‘Probably about witches,’ Jenna whispered in my ear. I nearly laughed.
We didn’t want to stay here for long. We needed to leave as soon as any light appeared in the sky. But the hut grew warm with the fire. And in the warmth we must have all drifted off to sleep. I woke to the sound of a horse’s hooves. I jumped up. It was well past dawn. The rest were still sleeping. Kan snoring in the corner, his arms wrapped round Posy.
No time to escape. Wisps of smoke from the smouldering fire curled up through the hole in the roof making it obvious that someone was in the hut. As the sound of the horse drew nearer everyone else woke.
I held my finger to my lips and tried to stop them from making any noise. It sounded as though there was only one horse. We might be able to overcome one person. We waited. The horse slowed as it neared the hut.
‘Tom,’ came a voice. ‘Tom, you in there?’
‘It’s Smith.’ Posy sprang through the door before I could stop her. ‘I thought you’d run away,’ she called at him. He’d seen us all.
‘You,’ he shouted and turned his horse away, riding as fast as he could towards the village.
‘Why did you do that?’ Jack turned angrily to Posy.
She sniffed loudly and miserably. Kan pulled Jack away and nearly hit him. ‘She didn’t know.’ Kan glared at Jack.
‘Come on,’ Jenna ordered. ‘Smith didn’t come from the village, but he’s going there now. He must have left Zach and Demelza. We need to get out of here. We need to see what’s happened.’
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see what had happened to the two of them, unless they were both dead.
We set off as quickly as we could. We weren’t going to outrun Smith. The king would probably have left. John wouldn’t be there to stop Smith telling the villagers where we were, where we were going. They would soon come after us.
Posy screamed.
She’d found the body, the shepherd’s body. It had been dragged out of the hut and down towards the stream. There wasn’t much left of him. The dogs must have found him.
‘Should we bury him?’ suggested Mary.
‘Sorry. No time.’ Jenna looked away and repeated. ‘No time.’ Then she started forward, ordering: ‘Come on.’
We left as quickly as we could, on a route back to the deserted village. The sight of the dead man stuck in my head. Were the dogs still roaming this part of the moor? Posy said that the soldiers had killed several of the animals because they attacked the king’s deer. Probably hadn’t killed them all. With each step, one of us either looked to see if we were being chased or looked up at the moor to see if the dogs were coming.
Smith’s horse prints were easy to follow on the wet muddy ground. But soon we were climbing up the side of a hill with no track. I thought that at least this would slow anyone on horseback who might be following us. Smith had long vanished. No dogs and no one in pursuit – yet.
Reaching the top of the slope we saw the small village where we had stayed before, now even more decayed. Dead bushes rolled between the buildings, blown on a strengthening breeze. There were only one or two houses with a whole roof. From one house a thin plume of smoke came through the roof. We set off towards it. Dogs, soldiers and now Zach.
Zach
-18-
Mary stopped: ‘That’s Zach for you. Ties up a horse and leaves it to die.’
Outside the house, with the thin wisp of smoke hanging over its thatched roof, a small grey horse had been tied to a rail. The poor animal could barely stand, his head hung down, his sides heaved and his legs trembled.
Mary seemed more worried about the horse than about Zach or Demelza. She ran to the animal. An empty bucket lay near him in the mud. She filled it from a stream running down the other side of the track. The horse drank slowly. Mary untied the rope from the rail and led him away, talking to him all the time. He was already steadier on his legs.
‘We need to feed him,’ Mary called. ‘There’s not much grass. He needs hay.’
‘There’ll be some in the barn.’ Posy let go of Kan and ran towards a larger building. She obviously knew where to look. This village wasn’t that much different from her own.
Mary helping the horse seemed so strange. Something she needed to do, wanted to do. It seemed so long since we’d been able to make choices like that.
While Mary looked after the horse, I watched the door to the house. Mary hadn’t been quiet. If Zach was inside he must have heard her, but no one came out. I thought I heard movement inside. I couldn’t see in because wooden shutters had been closed over the small window at the front.
I called out, ‘Zach, are you in there?’ We heard a faint cry from inside.
Jenna tried. ‘Demelza? Is that you?’
No answer. Jen nodded me towards the house, wanting me to go in. I pushed the door open and jumped back, expecting Zach to be hiding behind it, waiting for me. Nothing. I kicked the door fully open, still no Zach. I heard a small moan but no one moved.
I stepped forward, waiting for my eyes to focus in the gloomy light from the shuttered windows. A trail of smoke rose from the remains of a fire smouldering in the middle of the room. The fire didn’t cover the stale rotten stench that hung in the air.
‘Come to watch me die,’ croaked someone from the corner, where the smell came from.
I recognised that spiteful voice – Zach.
‘Good idea. Watching you die.’ Jack came up behind me.
‘Take a seat and you can catch it as well,’ moaned Demelza from deeper in the corner.
‘Don’t you want to know how I survived? You all thought I was dead.’ Zach’s voice became clearer and I knew he was trying to wind me up so I didn’t say anything. ‘It was her.’ He tried to laugh but it seemed to hurt him. ‘That teacher – Miss Tregarthur – she saved me.’
I stood back, there was so much I needed to know. ‘How?’ I asked, and I knew it was useless.
‘Get me out of here and I might tell you.’ Zach sank back.
‘Tell me now,’ I shouted but the two of them said nothing.
Jenna pushed past us and opened the shutters. Light poured into the small room. Now we could see the two of them. They lay on a straw bed covered in furs. The king’s furs.
Mary appeared, still muttering about the horse. She saw Zach and started yelling, ‘OUT, OUT, OUT.’ She pulled at me and waved at the others.
We followed her onto the mud track. The horse seemed happier, munching on something in his bucket. I kept my eyes on the door in case Zach postponed his idea of dying and had a rapid recovery.
‘The rugs,’ Mary said. ‘Those are the same rugs that we chucked out of the king’s bedroom. They were infested with fleas – rat fleas. That’s what gave the king the plague and it’s done the same for Zach. We must keep away from them.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘So Zach dies.’ I felt this is what he deserved. Zach was going to die from some ancient plague. He should have died before.
I turned and met Jenna’s stare. She didn’t have to say anything; it didn’t take much to work out that Jenna wasn’t just going to let him die.
‘It was Miss Tregarthur that saved him,’ I said slowly. ‘He’s in it with her.’
‘I heard,’ Jenna answered. ‘But she’s not here. We have to decide.’
That meant she had decided.
‘But he’s nearly dead already,’ I started to argue.
‘What about the tunnel?’ Jack broke in. ‘I mean, if we put Zach in it and took him home?’
‘Would they get better?’ Mary thought about it. She turned to me. ‘You had a lot of bruises when we arrived in the cave, but you looked alright when you got out on to the moor.’
I nodded. I’d been beaten by Zach and his Trogs, but after going through the tunnel I was fine.
‘Different time,’ said Jack as though it was obvious. ‘You don’t have those injuries because you’re in a different time.’
I couldn’t make sense of that. ‘The tunnel might cure his plague but it won’t make Zach any better.’ There wasn’t any point in my arguing. There were too many things to think about. Something else – did only rats carry the plague fleas, what about horses? I decided I didn’t want to know and I didn’t want to ask. Getting Zach to the Hanging Stones was going to be enough of a problem.
‘You know what make this tunnel work?’ Almost Kan’s first words that day. Leaving his brother buried in the village had been hard, but perhaps even more complicated – what to do about Posy?
I didn’t have an answer to his question. What made it bring us here? How much had Miss Tregarthur to do with it – and with Zach?
There was something even worse. Why would we find anything at the Hanging Stones? Jack and Mary had come that way but then the tunnel had opened in our cave, not at the stones. Were we going to the wrong place? I didn’t believe that any of us knew any answers. But I was wrong.
‘When we came back …’ Jack started, stopped, then went on: ‘As we came closer to the Hanging Stones, I could feel something …’
‘Me too,’ interrupted Mary. ‘As though I knew something would happen.’
Jack and Mary glanced at each other. They must have talked about this and kept it to themselves.
‘Did you know we’d end up here? In the middle of the Black Death?’ Jenna sounded angry. I don’t suppose she liked Mary and Jack knowing something she didn’t, something so important.
‘Sorry.’ Mary turned to Jenna. ‘We had no idea where the tunnel would take us.’
‘And now?’ I asked. ‘Can you feel it now?’ I thought that was a stupid question. For me, whatever caused the tunnel to do anything happened with an earthquake. But I’d only been through it twice. Mary and Jack had entered it four times. Did that make a difference?
‘Maybe I can feel something, maybe not,’ Jack answered. ‘But do we really have to do what your mother said – take everyone – take Zach?’
‘Just have to take them,’ said Jenna looking at me.
I nodded, hoping that Jack’s feelings meant that the Hanging Stones were the place to go.
‘Now we need to get organised – Mary?’ Jenna called.
I wanted to leave. It was past midday, we’d woken late and the walk had been slow. Possibly because we kept looking to see if we were followed, but more likely because we were worried about wild beasts in front of us. At least the horse was alive when we arrived, and that must mean that the dogs were not around.
We weren’t going to make it to the Hanging Stones today. Not if we had to find a way to take Zach and Demelza, even if they were able to leave their bed.
The sky darkened, clouds were gathering. Perhaps another storm would bring another earthquake. Did Jack and Mary sense that, not the tunnel but the coming of an earthquake on the moor? Did the two go together?
‘Shouldn’t we go now?’ I said to Jen. ‘Maybe our only chance? Leave them.’ I wasn’t really sure why I was in a hurry. It would be pretty unlikely we would get to where we had left Mum, and anyway she probably wouldn’t have survived.
‘We take them,’ Jenna said firmly.
Mary went back to talk to Zach – from just inside the door. I wasn’t sure what she was going to say. I found that out when I heard their scream and rushed over to see what was happening. The two of them had become frantic, trying to push the rugs away. They tipped out on to the floor and started crawling towards us. Both covered in black boils, both too weak to stand.
Could we ever get them to the Hanging Stones? They were so weak and sick. And I didn’t like the idea of trying to help them. Their boils were oozing a foul-smelling bloody discharge.
‘Stop,’ shouted Mary as we all backed away. From the doorway I could see Demelza’s tears, but Zach’s stony stare stayed on the face that always reminded me of a rat. That felt appropriate – rats.
‘You’ll soon catch it,’ Zach tried to snarl but something made him wince with pain. The disease had taken a deeper hold on his body.
Mary ignored his words. ‘We have to get you out of those clothes. They’ll be full of rat fleas too. Clean you up as well as we can.’
Mary and Jenna got moving. Jack found a long pole that had fallen from the roof of one of the other derelict houses. Jenna used it to poke the fur rugs deep into the corner of the room. Posy had been staring at the fur rugs. I suppose they were very valuable. John had wanted to get them back but perhaps not the flea-ridden plague rugs.
I would have left Zach to die, probably Demelza as well. Mary’s cleaning efforts would put her at risk of being bitten by fleas. It was impossible to do it safely in this dark damp house. Anyway couldn’t Zach and Demelza pass this disease on to us, without the fleas? That had happened to Hazel – caught it from Rosie and her family. But we had started and I could see Mary and Jenna felt they had no other choice. Did Mary really have no more pills? I hoped she had kept a few of them.
Jenna must have seen that I didn’t want to help. She suggested that she and Mary would deal with Zach while the rest of us went to the other house.
‘Find some food,’ Jenna ordered and sent us away.
We found the house that we’d stayed in before and Jack lit a fire, he’d kept the shepherd’s tinder box. Posy took Kan off to search for food and before too long they returned with a small sack of grain that someone must have left behind. It had been stored in a jar and was not completely rotten. Posy made more of the porridge we had become used to eating.
While everyone else found useful tasks, I walked up the hill to look down the valley. There were so many things in my mind, but thoughts of Ivy and Sam seemed to break through. Two people who had stayed with me when the others left our cave home. They’d just vanished. I missed them. Where were they now? And why had I suddenly started to think of them again? Had they really got back home or had Miss Tregarthur done something to them as well?
I stopped thinking and looked down across the moor. There was nothing to see, no one had come after us. I listened for sounds of the dog pack, but everything was quiet. It started to rain and I turned back to the house. Maybe Jack and Mary had some strange feeling about the tunnel, but I had some strange feeling about everything. And most of that feeling was that we should keep a watch on the valley. I didn’t believe that our escape would simply be forgotten.
As night fell, Mary and Jenna left Zach and Demelza in their house. They’d put them on a new bed of straw taken from another of the deserted homes. Mary said she hoped it wasn’t full of fleas.
‘Will it make any difference?’ Jack asked. ‘They’ve caught this disease and you’ve not given them any antibiotics. Aren’t they just going to die?’
‘Maybe, but if we’re going to move them it’s better they aren’t covered in fleas,’ Mary said.
That made sense. Safer for us at least, if it wasn’t too late.
We huddled round our fire and ate porridge. For a while rain water poured through the roof. But a full storm didn’t break and the rain turned to a fine drizzle. A little later we looked for somewhere to sleep.
Posy and Kan had already moved into their own corner. Would this be their last night together? What would happen to Posy? Kan wasn’t going to find it easy to leave her behind.
Jenna piled up another bundle of straw and beckoned me over. I bent down and gave her a kiss. It would be warm and almost comfortable beside her. But I still worried. I held a finger to my lips and went out through the door.
My anxious feelings grew worse as I walked back up the hill. But when I reached the top there was still nothing to see. The sky had cleared and the moon shone so brightly. I could see the whole valley in front of me and even make out some o
f the sheep. Nothing else moved and I started to turn away.
Then flickers in the distance.
Was I imagining it? I shook my head and looked again. The flickers grew stronger. I needed to warn the others, but I couldn’t move. I wanted to be wrong. The flickers grew into light, into more lights. Soon I could make out many lights, moving in step. They were moving quickly. I still didn’t move. I could see the column of people. They reached the floor of the valley.
Why hadn’t they come on horseback? Then I realised these weren’t soldiers. They were villagers, and striding at the front came a white-robed man. The priest had stayed to lead them. To lead the villagers on a torch-lit hunt – for witches. I ran.
On the Run
-19-
‘They’re coming,’ I shouted. ‘The priest is coming to burn us. Move. QUICK.’
The rest woke in panic. I kicked the fire to give more light.
Jenna nodded at me, time to take control. ‘Make for the Hanging Stones …’ she said to me.
‘What’s the point?’ Jack sounded close to breaking and fell back on to his straw bed.
I had to keep calm. ‘If we go to the stones then the tunnel might open and if it doesn’t then at least there’s that gap in the rocks there, we can hide.’
‘They’ll find us,’ Jack cried. ‘We’re all going to die.’
‘Jack if you stay here, that’s true,’ Jenna said. ‘But we’re not going to stay here and we’re not going to die. Now get up and get ready.’
Jack moaned but started to move.
‘What do we do about Zach and Demelza?’ I whispered to Jen.
Jack heard me. ‘Leave them, leave them here. Can’t we just leave them?’ His voice was almost a hysterical shriek.
Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 17