by Gloria Gay
Jane wondered why the woman glanced so often at the mirror. Her movements were quicker now. She appeared to be doing everything faster so that she could get rid of them.
“Ye'll be takin' the journey then. And the road is dark – can't get there in the day.”
“What journey? What do you mean? And why can't it be taken in the day?” Jestyn asked. The woman leaned in closer to Jestyn. Jestyn pulled away from her.
“Can't say why, sir – jis’ dark – all I can see is the dark road. Nothin' more.” She became silent, her eyes closed for a few seconds and she rocked softly from side to side. The time she did this seemed interminable to Jane.
Jestyn broke the silence: “That doesn't explain much. Is it more money you want,” he asked, with a glance at Jane.
The woman came suddenly out of her trance and startled them with her sudden loud voice.
“No! It's time for you to go – leave!” She seemed frantic. She stood up and with her arms outstretched she motioned for them to leave, making shooing motions toward the entrance flap of the tent.
“Let's go, Jes, she looks terrified,” Jane whispered. “I don't like this, after all. You were right, we shouldn't have come. It just made me uncomfortable and afraid.”
Jane and Jestyn emerged from the gypsy’s tent and saw that the day had become darker and the clouds low and menacing.
They walked back to the fair area and in an attempt to lighten the heavy mood, Jestyn took Jane into a large tent where there was a puppet show. Halfway through the show and as they had finally relaxed enough to enjoy the puppet show, Jane turned her head slightly as she began to notice that people didn't sit near her. They were avoiding the seats in front of her, by her and in back of her – actually moving away from her.
“What’s going on, Jestyn?” Jane’s voice cracked with worry.
“These yokels are making me mad,” Jestyn whispered to Jane. “Come, Jane, let's go. It's not even a good show.”
“Why don't they want to be near me, Jestyn?”
“I don't know.”
But Jane could tell Jestyn just didn’t want to tell her the reason the townspeople didn’t want to sit near her.
“First the incident with the gypsy and now this, Jes,” Jane said sadly. “I thought that the puppet show would at least take my mind off that old gypsy and now it's made it even worse.”
“These people are still in medieval times, Jane,” Jestyn said soothingly. “They have the same customs and habits of their ancestors. People around here don't change too fast.”
“I feel – vulnerable, suddenly. I’m scared, Jes.”
“You’re with me, darling,” said Jestyn. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not concerned about those yokels.”
“Tell me why they didn’t want to sit by me, Jes,” Jane insisted.
“I think you’re right, my love. You are in danger here – each day more. Maybe it was wrong to come to the fair. I’ve been very selfish. I’m putting your life in danger.”
“Well, it was I who insisted in going to visit the gypsy woman. I shouldn’t have. It just made me feel afraid–and then those people avoiding all the seats around me–why were they doing that?”
“I think they may be starting to consider you a – a—”
“A witch?”
“Yes. That’s why you have to leave, my love. It would be selfish of me to keep you even one more day. You must leave as soon as possible. Tonight, I think. We have to think of your safety first.”
“I must learn to drive the carriage, Jes,” Jane said. “My feet cannot touch the ground, remember what it said in the journal instructions?” There was a tremor in her voice. Things had changed dramatically with their visit to the fair and now she must leave as soon as possible. Yet still she resisted.
What could happen to her in Greywick Hall, which was like a fortress? She was safe there and she could stay until tomorrow night.
“I know how to drive cars but not carriages,” Jane insisted. “You must show me how to do it with at least one lesson, Jes.”
“I’ll teach you tonight. You must leave at midnight, my love.”
“Tomorrow is good enough, Jes,” Jane insisted when he shook his head.
“I hope we are doing the right thing.”
Jane took Jestyn’s arm and they went to retrieve their horses from the makeshift corral of the fair. Jestyn paid the caretaker and they started on their way back to the house at a leisurely walk. Jane could not yet withstand a trot.
“We must concentrate on removing you from our time. You are in extreme danger now, my love,” Jestyn said sadly.
“I’m afraid, Jes,” Jane said.
“You are with me, darling,” Jestyn told her, “I will never let anyone harm you.”
Jestyn leaned over to Jane and kissed her lightly on the lips; he then pulled back.
“Each time I kiss you it’s better than the one before. But perhaps I shouldn't have.”
“Perhaps you should,” said Jane. She leaned toward him and kissed him in the mouth, as their horses stirred and nickered.
They continued on down the tree-lined lane toward Greywick Hall in silence. They were concerned with the incidents at the fair and the gypsy tent but were reluctant to discuss them anymore. When they reached a dark copse of trees Jestyn halted his horse and Jane did too, beside him.
Jestyn got down from his horse and pulled Jane down from her horse and they kissed again in the shelter of enormous trees. The sound of horses’ hooves startled them and they pulled apart.
“We have company,” said Jestyn looking down the lane. “Lord and Lady Millthorpe are coming our way. I'm afraid they saw us kissing.”
“Bothersome pair,” said Jane annoyed. “That woman dislikes me enough to fill a stadium as it is. And now she will like me even less. She looks like she would like to scratch my eyes out.”
“Roswell, Wilma,” Jestyn greeted them. “Were you on your way to the fair?”
“We came looking for you,” said Wilma. “We went over to the house and were told you were here.”
“And you came all the way here to look for us? Whatever for?” asked Jane.”
“Well, now that we are here, perhaps we can escort you back to the house and we can have some tea,” said Wilma. There was a glint of disdain in her eyes as she stared at Jane.
“I’m afraid we just went out for a little exercise and were planning to return to the fair,” said Jestyn, with a glance at Jane.
“That’s right,” said Jane. And when before she had planned to return to the house, now that Wilma was insisting on it she decided she would linger. “We were planning to go right back. So you came all the way here for nothing.”
Jane decided she was not going to call Lady Millthorpe ‘my lady’ anymore. She was anything but a lady, more like a vicious snake, anyway.
“I'm afraid it would be advisable for you not to return to the fair, Miss Fielder,” said Lady Millthorpe, and added with a glance toward her husband, “Tell them, Roswell.”
Lord Millthorpe shook his head.
“Tell them, Roswell,” she insisted.
“We heard some disturbing things in the village, Jestyn,” he said, avoiding Jestyn’s eyes.
“Disturbing things?” asked Jane. “Whatever it is, my lord, we would like to hear what you have to say without all this hedging.”
“I don’t believe you should take this in such away, Miss Fielder,” said Wilma, “we are only trying to help…”
“Yes, I know how you are trying to help, Wilma,” Jane said and turned away from Lady Millthorpe with a dismissing shake of the head. Jestyn helped Jane back to her horse and then he remounted, too.
“Well, really…” Lady Millthorpe began.
All four of them turned to the lane as loud noises reached them. They were stunned to see a rabble of people marching down the lane toward them.
The throng soon reached them and Jane and Jestyn turned toward several people that from all directions seemed to be forming into
a large menacing circle.
“Jestyn…” Jane said in alarm.
“I told you, but you wouldn’t believe me,” said Lady Millthorpe with a smirk of satisfaction, and added, “See?”
Jestyn took Jane’s arm. “Get behind me, Jane,” he said as he felt his own horse stir in alarm.
CHAPTER 18
At that moment a large group of villagers crowded toward them so quickly that they separated Jane’s horse from Jestyn’s. Jestyn was taken by surprise and he fought his way through the crowd to get to Jane, pushing people forcibly out of his way. He finally reached Jane’s horse.
“Get on my horse, Jane,” he ordered and Jane dismounted and got on Jestyn’s horse.
“I don’t recognize any of these people from our farms. They don’t belong around here.”
An old man dressed in drab clothing and with unkempt hair pointed at Jane with a gnarled finger. Pressing close to him appeared to be relatives of his for they all looked alike.
“There she be – there's the sorceress,” he yelled out, several times. “She be the witch made me calves birth dead,” he added loudly.
“We be drawin' blood from ye, witch, to take the curse away!”
“We seen them, we seen the calves, made dead by the witch here,” said a middle-aged woman beside the old man, who looked to be his daughter. She had an infant in her arms who was wailing loudly, adding to the noise, for rather than be tending to the baby she was happy to be by the old man making trouble for Jane.
Jestyn was trying to extricate his horse from the crowd to get away from them but the milling people were forcibly preventing him from doing so.
“Gypsy woman told us she seen nothin' of the witch in her mirror. She don’t cast a shadow,” said another man. “She ain't human, I tell ye! It's her blood we need to be drawin' else she'll keep on casting her evil spells.”
Jestyn kicked at the second man, who had moved threateningly toward Jane, pushing him aside.
“What the devil do you think you're doing old man? If you don't watch yourself it'll be you instead of the calves. Millthorpe! Help me here!”
Lord Millthorpe trotted his horse through the crowd and got on Jestyn’s side. Together, Jestyn and Millthorpe forced their horses out of the crowd. Jestyn held his sword aloft as he led his horse away from the crowd. Lady Millthorpe followed closely behind and Jane saw a badly disguised smile on her lips even though she was trying to appear concerned.
The crowd continued to shout out at them as they left. They even ran after them for a while, raising a lot of dust on the road so that Jane, glancing fearfully at them, could hardly see anything in the dust. She only heard the shouts.
“Ye'll hear from the magistrate summat you will!” the old woman was yelling after them. “I'll have me gol’ for me calves from summan, I will. Witch ain't gettin' away with nothin'!”
“Tonight at midnight–watch her she don't go off in her broom!”
Once out of the crowd, Jestyn galloped toward the Millthorpe carriage, which was parked ahead on the lane. When they reached the carriage he and Jane dismounted and with Jestyn’s help Jane boarded the carriage.
As Greywick was helping Jane into the carriage, they were surrounded by the mob again.
A farm worker pointed a menacing finger at Jane.
“Me horse’s sick and dyin' 'cause of 'er. Look at 'er–see if she looks reg'lar. She don't look reg'lar. She be a witch, I tell you, and me horse be dyin' because o' 'er. If me ‘orse don’t make the light o' day it'll be 'cause she killed 'im, sure as she ‘el' a knife to ‘is chest…grab her by 'er throat afore she kills any more ‘orses, Will!”
Jestyn leaned down from his horse and grabbed the man by his shirt at the neck.
“Stop it this very minute or it'll be you who is sent to the gallows. Do you understand? I'll like nothing better than seeing you hanging from a gibbet, you old fool. I don’t recognize you from around here. Who brought you?”
Another farmer rushed in.
“See here, sir, let go of 'im. He be telling the truth. My cows ain't been givin' milk since the witch came to town. No one put us up to nothin’ ‘cepting the woman.”
“Except the woman?” asked Jestyn. “Which woman put you up to this?”
“Nothin’ – I ain’t said nothing,’” said the man with a look at the woman beside him, who shook her head at him.
Jestyn let go of the man violently so that the man stumbled backward and almost fell. His fall was averted by the other farmer.
“I'm sick of the lot of you. Just don't any of you come near Miss Fielder again or you'll answer to me. That's all I have to say,” Jestyn shouted at them, “and I'll be using very few words.”
Lady Millthorpe now boarded the Millthorpe carriage and the carriage took off toward Greywick Hall. She had become very quiet and when they reached Greywick Hall and Jestyn helped Jane down, Lady Millthorpe declined going inside, saying the day’s events had unnerved her.
“I much prefer being home at this time,”
Jane suppressed a sigh of relief at her words.
After thanking Lord Millthorpe for his help, Jestyn and Jane went into the house.
Once inside the house, Jestyn locked the front door. He went to the window and looked out at the dark night. Shouts from the people who had followed them could still be heard in the distance, beyond the high wall, but they were getting dimmer.
“Are you all right, darling?”
“I guess,” Jane replied, her voice faint, “But I’ve never been as terrified as I was out there. What would they have done if they had gotten their hands on me, Jes?”
“Don’t think about it. They wouldn’t have gone past me. They were just a blustering throng, full of ale. I’m going to let Casper know.”
“Casper?”
“Casper Wainleigh. He’s the JP of this area. From what one of the men said, a woman paid them to come to this town. They were not from here. I’m sure the woman he referred to was Wilma. I saw when his wife shut him up with a look.”
“I – I don't feel safe anymore,” Jane said, her voice strained. “Funny how your sense of safety can disappear like a puff of smoke. And why were they all standing on one side of the road?”
“It is believed around here that witches must be passed on the right side of the road, just to be safe.”
“My God! They really think I’m a witch! I feel so vulnerable, as though any minute they can come and grab me and take me away. What will they do to me if they do grab me—burn me at a stake?”
“No they can’t. It’s all bluster,” Jestyn said, “There hasn’t been a witch burned at the stake here in a hundred years, as I told you.”
“Who were they, the women who were burned at the stake?” asked Jane, a tremor in her voice.
“Everybody knows their names because it’s what the area is famous for. Temperance Lloyd I think one of them was – oh, and another by the name of Alice Molland. There’s a list of them in the church.
“They don’t allow witch-burning anymore, Jane. That was in ancient times. Anyone here can assure you of that.”
“Then why were they going on like that?”
“It’s just more of that awful Wilma Millthorpe’s doings than any ‘magic’ in you that they sense. I’m sure she was involved. She had a satisfied look in her face when she insisted Lord Millthorpe reveal what he had learned. She was probably behind that gypsy’s ridiculous display, probably bribed that gypsy into saying what she said.”
“She’ll do anything to get rid of me, including, apparently, having me burned at the stake like a witch. I’m not safe here. And I can never be safe. People such as that horrible woman would make certain I’m not.”
“You're safe with me, darling. They wouldn't dare come in here. Please don't worry any more about it.”
“I'm also putting you in danger.”
“I recognized a few of them, but most of them were not from around here,” said Jestyn. “Did you see how one of them said “except the wom
an” when I asked him who had put him up to this?”
“His wife shut him up with a look,” Jane added.
“Yes,” Jestyn said. “It’s all for money. There aren’t any jobs available and people are hurting. The government just declared war on France. It’s spending a lot of money preparing for war against Napoleon’s forces.
“They were saying I was responsible for their calves dying! And our innocent visit to the gypsy was turned into a dark and menacing thing!”
Jestyn rang for tea.
“But even if some of them were put up to these shenanigans by her, the rest went along, Jestyn. And things like this tend to escalate. A lynch mob can be created by very little in these days.”
When the tea tray was brought to them. Jane poured a cup of tea for Jestyn. He came near Jane to take the cup and sat near her.
They were joined at their tea by Cedric and Lorraine and Lorraine's mother, Lady Mellingway.
Jestyn motioned for Cedric to go to the window with him so that they could have a talk.
“We heard you had trouble at the fair, Jestyn,” said Cedric, glancing with concern at his brother.
“Yes, those fools were accusing Jane of being a witch, Cedric,” Jestyn replied, shaking his head. “The rabble almost became a mob, too. Tomorrow I shall have another visit with Weinleigh. He’s timid about confronting Millthorpe but he can’t just ignore criminal acts because Millthorpe recommended him for the position. This business must be nipped in the bud before it gets bigger.”
“It’s for certain Lady Millthorpe is involved,” said Cedric. “Harold Canesey, Lord Halensford’s steward, came by a few minutes ago to tell me she has been seen talking to some of the people who mobbed Jane today, giving them money.”
“She refused to come in just a few minutes ago,” said Jestyn, “when Rosswell appeared to want to do so, as he helped us out of that rabble.”
“I believe Lord Millthorpe has little control over what Wilma does,” said Lady Mellingway. “My dears, you must have been terrified," she added, when Jestyn and Cedric joined the women.
