Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series)

by Alex Mellanby

  We heard a noise out on the jousting field. I went to the window. ‘They’re taking down the tents,’ I said.

  ‘Why?’ said Mary.

  ‘I guess we’ve spoiled it for them.’ I could see the soldiers were looking pretty grim. ‘And they don’t like it.’

  We watched them clear the field and load everything into the wagon again. None of the soldiers were going to talk to us. Through the crack in the barn door I could see there were several of them on guard. Running away would be even harder – even if it was ever a good idea. Posy would have to wait until they’d cleared the field before she could get to the window without being seen.

  ‘Could we make off on the horses?’ Jack suggested.

  I rolled my eyes at him.

  ‘What?’ he said.

  ‘Done it before?’ I asked. ‘Done a lot of riding, have you?’

  ‘Once.’

  ‘And?’

  Jack was slow in answering. ‘Fell off.’

  ‘We could let the horses loose; chase them away, couldn’t we?’ Mary sounded as though she was moving the conversation away from Jack, stopping him from feeling stupid.

  ‘We should wait for Posy,’ Kan said.

  I felt that Kan had the right to decide what happened. Anyway, as Jenna had said, there was no point in trying to escape. If we ran then it would give them another excuse for killing us – if they needed another one.

  So we stopped talking and waited – again. I was sure they wouldn’t let the death of this soldier just go away.

  When the barn door opened much later that day, Posy stood outside with a group of soldiers behind her. They had their swords drawn. Posy was allowed to hand over a bag of food and something to drink. We’d been using the water from the cauldron – it filled up when it rained because of the hole in the roof. But everyone else in the village drank weak beer – even the kids – and that’s what Posy brought for us.

  Kan stepped forward and tried to give Posy a hug, but one of the soldiers pulled her away.

  ‘What’s happening?’ I asked her as she struggled to get away.

  ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Sir Henry’s in a black mood after Kan killed that … that man.’ She almost spat the word ‘man’.

  I saw the soldiers nod. ‘It’s all day guard duty for us because of you lot,’ one of them called out.

  ‘Just guarding?’ Jenna asked.

  I thought the answer might be much worse.

  ‘Nothing else we can do,’ said the soldier. ‘And the jousting is all off. We all knew that the king was coming here and there should have been a real contest, but after …’ He seemed too embarrassed to say what Kan had done. ‘So it’s just guarding for us.’

  ‘Not that Sir Henry wouldn’t like to run you all through,’ called out another one. ‘And we’d all help.’

  I didn’t understand.

  ‘Rules,’ said the first soldier as he looked at our faces. ‘It’s one of the rules,’ he said again. ‘Not that we keep to all of them here. We let any soldier have a go at jousting, not enough knights with all this pestilence.’

  I wondered why anyone would want to have a go at this. But I suppose there wasn’t much else in the way of entertainment, other than getting drunk and chasing the local women. Then again I suppose if the Peta brothers had been born in this age they probably would have joined in. Kan had worked out jousting – even without a horse.

  ‘But what rule are you talking about?’ Jenna said to the soldier. ‘What rule is going to stop you?’

  ‘Your boy killed Hugh.’

  I saw Posy screw her face up as she heard the man’s name.

  ‘But it happened on the jousting field,’ The soldier went on. ‘Can’t retaliate for a death on the jousting field unless you have another joust. And …’

  ‘None of you felt like testing their “boy”, did you?’ Posy did her best to stand up to them.

  ‘It would have to have been Sir Henry,’ he answered. ‘He’d have done for him. He wouldn’t have fallen for his tricks.’

  I thought about that. Kan didn’t lose many fights. Especially ones to the death. But Sir Henry? He was much more dangerous than the red faced soldier.

  ‘You’ve not seen Sir Henry fight. When he gets his murderous face there’s nothing going to stop him. That’s why he’s one of the king’s favourites. He’s been fighting in France. Your boy wouldn’t have a chance.’

  ‘So why didn’t he?’ Posy was right in the soldier’s face now. She wasn’t going to let this rest.

  ‘Wouldn’t look good if the knight killed some kid. I know he’s old enough to be a soldier, old enough to die, but it wouldn’t look good.’ The soldier shrugged.

  I guess that made sense, but I wondered how safe it was being alive just because of some jousting rule. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of Hugh’s friends decided to forget the rules. A few more drunken nights and they’d be chasing us around. And looking at Posy it seemed they caught the people they chased.

  ‘Doesn’t mean he won’t get you for something else,’ said another soldier. ‘He’s been talking to that Smith and the bailiff. They all want you dead, so it probably will happen.’ And he gave a laugh and drew his finger along the edge of his sword, testing the sharpness of the blade.

  Posy tugged at my arm wanting to say something. ‘It’s Rosie,’ she said.

  Mary pushed forward, ‘You did give her the holy water and oats I gave you?’

  Posy stared at the ground, looking uncomfortable.

  ‘Didn’t you?’ Mary shouted.

  ‘She died in the night, her and her girl,’ Posy said.

  ‘But she was getting better,’ Mary blurted angrily. ‘Wasn’t she?’

  ‘It’s just …’ Posy stopped.

  ‘Go on,’ said Kan, trying again to get closer to her.

  ‘On the day Rosie left the barn she said she saw you put something into the porridge, something other than the holy water.’ Posy looked round at us and I saw Jack’s eyes close as though he knew what was coming. ‘She believed you didn’t want her to get better.’

  ‘But we were trying to save her,’ Mary said in a whisper.

  ‘That’s what I said,’ answered Posy. ‘And she did take a bit of your mixture, but Elsa smashed it to the ground, said it might be poison.’

  ‘No,’ wailed Mary.

  ‘How did Elsa find them?’ I thought that they were going to keep Rosie hidden.

  ‘Elsa finds out everything,’ Posy went on. ‘And that night Rosie started to get worse. The next day she was covered with those black lumps again, both of them were. They both died last night.’

  I tried to work out what this meant. We hadn’t told Rosie about the pills. There were a lot of good reasons for keeping that quiet – we might need them ourselves and Mary didn’t have that many left.

  ‘So who else thinks we poisoned her?’ I said.

  ‘Elsa convinced Hazel that it was your fault.’ Posy gave Kan a miserable look.

  ‘And Smith and the bailiff, I suppose,’ Jenna said slowly.

  Posy appeared even more nervous and she had something more to say. I knew it would get worse.

  ‘Smith says it’s witchcraft,’ Posy blurted.

  The soldiers glanced at each other with fear in their eyes. They all raised their swords as though we had suddenly become more dangerous. One of them pulled Posy away and another slammed the barn door shut.

  Mary turned to me. ‘You know what they do to witches.’ As though it was my fault.

  I did feel it was my fault and I had a horrible idea that I did know what they did to witches.

  Posy was right about Sir Henry’s black mood. We heard him stamping about, shouting orders to anyone he saw. Making sure there was no sign of there ever having
been any jousting on the field outside the barn.

  Once he looked back and saw me at the window. He gave me a poisonous scowl. I had to stop Kan from shouting something rude, but I don’t suppose it would have changed anything. I was sure we were going to be next on his list – things to do with witches.

  The guards came for us. It must have been midday. We’d eaten the food Posy brought that morning but nothing else. So if Sir Henry was in a bad mood, so were the Petas and I wasn’t too happy either. Part of me felt that we’d had it anyway – no escape, no tunnel – so I wished they’d get it over with, whatever they were going to pretend we had done.

  They marched us over to the bailiff’s house. We’d seen the house when we walked to the fields, on the other side of the village. Larger and definitely more grand than the other village buildings. Partly made of stone and the rest around a wooden timber frame. It had a coat of arms over the door. Inside, we were led into a large hall.

  At one side stood a group of villagers, murmuring and pointing at us. In the middle sat the knight, still in most of his armour. He gave us an angry glower and smashed his mailed fist on the arm of the chair and shouted: ‘Quiet!’ to the group of villagers. They fidgeted anxiously.

  On Sir Henry’s right were Zach and Demelza, so smug and wearing what must have been the bailiff’s smartest clothes. Zach gave me a smirk. Smith wandered between Zach and Sir Henry rubbing his hands and grovelling, whispering things in their ears. We stood in front of them and everyone else shrank away from us.

  I saw Elsa and her husband. Oakes looked guilty. Elsa nervously shifted from foot to foot as though she was waiting to say something.

  ‘Stand still woman,’ ordered Sir Henry, pointing at her. Then he turned and ran his eyes over us.

  He muttered something to Smith who hurried over and poked Mary with his finger before turning and saying loudly, ‘That one.’

  ‘You girl,’ Sir Henry said in a deep slow voice. ‘You are charged with black witchcraft, of bringing the pestilence on the woman and child who died last night …’

  ‘But I …’ Mary tried to interrupt.

  ‘Silence,’ shouted Sir Henry. He wasn’t interested in anything Mary had to say. If this was some sort of trial then they had already decided Mary was guilty, probably all of us were guilty as well. ‘Woman,’ he called at Elsa. Smith took her arm and led her forward. ‘Speak,’ demanded the knight.

  Elsa stuttered, shuffled and looked at the ground. Smith kept prompting her, whispering what she should say. The telling made it even worse than the story Posy had related earlier that day. Elsa made Mary sound as though she was the cause of all evilness, a devil brought to this village to bring the pestilence, to make sure those who caught it would die. How Rosie had almost recovered by drinking the holy water blessed by the priest until Mary had poisoned it.

  ‘Holy water blessed on the very virgin Mary’s day,’ Elsa added, although the villagers looked puzzled and I think no one knew if there actually was such a day, but it sounded convincing.

  Elsa went on to say that we were all involved, how we’d driven out their own priest. How all the working men had vanished after we arrived and she supposed that we had killed them all.

  Elsa turned to Smith and looked pleased with herself. Smith spoke sharply to her and she started off again. ‘And how could that young lad defeat one of your brave soldiers,’ she said, lifting her head towards Sir Henry. ‘How could he defeat one of your best men?’

  Sir Henry seemed bored and waved his hands to make her hurry up.

  ‘He did it by witchcraft. They’re all black witches.’ She turned to the other villagers. ‘Burn them,’ she screamed. The others echoed her words. ‘Burn them, burn them,’ they chanted.

  Sir Henry held up his hands after they had chanted for a while. The room became silent in an instant as if it all had been arranged before we came into the room.

  He asked Mary if she wanted to say anything. But when she started talking one of the soldiers ran over to her and knocked her to the ground, shouting, ‘Witch, witch, you’ve killed my brother.’

  Whether the soldier Kan had killed was this man’s actual brother we never found out. But none of us were going to be allowed to say anything. Sir Henry glanced over to Zach, who stood up.

  ‘As the bailiff to the manor and in accordance with the law and the ruling of the great knight, Sir Henry Eam, you are all pronounced guilty of black witchcraft.’

  ‘Fake,’ I shouted.

  ‘Silence,’ roared Sir Henry, and a mailed fist smashed into my stomach. One of the soldiers had been standing ready for a chance to do that.

  ‘Even now they tell lies,’ I heard Smith almost slobbering his words into the ear of the knight. Sir Henry pushed him away.

  Zach went on, ‘By the power granted to me in the absence of the lord of the manor, I sentence you all to death.’ Zach paused and turned to Demelza, who had to smother a smile. ‘Death by burning.’

  The villagers gave a gasp. Posy shrieked.

  Jack shouted, ‘You can’t do that.’

  Zach, leading Sir Henry from the room, turned back: ‘Just did.’

  It was all over.

  ‘Wait,’ screamed Posy. ‘You can’t have a burning without a priest.’

  ‘That’s right,’ called Oakes even though his wife prodded him hard.

  A murmur spread throughout the villagers. Something about prayers and making sure the witchcraft had ended. It didn’t sound as though this would do anything other than put off our execution. The priest seemed to be part of some more rules.

  But while the rules meant Sir Henry couldn’t kill Kan after the joust he could have us burnt for being witches. We were all going to pay for the death of his soldier.

  Sir Henry returned, glowering at Zach and Smith. They whispered together for a while. Then Sir Henry strode from the room. The soldiers gathered around us, stopping any escape.

  Zach called out, ‘Sir Henry has sent for a priest. Preparations for the burning will go ahead while we wait.’

  ‘Demelza,’ screamed Mary. ‘Stop it.’

  Demelza looked completely blank. I wished we’d left her to the Trogs. She and Zach turned away and left the room. Jack shouted something, about them being evil. He was right, but was I any better? Extreme violence and drug dealing were evil. That was the family I came from, at least my dad and brother. I’m sure they would have been on the side of the burning mob.

  They led us away. Posy clung on to Kan and they locked her in the barn with us.

  ‘Why did Elsa say those things?’ Mary pulled at Posy’s arm. ‘Tell me.’ But Posy buried her head in Kan’s chest and said nothing.

  ‘That’s what they do,’ I said, remembering what I’d been told when we worked in the field.

  Mary seemed to be going to pieces, but none of us were far behind.

  ‘But why,’ Mary sobbed. ‘I was trying to save her. If I’d told her what we were doing –’

  ‘But if you’d done that, shown them packets of pills or something, they probably would have been even quicker to say we were witches.’ I tried to sound more in control but talking about witches made it worse. ‘We just aren’t from this world.’

  Posy looked confused and quite scared. If it hadn’t been for Kan I think she would have been screaming to get out of the barn. I suppose what I’d said did sound pretty witch-like.

  Kan, talking in whole sentences, gave Posy the full story. I thought that would make her more scared. But it didn’t. She buried herself further into his chest. Maybe she couldn’t believe in tunnels and cavemen and … by the time Kan had finished I wasn’t sure I believed in it either.

  ‘What happened to Hazel?’ Jenna appeared the calmest of all of us.

  ‘She’s got the pestilence.’ Posy looked up.

  ‘Sh
e caught it from Rosie, I suppose? Mary, what do you think happened?’ I wondered if this made sense to her.

  Giving Mary a problem seemed to help. She gave me a thoughtful glance and then said, ‘I don’t understand. We didn’t catch it from Rosie and she was with us for days.’ Mary turned to Posy. ‘Do you know what happened to Rosie before she died?’

  Posy closed her eyes. ‘I didn’t go to her, but we all heard her and her daughter. When the pestilence came back to her it took her whole body. We could all hear her cries for help, but there was no help to give her. Hazel would have called for the priest but he’s gone. We’ve got no church men in the village at all.’

  ‘Lucky for us.’ I thought they would have lit the fire already if they could have found a priest.

  ‘But did anything else happen to Rosie?’ Mary had fixed on this problem now. We all needed something to stop us worrying about being burnt to death.

  ‘Not really, just the coughing and crying.’ Posy didn’t seem to think it mattered.

  ‘Coughing?’ Jenna said. ‘She didn’t have a cough when she was with us.’

  ‘The children just die but the adults all start coughing and can’t breathe at the end. Don’t you know that?’ Posy said, as though it should be obvious. ‘The coughing and the phlegm. Great wads of spit and blood. That’s what they say happens to all of them when they die. When their breath comes hard it’s near the end.’

  That picture was about as comforting as talking about fires. I had no idea what it meant but Mary did.

  ‘That must be how it gets passed on,’ she said, standing up and walking to the window as she heard a noise outside.

  ‘Coughs and sneezes spread diseases,’ muttered Jack. ‘It’s the phlegm that carries the germs.’

  Suddenly it was very quiet.