‘Are you sure you can trust me? How do you know I’m not a demon?’
‘I’m not sure what you are, Rufus. Call it woman’s intuition but I know I don’t have anything to fear from you.’
Cobb took her hand and she helped him to his feet. Then he followed her out of the barn towards the farmhouse.
They crossed the square from the barn to the farmhouse, stopping to replenish the bucket with water on the way. She led him into the kitchen and bade him sit down at the table.
‘How’s your head?’ she asked.
(Cobb didn’t give the obvious answer as we did that joke in the last book.)
‘Hurts like hell,’ he replied.
‘There’s no call to blaspheme like that,’ she rebuked him.
‘Sorry,’ he apologised. ‘It’s the pain, I’m not thinking too clearly.’
She poured a drink of water from a jug and opening a cupboard, she took out a small bottle and poured some white powder from it, into the cup. She stirred it and gave it to him.
‘Drink that, it will make you feel better.’
He swigged the concoction down and gave her the cup back. He sat there thoroughly wet and muddy and feeling grubby.
She filled a jug with water and said, ‘Come with me.’ She led him out of the kitchen and up the stairs to a bedroom. ‘I thought you might like to clean up a bit.’
As he took his overcoat and jacket off, she went to the wardrobe and got some clothing out. ‘These should fit you, they belonged to Rufus.’
He thanked her and she left him alone to try and clean himself up.
When he returned to the kitchen, she had laid out some bread and cheese and was just boiling some water on the stove. She turned around when she heard him and then gasped, holding her hand to her mouth.
‘I’m sorry … it’s just seeing you there in his clothes, it’s like he’s come back. Forgive me,’ she said, blushing.
‘No, that’s okay. Look I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, maybe I should go.’ He stood there awkwardly.
‘Sit down,’ she told him.
He sat at the table and she put the food in front of him. Esme filled a cup with hot water and put some herbs in it. She put it in front of Cobb.
He picked it up and smelt it, it seemed all right but he really fancied a cup of tea.
‘Do you have any tea?’ he asked.
‘Tea? What is tea?’
Ah, he realised, if this world was so different then they probably hadn’t colonised Bharat where the huge tea plantations were, as Cobb’s people had.
‘It’s just a drink we have where I come from, it doesn’t matter, this will be fine.
She sat down to eat with him.
‘So, it’s your turn,’ said Cobb. ‘What happened to your Rufus?’
‘Oh it was just a stupid accident. We were at the market in Brimidgham and someone had stacked their barrels too high. Somebody ran into them with his cart and over they went … right on top of Rufus, no malice just a pointless accident. At least it was quick. That was about three years ago now. Since then I’ve had to run this place by myself.’
‘How do you manage?’
‘Oh I grow vegetables, carrots, potatoes and some mushrooms. I’ve also got a few pigs and chickens. I make enough to get by, by selling the surplus in the Brimidgham market.’
Cobb watched her as she spoke. She was older than he remembered his Esme obviously, as she had died nearly six years ago now. Added to which she had lived a harder, outdoor life, so her face had more wrinkles and was tanned, which no “lady” of Cobb’s Londum would have allowed, but here it was the way of life. But despite all that she still had the same beauty that had captivated him all those years ago when he had first met her. Sorry, not her, his Esme, he had to remind himself.
‘I’ve noticed that there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of entertainment here,’ he asked her.
‘Entertainment? What sort of entertainment?’
‘You know … singing, dancing, having a laugh, that sort of thing.’
‘Singing and dancing? Such frivolous activities are the traps laid by Satan to divert the unworthy. The only true path to God is through a life of devout obedience and fervent worship and that doesn’t allow for any singing or dancing!’ she told him firmly.
Whoa, easy … treading on dangerous ground here, he realised. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to cause any offence.’
‘I’m not offended, it’s just that you should be aware of your shortcomings. I don’t know what it is like on your world but since the Armada released us from the yoke of tyranny of Bad Queen Lillibet, the Castilian Dons have ruled our country fairly and wisely with due deference to God’s laws.
‘We have become a vassal state under their protection and amongst the first things they did was to ban these fripperies such as alcohol and cavorting about, as they divert one’s purpose from the worship of God. They also banned singing except in the celebration of the Lord in his churches, when we sing hymns of praise to him for his benevolence.’
‘Castilian Dons, eh?’
‘Yes, once they had liberated us, many of them came over and settled here to give us support and guidance. Now they rule the country, with a firm but fair hand.’
Cobb’s world had Dons as well, also from Castile. They were the ruling classes, like the Lords of the Realm, in Albion. It made sense he supposed, them coming over to Angleland and claiming land. It was what the Gauls had done after the Gallic Conquest of Albion, in his world.
‘And the Castilian Questioning? That doesn’t seem too fair.’
‘Ah well, there are those amongst us who flout the rules of God, who want to go back to the old days, the drinking and debauchery. Some of them have formed themselves into a resistance movement. They foment rebellion and advocate overthrowing the Dons. We need such measures as the Questioning and the Black Guard to keep these people in line. They are there for our protection.’
‘Well … when you put it like that I suppose … er, you’re right,’ he said unconvinced.
Esme cleared their plates away and put them in the sink. As she did she looked through the window at the sky.
‘It looks like it’s going to rain again. Besides, your clothes are still wet. Why don’t you stay tonight? You can sleep in the spare room,’ she offered.
‘Well if you’re sure it’s no inconvenience, it would be good to sleep in a bed.’
To pay for his keep, Cobb helped her out with the chores around the farm like bringing in some new firewood and getting in water from the well. She showed him where everything was, like the outside privy. It was one of those old style wooden huts above a cesspit. When the pit was full you just dug a new pit and moved the hut.
They went to bed early as people tended to do in the country. Unless you had something special to do there wasn’t much fun in sitting around by candlelight.
Cobb was exhausted by all that had happened since his arrival in this world, but as he lay there in bed he couldn’t get straight to sleep. He was mulling everything over that he had learnt from Tom Harris and Esme. He knew that it had been like this in Angleland for a couple of hundred years now and that everyone was brought up being perpetually told that this was the way the world should be, they’d been indoctrinated since birth but still …
He knew it was unfair of him to judge her but he couldn’t help feeling that his Esme would have been a bit more rebellious instead of accepting it all so meekly.
He woke in the middle of the night, needing to use the toilet. He got out of bed and put his shoes and his overcoat on, to go outside.
He sneaked quietly down the stairs so as not to disturb Esme and opened the kitchen door to go outside only to find her standing there, dressed in a cloak.
‘What are you-’ he exclaimed. ‘I’m sorry, you startled me, I was just on my way to the privy.’
‘Ah … I’ve just come back from there.’
‘Well, at least the seat will be warm,’ he joked.
&n
bsp; ‘Right … good night then,’ she said as she squeezed past him into the kitchen.
As she left the kitchen and went upstairs, Cobb stood there dumbfounded. This afternoon she had convinced him that she was clearly a devout, religious person who abided by all the rules of the Church, including the ones about singing and dancing and enjoying yourself, fair enough, that was the way of their world.
And yet … here was the puzzler … when she had squeezed past him, Cobb had clearly smelt alcohol on her breath.
The Road to Brimidgham
Cobb woke to a gentle knock on his bedroom door. ‘Yep, I’m awake,’ he called.
‘There’s hot water, it’s just outside the door,’ Esme replied.
He got out of bed and crossed to the door. Good as her word, there was a jug full of steaming, hot water. As Cobb crossed to the dressing table with the washbowl on it, he twitched back the curtain. Dawn was just breaking over the wood behind the house.
When Cobb had been shown around yesterday he had noted the layout of the farm. It faced out into open fields but the back of the house was on the edge of a large wood, so Esme was never short of firewood.
He washed, dressed and went down to join her in the kitchen.
‘Morning Rufus,’ she said, I’m just fixing you some breakfast. Eggs and fried bread okay?’
He hated being called Rufus, he much preferred to be called just plain ‘Cobb’. Esme had been the only one he had allowed to call him Rufus. But, well … this was an Esme of sorts, so he let it pass without comment. ‘Yes that will be fine, thanks.’
After a moment, she scooped the eggs out of the frying pan and slid them onto the slices of fried bread on the plate. She placed them on the table before him.
‘Aren’t you joining me?’ he asked.
‘I had breakfast when I got up several hours ago.’
‘Oh,’ he said, feeling guilty. ‘Sorry, you should have given me a shout.’
‘It doesn’t matter, I’m used to it. What are your plans?’
‘Well, I was going to head off towards Brimidgham. I don’t want to be a bother.’
‘I’m not sure you should be going off on your own, after all that was a couple of nasty whacks I gave you on the head yesterday. I don’t like the idea of you wandering off on your own and maybe collapsing by the roadside.’
‘No that’s okay, I got a hard head, I feel fine today,’ he assured her.
‘Nevertheless, I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you Rufus, I feel responsible. Look, I’m going into Brimidgham tomorrow, to the market. Why don’t you stay here today and then come in with me tomorrow? If you were going to collapse on me, you’d have done it by then, I figure.’
‘Well, okay then. I don’t have anywhere I have to be especially so tomorrow will be fine. That’s very kind of you. Got any more of that herby drink? I could do with something to wash breakfast down.’
***
Cobb stayed there all day, helping her with the farm chores, he fed and groomed the horse and mucked out the stable. The poor thing was an old nag, probably wouldn’t survive the year. Esme, like everyone else he had seen was just so damned poor!
Then he helped her pick some onions and potatoes to sell next day in the market. As they worked, they chatted. She was fascinated by his world so he told her as much as he could without making her feel bad. After all, his Albion was the most powerful nation in the world, a land of freedom of speech and religion, where a man with hard work and a few breaks could make a fortune. Her Angleland was a downtrodden country ruled over by an oppressive foreign regime that kept them in a state of poverty, fear and ignorance.
So he stayed away from world politics and answered her questions on what ordinary life was like. About Adele’s fondness for new dresses and shoes. Despite Esme’s pious, religious convictions, she couldn’t help asking him about the dresses that Adele had bought from the fashion houses of Gaul. And the shoes …
‘So, she has more than one pair,’ she said. ‘Well, we all have more than one pair. One for working in the fields, one for mucking out the stables, and a stout pair for walking to Brimidgham. It only makes sense.’
‘Oh no, she doesn’t do any of that. She just has them for the pleasure of wearing them. She’s got dozens.’
Esme didn’t say anything but during the course of the day he caught her looking at her own mud-encrusted shoes and then gazing wistfully into the distance.
He also told her about how he had met Adele. How he had been spiralling into an early, alcoholic-fuelled death and she had brought him back from the brink of self-destruction. And he told her how happy he was now that she had given him something to live for, once more.
He thought it best not to ask about her father and mother. She was Thornton Wells’ daughter. In this world he didn’t think that people would live long lives, so her parents were probably dead. If he told her about how his Thornton Wells had been at death’s door when he left, it would probably just bring back unhappy memories for her.
Cobb also told her how he once met Esme again after she died. He had been involved in a case with a criminal called Marcus Quist, who turned out to be Adele’s step-father.
During the case he had taken some Dark Matter from Quist that had been found on Earth and he had jumped away with Quist, to prevent him taking over Cobb’s Universe. Each and every successive jump, powered by the Dark Matter, had travelled further and further back in time until Cobb and Quist reached the beginning of creation.
At this point, Cobb had exploded the Dark Matter, killing them both. And that was when he had met Esme again. He didn’t go directly to heaven (or hell) instead he had gone to a place called Limbo. She was waiting for him when he got there.
She had told him that she didn’t blame him for her death and that she wanted him to go back to Adele and be happy.
‘Well good for me … er … her’ said Esme. ‘I only hope that I could be as magnanimous in the same situation. Did you say you were involved with a Marcus Quist?’
‘Yes, why have you got one here too?’
‘Yes … yes we have.’
‘Is he as big a crook as he was in my world?’
She looked at him coolly for a moment before replying. ‘He’s a … merchant. Buys and sells things.’
‘Ah … I see, very tactful.’
They worked all day and packed the cart up, ready for the trip to market. Esme cooked them some dinner and they retired to their rooms after it got dark.
Cobb entered his room and put a chair by the window, his room was at the rear of the farmhouse and faced out onto the wood. After making some going to bed noises by rattling the washbasin and creaking the bed springs, he blew out the candle and settled in the chair to wait.
An hour later, he was just beginning to doze off when he heard a floorboard creak on the landing. He came awake instantly and tweaking the curtain open, he watched the open ground from the farmhouse to the wood.
A moment or two later he saw her leave the shadow of the farmhouse and enter the woods. He shot out of his chair and raced down the stairs. He closed the kitchen door behind him quietly and ran for the woods.
He intended to follow Esme and see where she was going. He realised that he was invading her privacy but something was wrong with her, claiming to be pious and then creeping off into the woods for a drink. He felt that he ought to look out for her, after all, she wasn’t his Esme but she was an Esme and therefore he felt a certain responsibility for her.
Fortunately there was a track through the woods for him to follow; he was no woodsman after all. He crept along it, trying not to make any noise or even worse, catch up with her. Whenever there was a bend in the track he would quickly move up to it and peer around the corner carefully to make sure she hadn’t stopped and was waiting for him. If he ended up in line of sight of her, he would step off the track into the bushes until she disappeared around the next bend.
She went on without hesitating, even in the darkness, sure on her o
wn territory. She led the way deeper into the wood until about five minutes into the chase; Cobb saw her go around another twist in the path. He gave her a moment then followed her around the bend. He came out into a clearing … and she was nowhere to be seen!
He immediately went into the bushes for cover and scanned the area. The track had bent around to the left, skirting the clearing. There was nowhere else to go and she couldn’t have had time to cross the clearing unless she’d picked up her skirts and ran like hell and he would have heard that.
Cobb was baffled, he didn’t want to go out into the clearing and search around for any sign of her in case she was in the bushes watching for him. He waited for ten or fifteen minutes and then quietly made his way back to the track and headed back to the farmhouse. If the previous night was any indication it was going to be hours before she came back and he wasn’t going to sit in a dark wood waiting for her all that time.
He got back to the farmhouse and went to bed, there was no point sitting up and waiting; he figured she wouldn’t be back until the early hours. It was a shame he hadn’t found anything out but they would be going their separate ways tomorrow. He would have liked to have stayed a little longer but he was here to find Harlequin, so he supposed he had better get on with that. He pulled the covers over him and settled down to sleep.
***
Next morning as they were having breakfast, Cobb said to Esme, ‘Won’t the people who know you think it a bit strange to see you walking around with your dead husband?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ she replied. ‘We’ll tell them you are his cousin from Kent. It’s not unusual for cousins to have the same name; you could both be named after the same grandparent. As for your face, well I doubt if anyone will remember my Rufus well enough to know you’re an exact copy. They’ll probably just see a very strong family resemblance. Saying you’re from Kent will also explain your strange clothing.’ As he wasn’t expecting to come back to the farm again, Cobb was wearing his own suit.
The Londum Omnibus Volume One (The Londum Series Book 4) Page 57