‘Hello, Samuel,’ she said, looking him over with some consternation. ‘I am your Aunty Janet. How wonderful to see you.’ The words came out flat and distinctly insincere. ‘I’m so sorry about your parents. It’s a terrible tragedy what happened to them, but nevertheless, you are welcome to stay here with us. We’ll have the odd chore for you, of course, but I think you’ll fit in here nicely, soon enough. Unfortunately, there are no rooms to spare at the moment as we are terribly busy. There is some space in the barn where we can put a cot for you; just until something better makes itself available.’
Despite her attempts to sound comforting, Samuel thought how sharp and pointed her face looked. Somehow, it made Samuel think she was not very nice at all.
She took Samuel through the narrow door and down a hall past another few doors and out behind the inn. Some pigs and dogs were tied there in a muddy yard beside a small stable.
‘The pigs and dogs get the scraps and keep the burglars away,’ she explained. ‘Don’t get too close to the pigs, mind. They have quite a nasty bite.’
The barn was somewhat cleaner than the yard, with trampled straw thrown all over the ground. A few horses were penned in some of the stalls towards the back. They glanced momentarily at Samuel but then returned to staring at the ground. The smell of wet straw and dust filled Samuel’s nose and made it tickle and itch.
‘There’s a spare stall up the back,’ Aunt Janet disclosed. ‘It needs some tidying, so you had better get started. You will be minding the animals and tending to any needs of the guests. After you finish with your room, change the barn flooring and Jessicah will show you how to feed the animals.’
She then left him there, returning to the inn, while Samuel blinked and looked around. Flies buzzed around the horses and their droppings. The air was a haze of straw-dust. It did not look like a very comfortable place to live at all. He hoped he could move into the inn with them soon-tomorrow or the next day at the latest would be good.
Samuel pushed open the gate of his ‘room’ and coughed. It was filthy. A generous mound of manure was the centrepiece of the stall, while brooms and rakes and various tools hung from hooks on the wall. His stomach grumbled loudly as he hung up his humble bag, pulled down as small a shovel as he could find and began scooping up the dung and carrying it out into the yard. It was hard work, much harder than he was used to, and he was soon sweating as he struggled with the weight of the unwieldy shovel.
Once the majority of the mess was moved, he picked up a dustpan and a small hand-brush and began sweeping up the leftovers.
After a time, when he had done as much as he could to make the room more hospitable, Jessicah poked her head in. ‘Wonderful!’ she exclaimed. ‘I felt so sorry for you when Mother said you’d be staying out here, but I know you’ll manage.’
Samuel put the hand-brush down and wiped his forehead. ‘Thank you,’ he said. His eyes and nose were running from all the dust.
‘I have something for you,’ she said, stepping into the stall. To Samuel’s delight, she was carrying a hamper full of bread and fruit. ‘One of the guests ordered all this, but then got called away, so no one will miss it.’
They both squatted on the dirty floor and ate until only crumbs remained. It was perhaps the most satisfying meal Samuel could remember in all his life. Of course, he could not remember ever being hungrier in all his life, either. Afterwards, he noticed how filthy his hands were. His mother would have been so very angry to see him eat with such dirty hands, but he had been so hungry he had not even noticed.
‘Do you want to feed the horses?’ she asked as she stood and brushed away the crumbs from her dress.
Samuel nodded and she began leading him around the stable, showing how much and what to feed each horse. They all belonged to different guests in the inn. The animals were giants of shining flesh and they watched Samuel with a mix of concern and curiosity. Both Samuel and Jessicah needed stools to reach the tall animals’ backs, and Jessicah showed him how to brush their coats and keep them looking fine and healthy. They spent the afternoon like that in the barn, laughing and talking together. At first, he had been sure this place was terrible, but now, Samuel was actually enjoying himself. He had never had so much fun doing chores. At home, it was always boring and he never had help. His brothers had never made it seem like fun and his sister had never tried to help him.
‘We have to go get the water now, so I’ll show you the square,’ she said and Samuel nodded enthusiastically.
They each carried two wooden buckets out into the bustling traffic and Jessicah led the way down several streets, still filled with intriguing and strange people. In Samuel’s village, he knew everybody. Here, there were so many people, how could anyone get to know them all? It was all quite startling.
After a few more streets and a few more turns, they reached a stone well in the centre of a square. A couple of old women were drawing water and filling buckets in a rickety barrow.
‘Most inns have their own well these days, but Father says that as long as he has someone to fetch water for him, he’s not going to pay to have one dug.’
Samuel nodded and helped her pull the water up with the cold and wet chain, and fill their buckets. He admired how she carried her load so easily and, each time they returned for more, she led him down a different set of streets and explained the points of interest, such as where she saw a horse run into a house, where a strange man who paints his face and talks to himself lives and where she once saw a town guard stabbed by a thief-there had been lots of blood and it had looked awful.
They made many trips back and forth to the well but, even so, Samuel was still completely lost and doubted he would be able to find his way without Jessicah beside him.
Finally, when the large trough at the inn was full, the two of them dropped their buckets and almost collapsed in a heap. As they recovered their breath, they patted the backs of the two huge, brown, slobbering dogs that lapped at the water. Jessicah said she did not like these dogs very much. They had often tried to bite her and they had always had scabby sores on their skin. Her father had bought them for very little. On hearing about their scabby sores, Samuel stopped patting the dogs and rubbed his hands on his trousers. The pigs looked up at him and oinked questioningly from the ends of their tethers.
So far, it had been quite hard work and Jessicah said there was always a lot more to do. Samuel felt sorry for her. Then again, he felt sorry for himself, too. At home, his brothers and Sarah would do all the hard work.
‘Oh, and when you go outside, be careful of the soldiers,’ Jessicah told him. ‘Uncle says the Imperials all hate us and would beat us if they could, so you should certainly stay away from them.’
Samuel nodded again. There were so many things in this town to remember!
After a few moments of peaceful resting, Jessicah sighed and explained she had more chores to do inside and she left Samuel to finish the stables. Waiting in his stall was a thin cot and a single blanket. He moved these aside and began carrying in buckets of water with which to scrub the floor. Eventually, there was more stone than dirt visible and Samuel was content that it would do for tonight, although the smell was still ghastly.
‘Samuel!’ came an angry voice from outside.
He hurried outside to where his uncle was waiting impatiently.
‘If this is how you do things, you had better learn quick! Everything you do had better be done properly,’ he demanded, ‘not half-done like this! I want this trough filled to the brim. Now get going!’ and he clipped Samuel roughly on the side of the head. Samuel grabbed a bucket in one hand and his burning ear in the other and hurried off, wincing.
That night, as Samuel lay in his hard bed, staring at the dark roof and occasionally coughing from the dust, a soft voice called out to him, ‘Samuel?’ Jessicah entered the stable. She carried a small oil lamp and it lit the stall with a yellow light as she tiptoed in. ‘I’ve brought you a lamp, but make sure my mother and father don’t find out. It’
s quite expensive and they’ll be terribly mad. I can’t stand the thought of you out here in the dark.’
Samuel nodded and thanked her and at once she was gone again. Tears began to flood down his cheeks in tiny streams as fear and insecurity washed over him. His uncle and aunty seemed so terrible and this place was horrid. He wished to be back with his mother and father and Jason and James and Lee and Sarah-but they were all dead now. He would never see them again. Samuel had seen dead animals before, lying still and limp, their eyes open and staring and covered in flies.
‘You’re a long time dead,’ Samuel had heard his father say many times. He was not sure why he had said it, but it certainly seemed true. Once something died, it was buried and was never seen again, unless it was dug up accidentally. Mother once dug up the bones of some hens when she was out hoeing in the garden. Gooey old bones. That’s all that was left of his family. Samuel wondered if Tom’s father or anyone had buried them. They had not even let Samuel go and look. Perhaps they thought it was too horrible to see. He remembered the cries and sobs of his mother, and the brutal voices of the men who had killed her. He remembered the way they had pushed into the house and struck at Father and his brothers, and how the tall man had stood in the doorway and watched on heartlessly while his men did their evil work. A new flood of tears began and Samuel wished everything awful would all just go away. He continued sobbing for a long time until sleep finally washed over his exhausted body and he fell into dreams of running and playing around his home and the comforting presence of his family, all busily doing everyday things.
In his dream, he was atop Bear Valley and the enormous brown-furred bear was there, sniffing and looking up at him. The waterfall was running like a river of flashing colour, more beautiful than Samuel could have imagined. The bear then stood up on its hind legs and stretched upwards, roaring and seeming to grow huge. It dropped back onto all four legs and it then did a thing quite strange. It bowed to him, dropping its head low as Samuel had seen his brothers and Sarah do often, mocking each other. Only this was not mocking. The bear remained genuflecting, and Samuel, for the first time, could see its healthy glow, shining as brightly as the man who had performed tricks in the village. So unusual, Samuel thought, because he had never noticed such a glow around an animal before. Its radiance grew and grew, growing brighter and brighter, until even the scintillating waterfall of the valley was dull by comparison. A loud crash sounded-a boom like thunder and all the birds and insects and frogs and other creatures in the trees suddenly began chirping and tweeting and croaking as one. Samuel clamped his hands to his ears to block out the noise and looked up towards the mountain, where an enormous leering face was looming, looking down at him with great amusement. The earth shook and Samuel lost his balance. He fell from the edge of the great stump and tumbled down, head over heels, towards the valley floor. As he rolled over and over in his dream, Samuel could hear a desperate voice calling out ‘Father! Father!’ over and over again.
With a sudden gulp of breath, Samuel woke up. His heart was beating furiously, but he kept his eyes closed and reached for the blanket, pulling it up to his chin. It was a hot night and he could feel beads of sweat running down his face, but he rolled over ever so slowly, quietly, turning away from the doorway. He strained to listen above the beating in his chest and the ringing in his ears, but the stables were awfully quiet-strangely quiet-and the thought only served to fuel his fears. Samuel lay tensed in his bed, ready to spin over and shout out with all his might to dispel the quiet-but he could not, for the greatest fear held him tightly in place: the fear that there, behind him in the doorway, someone or something quite horrible and tall was waiting, quietly watching him with a wickedly evil grin.
The first days with his uncle and aunt passed painfully slowly, with more and more tasks appearing for Samuel, until he was run ragged from dawn until late each night. His aunty had scoffed at the mention of schooling and asked what need had he of such things as writing and reading. Even at home, he would go to see Mrs Tincup twice each week for tutoring. He was not as smart as his brothers and not even a little bit as educated as Sarah, but Samuel knew much more than Tom did. Tom was always busy with his mother in the store, or with his father at their home and it left very little time for him to see Mrs Tincup. Tom never did seem to mind. In fact, he disliked any schooling, but Samuel had always felt proud when he could show his father something new he had learned.
Father had always told him that an education was important to a man, so that he could measure the results of a day’s work and read the Imperial notices when they were tacked to the village board, should he feel the need. Mother would agree when he said this, but add with a smile that news always moved faster over people’s tongues than paper. Samuel knew this to be true, for the women of the village liked to talk very much and they always knew of things long before the men.
Jessicah was being schooled occasionally by a tutor that came to the inn. She agreed to help Samuel and some evenings, when there was time, they would try reading the scraps of papers her father left around regarding his market orders and such, which was good because there were also sums and simple calculations on them. Jessicah was much better than he was and Samuel was appreciative of her company and so tried very hard to impress her. Even when he was frustrated, she was patient and considerate. Samuel never saw her in a foul mood or heard her criticise others, as her mother and father always did. She was always trying to find time to be with Samuel so they could play together for a few short moments, until, inevitably, her mother and father would call for either of them to do some chore or other. Samuel sometimes wondered what they actually did for themselves.
Samuel quickly learned it was best to avoid his aunt and uncle as much as he could and, that way, his life was much easier. They barred him from entering the inn because he always smelled terrible, and Jessicah suggested he should bathe as often as possible, which he didn’t like to do as the stable was so cold and draughty. There were public bathhouses but, of course, Samuel had no money to visit them. He could only throw water over himself on occasion and scrub his skin with the coarse, brown, smelly soap he used on the horses.
Alone in his stall, he ate the meals that Jessicah brought to him, but she was called away again almost at once. Samuel’s aunt obviously disliked her spending any time with him and his uncle always found some reason to pull or slap his ear when he could. Samuel wished he could at least have stayed with Tom and his parents. He did not understand why he had to come and stay with such terrible people. He did not understand why they were always so foul and bad-tempered towards him. Jessicah was his only comfort. If it were not for her, he thought, he would probably just lie down and die.
Samuel soon knew his way around the streets and markets and found pleasure in spending as long as possible on the occasional errands he was given. This inevitably brought on more punishment, but it was worth a few more bruises or another laborious chore for a short bout of freedom. He saw the other young boys playing games in the streets and, at times, they would let him take part. His uncle and aunt always made comments on how slow and lazy Samuel was, but their comments, so often said, had little meaning for him. If they had set an example, he would not mind, but they did little to help with the chores themselves. He soon realised that he hated them and any time he heard that some guest had crept away without paying, or some other bad thing had happened inside, he felt jubilant and laughed aloud at their misfortune.
The guests of the inn were usually rude to Samuel, too. It seemed to be the accepted way of treating stable boys and Samuel heard his uncle telling one customer to take to him with a stick if he was too slow. The patrons were often full of precise instructions regarding their horses and Samuel quickly learned when to follow them with exactness and when to ignore them altogether. He could tell that some people were fastidious and would check his work with strict scrutiny. Others were either trusting or lazy and would never know if their horses were properly fed or not.
&nb
sp; His uncle taught him how to check the horses’ feet, shoes, teeth and general health, but the lessons were never enjoyable with the ill-tempered man and most of the jobs ranged from difficult to impossible for Samuel as he was just too small. Some of the horses were pleasant, quiet animals, while others matched the disposition of their owners-malicious, stubborn and prone to kicking.
One afternoon, long after he had lost any hope of salvation from his new existence, Samuel returned to the inn, having fetched a sizeable leg of salted ham from the butchers as he had been instructed. He had spent probably five times longer than necessary on this errand and had only returned home when he had exhausted all other possible distractions for the day.
‘Uncle,’ Samuel called out innocently from beside the kitchen door. Within moments, the door burst open and his uncle’s great hairy fist plucked up the ham, flinging it behind him onto one of the kitchen benches. Samuel immediately recognised an evil temper and turned to be off.
‘Stay right there, you little son of a bastard!’ his uncle roared and Samuel froze in his steps.
The rotund man struggled out through the kitchen door and stood over Samuel. He was sweating and stank, even to Samuel, who was criticised for his stench by strangers and locals alike on a daily basis. His uncle’s hairy arm shot out with surprising speed for such a monstrous man, and threw Samuel hard against the wall. Samuel gasped as his legs buckled underneath him.
‘You filthy little thief!’ his uncle yelled. ‘Is this the thanks I get for helping my own flesh and blood?’ Spittle was flying thick and free. Samuel stayed on all fours, not willing to get up and be struck again, hoping for the fire to burn down in his uncle’s temper. ‘I’ve been worried sick that thieves had made off with my valuables and then I find one of my best lamps hidden in your room!’
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