Shadow on the Highway

by Deborah Swift

  ‘They’ve given up. When I told them this morning I wasn’t for carrying on.’

  ‘Oh Ralph.’ I dismounted and tied up the pony. ‘Why? What happened? Is it Father? Are you going to join the army?’

  ‘I hadn’t the heart for it. I got up this morning and looked at it, and it just seemed too big a task somehow. I’ve just lost the will to do it. I’m going to do as father asked – fight for Parliament.’

  ‘Is it because of Kate?’

  ‘No, of course not.’ His reply was too emphatic. ‘I don’t want to talk about her. I can’t believe you would do that to us, Abi. It made me ashamed. How could I tell all my friends? Anyway it’s over.’

  ‘Why? Why give it all up after the trouble you’ve been through?’

  ‘I felt bad about Father. I don’t like to fall out with him. He says the Royalist Army is on its way south and this will be the last stand against the King and they need every man. It will end the fighting for good if we win.’

  ‘But where will you stay, if you are giving up the Diggers? Will you go back home?’

  ‘No. I want my independence. Jacob’s offered me a space on his floor. Then I’ll go wherever the troops go, I suppose.’

  ‘What about all the things you said about true freedom, and every man having land in common?’

  ‘That was before,’ he said bitterly. He stood up and pointed at the rough foundations of his house. ‘Look at it. It is not a dream you could offer any decent girl, is it?’

  I knew he meant Kate. That he had suddenly seen himself through the eyes of a fine lady and found himself lacking.

  ‘She still cares,’ I said. ‘She asked me to tell you. Like you, I thought she was playing with you to begin with, but I was wrong. She believes in the Diggers, passionately, perhaps more than any of you.’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he said. ‘It’s finished.’ He stooped to pick up his spade, smashed it into the only standing wall of the house. Stones and lath tumbled and fell.

  ‘Come away now.’ I went around him to look into his face. His expression was angry, but his eyes were pools of pain. I put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged away from me. I brought out the letter. ‘I have something to show you.’

  ‘I don’t want to read it.’

  ‘No. It’s not from her. It’s from Grice. It’s for Captain Wentworth at the Green Man. We must tell Father what’s in it. I have to take a reply or I would have thrown it into a ditch.’

  He gave it a cursory glance. ‘It’s sealed.’ He was still sulking.

  ‘I know, I brought a seal so we can re-seal it. It’s her lady… I mean, I hope Captain Wentworth won’t notice the seal’s not Mr Grice’s.’

  When he hesitated I said, ‘I’ll open it then.’

  He put the spade down then and held out his hand for the letter. ‘Have you a flame?’

  We sat on a wall and I brought out my flint. We used a burning stick to soften the wax enough to open it. Ralph puzzled over the words, mouthing them to himself.

  ‘What does it say?’ I asked him, leaning over his shoulder.

  ‘Grice’s telling him that the King’s already on his way to Worcester.’ He turned to face me so I could see his lips. ‘And he’s telling Wentworth that a Lady Eleanor Prescott will be travelling through here on her way to her brother’s wedding next Thursday night. Her family’s for the King.’

  ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘Grice is telling him it’s a cover. There’s no wedding at all. It’s a device for bringing Royalist gold to the King.’

  ‘So I was right. He’s not to be trusted. He’s giving away Royalist secrets. The turncoat. Let me look!’

  He kept it away from my eager gaze and carried on reading, ‘Thank you for your reply to my message about Lady Prescott. You are right, we must stop her getting the gold to the King – he’ll buy arms and mercenaries to shore up the city, he says. If William Chaplin must intercept her then I could lend support. Despite my injury, I’m not a bad shot…’

  Father’s name! I snatched the paper from him. ‘Let me see!’

  ‘Careful!’

  I scanned the words, picking out what I could. ‘Grice is asking Wentworth to meet him at the Manor. It looks like Grice and Wentworth must have been writing to each other for some time. What’s more, Grice has changed sides.’

  Ralph looked up at me. ‘Good for him. Maybe he’s seen sense. He’s right though. If we don’t stop them buying more mercenaries, Parliament will have a heavy fight on their hands.’

  I shook my head. ‘Be careful – I would not trust Grice. I hate him. If he can blow one way with the wind, he can blow the other. Grice is stealing my mistress’s lands, making her sign away her estate. She cannot refuse – he put a pistol to her throat. I saw him with my own eyes.’

  Ralph turned to look at me, a stunned expression on his face. He opened his mouth as if he would say something, but then he stood and walked away. Put his face in his hands.

  ‘Ralph,’ I called after him.

  He was hugging himself as if to hold himself together.

  ‘Bloody war. How did we get to this? Englishman fighting Englishman? The end can’t come soon enough.’

  ‘What will you do?’

  ‘You mean about Grice? Nothing. He’s on our side.’ It was a moment before he came and sat back beside me. ‘But I’ll talk to Father about Wentworth and this Lady Prescott,’ he said. ‘Father’s not as quick as he was, and I’m the better rider, so I’m sure he can persuade Wentworth to let me go. If there could be trouble – and if as you say, Grice is not to be trusted, then one man stands much more chance of riding away.’

  ‘Be careful though, we don’t want them to know we opened the letter, or I’ll be in awful trouble.’

  ‘Do you think I’m a fool? Here, give the letter back to me and let’s seal it up again.’

  I held it as though it might bite me, but Ralph melted a new blob of wax onto it and I pressed Lady Katherine’s seal into the hot wax. Ralph stared at it. ‘That’s the Fanshawe seal,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, the three fleurs-de-lis.’

  ‘Is it hers?’

  ‘Yes.’ The atmosphere turned heavy. I put my hand on his sleeve. ‘Have a heart, Ralph. Grice is dangerous. I fear for my mistress.’

  ‘I don’t care if they all rot.’

  I knew that was not true, that it was just angry words, but he wasn’t ready to listen to me. I tucked the letter back inside my bodice and mounted my pony.

  *

  I brought the short reply from Captain Wentworth’s servant back to Grice and he was none the wiser. As I passed my mistress’s room I saw Rigg and Pitman just coming out. Pitman tucked something hurriedly into his jerkin and exchanged a warning look with Rigg.

  What were they up to? There was no time to think because I had to return milady’s seal. I slipped into the library and eased open the drawer of the writing desk but just as I reached inside, a hand came onto my shoulder. I almost shot up out of my shoes and dropped the seal where it rolled to rest at my mistress’s feet.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Lady Katherine pulled me round.

  ‘Nothing,’ I said, unsure whether to address her as my mistress.

  ‘That’s my seal. What are you doing with it?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘Tell me.’ She looked into my eyes. ‘Please.’

  She had asked humbly. I weighed it up. We had both threatened each other enough. She hated Grice as much as I did. I decided to tell her the truth. ‘I opened one of Grice’s letters. To Captain Wentworth at the Green Man.’

  ‘What did it say? Show me.’ She was curious now, her anger less.

  ‘I can’t. I delivered it.’ I told her of Lady Prescott and the smuggled Royalist gold. ‘The gold will buy mercenaries. The men are tired, worn out with so much toil and fighting and so little progress. Ralph says both sides are desperate for more men, even if they have to pay for their loyalty. And everyone wants an end to it.’

&n
bsp; Lady Katherine picked up the seal and paced up and down, her brow creased as she thought. ‘So whoever gets the gold gets an advantage. If the King loses then my husband will be exiled or executed. My house will go to Grice or to Cromwell and I’ll be without a roof over my head. But if the King wins then my husband will return and I will have to endure my step-father and his beatings.’ She paused and shook her head sadly. ‘In my position, which side would you choose?’

  I could not answer. A pang of compassion made me twist the corner of my apron in my hands. Lady Katherine put the seal in the drawer and closed it gently but firmly. ‘You will not touch my seal again. Do you understand?’

  I pulled on a lock of hair that had escaped my cap and looked at the floor.

  My mistress came towards me and touched my arm. ‘Any more news from Ralph?’ she asked me. ‘Did he mention me when you saw him?’ She was tentative, entreating.

  ‘He’s still angry.’

  ‘Not anything? Didn’t he say anything about me at all?’

  I shook my head. She continued to walk up and down, up and down. Finally she stopped dead. ‘I’m going to run away and join the Diggers. I shall persuade Ralph if it’s the last thing I do. He’s got to believe I care for him. I think of him all the time. It gives me such a pain, right here.’ She pressed her hand to her chest. ‘He’s all I have. Please, Abi, you’ve got to help me talk to him.’

  She used my name. My name on her lips squeezed my heart. I shook my head. ‘I can’t. I’m sorry. He’s given it up. They’ve all gone home. He’s joining my father in the army.’

  ‘Given up the Diggers?’

  ‘There’s nobody left on the Common now. The Diggers have gone, gone to fight for Parliament.’

  She sat down then heavily onto a chair, as if someone had pushed her over. Her skirts sank down after her like a sigh. ‘Then I will have no future after all.’

  It was a moment before she gathered herself together. A long moment where I stared awkwardly at my feet. When I saw the tips of her shiny boots disappear under her skirts I looked up. She had drawn herself up ram-rod straight and wiped her face of all emotion. ‘You may go,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ My hand lifted towards her and fell back.

  ‘Just go.’

  17. Jacob Mallinson

  ‘Your brother’s been arrested,’ Mistress Binch said to me. ‘This morning. The man who brought the milk said he saw him being brought down off the common with hand-irons on his wrists. Put up a right fight too, from all accounts. Poor John Soper ended up with a missing tooth. I never would have thought that of your brother, he seemed such a nice friendly lad.’

  I begged Mistress Binch to let me have an hour to go home, and took Pepper and galloped as fast as I could to our cottage. Something was in the air, I could tell by the fact that people had their shutters closed even though it was daytime, and that there were no farm implements lying in the fields – no rakes, no scythes, and the corn was uncut in the fields. I could almost smell the war coming closer.

  Even before I got to our house I could see the flashing tips of pikes – men performing drill up and down the road with my father at the head of the row. He saw me pass but did not acknowledge me. He was intent on his training. I shuddered at the thought that these weapons were designed to pierce the soft stomachs of other Englishmen and their horses.

  When I got inside the house it was to find Mother with all her recipe books out straining herbs through muslin to make bottled remedies for the winter. William was strapped to her back with a cloth whilst she worked, and he was sleeping. Martha was knitting again. ‘Look Abi, a hat,’ she said.

  I admired it with a smile, it was more dropped stitches than anything else. But like all children she had to learn.

  ‘I thought you’d come,’ Mother said. ‘Poor Ralph. The first I heard of it was when a message came asking for bail. What went on? Did you see it? They said he was at the Manor.’

  ‘He hit a servant. Where’ve they taken him?’

  ‘The stupid dolt.’ Mother put her strainer down. ‘What was he thinking of?’

  ‘He came to see me.’ That at least was true. ‘What do you think will happen to him?’

  ‘They’ll keep him there in the holding cell at the Constable’s until the Quarter Assizes. Then he’ll be tried, I suppose.’ She sighed. ‘And then Lord knows; the Fanshawes have never been known for their clemency. Your father’s been down there this morning to try to get him out, but we’ve not enough ready money to bail him. Your father was counting on Ralph too, to go with him up to Wigan and then to Worcester for the last push against the King. It’s an unholy mess, that’s what it is. What on earth was Ralph thinking?’ Most of this seemed to be talking to herself, but I read it well enough.

  I skirted her question. ‘I know the constable’s son, Jacob. He’s a friend of Ralph’s. I’ll go and talk to him, maybe he’ll put in a word for him, be able to do something.’

  ‘Do that. Heaven knows, I’ve no real wish for Ralph to join the army, but I’d rather that, than him lying useless in that cell. You know what he’s like, he’ll fall into a depression if he has to stay there any length of time.’

  I picked up a stone jar from the table and weighed it in my hands.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Mother paused and looked up at my troubled face.

  ‘Nothing.’

  Mother sat down on the stool and untied William to lay him in the crib. ‘If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. Tell me,’ she said. ‘Is it that cook? If it is I’ll –’

  ‘No. Not Mistress Binch, she’s all right. We’ve got used to each other. There’s really nothing to tell. They are closing up the house that’s all.’ As I said it a lump came to my throat and I realised I really did care. That I could not imagine a life with no Markyate Manor, no Lady Katherine.

  ‘Oh Abi. I’m sorry.’

  I stood to leave because I was scared I’d show my feelings, and crying blocked my eyes and took me back into a silent world cut off from everyone else.

  Mother patted my arm, ‘I’ll ask in the village,’ she said. ‘Tell folks you’ll be looking. There’ll be a place for a girl as clever as you, I know there will, now you’ve shown you’re a good worker, and they’ll give you a proper reference, won’t they?’

  I nodded, and evaded her hug. I didn’t want to be mothered, I wanted to show her I didn’t need her, didn’t need help. Besides, I really didn’t want to work for anyone else. Markyate Manor and Lady Katherine had crept up on me.

  ‘I’ll be off to Jacob’s then,’ I said.

  ‘Go careful on that road,’ she said, but I shrugged off her embrace.

  Outside, I passed Father and the others still training with their pikes – lunge and thrust, retreat, lunge and thrust. Sweat dewed dark on the back of their jerkins but I did not stop. I mounted Pepper and headed for Jacob’s tithe cottage.

  He wasn’t in when I knocked, but I went round the back and he was there hoeing a small vegetable patch. A trug basket on the wall was stuffed with vegetables – sprouts, cabbage, peas and beans, kale and a bowl of raspberries from the raspberry canes. Jacob stood up at my approach.

  ‘That’s a fine harvest,’ I said.

  I was shy so it made me red-faced to watch his lips. ‘I’m getting it out of the garden,’ he said. ‘There’s rumours troops will pass along this road, and I don’t want to be giving it away.’ He smiled.

  ‘Can I help?’

  ‘You can help me bring it inside and wash it if you like.’ His manner was easy, but I was all fingers and thumbs as I lifted up the basket and followed him to the house. ‘You sit there,’ he said, ‘and I’ll fetch water.’

  I sat on one of the stools by the fireplace feeling nervous to be sitting all alone in a young man’s house. For months I’d dreamt of being alone with Jacob Mallinson, but now the moment had come I was scared. I felt like my hands were too big, twining themselves in my lap. And I did not know what Jacob might think about Ralph hitting someone, or abou
t me asking him a favour.

  The room was barely furnished but tidy. A pierced cupboard for his larder was set into the wall. Looking up I saw daylight through the thatch where some of it was blown away and wondered if he would get it fixed before winter.

  He’d come in as I looked up and saw what I was staring at. ‘I’ll get round to it eventually,’ he said, ‘now we’re not building on the common. The Fanshawes will never fix it, even though I’m their tenant.’

  ‘I’ve come to see you about that,’ I said. ‘Well, about Ralph, really.’

  He waited, pulled out another stool from behind the table.

  ‘He hit one of the servants up at the Manor and now he’s locked up and I wondered if you could, I mean…’ After the gush of words I faltered.

  Jacob leaned towards me, his eyes full of curiosity. ‘Was it really Lady Katherine Fanshawe – the Kate that came to our meetings?’

  ‘Yes. That’s what started it.’

  He thumped the table with his fist, delighted. ‘Ha! I told Ralph it was her when we saw her on the road, but he denied it, said I was talking nonsense. But I could tell he was rattled by the way he hared off after you, and I knew as soon as he did there’d be trouble. He always was a bit quick-fisted, Ralph. You’ll be wanting me to speak to my father, I suppose.’

  ‘Would you?’

  ‘I could, but it would probably do more harm than good. Father’s dead set against the Diggers and I can’t see him wanting to let Ralph out, knowing he’s the leader. He didn’t like it when I came home all cut up from the Common. He’ll doubtless think it best Ralph stays where he is. And if I try to persuade him it will only make him dig in his heels deeper. He thinks Ralph’s a bad influence.’

  ‘But I can’t leave him there. It’s months until the Assizes. And we’ve no money to bail him.’

  ‘What about Lady Katherine? She seemed sweet enough on Ralph. Maybe she could help. God’s truth, I never guessed who she was. And Ralph thinking she was the girl for him all this time and never even having an inkling!’

  ‘She really believed in the Diggers.’

  Jacob raised his eyebrows. ‘I can’t believe that’s true. We wanted to build a better life, one where working folk weren’t so hand-to-mouth. Why would she need that? She’s already wealthy enough.’