him.
He caught again the sweet, heady perfume from the jar of oil, as she leaned closer and whispered, ‘I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, Robert.’
He edged his hand towards hers beneath the table, reaching out until he touched her delicate little fingers. For the first time since he had known her, she did not pull away. He felt her thumb stroking the back of his hand, like the caress of a feather. Neither spoke. They had no need for words as they gazed entranced at one another. It was as if they were fifteen again and this was their first andonly love.
Chapter 11
If a person is possessed of the evil eye against their will and does not wish to do harm, let their first glance in the morning, which is always the most deadly, fall upon some tree or bush. In this way the tree will wither and die instead of a man or beast.
Greetwell
Snow was whirling in the darkness as Jan stepped out of the last cottage in Greetwell. After the warm, smoky fug ofthe tiny room, the biting wind seemed unnaturally cruel. He shivered, drawing the long point of his hood across his mouth and nose. The snow was not falling in soft flakes, but as frozen powder that stung the skin and eyes, like blown sand.
He cursed himself for having left it so late to start for home. It was still early evening, but he’d forgotten how quickly a winter’s night closed in on thebleak marshes where no burning torches lit the streets or warm candlelight spilled from the houses. He was relieved, though, to have finished the unpleasant task. He’d dreaded telling the tenants their rents were going to rise, but it had had to be done.
Tom was his father’s rent-collector, but Jan could hardly send the man to deliver such unwelcome news. Such tidings must come from Master Robert’ssteward, the sooner the better to give the cottagers a chance to earn the extra coins. The news had not been welcomed, of course, and Jan had been obliged to listen to the shouts and wails, the pleas and arguments in every cottage he visited.
We can’t find the money, not with the poll-tax too. Our bairns’ll starve
.
Jan pitied them, but all he could do was listen to their angry protests. He wasnot a man to give them false hope by promising he would try to change Robert’s mind. His father would not be moved, he knew, and deep down, he understood Robert’s reasons. Their own business had suffered badly this past year, with the weavers’ revolt in Flanders and the loss of
St Jude
. If their business failed, the very men who were shouting at him now would be put out of work and out of theircottages too. Yet it made Jan cringe to see the fear in the eyes of the women and know he had caused it.
He stumbled over to where his horse was tethered. She had turned her head from the driving wind, pulling the leather rein tight against the tree branch. His numb fingers could scarcely undo the knot and the old mare was stubbornly refusing to give him any slack, not that he blamed her withthe snow stinging her face. He tried to position his own body between her and the wind to shield her eyes as he fumbled to loosen the tether.
As he struggled, he half glimpsed a movement behind him. He spun round, peering intently through the swirling white. Had one of the cottagers come out to argue with him again, or even attack him?
‘Who’s there?’ he demanded.
He thought he heard an answeringshout, but the wind was shrieking through the dried marsh-reeds with such force that a herd of bulls might have been thundering towards him and he wouldn’t have heard them. Unnerved, Jan hauled himself up into the saddle and turned his horse towards the distant torch-lights of Lincoln Castle and the cathedral high on the hill. But even those lights, which could usually be seen for miles in thedark, kept vanishing behind the swirling snow.
His face already felt as numb and stiff as a block of wood and he hadn’t even reached the outskirts of the city yet. The horse was old and standing out
He caught again the sweet, heady perfume from the jar of oil, as she leaned closer and whispered, ‘I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, Robert.’
He edged his hand towards hers beneath the table, reaching out until he touched her delicate little fingers. For the first time since he had known her, she did not pull away. He felt her thumb stroking the back of his hand, like the caress of a feather. Neither spoke. They had no need for words as they gazed entranced at one another. It was as if they were fifteen again and this was their first andonly love.
Chapter 11
If a person is possessed of the evil eye against their will and does not wish to do harm, let their first glance in the morning, which is always the most deadly, fall upon some tree or bush. In this way the tree will wither and die instead of a man or beast.
Greetwell
Snow was whirling in the darkness as Jan stepped out of the last cottage in Greetwell. After the warm, smoky fug ofthe tiny room, the biting wind seemed unnaturally cruel. He shivered, drawing the long point of his hood across his mouth and nose. The snow was not falling in soft flakes, but as frozen powder that stung the skin and eyes, like blown sand.
He cursed himself for having left it so late to start for home. It was still early evening, but he’d forgotten how quickly a winter’s night closed in on thebleak marshes where no burning torches lit the streets or warm candlelight spilled from the houses. He was relieved, though, to have finished the unpleasant task. He’d dreaded telling the tenants their rents were going to rise, but it had had to be done.
Tom was his father’s rent-collector, but Jan could hardly send the man to deliver such unwelcome news. Such tidings must come from Master Robert’ssteward, the sooner the better to give the cottagers a chance to earn the extra coins. The news had not been welcomed, of course, and Jan had been obliged to listen to the shouts and wails, the pleas and arguments in every cottage he visited.
We can’t find the money, not with the poll-tax too. Our bairns’ll starve
.
Jan pitied them, but all he could do was listen to their angry protests. He wasnot a man to give them false hope by promising he would try to change Robert’s mind. His father would not be moved, he knew, and deep down, he understood Robert’s reasons. Their own business had suffered badly this past year, with the weavers’ revolt in Flanders and the loss of
St Jude
. If their business failed, the very men who were shouting at him now would be put out of work and out of theircottages too. Yet it made Jan cringe to see the fear in the eyes of the women and know he had caused it.
He stumbled over to where his horse was tethered. She had turned her head from the driving wind, pulling the leather rein tight against the tree branch. His numb fingers could scarcely undo the knot and the old mare was stubbornly refusing to give him any slack, not that he blamed her withthe snow stinging her face. He tried to position his own body between her and the wind to shield her eyes as he fumbled to loosen the tether.
As he struggled, he half glimpsed a movement behind him. He spun round, peering intently through the swirling white. Had one of the cottagers come out to argue with him again, or even attack him?
‘Who’s there?’ he demanded.
He thought he heard an answeringshout, but the wind was shrieking through the dried marsh-reeds with such force that a herd of bulls might have been thundering towards him and he wouldn’t have heard them. Unnerved, Jan hauled himself up into the saddle and turned his horse towards the distant torch-lights of Lincoln Castle and the cathedral high on the hill. But even those lights, which could usually be seen for miles in thedark, kept vanishing behind the swirling snow.
His face already felt as numb and stiff as a block of wood and he hadn’t even reached the outskirts of the city yet. The horse was old and standing out
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