Everyone looked at everyone else, and there was a feeling of desperate misery, until suddenly Alfie said, “Well, how about something different altogether? Come to Lashtang. Both of you perhaps. There’s one of the greatest sailors ever born living at the cottage for the moment. Christopher Columbus, he’s called, but you won’t have heard of him yet. But you could get some ships and all go trading in Lashtang. You’d make friends. You don’t need much money in Lashtang, especially being friends of the new Empress. Go fishing. Go trading. Go exploring. Bring your crew.”
“This horrid king won’t get any money off you,” said Alice at once. “Change all your money into gold and bring it with you. Sell your house first if you want to. There’s no tax in Lashtang. You’ll make lots of friends.”
Arthur stared. Finally he took a deep breath and said, “But I’ve never known about this place and these people and the snakes and the ladder, - and – well, is it real? You just want me to dream? You want me to pretend?”
Jim was laughing. “Poor old Art. He don’t even know wot’s real and wot ain’t.”
“No, no, honestly, listen,” said Alfie. “It’s all real. You know there’s other lands out there. There was that Portuguese sailor who found other lands. Well, this Columbus fellow, he’s Spanish or Italian or something, he’s going to find new lands too. Well so did we. I mean, not in a ship. It’s usually a ladder. For Nat it was a balloon.”
“What’s that?”
“A way of flying .” Alfie looked desperately at Alice to help him explain.
“It’s a real place,” Alice said firmly. “A rather magical place. You both said you’d come and help fight on our side when the big war comes against the horrible Hazlett rulers who usurped the crown, just like Henry VII. Yes, there’s magic. Yes, there’s snakes. Yes, it’s all hard to believe. But before they discovered the silk trail people used to think silk wasn’t true. And before they discovered the spice trail, everyone thought saffron was a lie. Soon they’ll discover potatoes and tomatoes and coffee and tea.”
“And chocolate,” said Alfie, “which is the best of all.”
“So come with us in a week or so, and make new lives in Lashtang,” said Alice. “We can get you there, and we can help you get all settled when we arrive. You’ll have a great life, I promise. You might miss your old life and country, but there’ll be no tax and no threats and no horrible quarrelling mother either.”
“And you’ll only be there for a day, with John already there, and all our friends you’ve met before, and you’ll know it’s true.”
Alice chuckled. “Perhaps it’s this life that’s not true. Perhaps it’s this mouldy lot of cold rain that’s the dream. Come with us and make a whole new life of happiness and new opportunity.”
“Alright.” Arthur looked at Jim and Jim nodded. Arthur said, “I’d be mad to say no.”
“Me too.” Jim was even more excited than Arthur. “I won’t be a pirate no more. I won’t be a criminal. There won’t be no one wanting to hang me. I’ll be a respectable sailor, and I’ll have friends already waiting.”
“Give me one week to sort my affairs,” said Arthur, and a new light was shining in his eyes, “and I’ll be ready and knocking on your door.”
There was a silence as everyone quickly realised that there was excitement in the air.
Jim said, “Not too much luggage, I reckon.”
“Only what you can carry yourself up a long, long ladder,” advised Alfie.
“And we already got a friend who’s a boat builder,” Alice said.
“This,” said Arthur, jumping up, “is going to be a whole new life.”
Chapter Nine
It had started to snow, but that was no problem. It was Christmas day, and celebrations sprang up all over the town. There was singing in the streets and children were creeping out, excited, peering up into the dazzle of soft snowflakes dancing down from above. A few clutched up handfuls of the fallen white ice, clasped them into crusted balls and threw them at each other, until most of the children had snowy spots on their noses and cheeks.
Adults hurried, running off to the early market for the daily bread and meat, holding onto their snowbound hats, pulling up their hoods, squinting through the cold glimmer, as quickly as possible before the market closed early for the day. A special day. Ready to be enjoyed by all those who could afford it.
Alfie, Alice, Arthur and Jim were in the local tavern, snuggled close to the roaring fire and talking softly, discussing plans that they didn’t want anyone to overhear. Anyone else would think they were mad.
“So we climb a ladder into the clouds? In the snow too?” Jim was still confused.
“I know it sounds crazy,” Alice said. “But it’s magic. Magic is always a little bit crazy.”
Over Alice’s shoulder, Arthur could see through the small window to the swirls of snow. He said, “I’ve seen the snakes. I’ve seen the ladder. I know some of it. But I always decided afterwards that I’d been dreaming. “
“We all agreed to back the Octobrs in the coming war,” said Jim, slurping his ale. “But I reckoned that were a dream and all/”
“You both know it wasn’t dreams. And you both know t’was all real,” Alfie complained. “You just wanted to believe it were dreams, or you’d think you was mad.” He turned to Arthur. “You know John keeps coming over to Lashtang. You’ll see him all the time if you comes over to live.”
Jim leaned forwards, banging down his cup on the little plashed table. “I’m coming,” he said. “I don’t care if I’s mad or not, I want outta this danger o’ being hanged by the river, and all the crew too. Shame I can’t bring me ship. I’ll have to sell her.”
“And my house.” Arthur looked a little guilty. “I’ll have to explain to my mother, or she’ll think I’m dead.”
Alice frowned. “Will she be left with your tax bill?”
“No,” Arthur shook his head. “She has no income and I’ll leave no Last Testament. But she’ll try and come with me.”
“Yer mum were terrified last time she travelled with us,” remembered Alfie. “Just tell her yer going abroad, and won’t be back fer years. Leave her some money p’raps, and tell her to get on wiv it.”
It was too cold on the pirate ship, for as it bobbed on its ropes at the docks, the wind came sweeping down, snow laded, from across the sea and was twice as cold. With only one tiny cabin, the only other place to sleep was down in the hold where the draughts were whistling through the planks above, and down the little narrow steps from the deck above, hammocks hanging on ropes from the low beams. There was a smell of tar, stale salt water and the sweat of sailors sleeping over the years. Instead they all stayed at the wayside tavern in nice comfy beds, warmed with bricks which had been heated in the fire downstairs. They drank hot cider and had a huge steaming dinner of roast lamb, pork and beef, with honeyed carrots and apple sauce.
“No potatoes,” sighed Alice. “We should have brought some with us.”
“And chocolate,” said Alfie.
There was rhubarb pie and creamy custard with roasted apples too, “But not as good as Granny’s cooking,” sighed Alice.
“Trouble is,” Alfie nodded, “When we’s in Lashtang, we misses over here. But when we’s here, we misses Lashtang.”
“I reckon I’ll probably do the same,” said Jim. “But the threat of arrest is getting too close. I’m gonna escape to the sunshine.”
“I won’t miss anything,’ Arthur decided. “I’ll have my beloved son, better weather, no taxes, a talking goose to visit me sometimes, and a whole new life. I’m afraid I have to admit that I won’t miss my mother.”
“Of course not, she’s wicked,” said Alice. “As for the weather, it’s much warmer than here, but I bet it’s snowing over there too. Winter is short but cold.”
The following day Alfie and Alice rode back to London, leaving Arthur and Jim to arrange the sale of the ship, and the call to the crew to decide whether to accompany their captain, or to stay wit
h their lives a’pirating.
Four days later, while Alice was cuddling up by the fire in the great hall, Arthur arrived on the doorstep, and rushed in as soon as Hawking opened the door. “My dear Lady Alice,” he said in a slight panic, “I arrived home last night. All ready to put my ship and my house up for sale and accompany you to Lashtang, when I found the Constable and three Tower guards waiting for me. My stupid mother had gone to the Constable to say I must have been kidnapped by yourself and Alfie, for I had disappeared over Christmas when she assumed I would have wanted to be with her. Well, knowing my huge tax debt, the Constable assumed I had run away, and went to the palace, where the king signed a warrant for my arrest. I only managed to escape arrest on the spot by promising to pay the tax today.”
“Oh bother,” said Alfie, marching in. “I was hoping we could stay here a bit longer to enjoy our first weeks being married, visit a few old friends, and get ready for travelling back with all of you. Hermes will call the ladder, and you can go at once if you like.”
Arthur sighed. “I had hoped to offer to take my crew with us, and get a good price for my ship and the house.”
“Yes, it’s a lovely house,” agreed Alice. “but you can’t risk going to Newgate Gaol.”
Arthur pulled a face. “No, that would be terrible.”
Alfie went to call Hermes who was still tucked up warm in bed, and he came flapping in with his feathers all a’flutter and his eyes half asleep. “My Lady Alice,” he said, hurrying over, “what is the matter? Do we go back to Lashtang so soon?”
But just as Alice was about to answer, there was a loud banging and thumping on the front door, and a voice roared out, “Open in the name of his majesty, King Henry.”
The door swung open as Hawking, shaking in his shoes, answered the imperial call, and found four royal guards standing there. They marched into the hall without asking, and faced the three people all standing by the fire. The very large goose was ignored, though no doubt the guards considered it extremely strange that a farm animal should be snuggled indoors. They faced Arthur, and the leader announced, “Arthur Crinford, we arrest you for debt and the non-payment of your taxes, in the name of his Royal Majesty the king.”
Arthur went very red in the face. “I said I’d pay today. I have to arrange the sale of my ship, otherwise I have insufficient to pay.”
“Then off to gaol for debt,” said the guard, and turned to Alfie. “And I arrest you, sir, for harbouring a criminal.”
“Rubbish,” said Alfie very crossly. “I didn’t know he was a criminal when he arrived. And he ain’t one, neither. He’s my friend and my friend’s dad.”
“But since this is the Parry Household,” frowned the guard, “you are presumably the gentleman accused by Master Crinford’s mother, of kidnapping Arthur Crinford. I therefore arrest you for abduction.”
Alice looked on in dismay as both Arthur and her new husband Alfie were grabbed by the guards, their hands twisted behind their backs as they were both marched out of the house and down the Bishopsgate main road towards the Great London Wall and Newgate Gaol. She ran after them, shouting and grabbing the guards’ arms, but they warned her that if she wasn’t careful, they’d arrest her too. She couldn’t risk that, for she needed to be the last person who could talk to Hermes and arrange some sort of quick escape. So she hurried back into the house, where Hermes, his feathers now in even more disarray, waiting for her.
“Oh, my Lady Alice,” he said, clacking his beak and flapping around in a circle, “This is terrible. What shall we do?”
Alice flopped down in the comfy chair by the fire, put her face in her hands and burst into tears. “Hermes, help me,” she said, looking up between her tear wet fingers. “What can we do to get them out. Peter isn’t here to pick the lock, and you can’t hold a knife to do it for us.”
MY magic is not sufficient to whisk us all off to Lashtang as your illustrious Mamma and Grandmother can do,” said Hermes sadly. “And I cannot easily travel there with many heavy people on my back.”
“I have no idea if the pirate Captain Terror has been arrested too,” she said. “Maybe just take Alfie and Arthur, and then come back for me tomorrow.”
“I believe it would be dangerous, my lady, to leave you here alone and vulnerable once your husband and his friend disappeared from prison with no explanation. They would take you straight into the cells in the Tower, where it would be even more dangerous and difficult for us to extricate you.”
She thought this was true, and wiped her eyes, dried her hands by holding them up in front of the great flames, and tried to think hard. “Alright,” she said slowly. “There’s several things we could do. You could fly me to Lashtang and if Lady Messina is there, we could both come back, and she could magic Alfie and Arthur straight up to Lashtang. But that would take much longer, and I can’t be sure where any of the really magic friends might be. What if they’ve all gone to Peganda, and I can’t find them?”
“Indeed, far too risky and slow,” agreed Hermes. “But I could fly you, my lady, right into the prison, and then call the ladder from inside the cells.”
“Can you? Good gracious,” said Alice. “Then let’s do that. But what about Captain Jim?”
“Another day,” said Hermes, quickly preening his feathers and preparing to fly.
Alice rushed around the house as quickly as she could, changing her own clothes and then packing a bag of Alfie’s clothes, some warm food, and anything useful to take to Lashtang. Finally she hurried out to call Hawking, explaining that she was going off for a long journey again, where Alfie had already gone. “With the royal guard, my lady?” asked Hawking, extremely worried.
“Yes, well, I’m about to get him back,” Alice said, flustered. “It was all a mistake. But we’ll be back one day, Hawking. Look after the staff and the house.”
He assured her that he would, but gave a sidelong glance at Hermes who was looking most impatient.
Back in the hall, Alice pushed open one of the long windows, climbed on Hermes’ back, arms around his neck, and felt the full blast of freezing air in her face as they flew directly out into the snowfall.
But within seconds they had landed outside Newgate Prison, one of the huge gateways in and out of London, making the only roads through the old Roman stone wall which had protected the city for hundreds of years. But the New-gate had also been made into a prison long ago, and it smelled of the filth and unwashed misery that was crowded inside. “Smells almost as bad as Clebbster,” mumbled Hermes, looking around. Alice had immediately climbed from his back, for the city gateways were always crowded, and this one even more so as people came to visit those locked away. If seen sitting on a huge goose, Alice was sure she would start a riot.
With a squawk, Hermes muttered, “ask where the new prisoners are kept, my lady, then we shall find a way in.”
Alice marched up to the principal guard. “I am the Lady Parry,” she said with chin high and a carefully dignified voice, “and my husband Alfred, along with his friend Arthur Crinford, have just been arrested and brought here by the royal guard. I wish to visit them immediately.”
The Newgate guard stared at Hermes. “You reckons that be dinner?” he asked.
“Certainly not,” Alice said, “this is my husband’s favourite pet. I understand many of your inmates keep their pets here?”
“They does indeed,” said the guard, “but I reckon this be the biggest goose I ever seen. Yer husband must feed him more than my wife feeds me, buy the size o’ him.”
Alice tried not to giggle. “So show me the way to see my husband,’ she demanded, and as the guard unlocked the outer doors, she and Hermes followed him inside, down a long dark and smelly corridor, up some stairs, and then stopped in front of a very solid door. The guard then unlocked the padlock, and Alice, with Hermes close at her side, hurried into the bleak darkness. The door was locked behind them. “No more n’ hour,” the guard called from outside.
Hermes waddled into the centre of
the cell and stared around. He couldn’t see either Arthur or Alfie, for the room was crowded and very dark. Alice, in desperation, called, “Alfie, where are you?”
The voice that answered was certainly Alfie’s but she still couldn’t see him. “Here, we both here, but tis so crowded, I can’t see you.”
Alice waved both arms up in the air, hoping he could see them over the top of everyone else’s head. After a minute he came pushing through, with Arthur squeezing behind him. Alfie was almost more pleased to see Hermes than he was to see Alice. “Thank you both,” he stuttered, cold, wet and worried, “can we go straight back to Lashtang?”
Everyone else in the large dark smelly dungeon was crowding around, and Alice thought she recognised Captain Jim, although it was difficult in the darkness. “Yes, Hermes will call the ladder,” she said, “but who are all these other people?”
“Me,” called Jim at once, “and some of me crew. The rest is Arty’s crew. We all got arrested. I want out, soon as possible. I’ll leave me ship to me second mate, cos he managed to escape with the rest o’ the crew.”
“And I have already written a document, sent to my partner,” Arthur said, “giving him full title to our ship. But the crown will take my house in payment of the debt.”
“So we’ll both come, and whatever part of the crews you’ll accept,” sighed Jim. “But we comes without a penny.”
“All of your sailors can come if they want to,” said Alice. “But they can’t go pirating in Lashtang. They have to turn honest and find other jobs or go trading. And there’s a long, long ladder to climb.”
“We ain’t got no ladders in here, lady,” called one man.
It was such a gloomy squash, it was impossible to see how many men were pushed in there, but everyone shouted that they wanted to get out and go whether ever their captains were going, but they were certainly puzzled about the ladder. Then Hermes, slapping his feet hard on the dirty stone floor, called, “Move aside while I call the ladder.”
They had no idea what he was talking about, and none of them believed a goose was speaking, and assumed it had been Alice speaking, but they moved apart, and Hermes stood in the middle, both his wings outspread. Suddenly, right in front of him, rose up a wooden ladder with wide strong rungs, which seemed to rise up right through the ceiling and beyond. The cries of astonishment and gasps of wonder were so loud that Alice was worried the guards would come running back. “Quick, quick,” she said, “start climbing that ladder. Fast as you can. Right up as far as you can go.”
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