‘I thought all the trouble was because of that stupid promise she made,’ Jenna said after thinking for a while. ‘It sounds as though there’s a lot more.’
‘Probably about my family,’ I poked at the straw, finding another piece of pipe. I wondered if there was anything else to say. Back to silence again.
Hugh hadn’t left us anything to eat or drink. Nothing to do. We were waiting for a miserable fate to catch up with us again.
‘What do they do to escaped convicts?’ Jenna half asked the question.
‘Probably the same as for escaped murderers.’ I didn’t feel like pretending anything was better than it was.
Jenna edged closer to me and wrapped her arms around me. ‘Well it’s been interesting.’
With that we may have dozed off again. It can’t have been for long. I heard the bar being pulled back and the door started to open. I picked up a length of the pipe. I was ready to fight even though I didn’t expect any chance of victory.
But it was Martha. She waved her hands frantically telling us to hurry, we ran to the door.
‘Run for it,’ she said. ‘Anywhere away from here.’
‘Did you take that letter to the court?’ I asked.
‘Never,’ she almost spat. ‘Hate that man and his sister.’
‘Sister? You knew?’ Jenna and I spoke together.
‘Sister, cousin, niece, whatever,’ Martha sneered. ‘Horrid woman and he’s no better.’
‘Why do you work here?’ Jenna frowned.
‘Pays well and there’s nothing else. I still wasn’t going to let him hand you over to the court.’ Martha stared at me. ‘They’ll hang you for certain if they catch you. I heard it all when you escaped last time. It was all over the town. They thought you had made a fool of them. Won’t let you escape again so you’d better get far away.’
‘Where’s Hugh?’ I looked around , wondering where he and the dogs had gone.
‘Suppose he’s gone back to her, taken the dogs so the court thugs could get in and find you. ’Spect the letter told them where you were. He didn’t want to hang around in case they asked him questions.’
Jenna and I hadn’t moved from the barn door.
‘Time to leave,’ Martha said firmly.
I knew she was right but where to go? I looked up at the hills in the distance.
‘Don’t go that way.’ Martha was now moving away back to the house. ‘If you go out on to the moor they’ll find you. Everyone escapes that way and they always get caught.’ Martha stopped. ‘Or they die out there.’
‘Where do you suggest we go?’ Jenna sounded hopeless.
‘I’d go back into town.’ Martha pointed back towards the mass of houses. ‘Lots of people down there who don’t want to be found. And take this.’ Martha handed over a small purse of coins. ‘He’ll never miss it.’
I looked at Jenna, we thanked Martha and made for a side gate that led onto the road.
‘Wait,’ I stopped. ‘Just one thing.’ I ran back into the house, smashed the glass case and pulled out the gold belt. ‘I gave it to him for helping us to escape so I think he owes it back to me now.’
Jenna was behind me.
‘How will you explain this?’ she said to Martha, who shrugged.
‘I suppose I could go down to the court later with the letter.’ She gave a smile. ‘Pity about the weather.’ She looked up as the rain started. ‘It got so wet that they might not be able to read it.’
With that we left. The rain hammered down as we ran back down the road. Back down to the Pool, as Nancy had called it. As we came back into the town the rain eased, but we were both soaked. Back at the water side we stopped.
‘Where now?’ I wasn’t sure if Jenna said that or I did. There was no useful answer. We both shrugged and made for the open door with the inn sign above. I was sure the innkeeper would be as unfriendly as before, although he was the sort of man I felt I understood – greedy, weak, and trying to hide what he was doing. At least we now had something of value, but we needed to keep that hidden until we could use it with some hope of success. Because I knew what we had to do next.
‘We’ve got to find Zach somehow,’ I said and Jen didn’t look too surprised. ‘He must know what’s going on, he must know how to get the tunnel to take us home.’
‘Will he tell us?’ Jenna held my arm as we walked along the water’s edge.
‘He will,’ I said as my fists clenched. We arrived at the inn door. I pushed it open. The same men were sprawled around the room. They startled as we entered.
‘You again.’ The big man had picked up his length of wood again and looked ready to use it whatever we might want.
‘Us again,’ I gave him a big smile. ‘Customs men,’ I said with a laugh. A hand grenade wouldn’t have made a bigger impact as the men scattered at my words, leaving only the man with the wooden club who stood gaping at us. I laughed again.
‘So it’s smuggling you’re into,’ I laughed again knowing I needed to sound confident. ‘So you won’t mind giving us a bit of help. First,’ I said, sitting at one of the tables, ‘can we have a mug of your excellent beer?’ I’d split the few coins Martha had given us and now I chucked a couple on the table.
I wasn’t sure what would happen. The man stood there looking angry. I was ready to run even though this could be our only chance. Who else might help us? I thought there was more chance asking someone who had something to hide. I knew that sort of man, even if he might kill us in the end.
He laughed as well, turned and filled two mugs with beer before banging them down on the table, taking our money and asking the strangest of questions: ‘Don’t suppose either of you know anything about chemistry.’
I looked at Jenna and there was more laughter. There were many things I didn’t know and chemistry was probably right at the top of the list.
‘Pity,’ he said. ‘Might have saved your lives.’ He walked to the door and shouted for the other men. ‘These two fancy a swim after their beer, a long swim – one way.’
That was the first time I wished I’d gone to a few lessons about chemistry. As it turned out it wasn’t school chemistry skills he needed, it was something I’d learnt from Uncle Pat.
Gin
-23-
There was something in my head which told me I had the answer. Jenna was looking at me and with not a very hopeful face, neither of us had tasted the beer the landlord had given us. He was the landlord of the Cannon Arms and the question I had buzzing in my mind was ‘why did this rather stupid and probably violent man want to know about chemistry?’
‘Still!’ I shouted loud enough to stop the other men coming towards us. ‘Why didn’t you say so?’
Everyone in the room, including Jenna, looked puzzled. Everyone that is except Aaron, the landlord.
Our one way drowning trip had been postponed. Aaron was interested. His problem, like mine, was that he had no idea about chemistry. His brother had decided they should set up an alcohol distillery to make gin. He said that gin from this city was famous and that if they could make some themselves it would sell well, if more under the counter than declared. So Aaron’s brother had bought the equipment. Unfortunately the brother had been forced to leave the country in a hurry for some related crime and wasn’t coming back. In fact we might have met him in Australia.
Now Aaron had a pile of rusting stuff in a shed out the back of the pub and a lot of illegal alcohol which could be used to make gin.
‘And Isaac, the brother’s name,’ ‘bought a load of juniper berries, sacks of them,’ moaned Aaron.
‘Take me to it.’ I slurped at my mug of beer. No wonder he wanted to make gin, because the beer he sold was foul.
‘You don’t know anything about this, do you?’ Jenna said quietly as we were led through the back
of the inn and taken to the shed which was crammed with a huge metal flask and various tubes of metal. They reminded me a bit of the stuff in Hugh’s barn and I didn’t think he was into illicit gin.
I just smiled at Jen. ‘It’s my Uncle Pat,’ I said. ‘Dad once took me to see him, he makes potcheen.’
‘What?’ Jenna and Aaron asked together.
I explained about the Irish moonshine and how Uncle Pat had told me all about it. Now I just hoped I remembered what to do. The whole thing was made more complicated because Aaron had fixed together the equipment in some random way that had to be taken apart. Aaron left us to it, along with more threats about drowning.
It was late into the night before I stood back and we lit the fire under the distillery flask. My still was a long way from perfect but before long drips of clear fluid dripped from the something Uncle Pat had called a condenser. The condenser only worked because Jen was pouring jugs of water over it to keep it cool. Water that came from a small stream emptying into the sea at the Pool. That meant we were slopping around in foul smelling puddles when I finally collected the fluid in one of the pub’s glasses – also not too clean either – and handed it to Aaron.
He took a sip, put down the glass and turned to me grabbing me by the sides of my face and planted a kiss on my lips. ‘You beauty,’ he gurgled, picking up the glass again. ‘Might even let you live.’
I was thanking Uncle Pat and not too worried that I had missed all the science lessons that might have covered distillery.
So that’s how come Aaron, Jen and me were sitting round a table in the early morning, with Aaron barely able to stand and me remembering something Uncle Pat had said about going blind. But after some sleep and when Aaron was sober I asked him for help.
‘We need to find someone,’ I told him.
Aaron belched before saying, ‘Fix this up properly and I’ll do my best.’
For the next two days Jenna and I worked on the still. We managed to get running water to cool the condenser from a tank in the roof.
‘At least I don’t have to run back and forwards with buckets down to that stinking harbour,’ Jen said as she tried to get dry.
And Aaron stuck to his word. We explained who Zach was – the pretend judge – and couldn’t imagine that anything other than bad things had happened to him or Demelza. That made the search pretty easy, but Aaron wasn’t giving me the answer until we’d mixed the distilled alcohol with boiled up juniper berries and we had some bottles of something that tasted like – well he said it was ok but I wasn’t going to drink it.
‘In the hulks, both of them,’ Aaron said smugly as he had taken to drinking most of the stuff we made.
Jenna knew about the hulks. They were old sailing ships that were used to keep prisoners waiting transportation to Australia. ‘Some of the women had been in them before they joined our ship.’ Jenna shivered as she recalled horror stories from these rotting ships, sitting in the middle of foul water, overrun with rats and disease.
‘So Zach’s off to Australia.’ I thought that sounded a good idea. ‘Perhaps we should have stayed and had a party.’
‘Not necessarily,’ Aaron belched again. ‘Those two are stuck in there for unpaid debts. Might not be sent away if they find a way to pay.’
I looked puzzled.
Aaron went on, ‘Seems like they’re being held against these debts – someone’s debts.’ Aaron’s belch turned into a laugh. ‘And I wonder if you can guess whose debts?’
‘Alice Tregarthur,’ I guessed but Aaron didn’t register that name.
‘Not Alice anything,’ he said. ‘It’s your Hugh Connoy.’
And that made sense.
‘Can we get to talk to them?’ I asked.
‘Yes if you fancy rowing out there and you’ve a strong stomach.’ Aaron was starting to look disinterested. ‘Could just pay the debt and get them out if you like.’
I looked at Jen and nodded my head to the door. We left Aaron and one or two of the other men, sampling our new gin. We stood outside the pub, sniffing the air that was tainted with a strong smell of alcohol – Aaron would have to do something about the smell or he’d be found out soon.
‘If we pay to get Zach and Demelza out, they’ll be off before we get anything from them,’ Jenna said as we walked away down towards the water, coming into the more usual stench of foul sewage.
What Jenna said made absolute sense. ‘Why should Hugh want Zach locked up? I guess Alice Tregarthur made him do it,’ I puzzled. ‘They’ve must have got Zach in prison for a reason.’
‘There are too many reasons for putting Zach and Demelza in prison and letting them rot.’ Jenna sniffed and by the expression on her face she regretted doing it.
‘We have to get to them first, bargain with them – information for their release,’ I said.
Jenna looked up at me. ‘Unless we go straight back to the Hanging Stones and hope the tunnel takes us home.’
‘Or takes us somewhere worse, if Miss Tregarthur has anything to do with it. Now we have some clue how she does it – this crystal or whatever. Maybe we can get it, stop her.’ Stopping her was so important to me now.
‘Or send her somewhere so far back in time that she can’t return,’ Jenna added. ‘But I’m not sure that works.’
‘Why?’ I couldn’t see the problem.
‘If Miss Tregarthur could just go back in time when she wanted to, then surely she could have just gone back and saved her brother.’
That made me think. If Miss Tregarthur couldn’t save her brother it might mean there was no way of saving my mum either.
Jenna was watching me and I had the feeling she guessed what I was thinking. Anyway she held my hand and gave it a squeeze before saying, ‘Aaron says there are lots of boats going out to the hulks and back, we can easily catch a ride.’
‘Won’t Hugh realise we’re doing that?’ I chucked a stone into the harbour, it stuck on the slimy surface before sinking slowly into the thick stinking slime.
‘Have to chance it.’ Jenna paused. ‘Best if I go. They’d be expecting both of us. Easier for me to…’
‘What?’
‘One of the reasons for boats visiting the hulks is to take women, to take women for…’
‘Oh.’
‘So I could make myself up and pretend.’
‘Just pretend.’
‘Sure,’ Jenna laughed. ‘Unless I can make a few more gold coins.’
‘Gold? You’d get gold?’ I had to run after that with Jenna chasing me and threatening death. We both collapsed onto a low wall and sat looking out at the boats.
After we’d stopped laughing and I could breathe again I pointed. ‘Aaron says they’re on the Prancer. Somewhere out there.’
The next day Jenna set off. Aaron had a wife. She worked in the inn although neither she nor her husband did much work – especially cleaning. She liked the idea of turning Jenna into a tart to go out to the Prancer. I left her to it. Jenna came back down later and I would have almost whistled if I hadn’t known it would earn me a vicious poke.
Jenna left, heading for the main harbour as she had been told. That was where the women hung about waiting to be taken out to the hulks.
She didn’t return until much later that night. We had been staying in the Cannon Inn, with my gin production earning us food and accommodation – neither very good. So I was sitting in the bar room when she came in. There were only the same customers, new faces weren’t encouraged. Aaron was selling my gin elsewhere, that is if there was any left after he’d been at it. And Jen’s appearance did draw whistles from all of them. I thought she might go berserk but she really milked it and swirled her way across the room, plonked herself on my lap and planted a long kiss on my lips. Scary, I thought, as she laughed.
‘Not much,’ Jenna r
eplied when I asked what she had found out. ‘He’s as bad as ever,’ she went on. ‘Bad smelling as well as just bad, stuffed up in that ship – it’s horrendous. I thought we had a bad enough time on our ship but this hulk thing is something else. And of course all the sewage from the ship just gets chucked overboard so it’s swimming in its own filth.’
‘What did he say?’ I couldn’t wait for a long description of the boat. It was enough for me to know that Zach was at least getting some punishment.
‘What we suspected is true, Alice is related to Hugh and she’s the one in control. She’s got him stuck here and is using him to make their fortune. All those pipes, in the next few years they’re going to start using gas and their idea is to cash in on that – to be ready to supply everything to install gas lighting and gas into every home.’
‘Sounds good,’ I thought it did sound good as a money making idea.
‘Hugh’s pretty useless and Alice won’t let him go home until she’s got what she wants.’
‘How does she do that?’ I couldn’t see how Miss Tregarthur was able to control him, or Zach. I also couldn’t understand why Hugh had helped us to escape before. Had it all changed now, why?
‘There wasn’t much time to talk and anyway Zach wasn’t prepared to give much away. He said he’d tell us if we rescued him.’
‘Of course he’d say that,’ I laughed.
‘Worse than that, he said if we didn’t rescue him soon he would set the court on us again. He said it would be easy for him to find out where we were.’
‘Would it be easy?’
‘That ship, the harbour, this town, it’s alive with people making money by selling information. I guess Zach could have us tracked down using the promise of the reward on your head. There’s money for recapturing the head of the Carter gang,’ Jenna smiled.
Tregarthur's Prisoners: Book 3 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 17
