We carried on talking as Aaron and his wife called us for supper. Bread and mutton again.
‘I said we might get him out if he knew how to work the tunnel.’ Jenna stopped to pick a piece of hard gristle from her teeth. ‘He was vague about the whole thing but he talked about Miss Tregarthur having something, like Hugh told us, a stone or a crystal or something.’
‘You know I think we may have seen it,’ I said.
‘Eh?’
‘When she went into the tunnel last time, the light changed. It wasn’t just blue and black. I’m not too sure, everything happened too quickly.’ The more I thought about it perhaps there had been something in Miss Tregarthur’s hand, shimmering all kinds of colours.
‘That could be what Zach meant,’ Jenna agreed with me but I could tell she wasn’t sure, she didn’t remember seeing anything.
Aaron staggered over offering me a slug of gin. It was about the last thing I wanted, although it definitely tasted better now that I had worked out what to do with the juniper berries.
‘No thanks,’ I said before turning back to Jenna. ‘Can Zach get the tunnel to open up anyway even if he hasn’t got this crystal thing?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Jenna puffed out her cheeks which were a more normal colour now she had taken off all the red makeup. ‘Trouble is he makes out that he can do everything, so it’s difficult to believe any of it. He says that they’ve got a whistle or something to call Miss Tregarthur.’
‘They? I leant forward. ‘Did you see Demelza?’
‘No.’ Jenna gave another smile. ‘I wasn’t dressed to talk to the women.’
‘Oh.’ I shut up.
‘Zach says she’s got it on a chain round her neck. It’s like one of those silent dog whistles rather than anything precious. Apparently she blows it and, with a bit of luck if that’s what you can call it, Alice Tregarthur will appear and wave her wand or crystal thingy.’
‘Why has she still got it?’ I said. ‘I mean if it’s the Tregarthurs that have put them in this hulk I can’t see why they would let Demelza keep something to call them up. Haven’t they tried using it?’
We were chewing on mutton and bread. One of Aaron’s helpers came in to take away some more bottles of gin. I guessed they were doing quite well selling the stuff. They weren’t careful. I worried that soon the real customs men would come round. Aaron had done something about the smell, burning herbs on the fire which had made this side of the harbour smell better. Trouble was it might make someone wonder what they were covering up.
Jenna went on, ‘Seems like the whistle only works at short range, or only works on the moor near the stones, I don’t think Zach knows. Anyway, no one’s turned up to rescue them.’
‘Lot of dogs barking?’ Jenna gave me a questioning look. ‘Dogs,’ I said again. ‘You said it might be something like a silent dog whistle. One of those that only dogs can hear. Drives them wild.’
‘Yeah,’ Jenna seemed distracted. ‘How do you know about that?’ she said shaking her head.
‘Good way of finding out if there are dogs about,’ I answered and Jenna understood. There were times back home when it was useful to know if there were dogs about.
‘But at the end of talking to him the only way he’s going to help, he says, is if we get him out of there.’
It wasn’t a matter of worrying whether we could trust Zach or not. We knew we couldn’t trust him at all. Somehow we needed to keep control of him if we did get the two of them out of their prison boat.
‘Are you thinking of going back to see him again?’
‘You want to see me dressed up like that again,’ Jenna gave me a fake fierce face.
I said nothing. It was up to Jenna how she wanted to look, but even so there was something about the way she had made herself look. I knew I was going red and tried to hide it. Jenna’s arm slid round me and she gave me a hug. ‘You old romantic,’ she muttered in my ear. Lovely though she was, the smell of mutton wasn’t exactly an aphrodisiac. I pulled away.
Jenna looked a little miffed. ‘Anyway I don’t think it’s safe to go again. As I said there are so many prying eyes, so many people who would give us away for almost no money. No, we’re going to have to get them out if we want to find out more.’
With that we gave up on the mutton and crawled off to our room. The noises and smells of the inn and the harbour followed us. I felt that we had been here long enough. But if we wanted to get Zach out of jail we needed to turn my golden belt into more useable money and I thought that wasn’t going to be either safe or easy.
Carted Off
-24-
Aaron listened to our conversations. We’d tried to keep our plans secret but there was no way that we could understand the process of paying the debt that would get Zach out of this hulk and back to the moor.
‘Not sure if it will work anyway,’ Jenna said looking up at the landlord.
There was one thing that I was absolutely certain about and that was if I showed the gold belt to Aaron he would see it as a chance to swindle me. Maybe I was too cynical but a landlord who is into making illicit gin is unlikely to be trustworthy.
Aaron let out a puff of air and shook his head, ‘Lot of trouble you’ve got there.’ He shook his head again. ‘And expensive.’
I could see he was waiting to hear how we would raise the money. I wasn’t entirely right.
‘You see,’ said Aaron, now sounding like he was the world authority on this issue. ‘If you get him out, he becomes a free man. He can just wander off, do what he likes. Whereas you…’ Aaron stopped for another authoritative puff and a bit of chin stroking. ‘Whereas I don’t think you two want to be seen wandering around. Not that I’ve anything against you,’ he added quickly. ‘It’s just that, well…you know.’
I thought that was his cue to say how our problem would make it expensive, even though we hadn’t asked for his help yet.
Jenna and I talked that over as Aaron wandered away to sample some more gin and gave me an approving nod and mouthed ‘stay here’ as though offering us the permanent position of criminal gin makers.
‘Tie Zach up,’ I suggested. ‘Or knock him out.’
‘How do you do that in front of all the people at the quayside?’ Jenna’s frown hadn’t left her all morning. ‘He’d just shout for help. He’d be in the right as Aaron says.’
Aaron heard that and gave another nod and took another slurp of gin. I didn’t understand how he remained standing. This gin was lethal stuff.
‘So we stay here and forget Zach, the tunnel and that woman?’ I was getting wound up. My preference was to go out to the ship and murder the both of them.
‘Could do worse than staying here,’ Jenna smiled at me.
I looked round, Aaron had left the room so I whispered, ‘Won’t work. He’s going to get caught soon. Too many prying eyes here like everywhere else…and the smell, not to say the loads of stuff that gets delivered here to make the gin. Can’t see it lasting more than a few days. If we stay it’s either back to the gallows or Australia again.’
Part of me was thinking we should have stayed with Sam and Ivy, made a new life there. The idea of getting our own revenge would never be easy, it might have been better to give up. I’d been thinking about Mum and how we couldn’t do anything about her, couldn’t go back to her or anyone. Now we’d come here and I’d dragged Jenna into my hopeless problem.
‘I would have come anyway.’ Jenna, as usual, read my mind. ‘It’s time to go home if we can. I need to face home.’ Jenna didn’t speak much about her problems at home, her mum and the many stepdads.
At that moment Aaron came back. ‘Why do you need him?’ he said.
‘To get him to…’ I stopped and looked at Jenna. ‘Do we need him?’ I know that Aaron was just fishing for more information and not making
a suggestion, but when I thought about it I wondered.
‘It’s Demelza who’s got that whistle thing. She’d be easier to control, especially if we left Zach behind.’ I tried to sound hopeful.
Jenna was thinking. Probably thinking about controlling Demelza, and not in a nice way.
Aaron had stayed close and listening. ‘You need to get a woman off the hulk?’ He sounded genuinely as though he wanted to help. ‘That’s easier. I’ll get Bob over there to take her as his wife. Much cheaper to get some woman off their hands on these hulks, ’specially if you say you’ll marry them.’
That made us both laugh. The Bob being mentioned was not an ideal specimen for marrying. His greasy hair can’t have seen a wash for months or even years, he carried more fat than the mutton we’d been given and dribbled a lot.
‘Perfect for Demelza,’ Jenna carried on laughing. ‘Can we leave her here with Bob?’
‘Can’t she just run off?’ I looked at Aaron. ‘She’d be free too.’
‘No she wouldn’t be free,’ Aaron spread his arms. ‘She’d be Bob’s property if he paid her debts. If she tried to make a fuss the court boys would knock her down.’
‘Women’s rights, huh,’ Jenna moaned.
‘Women don’t have rights, my dear,’ Aaron’s wife chipped in amongst laughter from the rest of the men in the bar. No women came in here for a drink.
‘So you mean Bob just turns up and drags her off?’ Unbelievable, I thought.
‘Pretty much,’ said Aaron and he put on his more serious business voice. ‘Of course Bob would have to pay her debts and there’d be expenses…’
‘You mean, we give Bob the cash and he sorts it all out?’ What sort of idiot did Aaron think I was? ‘Of course we know we can trust Bob,’ I added with a cynical laugh.
‘Of course you can’t trust Bob,’ Aaron said loudly and even Bob nodded his head. ‘But I’d see he did it right, ’cos there are certain things about Bob that make him do what I ask.’
Bob tried to duck behind his hands.
‘And of course we can trust you,’ Jenna said firmly.
‘Me?’ Aaron looked hurt. ‘Everyone knows you can trust me.’
That brought more laughter than the suggestion about women’s rights.
Aaron lent down and whispered in my ear, ‘You’re going to have to trust someone and I won’t cheat you more than most. Come out the back and we’ll sort this so you can carry on with the gin.’
So Jenna and I went into the small back room and discussed the plan and how we needed to return to the moor.
‘How are you going to pay?’ Aaron asked almost as if it wasn’t important.
I looked at Jenna and we paused.
‘Well? Not got all day,’ Aaron looked as though he would leave. ‘Gin to be made.’
I shrugged, rolled up my sleeve, showing where I had wound the belt around my arm, took it off and handed it to Aaron.
His eyes rolled like cash tills as he fingered the gold, he came to the clasp and flinched as he examined it.
‘Where did you get this?’ he was almost breathless.
I wasn’t going to start a long explanation about the King of England and the Black Death so I said nothing. I was expecting him to say how difficult it would be to change this for cash and how little we’d get for it, he didn’t.
‘Look,’ he said. ‘This is worth much more than any debt your two have got. You could buy the whole hulk with this, probably a few more ships as well. But –’
He stopped and took the belt nearer to the small window. It didn’t make much difference. The windows were all stained and greasy. Mostly to stop anyone looking in.
‘If you go trying to sell this and if you’re not careful someone is going to be pretty certain you’ve stolen it.’
I was readying myself for his hard sell pitch.
‘Are you really ready to change this for the lives of two miserable people on the hulk?’ Aaron said.
‘You can have it for that help,’ Jenna said before I had a chance to say anything. ‘We need to get out of here and we don’t need it. Good luck to you, whatever you can get for it.’
I could see Aaron thinking that over. We were offering him probably so much more than it would cost him to help us. It looked like we were cheating ourselves and he couldn’t understand that. He didn’t let that worry him for too long and stuffed the belt in his jacket and called for Bob. ‘Get down the law office and find out how much you need to get this Demelza girl off the boat and down the church to marry you.’
Bob sloped off.
To say it all went smoothly would be a lie. Bob found out that Demelza and Zach were being held on two different debts, so we could pay hers and leave Zach to stay in his prison hulk. I liked that idea. Aaron’s report of the size of the debt was clearly an exaggeration although it still sounded small to me.
A couple of days later Bob did exactly what was expected. He went to the office with cash given to him by Aaron and practically bought Demelza. Aaron had suggested that we kept away from the quay while they brought her in.
Jenna and I sat in a corner of the inn as we heard a screaming shouting Demelza being dragged towards the inn. Treating badly behaved wives this way was apparently normal and others had come out of their houses to look – and to poke fun. After all Demelza had done, it was difficult not to join in, even Jenna was finding it hard not to laugh.
‘You can keep her,’ Bob shouted as he flung her through the inn door.
Demelza stumbled and fell against a table, she grabbed a beer mug and hurled it at Bob who ducked and walked away muttering loudly: ‘She’s all yours, never want to see her again.’
With her face screwed up in fury Demelza turned to look round the room, jerking to a stop as she saw us.
‘You,’ she shrieked.
‘Hello Demelza,’ Jenna said calmly before getting up, walking towards her and delivering a powerful slap sending Demelza to the ground. That’s when I saw the whistle on a chain around her neck. Would that whistle get us back into the tunnel and would Miss Tregarthur appear?
‘She made us do it,’ Demelza snivelled, held her hand to her bleeding nose and pushed the whistle out of sight.
I thought Jenna was going to start kicking her, I was thinking about joining in but we had to get out of this place.
Aaron had been outside speaking to another man. ‘There’s men looking for you,’ he said, coming back inside. ‘Probably put on to you by that Mr Connoy. You need to get a move on.’
‘And in disguise,’ Jenna smirked at me. ‘You’ll have to do it again.’
‘No,’ I groaned.
‘I had to do it, so now it’s your turn,’ Jenna giggled as Aaron’s wife applied the red lipstick to my lips.
And so it was that three women left the town in a farm cart. One laughing, one dabbing her bleeding nose and one trying to hide his face.
Aaron had arranged the cart. He had also said that he knew the moor well, and although I didn’t believe him he did get hold of a bit of map showing the Hangingstone Hill and said it wouldn’t be too difficult to get there from where the cart could drop us. I don’t think he knew about weather on the moor.
Aaron seemed really sad to see us go. I suppose the excess money on the belt would make up for that. And Bob, who wasn’t too aggrieved at not getting his new wife, was going to take over the still. So it was a quick goodbye before we trundled out of town. Aaron had found someone to guide us and sent us on the way with food and drink – including gin, which our guide started on pretty quickly.
The first night we spent in another inn. Demelza tried to run for it and Jen grabbed her and dragged her back. I thought that the Innkeeper would cause trouble but our guide – called Mat – just said she was a runaway wife and that made it quite acceptable for J
enna to drag a screaming Demelza around by her hair. At least I’d been able to take off my makeup and change clothes.
We spent two more days and nights crossing wild countryside before we came to a small town. Mat told us about a prison that had been built nearby and was now left empty. Demelza once again tried to escape but our ‘runaway wife’ was soon brought back. Even a few female rights would be a long time coming.
It was another day before Mat, looking at the map, stopped the cart and said we had to head off on foot: ‘Through those trees,’ he said pointing to a thick wood. ‘Then you’ll see the granite peaks in the distance, hope you know which one you want.’
The weather had been fine on the cart ride. Good enough for us to have nights under the cart because there were no other inns nearby. We slept under the cart again that night and left Mat saying he’d go on because he knew some people at the next town.
It was early as we headed off, early and the clouds gathered as we entered the wood and trudged on, still dragging Demelza, something I’d done a long time before. Eventually she gave up struggling and walked on her own. Was that change because of Jenna’s threats or had Demelza something else in mind? She certainly kept looking up at the hills and that worried me. Worried me more when I saw her finger the whistle round her neck.
Coming out of the wood the rain hit us, rain and wind. We sheltered under overhanging rocks waiting for the rain to stop. It didn’t, so we just had to move on, pausing occasionally by more rock piles. It was too slow.
‘Must get there before dark,’ I urged them on.
Demelza snivelled. The rain soaked us, suddenly it stopped and the sun came out for a brief second, shafts of light shining through the clouds. There they were. Maybe another hour’s walk, but clear to see. The hill with the Hanging Stones.
Tregarthur's Prisoners: Book 3 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 18
