Eve 3/8

She walked on, hoping that there were no turns from the path leading in the wrong direction. All was well until she came to a bridleway crossing the footpath from left to right. She stopped for a moment to think. She couldn’t remember turning away from the narrow path before, but then of course it had been dark at the time and she had been following George as closely as possible in case she became lost. She’d just made up her mind to continue along the footpath when she saw a horse and cart approaching from her left. She held up her hand to stop the cart as the driver got nearer.

“Whoa there! Can I offer you a lift young lady?”

Eve felt rather flattered at being called a young lady and asked if the driver knew of a village locally called Lurbridge.

“That’s my next stop,” said the man, “hop up beside me and we’ll have you there in an hour.”

“Do you happen to know a man called George, he once acted as a tour guide and took me to the village. I wanted to meet him again if possible.”

“You’re in luck Miss, this cart belongs to his company of traders. The red cross on the white ground is painted on all of the company’s carts now. It was the device that he carried on his shield when he was righting wrongs and slaying dragons. But all that was some time ago, most of the dragons are peaceable since Jennifer Jane made them all eat coal instead of people and there aren’t too many wrongs to be put right any more.”

“I’m sure we walked along the path the last time I went to Lurbridge,” said Eve.

“That’s right, you’ll see why in a moment, this route is a lot shorter, but only suitable for wheeled traffic. There’s quite a deep ford in half a mile or so and the only way round on foot is to go along the footpath until you come to the sea wall. Then you have to go all the way round the village, past the timber yard and come in along the river road.”

The driver certainly knew what he was talking about. The cart had very big wheels, but even so, the water in the ford came more than halfway up them. The horse’s legs completely disappeared.

“You have to know the marks on the opposite bank and keep them in line,” the driver told Eve, “otherwise you’ll soon get off the hard standing and find yourself sinking into the mud.”

Eve was quite sure he was right, she could feel how hard the horse was pulling and she certainly wouldn’t have expected any pedestrian to be able to cross over. But after the crossing, the ride became very pleasant as the horse trotted along the road in the bright sunshine.

“Empty cart today,” said the driver, “just been taking a basket of pigeons to a customer, so we’re light and making good time. We’ve been having a lot of trouble with the pigeons lately, but fortunately Jennifer Jane was able to sort out the problem, so now we’re all busy taking the birds round to all our customers.”

“Why do you want to give pigeons to your customers?” asked Eve.

“They send them back to the company whenever they want to place an order with us. It’s a jolly good idea and saves us a lot of time. Jennifer Jane thought of it and George’s company is now the only one left working in this area and we’re expanding all the time.”

‘Jennifer Jane again,’ thought Eve, ‘now why doesn’t that surprise me. She must spend more time over here than she does at home.’

The cart had begun to rattle down a long slowly deepening valley, occasionally crossing small stone bridges built over tiny streams which ran into a river flowing on their right hand side, which was becoming wider and wider as they went further on.

“Squire’s house up there on the left,” said the driver pointing, “only a little way to Lurbridge now. I’ll pull into the George and Dragons to see if there’s anything for me, we can have a drink and then I’ll have to move on. We’re due back at headquarters in Lower Dene before night fall.”

Ten minutes later the driver stopped outside the pub and helped Eve down from the foot board. Then he led the way inside. Eve recognised it at once, it was certainly the same place that she’d visited before.

“Morning George,” said the landlord, hesitating while he gave Eve a long hard look before saying ‘good morning’ to her.

“Is your name really George as well?” Eve asked the driver in surprise.

“No, it’s become a bit of a joke really, we visit all the village pubs to pick up customers who might want a ride to the next village, or have a small parcel delivered. The company’s got so many drivers now, that the barmen can’t remember all our names, so they’ve started calling us all George! Right then, I’ll have a beer and you can order whatever he has that you might like. You’re paying and that’ll cover the cost of the ride here.”

“I’ve seen you somewhere before,” said the barman as Eve went to order the drinks.

“I was here some time ago when George was running his tourist agency; we walked the long way round and stayed overnight.”

The barman looked at her closely again. “Ah yes I remember now,” he said with a grin, “that’ll be sixpence please,” he said as he handed her the drinks on a tray.

Eve paid the money without thinking and was rather surprised when he called her back.