Tregarthur's Crystal: Book 4 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 2

  We might have an idea how Miss Tregarthur controlled things or couldn’t control things now. I didn’t see why we needed to drag Demelza around with us and the floor wasn’t comfortable.

  ‘Why?’ I asked, not caring whether Demelza heard my question. ‘Why do we need her?’

  ‘Maybe in case we need someone else to get shot,’ Jen replied and turned over with nothing more to say. Demelza gave another squeal, although I think she actually blew me a kiss. I felt more confusion, sensed more danger.

  The morning brought rain and a bowl of gruel which reminded me of stews Jenna had cooked. We sat at a table and tried to plan.

  ‘Apart from getting the crystal, we need to find out what Miss Tregarthur’s up to because I’m sure it needs to be stopped,’ Jenna said.

  ‘We’ve no idea where she’s gone. Maybe we should just go back to the Hanging Stones?’ Demelza joined in.

  ‘What makes you think we’re going to do anything you say?’ Jenna said. ‘Just keep your mouth shut. Nothing happens without the crystal.’

  I felt Demelza could be right. We had no idea where Miss Tregarthur had gone. She hadn’t stayed in this inn. She could have gone anywhere. I really wasn’t going to suggest that Demelza was right. We should never have brought her along. She kept giving me little smiles and I know Jenna saw her doing it.

  ‘Alvin, go and ask the landlady if she saw Miss Tregarthur,’ Jenna ordered.

  ‘Me?’ I couldn’t see why she thought I’d be any use at getting information from the landlady. She had been so miserable.

  ‘Seems like all the women fall for you,’ Jenna snapped.

  I ran for it, searching out the landlady in the kitchen. I wouldn’t have eaten anything if I’d seen the state of the kitchen first.

  ‘What you want now?’ The landlady scowled. She looked even worse than last night. I think she may have been working her own way through the booze. ‘You’ll get no more food. Didn’t pay me enough.’

  She turned and looked me over. ‘You don’t fancy staying on here?’ She tried a smile which was a lot scarier than her scowl. ‘Suppose not,’ she said, seeing my face. ‘Don’t suppose anyone would fancy staying here.’ She wiped her eyes. ‘Not with me, anyway.’

  I had no idea what to do. She looked like someone’s gran and perhaps that made me get nearer and give her a hug. I got hugged back and didn’t think I’d ever escape until I heard a loud cough behind me.

  ‘How are you doing Alvin?’ Jenna snapped again and I jumped away. ‘Bettie’ might look like someone’s gran but she was probably a lot younger. Even so, surely Jen wasn’t getting angry because … well because.

  ‘I was just asking her …’ I started.

  ‘Oh yeah?’

  ‘You didn’t see someone else yesterday?’ I turned to the landlady who had slumped down in her chair and must have picked up Jenna’s mood.

  ‘Like who?’

  ‘Like some weird woman,’ Jenna stepped between us. ‘Weird woman with loads of wild hair, it blows about.’ Jen waved her hands above her head.

  ‘Oh her,’ the landlady picked up her bowl of half peeled potatoes. She held it as though it might protect her. ‘Nasty woman. She was on our old horse, said she found him on the moor, didn’t believe her even though he had run off. Bought him though.’ The landlady slapped the pocket in her apron to the sound of jingling coins.

  ‘Did she say anything else, anything strange?’ I asked.

  ‘Odd you should say that,’ the landlady gave me a puzzled look. ‘She didn’t want to stay but she asked me what year it was. I told her and she almost went berserk, screaming at me that I couldn’t be right. She must be crazy, I almost thought of getting those drunks to help, but she ran off. A few minutes later though she was back and wanted to know about Masterson.’

  ‘Masterson?’ Jenna and I said together.

  ‘Who’s he?’ Jen added.

  ‘Rich bloke. Has a big house down in the village?’ The landlady waved her arm in the direction of the track that led down the hill from the inn. ‘Ask anyone if you want to find him.’ She gave a cackle. ‘That’s if he wants you to find him.’

  A few minutes later we were walking down the track. I didn’t escape another hug. ‘Just in case you change your mind about staying.’ She had said while handing me back one of our coins.

  ‘Wonder why Miss Tregarthur went crazy when she heard what year it was?’ I said to Jenna after we’d gone a few steps.

  ‘No idea. Don’t suppose you know, Demelza?’

  Demelza said nothing.

  ‘Maybe the tunnel didn’t do what she wanted,’ Jenna said. ‘Maybe the tunnel took her to the wrong time.’

  Demelza huffed, slowed down and muttered about the drizzle. That got a shove from both of us, but we did walk on. I was wondering what we would do if we caught up with our crazy teacher.

  Jen still had on her cross face. Demelza was winding her up, being girly and bumping into me. I kept moving away. This was a disaster and one I didn’t know how to deal with. Somehow pushing her away made it worse.

  ‘What do you think Tregarthur wants this Masterson for?’ I said, for something to say.

  ‘How does she know anyone here?’ Jenna stared at me.

  ‘She’s got this book,’ Demelza butted in, bumping me again.

  Jen grabbed her, threw her to the ground and stood over her. ‘I knew you were hiding things.’

  ‘Alvin,’ Demelza gave me a pouty look.

  ‘And you can stop that too,’ Jen gave her a kick, not too softly. ‘He’s not going to help you.’

  ‘I said she’s got this book – an encyclopaedia or something.’ Demelza rubbed her leg. ‘Carries it around under her cloak. It tells her useful stuff when she moves in time, what’s happening in each year she goes to. She looked at it before … before Zach got shot.’

  ‘She knew ...’ I stopped. ‘She knew all about the Black Death when she sent us to that time?’

  ‘Yes, that’s why …’ Demelza tried to get up.

  ‘That’s why she sent us there, we know that,’ Jenna pushed her down again. ‘What else does this book tell her? I suppose you know all about this Masterson?’ Jenna was ready with another kick.

  ‘Don’t kick me.’ Demelza curled up on the ground. ‘Of course I don’t know about him. She never let me see the book, just told me what it was for. That’s where she found out about this curry.’

  That made no sense so we set off again. Demelza walking with an exaggerated limp, which made Jenna sniff loudly. I said nothing.

  Slowly I realised that this track was heading in a direction I had taken before, when Miss Tregarthur had sent us to the Black Death. We were heading towards the same town that had been almost deserted and in flames, burning the houses, the church destroyed and the Lord of the Manor’s house looted and in ruins.

  But that wasn’t where Masterson had his big house. Bettie, the landlady, had told us his house was in one of the smaller villages. We had further to walk after we came down into the valley and had to ask for directions as we went along. We passed another inn. Locals standing outside shouted at us and it wasn’t friendly. Three large dogs appeared and barked loudly. We hurried on. Made me think that the horrors of the Black Death still hung over the people who remained here.

  As we walked down the road Jenna was still quiet. Eventually she turned to me, ‘Alvin, how old are you?’

  It was a confusing question. I was about to turn sixteen when we left on Miss Tregarthur’s walk, about to leave school and about to be thrown out of the house. But we’d been away for – I really didn’t know how long we’d been away. There hadn’t been any birthday parties.

  I gave a shrug. ‘Older, I suppose.’ And that was the best any of us could do as we trudged down the valley leaving the moor behind.

  By the time we found Masterson’s house it was starting to get dark. Dark and very quiet. We could see the shape of a large house in the distance, surrounded by fields and trees. The way to the house was bl
ocked.

  ‘What?’ said a man standing in front of a large iron gate. The gate wasn’t actually a lot taller than the man – he was huge and wearing some sort of uniform.

  I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him, lucky we had Jenna. She walked right up to him, right in his face. Reminded me of how she once got us into a club when we were about twelve. Jen ate bouncers.

  ‘Masterson.’ Jenna actually prodded the man in the chest.

  ‘Not here,’ the man stammered and stepped back, obviously he hadn’t met a Jenna before.

  ‘Where?’ She kept it short and sharp.

  ‘Gone to the big town … with that woman.’ The man added a shiver to the stammer. He had obviously met Miss Tregarthur.

  ‘That witch,’ came a voice from just inside the gate and a woman stepped forward, she was wearing an apron and a white cap; maybe she was the cook. ‘Don’t know why Masterson went with her. Now you lot turn up. What do you want? ’Cos you’re not going to get anything from us.’

  ‘Which big town?’ I stepped forward, worrying that this wasn’t going well and wondering if they meant London.

  The gate man and the woman looked at each other.

  ‘Get the constable Ben,’ the woman said firmly. ‘There’s something wrong with this lot, turning up in the dark, they’re up to something.’

  We ran.

  ‘Ben, get after them.’

  Luckily Ben might be big and scary but he was not built for running, especially since it was nearly dark and there were no street lamps here. We didn’t stop and Ben didn’t follow us very far.

  ‘What now?’ Demelza said, in an angry voice as though this was our fault.

  Jenna pushed her into a ditch. She scrabbled out, with a bit more dirt and a nasty scowl.

  Walking on we came to the inn of the not-friendly locals; not-friendly landlord either.

  ‘What’s this?’ The man behind the bar looked like he knew about trouble and his face suggested he hadn’t always won his arguments. He was examining our last coin that Jenna had handed over, hoping we could get a room and some food. He even put it between his teeth and bit down on it. It might have been more valuable than we thought, but he wasn’t going to let us know that.

  ‘This is all you’ll get,’ he slapped a lump of bread on the bar, pocketed the coin. ‘Now get out before I set the dogs on you.’

  I was going to argue but Jenna pulled me away saying that we didn’t want to be remembered here as well as at the house, especially if Ben did actually find a policeman. Demelza was pouting again.

  An older man drinking in the corner shouted at her: ‘You can stay love, come over here.’ That brought a laugh from the two other men with him. Jenna pushed Demelza out of the door and into darkness. There was just a faint glimmer of light from the moon in a cloudy sky.

  ‘What now?’ Demelza said, again in her angry voice and stepping out of Jenna’s way. ‘That man, I could have …’

  ‘No you couldn’t,’ Jenna shoved her again.

  Demelza gave me a look. Part of me felt that using Demelza might have got us more than a lump of bread. It wasn’t just Demelza looking at me though; Jenna’s face told me that it just wasn’t going to happen.

  The best shelter we could find was an old broken down barn with half the roof fallen in, which became more of a problem when it rained. We weren’t the only occupants. In one corner, under most of the remaining roof and lying on a pile of straw, were three people. A mother and two children. It took me straight back to the little family we’d met in the time of the plague – the family that had all died.

  ‘Are they …?’ I whispered to Jenna and meaning were they infectious.

  ‘Hope not,’ she understood immediately but went up to them and started talking.

  ‘Sssh,’ hissed the woman and pulled Jenna down on to the straw.

  I heard someone walking on the road outside, the woman was terrified. The footsteps moved away and she relaxed. Jenna carried on talking in whispers.

  While Jenna talked, Demelza and I tried to find more straw and a dry patch to spend the night. After a few minutes Jenna joined us.

  ‘They’ve nowhere to go,’ Jenna sounded hopeless. ‘Thrown out of their house, no job, and her husband has taken up with someone else.’

  We shared the lump of bread with them, without talking because they were frightened of any noise. When we woke, they’d gone.

  ‘She said they were going down to Cornwall to find out if her sister is still there,’ Jenna told us. ‘She said it wasn’t safe to stay here, they’d lock us up if they found us. That’s what frightened her in the night. If they found her they would take the children away from her. We have to move.’

  ‘Where?’ I couldn’t see how or why we were going anywhere.

  ‘The place they called the big town, after Alice Tregarthur.’ I could see Jenna knew more.

  ‘How?’

  ‘By train,’ Jenna smiled.

  ‘Train?’ I said.

  ‘Of course. What else?’ Jenna said, as though I was stupid.

  ‘They have trains?’ Demelza sounded almost hopeful, as though we might be nearer to our own time, something she could deal with.

  ‘Yep, the woman we met last night said that a few miles away we can catch a train which could take us to the big town. They call Exeter the big town.’

  ‘Exeter?’ That really confused me. ‘I’ve been to Exeter.’

  ‘Me too,’ said both the girls together.

  Train

  -2-

  We set off to find the train station. The night had left us hungry, damp and tired. In silence we walked along the road and after climbing another hill we could see a cloud of smoke hanging over houses in the valley. It wasn’t difficult to find the railway station because that was where the smoke was coming from.

  Arriving in the town we passed rows of houses, another poor place. Poor and smelly; whatever was happening in this century it wasn’t sorting out the drains. Smell and smoke were everywhere.

  ‘Steam trains, can you believe it?’ I said, as I looked at the monstrous green engine belching smoke as it left the station.

  ‘If I believe your train or not,’ Jenna said, with hands on hips. ‘It will still cost money, whatever sort of puffing thing it is.’

  We had no money left. The last two days had left us looking worse, although I don’t suppose I’d been really clean for ages – however long that was. But looking wild and rough actually helped us, we looked in need of work, looked as though we might do anything.

  The trains delivered passengers to the station and after that they either had to walk or use horses for transport. There were no cars, a lot of horses that needed attention – feeding, rubbing down, moving to the stables, moving out of the stables and more. There weren’t enough people to do the work. Again, many of the men had moved away to the bigger cities hoping for more money. I was offered a job without having to ask, more an order than a job offer.

  Passing the local inn, a man shouted down at me from his saddle: ‘Oi, you boy, take this horse to the stable, now!’

  I knew nothing about horses. Jenna would have been better at this but equality wasn’t on offer, they wanted a stable lad. I took the reins, the man jumped down, chucked me a coin, and disappeared.

  ‘In ’ere,’ an old man sitting on a stool waved me into the stable. ‘Watch those back legs,’ he laughed, seeing me jump after I’d led the horse into a stall. He had a lot more instructions. Most of them were to do with shovelling muck. I didn’t finish until it was nearly dark.

  Jenna came into the stable later and told me that the two of them were doing cleaning work in the inn. ‘Not that Demelza does anything useful,’ she added.

  When I asked for my money the man laughed, ‘They’ll give you food.’ He pointed to the inn. I was hungry enough not to argue. It was the same for the girls – food and a space to sleep but no wages. We were sat at a rickety table just outside the kitchen.

  ‘What do we do now?’ I sat
back having eaten a pile of stale bread. I showed them the coin the horse rider had given me.

  ‘I think it was called a farthing,’ Demelza tossed it over in her hand. ‘That’s a quarter of an old penny and worth about nothing at all.’

  Jenna left the table and went to talk to the landlord. I looked for more food. I pinched a small piece of pie sitting on a plate just inside the kitchen.

  ‘Two more days’ work and he’ll get us the tickets,’ Jenna grabbed the pie from me and ate the piece whole.

  ‘You believe him?’ I said, with my mouth open.

  Jenna shrugged, the pie took some chewing. We did two more days. The landlord didn’t want to do anything but keep us working. Jenna persuaded him that is was safer to let us go.

  ‘What did you say to him?’ I asked as we walked to the station.

  ‘Not a lot,’ she said, with a smile.

  ‘She said you were a bit crazy and had killed several horses at your last job,’ said Demelza. ‘Horses or was it people?’

  ‘Oh,’ was all I could say and we walked on. The landlord had an arrangement at the station, it was the sort of ‘arrangement’ my dad might have had. But we did get tickets, and because the train wasn’t full we even found seats, in something called third class, on a bench by ourselves.

  ‘Just like home,’ Jenna said, pointing towards the empty first class carriages.

  ‘Better than looking after those horses,’ I realised that no one was actually coming near me, even Jenna was keeping her distance. I suppose I was used to the smell. I sat back and relaxed in the space.

  The train puffed out of the station and it almost felt like a holiday outing on one of those old railway lines until we realised that this was modern for the other passengers. They were saying how much better third class was now that they were allowed to be inside, not out in the rain which was almost constant anywhere around the moor. Soon the view from the grime streaked windows changed as we headed away from the high tors and past woodland and fields with cows and sheep. It stopped raining but there was still a lot of mud everywhere.