A Dinner Of Herbs (3 page)

she took out a

platter on which was bread and a cheese dish, and placed them on the bare wooden table that stood in

the centre of the room. She then returned to the cupboard and brought out the remains of a chicken and

a wooden bowl of green stuff before she spoke again, saying, “Things have been quiet for the last few

years. Yet, when I say quiet, I don’t know what I mean. Perhaps I mean he’s left me

alone. But things

have happened. There was an outcry five years gone when the coach carryin’ the wages

to the mill was

held up and the guard wounded. He didn’t die, but he won’t walk straight again. It was the Christmas

pay out and the roads were frozen hard.

The coach was carrying all of three hundred guineas, they said. The bank teller and

Gabriel Roystan, the

mill clerk, they were both knocked out. “

“Did they find the culprits?”

“No, not really. It snowed heavily that night and went on for almost a week and later, when it thawed,

they found Falsy Read. I don’t know if you remember him. Nobody could say he had

anything to do

with the hold-up ‘cos he hadn’t a penny on him, and anyway he was found near the edge

of the quarry,

and that’s some distance from the coach road. But now, the odd thing is, three days ago, Gabriel

Roystan, the clerk, the very one who was in that particular hold-up, goes missing and

apparently the

wages with him.

“You see, they’ve devised different ways of bringing the wages in.

They hired the militia for a time, but for the past year, I understand, one man alone has carried it on

horseback but taken different roads. This has been ordered at the last minute as a

precaution. Now you

remember Gabriel Roystan, he had ideas above the station for a clerk, but after his wife died he seemed

to go to pieces. “

“And you say Roystan has disappeared?”

“Aye, that’s what I said, it’s my bet he’s already on that sea you think so much about,

‘cos where was

his horse discovered? In Newcastle. I got it from Bill who got it from the carrier who came in from

Hexham around noon. In Newcastle mind. And what goes out of Newcastle? Why, ships.

Bill says

some fellow found the animal tied up on the waterfront. But there’s one thing I can’t

understand, he

might have been a bit above himself, Gabriel Roystan, an’ not the type I’d take to at all, but he was

God-fearin’, a hard worker, and loved his son. The lad is a year or so older than yours there.” She

pointed to where the boy was still sleeping, and then, as if on an afterthought, she asked,

“What do you

call him?”

“Roddy. Full name Rodney Percival Greenbank.” He smiled.

“After his grandfather. It’s a mouthful that, Rodney Percival. It was his mother’s wish.”

She sighed.

“Tis a mouthful. Well now, getting back to the reason for your visit, Peter. What do you intend to do

with the lad? ‘cos that’s why you’re here I think. Am I right?”

“Yes, yes, you’re right, Kate.”

“Well, let me tell you afore you go on an’ say another word, I’m past lookin’ after hairns, and it would

be no life for a hairn in this house, me with me funny ways, an’ the only other child

hereabouts is little

Mary Ellen Lee and she but five. Although she’s got a tongue that’ll clip clouts an’ you would swear that

she was ten if a day. I don’t know who she takes after, for neither of them are great

talkers, or doers for

that matter, plodders both of them, but not wee Mary Ellen. I said from she first gave a bawl that she

had a part missing, that’s the only thing that stops her from being a lad.”

She laughed, showing her discoloured but whole mouthful of teeth, and he laughed with

her.

“You’re a wise woman, Kate,” he said, ‘and it’s you I’d like to leave him with. But

nevertheless, I

understand how you feel. Still, if Bill and Jane will take him on for a time they won’t be out of pocket, I

promise them that. But I’d like you to keep an eye on him, Kate. There are things you can teach him that

no one else can.

You learned them to me, and that’s all of thirty years ago an’ you’ve gained, I know, in wisdom since.

I’d hoped he’d benefit from it. “

“Aye, well, I can promise you that I’ll keep an eye on him an’ tell him the paths that lead straight in his

mind, and where health is to be got from the ground. But that’s as much as I’ll be able to do for him; like

you, he’ll go his own way. Now come on, wake him up, then sit up and have this bite.

And let me say

again, Peter, my eyes are glad to see you.”

It was six o’clock when Peter said to Kate, “We’ll take a dander over to Bill’s and see if he’s in favour

of taking on another young ‘un. I can’t see that he wouldn’t if he’s only got the one. Can you?”

“It’ll be up to them. If the lad there had been a girl now, they might have welcomed her straightaway as

a companion for Mary Ellen, because to my mind she’s too much amidst the grown-ups

and is as

old-fashioned as a maiden lady. Still, Bill might see it differently, being’ a lad.”

She looked down on Roddy, laughing as she did so, saying now, “That’s one thing you

can’t change in

life, laddie, the way you’re made.

Change your mind, aye, but that’s about all with regard to yourself.

You’re quiet. You’ve had little to say for yourself. “ She now looked up at his father, saying, “ Is he

always as tongue-tied as this? “

“No, by gum, no. At least I haven’t found him so. It’s strange, all this is.”

“Aye. Aye. Well, away so you can get yourself back afore dark, that is unless you want to take a

lantern.”

The take a lantern round the quarry, Kate! Youjokin’? “

“No, I’m not jokin’, but as you remember there were parts giving way in your day. Two

years gone,

after a heavy rainfall, there was a big bite taken out of the east side. You see, they took more stone out

of the far side to build the flue. And even along this side the walls have broken away in different parts

until the edge has almost reached the path. And there’s water lies in the bottom as never before.”

“I noted that the path is quite well worn. Do you get a lot of people coming to you now for your herbs

an’ such?”

“No, I don’t. Nor do I want. If you had noted so much, you should have noted an’ all, that the path

turns away up the ride, the straight where they used to break in the gallo ways for the mine. They still

fetch them there at times. Yet most of the farmers have got so rich doin’ horse dealing on the side that

they do the breakin’ in their own fields. Even those with stints seem to manage it an’ all.

It’s mostly

gypsies that use it. But they don’t last long around here. Anyway, if you’re goin’, get along with you. I’ll

have a shakedown ready for you both by the time you get back and a hot bite in the pan, because the

nights are comin’ in chilly now.”

She stood at the door and looked up at the sky, saying, “There should be a moon later on.

It was on its

back all last week, and so we had rain for five days without let up. But for the last couple of nights it’s

steadied itself. So if you do lose your way after all this time you won’t need a lantern.”

She smiled widely,

and he, too, laughed before pausing on the pathway and looking first to one side and then to the other

over her garden, saying, “Tis still a tangle, Kate. And I see’—he pointed to the far end of the land where

some chickens were scratching—’you still keep the bantams.”

“Aye, and add to that six geese in the field beyond and two goats who make me never

want for milk or

cheese.”

“You’re a clever woman, Kate. I always said so.” He jerked his chin at her before turning and holding

out his hand to his son.

They went through the gate and across the hollow and up the rise that led to the quarry, neither of them

speaking. It wasn’t until they were walking in the shadow of the high brushwood that

bordered the path

that the boy said, quietly, “Da, I... I don’t want to stay here. I... I want to go back with you.”

Peter sighed.

“Now, now, you don’t know how lucky you are. Wait till you see where you’ll likely be

stayin’.

They’re fine people, and you heard what Kate Mrs. Makepeace said about little Mary

Ellen. She could

make a fine playmate for....”

“I don’t like girls, Da. When I went down to the quay it was always with the lads.”

“Aye’—his voice was harsh now ‘what kind of lads? Scum. Riffraff.

Where would you have been if I had left you with them, eh? Had I gone back to sea and

left you there,

where would you have landed? I can tell you where you would have landed, in the House

of Correction,

and you know what place that is don’t you? “

The boy swallowed deeply, then muttered, “I ... I just want to be with you. Da.”

Peter’s voice was softer now.

“I know that,” he said, ‘and I want to be with you, but it isn’t to be so. I’ve got to earn a livin’ and I

can’t earn it on the land, such is me nature. “ Then he added more brightly, “ But me trips will be shorter,

some of them just a matter of weeks, both ways, no distance, and then come December

when the rivers

are covered with ice, I’ll have to stay on shore, and I’ll make me way out here every

weekend. “

“You’ll come every weekend?”

“Aye, I will.”

“When will that be. Da?”

“Oh, well now, not very long, just a matter of weeks.

We’ll soon be into October, then after November, well, no more sailing to Norway. “ He pressed the

small hand within his own and they walked on silently now until Peter stopped abruptly and looked along

the path branching off to where it curved away into high brushwood, and more to himself than to the boy

he said, “ Well, well, how trees can grow in eight years. I could still see through there afore I left, and

walk through, but look at it now, it’s thick with undergrowth. And the ride. He took some steps

backwards and shielded his eyes against the setting sun.

“The ride, as she said, may be used still but it doesn’t look half the width it was in my time, no, riot half.

Well’ again he sighed ‘time doesn’t stand still. It’s an old sayin’, but nevertheless true.”

He grinned

down on his son as he said, The old captain always used to be saying that.

“Get on with it, lads. Get on with it. Time doesn’t stand still, an’ it’s runnin’ away from you. So put a

move on and catch up with it. Up with you! Up you go! Reach it afore it passes the top of the mast.”

He shook his head slowly.

“He was a man, a tartar, but a man. Still, thank God I won’t be under him again.” Then in a highly

jocular mood he cried, “Come on, I’ll race you to the top of the quarry. See yonder, that great pile of

stones?

That was once a barn. That marks the head of the quarry. One—’ He took a stance and

made the boy

do the same. Then crying, “Two, three,” they both ran along the uneven path, and Peter, seeing that the

boy was running well away from the quarry edge, allowed him to outpace him.

At the ruined barn they both leaned against a crumbling wall and Peter, his chest heaving much more

than was necessary, said, “By!

you’ve got a pair of legs on you.

“Tis me that must be getting old. No one has ever beaten me afore.”

“Never, Da?”

“Never. That’s my word on it, honest.”

It was ten minutes later when they reached the dip and Bill Lee’s cottage. And again

Peter stopped as

he became aware of another change that had taken place during his absence, for what had been a

tumble-down one-room shanty was now, what could be called, a smart little house with

outbuildings

attached, and as he gazed in admiration he thought. That’s enterprise for you. What one could do

another could, but had any of them before bothered to enlarge their cottages over the

years? It wasn’t

for lack of material, for there were stones all around for the taking. Of course they had to be carried,

and for that you needed a horse and cart. And to be fair, for many people years ago the only means for

transporting anything had been their legs and a barrow.

Hurriedly now, he went towards the cottage door, and finding it closed, he knocked

sharply on it, crying

jovially, “Come out of that and show yourself. Bill Lee! Or you, Jane!”

He waited, a smile on his face, but when there was no response he turned to the boy,

saying, “Well,

well, they must be out.”

He now tried the door, and when it did not move under his push, he said, “Tis bolted.

They definitely

are out. It’s something new, though, to find a door bolted in these parts. But then, going by the outside

there must be something to steal on the inside.”

Looking about him now, he said, “Well, well, they’ll surely be back afore dark. Gone to visit her people

likely. Must have been on early shift to be free at this time. Come on.” He jerked his chin towards the

boy.

“We can have a walk round the fields in the meantime, but before that we’ll see what he’s got in his

stint.”

He found that Bill Lee had a dozen chickens, two pigs, one heavy with a coming litter

which he pointed

out to the boy, saying, “How many wee ‘uns has she got inside her?”

“Two, Da.”

“Two? Ten, twelve, perhaps.”

“No, Da.”

“Aye. Anyway, when you’re livin’ here you’ll be able to see them born.