There were just so many things they had wrong. I wondered what would happen after we left – hopefully alive.
Eventually we had the king back on his bed, washed and with clean linen – and no furs. He had been exhausted by the effort. Mary explained about the pills and he just took one, calling for wine as he bit into the capsule and gagged.
‘You have to swallow it,’ Mary said crossly.
John coughed very loudly.
‘Oh, sorry,’ said Mary. ‘Please, your Highness, could you try to swallow it whole otherwise it tastes disgusting.’
The king nodded and took another swig from his goblet. No one drank much water.
Mary took me to one side. ‘No idea about the dose.’
‘What did your brother take?’ I asked. We had to sound absolutely sure about what we were going to say.
‘He just took one a day, when he could be bothered.’ Mary examined the pill packet which didn’t say anything at all about treating the plague. ‘But I’ve taken antibiotics for something before and you took a lot more. Several times a day.’
‘Then give him more.’ I could see John and the king getting anxious as we talked. ‘Make it up, but do it now.’
Mary gave him another two and said he had to swallow them four times a day. That sounded good to me. I sort of remembered having pills for an ear infection once. John made sure that no one else saw the king take the pills.
‘Have they finished?’ the king asked John, who looked in our direction. I nodded. ‘Then get them out of here.’
‘Hang on,’ Mary almost interrupted. ‘If we go, then all that other lot will come back in.’ Mary sounded really angry. ‘And that so called physician with his knife.’
‘But bleeding …’ started John.
‘Is a bad bad idea,’ said Mary. ‘It’s all a bad idea. We need to stay and make sure nothing like that happens.’
‘The priest has to return.’ John had taken more instructions.
‘Why?’ Mary said and I thought she was just saying it to be difficult.
‘The king needs him to pray, so that if he gets better we can still say it was God’s will.’
‘And not down to some crazy witch,’ I added.
Mary gave the priest a nasty look when he returned and I said something about toads and frogs. That made him keep his distance from us.
They let Mary stay. I was taken back to the barn, despite Mary saying she needed me. I went because of what Jenna had said – to get back before night. I wasn’t going to spend a night away – especially with Mary.
Before I left the house I wanted to know what Zach was up to. There had been no sign of him or Smith. John came down onto the mud track with me and I thought he was about to wave me off on my own before he remembered to call the soldiers.
‘What happened to the bailiff?’ I asked as we waited.
John frowned. ‘Oh, we moved him out somewhere, odd couple and that Smith. He seemed to be the one in charge. Smith did all the talking.’
That was most likely. Zach wouldn’t want to be discovered. I guessed that Smith had let him be the bailiff provided Smith could make all the decisions. Zach was being used and that’s what he deserved.
‘You’ve reminded me. I must see the bailiff,’ John said. ‘No one must talk about this. We can’t have rumours spreading.’
‘Or what?’ I asked.
‘Pain of death.’ John was about to hand me over to the soldiers.
‘Like the hot poker stor…’
John clapped his hand over my mouth. ‘Don’t ever talk about that.’ He checked around to see if anyone else had heard.
I suppose talking about the king’s dad being murdered wasn’t a good idea – it was probably the king who did the murdering. ‘Sorry,’ I muttered and I was led away.
John’s words about stopping rumours made it even more unlikely that we would get out of here alive. It would be easier to kill us rather than risk our spreading the word that the king had been saved by witchcraft. At least they might do it quickly rather than slow cooking on a fire.
I was soon back in the barn, with the rest all wanting to hear what had happened.
Jenna was at the window. ‘Nearly,’ she said, looking at the fading daylight, and she smiled at me.
I told them about the king, Jack wanted to know why Mary had stayed, Kan wanted to know if I’d found any way to escape, Jenna seemed to just want me and I liked that.
Departure
-17-
After two days the king appeared a little better. Mary’s treatment was working. It wasn’t an instant cure but the black boils looked less likely to burst and no more had appeared.
Getting better made him more frustrated and his followers more difficult. We tried to keep them away, but the king said he had a country to run. Each day Mary sent for me to come to the bailiff’s house. Jenna didn’t see why Jack couldn’t go instead, but Mary said the king didn’t want anyone new. We both needed to be there otherwise the whole lot of ministers, secretaries and other hangers-on would crowd into the room.
‘They have to stay away,’ Mary tried to demand. The king ignored her. ‘They’ll bring more fleas. The pestilence will get worse again, and you don’t want that.’ She spoke as though he was a naughty child.
Dangerous way to talk, I thought, but the king just laughed and sent a few of them away. That gave us a bit more space, but annoyed the crowd even more.
With nothing to do, all the fawning men made mischief. When they weren’t in the room they spread rumours about the king being under our spell. Even John’s ‘pain of death’ threat didn’t work on that lot.
John said making rumours was their main business. ‘That and getting money out of the king,’ he grumbled.
The rumours and the tithe gathering reduced our popularity to zero, even though we were curing their king. The villagers often came and shouted insults at the barn. A few of their men had returned. Posy said they hoped to find work with the king, easy work and better pay. I thought they’d come to see us burn – good entertainment. They’d started to replace the wood on the bonfire, so I was probably right.
With the king ill, Sir Henry decided it was time to leave. Mary heard the conversation. Sir Henry was going back to France to fight the war. Would that mean we could be set free? Mary explained to the king that she had only one cure – she had no more pills. Would they want us alive after this was over? The king might not want to burn us, but he wouldn’t want the risk of us telling anyone what had happened.
John did say that he’d talked to the priest, ‘I told him the king wanted to make sure the saint’s day wasn’t too soon.’
‘He agreed?’ I asked.
‘Yes. He wasn’t happy about it but went back to his books and mumbled something about another week.’
‘Convenient,’ I said, raising my eyebrows.
The king’s soldiers took over the guard from Sir Henry. They made sure that none of the others came out of the barn. They did bring food but not much. I had a go at John while we were standing outside on the mud track waiting to get in to the king.
I said, ‘We need better food.’
He said, ‘You get what we give you.’
So I said, ‘Remember what happened to Rosie and her family. You want to keep us happy or things can go …’
I left John to imagine the worst. It was a mistake. He took it to mean that we really had killed her and that everything we’d said had been a lie. The food improved but more guards watched over us. John stayed in the room with Mary and checked closely, making sure that she didn’t change anything.
On the third day of our wonder treatment the king got out of bed, still struggling but able to stand. John suggested to Mary that he could give the treatment. He didn’t need us.
‘
If you do that,’ Mary glowered at him, ‘you’ll have to get your soldiers to take them from me. So they’ll all know about what’s been going on.’
John shrugged.
It didn’t bother him. We knew he had a way of silencing chattering voices. He’d soon silence his soldiers, and he’d soon silence us.
But Mary hadn’t finished. ‘And if we go, then I bet the rest of the crazy lot return.’ She pointed at the door. Most of them hung around in the next room waiting to see what would happen. ‘You’ll have that man bleeding him and all those rugs back.’
‘They’ve gone – the furs have gone,’ John said with a curious frown. ‘I hope Sir Gavin of York doesn’t ask about them. Not that I trust the Bishop of York.’
‘Anyway, with all that lot he’ll get sick again and who will be to blame this time?’ Mary said smugly.
I could see that made sense to John. But he was working on another plan, to take the king away. Mary said it was too early, but as he had improved she had lost her control over the king. Perhaps he worried that we could make the disease return, perhaps he just worried about rumours and gossip.
‘Tomorrow, we go,’ the king commanded that it would happen.
John took the pills from Mary, he didn’t need any soldiers to help him. Now he was going to disappear with the king and leave us with the priest. I’d heard the priest planned to stay and see justice carried out. He told everyone that his prayers had saved the king. How he’d broken the spell of the witches and the king could escape our evil clutches. John told the same story, making it clear that prayers had saved the king, not witches.
The villagers piled up more wood.
On the night before the king left he was well enough to have another feast for the village. Not another ox or deer, but they killed several of the sheep and roasted them on a different fire. We could hear the drunken shouting again.
Posy said that the king’s soldiers were just watching and not allowed to drink. Her life had become so difficult because of us. It would be even harder after we’d gone – gone up in smoke that is.
It sounded as though the villagers and probably the king’s advisers made up for the soldiers not drinking. Wild noises came from the village green. Not the field outside our barn, the village green near to the bailiff’s house. But where was the bailiff? What had happened to Zach?
‘We run for it now. No discussion, no other plan, it’s now,’ I said.
‘Definitely,’ said Mary, looking as though she was ready to leave.
Why did Mary suddenly believe escaping to be a good idea?
‘Now,’ I said, when no one else moved. ‘Get anything you need to take.’
Jenna gave me a grim smile and I knew she agreed. Staying meant a certain painful death. Jenna started to collect a few things and that meant everyone prepared to leave.
No use relying on any promise from John. When the king left, the villagers would want to see us burn and there would be no one to stop them.
We just had to get past the heavily armed men outside the barn door. Our only chance and probably no chance at all, but we had to try.
I had hoped that the king would not forget us, we had cured him, but he ignored Mary and briskly waved her away after John had taken the pills from her. Even when she had said he must finish them, the king had said nothing. He had just knelt down next to the priest, said a prayer and thanked God for his being safe. We counted for nothing. We would have to run and hope that in the dark they wouldn’t follow us.
We’d kept the barn door key hidden. After collecting the few things we had, Jenna quietly unlocked the door. Our plan was to rush the soldiers on guard and hope we could knock them out before they called for help or drew their swords. Not a very good plan.
There was enough shouting from the green to cover up any noise we made with the door. Kan held a lump of rock that he had prised from the barn wall, his only weapon, but he had a wild dangerous look.
I counted to three and we leapt out.
No soldiers.
It took a second or two for us to realise that there was no guard. It reminded me of the dogs. When we’d jumped out expecting to be attacked by the savage animals in the deserted village. But this must be different, it must be a trap. They wanted us to try to escape, give them a simple reason to kill us. Maybe this was the king’s way to save us from burning – with an easier death. At any second they’d suddenly jump out on us. The night was alive with drunken noises and we were on tiptoe. We came round the barn, the moor lay ahead on the other side of the jousting field. Still no soldiers. I thought we had a chance after all.
Then the cough. I jumped and turned. Kan raised his lump of stone. John stood alone in the dark, with no sword but a smile visible in the moonlight.
‘Here,’ he said. He handed over a leather bag. Inside was a gold belt. I didn’t know what it meant.
‘It’s the king’s only way to thank you,’ John said. ‘He has to pretend that the priest cured him. He has to do this, for the sake of the country.’
That did make sense, even if it didn’t help us. How could the King of England say he’d been saved by witchcraft or by a group of kids lost on a school outing? Neither of those explanations sounded sensible.
‘If you go that way.’ John pointed towards the moor. ‘You’ll not be found.’ He stopped and looked uncomfortably at Mary.
Mary must have known this might happen, that’s why she’d agreed with me when I suggested we escape. John must have said something to her, suggested he might be able to let us escape if we helped him. Just as Kan had said – John would help if there was something in it for him. What did he want?
She handed over a packet. This might be her last packet of pills. That’s what John had wanted, something to save him if he caught the plague. He gave her a small bag and I heard the clink of payment.
‘We’ve got to go,’ Jenna said in a loud whisper. ‘The village people may decide it’s better to burn us tonight, especially if they’re all drunk.’
‘Wait,’ Kan said suddenly and sprinted off.
I guessed where he’d gone and we stood in silence.
Kan was soon back. ‘Had to say goodbye,’ he said with more tears on his face. He’d been to the grave. Posy was with him.
Then we ran.
John called after us, ‘You might find those furs. That bailiff took off with them in the same direction along with the blacksmith. Send them back if you can.’
So we were on the trail of Zach again. Did we have a chance to get all of us to the Hanging Stones? What would make the tunnel open again? And what were we going to do with Posy, who still hung on to Kan?
Crossing the moor in moonlight was hard enough but clouds appeared, covering the moon. At first we followed a small track but that disappeared when we reached the stream.
‘Too dark, too dangerous. We’ll have to stop,’ said Jenna.
‘We must get away,’ Jack sounded frantic but I’d seen him stumble and fall several times. He limped badly. We’d all tripped and fallen against rocks that almost jumped out at us.
‘That hut we saw before must be somewhere near here.’ Jenna peered into the darkness. ‘There.’ She pointed ahead. ‘Isn’t that it?’
‘But …’ I didn’t want to say more.
‘I know. The body,’ Jenna said quietly to me. ‘We’ll have to move it.’ I knew what she meant – I would have to move it. She pushed me forward and said, ‘Alvin’s going to check it out. Wait until he calls.’ And Jenna sat down on one of the rocks.
I didn’t like the idea of this. I moved forward, rather slowly, but eventually I stood outside the hut. The shepherd’s hut that came with a shepherd – a dead shepherd. The door hung open, leading into pitch darkness. I couldn’t see anything. I’d have to crawl around on my hands and knees until I felt the bo
dy.
I heard footsteps and Kan pushed past me. Since his brother had died he had almost stopped talking. He didn’t seem to care what was in this hut. I wasn’t going to stop him. We both went in and fumbled around in the dark. With every move I expected to put my hand on something dead.
‘Nothing,’ I said to Kan after a minute or so.
‘Nothing,’ he said and we went out to call the others.
I shivered, still thinking about the dead shepherd, but the air was cooler now. We crowded into the hut. Had we missed the body? Someone would find it. Someone would start screaming soon.
‘Can we light a fire?’ I suggested.
‘Nothing to light it with,’ said Jenna. ‘Anyway someone would see it and know which way we’ve gone.’
‘If we lit the fire in here they wouldn’t be able to see any light in the village. The window is on to the moor.’ Jack spoke almost as though he was talking to himself. ‘But I left the lighter behind.’
‘There’ll be a tinder box,’ said Posy. ‘Tom, the shepherd, always had a tinder box.’
I hadn’t realised that Posy would have known everyone from the village. The shepherd might even have been a relative. ‘Did you know he had died?’ I asked.
‘Nowadays anyone who isn’t seen for a while is usually dead,’ Posy said sadly. She started searching in the dark and soon found the tinder box on a ledge. ‘He used to put kindling wood behind the door.’ She tripped over my leg trying to get to it.
Jack took over and soon had the fire burning. He was wrong about the light. Another small window looked towards the village. Anyone looking out over the moor would have seen the light from our fire. I hoped that the villagers would have all gone to bed after their party. But at least in the glow from the fire we could see the room was empty.
Posy had shown Jack a pile of wood outside the door. ‘We often came here when I was younger,’ she said. ‘Tom used to tell us wild tales about the moor.’
Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 16