks were only on her body. Her face was clear, although her voice trembled.
Hazel startled. Probably she had never expected to see her friend recover.
‘The holy water …’ Hazel gasped.
Did Hazel buy the story? Others must have tried it. This village hadn’t been wiped out, like the other ones.
‘Maybe their holy water does work,’ I said quietly.
Mary gave a snort, she didn’t agree but she still said, ‘That’s right Hazel. Your holy water must have saved her.’ Mary pushed us away from the window, leaving Rosie to carry on talking. ‘Just don’t mention the antibiotics, we’ve just no way of explaining them. I don’t know what these soldiers would do if they found out the truth.’
After a while Rosie came back to us. ‘She’s gone but she’s going to do it. If there aren’t any soldiers around she’ll be back soon with Posy.’ Rosie went back to sit with her daughter.
We waited. How long would it be before the soldiers came for us? I listened by the door. Every sound made me jump. Would Hazel really come back? I heard footsteps.
‘No soldiers about,’ Hazel grunted as the two of them struggled with the cart. Jenna unlocked the door.
‘Quick,’ Hazel said, looking over her shoulder. ‘They’re all up at the bailiff’s house but I thought I heard someone coming.’
We pushed Rosie and her daughter out of the barn and Hazel led them away. Posy gave a shy smile to Kan before hurrying off.
‘What do we say happened to them?’ Jack watched Hazel leaving. ‘They can’t just vanish.’
‘If anyone asks, we tell them they died.’ I tried to sound confident. ‘They’re not going to come in here and look for dead people.’
‘But what about us?’ Jack was getting frantic.
And why shouldn’t he be scared? When the soldiers came back there wasn’t much chance we’d survive. They wouldn’t care who was in here – they were going to make sure that everyone in the barn was dead.
We were all trapped and I could see only one way this could end. Jenna wasn’t having that.
‘If they find us we’re going to convince them we don’t have the plague.’ Jenna looked around. ‘But just in case ….’ She turned and stared at me.
I saw what she meant. ‘Just in case we can’t, we make a run for it – NOW.’ I pushed through the barn door.
‘Where are we going?’ Jack was near to breaking down. We had to get him out of here.
‘We’ll have to run for it. There’s no hope for us if we stay here. Go to the Hanging Stones. Come on,’ I called to them.
‘What about Zach?’ Mary sounded as scared as Jack. ‘Don’t we have to take everyone?’
‘Let’s get out of here and work that out later.’ Jenna had grabbed Mary’s pack and she shoved it into her arms as she pushed the two of them out of the barn.
They held back. ‘But …’ Mary started.
‘But nothing.’ Jenna gave Mary a heavy shove. ‘We can’t have long before the soldiers turn up. At least if we’re out of the barn then we look better – more chance of convincing the soldiers we don’t have the plague.’
With that we all moved out. The air felt cooler. How long would it be before winter and how would we survive? Probably the packs of dogs would get us before we starved or froze. I had no idea what we should do next. If we couldn’t find the tunnel then we were lost. But we were dead if we stayed.
‘Wait.’ Van held up his hand. ‘They’ll see the cart’s been moved. They’ll know someone’s been helping us.’
‘Bad for Posy,’ Kan added.
‘Can’t help it now.’ I couldn’t see how we could change that.
‘We push cart,’ Kan said as he grabbed hold of the shafts, we all joined him but that didn’t stop me feeling this was a mistake.
We moved the cart sideways making it look as though we had pushed it away from inside. It didn’t look very convincing. Kan might have wanted to stop Posy getting into trouble but we were all in trouble now, moving the cart had made too much noise.
‘HALT,’ commanded a soldier from the top of his horse. He’d appeared from behind the barn.
Hazel was right about them being armed. He was the real thing, not like Oakes from the village. He wore a metal helmet and chain mail. His white tunic blazed with an emblem, a dragon or something. He looked dangerous. And he wasn’t alone. A group of five or six armed soldiers marched towards us with their swords drawn.
I turned back, but Jenna stepped forward. ‘We don’t have this pestilence,’ she shouted, and turned to the man on the horse. ‘See for yourself.’
The man appeared confused.
‘That Smith said kill them,’ called one from the group of men. They were keeping back from us, but pointing their swords to stop us moving.
‘Bailiff says they’re runaways and all diseased,’ another shouted.
‘Kill them and burn the bodies,’ said another.
‘Come on Ralph.’ The first man spoke to the horse rider. ‘Can’t stand here all day. Get on with it.’
Jenna took another step, right into the point of a sword. She stared the soldier in the face. ‘Are you stupid?’ she said with such force that he took a step backwards.
‘Yes he is,’ someone laughed. ‘And scared by the looks of it.’
The soldier turned red and tried to move forward but Jenna pushed his sword aside. ‘Can’t you see we don’t have this pestilence?’ She turned to the rest of our group. ‘Look at us, healthy as anything.’
We did look pretty strange, but Jen was right, we looked pretty healthy. A few days working in the fields had helped.
The man on the horse might look confused, but he’d have his orders – would he be able to change them? I doubted he would. I turned to Van, we’d have to fight – and we’d lose. Maybe Van was more used to impossible situations.
‘You up there on the horse,’ Van called. ‘Get down here and we’ll fight you for it, bare hands, none of that sword stuff. If we’ve got this pesty thing then we should be easy, eh?’
Van never looked easy. Kan standing next to him made it doubly less easy. This Ralph might look great on his horse but I couldn’t see him climbing down to take on the Peta brothers.
The other soldiers started shouting. ‘Go on Ralph, show him.’ ‘Come on. Not afraid of the boy are you?’ ‘Let’s see you.’
Ralph sat back on his horse, you could almost see his mind churning slowly. The rest of them waved their swords at us, so it felt an age before Ralph said, ‘Put ’em back in the barn.’ He pointed to the soldiers. ‘And one of you lot stay on guard.’ He turned his horse away.
The soldiers grumbled but we were pushed into the barn and the door slammed behind
us again. It started to rain.
‘It’s not over,’ Jack said in a frightened voice as we moved back into the shadows of the barn.
I suppose that was in all of our minds. Ralph would be talking to Smith. If Zach had his way then they’d soon be back to chop us up. Had Zach really managed to take the bailiff role? How had he done that?
We waited. As time passed we started to do the things that needed doing – Jen made sure of that. Jack put more wood on the fire; Mary brewed up more oats; I tried to find somewhere that the rain didn’t drip on me through the roof – until Jenna made me check for any sign of rats. We were more comfortable than the soldier left outside in the rain to guard us.
‘Has Rosie had enough of your treatment?’ I asked Mary.
‘No real idea, but I gave her some of the mixture I made with the boiled grain to take with her,’ said Mary. ‘I have to hope that’s enough. But …’ She stopped.
‘What?’
‘She may have seen me adding the antibiotics.’ Mary looked more worried. ‘I didn’t tell her anything, but Rosie seemed suspicious. I hope she carries on taking it and believes it’s the holy water that makes it work.’
‘Like it was some kind of magic?’ I suggested.
‘We don’t want them talking about magic. That or … or something else,’ said Mary and I wondered what she meant.
Sometime later Posy came to the window. Kan went to her quickly and we followed. We were talking in whispers.
‘We’ve put Rosie in one of the empty houses on the road down to the valley,’ Posy explained after she’d exchanged a few more glances with Kan. ‘It used to belong to the baker before he took off.’
‘Won’t one of the other women tell someone?’ I asked.
‘They might. But no one is going down there today. We might have to move them again if anyone gets suspicious.’
‘You mean Elsa?’ I said – remembering Posy told us not to trust her.
‘It’s not only her. We’d all tell someone, it’s what we do. If there’s something wrong you tell the bailiff or Smith. If they find out you knew and didn’t say anything then there’s trouble.’
‘Have you seen this new bailiff?’ I asked Posy.
‘Once. Him and his lady.’
‘Can you describe him?’ Jenna said.
‘Well, difficult, they were all dressed up in their fine bailiff’s gowns. But he didn’t look very nice. His face reminded me a bit of a rat.’
‘Zach,’ Jenna and I called out at the same time.
‘You were right,’ said Jack. ‘I didn’t believe you. How did he do it?’
Jenna looked out of the window. ‘Posy, how did people know he was the bailiff?’
‘Smith said he was.’ Posy looked nervously around. ‘I need to go. We were told not to talk to you.’
‘Hang on,’ Mary said. ‘Get Hazel to make sure they keep taking the mixture I gave her. It’s what’s keeping them alive. They need to take it for a few more days.’
Posy frowned and she walked off quickly. I heard the soldier stir, but he was just snoring. At least the rain had turned to light drizzle, but he can’t have been comfortable. Through the barred window the moor looked very damp.
Later we heard the soldiers changing over. The one who had been left outside sounded wet and angry. ‘What’s Ralph up to? Can’t we stick this lot now and stop messing about?’ he said.
‘Someone from the village said to leave them alone,’ the replacement said.
‘What, that little toy soldier man?’ sneered the first. ‘The bailiff wants them dead well enough.’
‘Ralph wants to wait ’til Sir Henry gets here. Anyway, you can go and argue it with them. And make sure they send someone to replace me before it gets dark.’
The first soldier laughed as he walked away. ‘That’s up to Ralph to send someone.’
And no one did come before the light started to fade. I could hear the soldier stamping around. Nights were getting colder up here in the village. Jenna tried to persuade him to come and take a bowl of stewed oats. At first he wouldn’t come. I guess he didn’t want to make friends with someone he might have to kill. But after a while in the cold and wet he came to the window.
Jenna passed him a bowl through the bars. ‘What’s it like out there?’ She tried to get him to talk.
‘Wet,’ he said, taking a gulp of the warm gruel.
‘What’s your name?’ Mary tried to ask as sweetly as she could.
‘Don’t try to get friendly with me.’ He spat out a piece of uncooked barley. ‘I’d soon as run you through than eat your food.’
Even Jenna couldn’t be nice to him after that.
I wondered, again, if we should unlock the door and rush him. But then what? In the dark, where would we go? Earlier that day we’d heard barking from out on the moor. Even if we could get past this soldier it wouldn’t be safe out there. Although this soldier might be eating our porridge he wasn’t some easy push-over. He looked like a fighting man. There might be more of us but his shouts would soon raise the rest of them.
As the dark descended Jack came over to talk to me. ‘I’ve been thinking … about the tunnel,’ he said, and he seemed a little calmer. Jack was always better when he had a problem to deal with. He went on: ‘Does it open each year at the same time? When Mary and I came back it must have been a year since we left.’
‘Maybe for you,’ I replied. ‘For us it was only a week or so after you left before Zach attacked us.’
‘But maybe it’s always a year back home?’ Jack insisted.
‘But how would we work that out?’ I couldn’t see how we could remember exactly how long Jack and the rest had been gone. ‘We gave up with the scratches on the wall, gave up marking the days, there was no point in doing it. We just got on with things.’
‘So, no idea,’ Jack almost cried – he might have a problem but there wasn’t any way of solving it.
The tunnel – and I didn’t even know if it was really a tunnel anymore – was never going to be easy to understand or to find. The Hanging Stones were the only clue.
My mother had said I had to take everyone. But did that only matter if I was there? The rest of them had managed to get back home – it was me that was the danger. I was tied up with this in some way – Miss Tregarthur’s way.
I couldn’t see we were going to get any chance to find out. Weren’t we all going to die when this Henry person turned up?
I tried to sleep. But my mother’s words filled with me with thoughts of her again. Had I left her for dead when she was really alive? What might have happened to her? If I could get back, could I save her as she had tried to save me? So many questions and no answers. Jenna told me to stop thrashing about and go to sleep.
Sir Henry
-11-
For the next few days they put us back to farming, or at least hacking the ground, and we did a lot of grunting. I suppose that was better than us being the ones who were hacked. But with each day we looked for signs of the knight arriving. It was obvious that we didn’t have the plague but would that save us? We’d heard that Smith was still trying to get them to kill us.
The new soldiers took the place of Oakes. They worked us harder and we hardly spoke to the women cutting the grain. We didn’t get much information from the soldiers, but they were restless and like us, kept looking down the track into the valley. Sir Henry was expected and that was obviously making them nervous.
If they did kill us then the village really would be short of people to work the fields. The working men had all gone, some of them taking their families. It was a pretty small community.
Jenna and Mary were kept within the village. They were helping with the smaller children and not sent to work with us. They hadn’t seen the new bailiff but they’d heard he’d been move
d out of the best rooms in the bailiff’s house to make ready for Sir Henry. I was happy about that.
One day a horse-drawn wagon struggled up the track. Someone said it brought things for the knight’s pleasure. Apparently being a knight gave Sir Henry all sorts of privileges. That didn’t stop kids trying to pinch things from the wagon. I wondered what rules there were about that. Mary said they’d put them in the stocks if they were caught. I wasn’t sure what she meant.
‘Get on,’ shouted one of the soldiers when I tried to get a better view of another wagon as it passed. It looked like drink to me, flagons of it. I didn’t like the idea of loads of drunken soldiers. Neither did the village women, as Jenna found out, although some were hoping to replace their men who had left.
Then we heard a shout and Sir Henry arrived in style with a group of about ten men. He was shining with armour on the back of a great grey horse. One of his group carried a banner showing a shield with some sort of lion on the top. They were all armed with swords and daggers. The soldiers guarding us stood at the side of the road and bowed as he passed.
‘What do you make of that lot?’ Jack asked.
‘Dangerous,’ said Kan, and he was right. Even their horses looked dangerous, big war-like animals. Sir Henry’s horse had pieces of armour round its head, other horses had leather protective hoods and each had a gold-embroidered blanket under the saddle. Dangerous and impressive.
We were marched back to the barn. Outside we heard groups of soldiers passing by. The villagers were whispering all the time and must have been scared.
‘The soldiers are patrolling,’ Posy said in a hushed voice when she managed to get to the window. She’d taken over from Hazel. ‘Searching for assassins, they say.’
‘Got a lot of them here, have you?’ laughed Van.
‘They say something about the French, about French paid men trying to kill Sir Henry.’
Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 10