She Knows She At The End - Episode 24

Clarence, currently ‘John Thomas’ but formerly Parson Brown and Captain D’Arbanville, was having a wonderful evening.  Everything was going much better than even he had anticipated which, for an eternal optimist, was pretty good going.  The Crossroads Hotel (accommodation pending) was packed with good-humoured chaps who seemed to have an insatiable thirst. 

Dolly, of course, had been magnificent.  He knew that this was her forte, from his previous experience, here at the inn, but tonight she was on tremendous form, flirting and chatting with the men who crowded the bar, always suggesting that just another little drink wouldn’t hurt them.

“I bid you adieu, good gentles, whilst I go in search of further libation.  I will return in a nonis!”  He announced, with a flourish, as he made his way through the side door, along the passage, to the cellar.  One hand (that being all he had available, of course) clutching numerous jugs to fill with foaming ale.  Great cheers resounded around the bar room.

Filled with good humour, he was whistling a jaunty tune as he made his way toward the cellar door.  Quite what made him look up the stairs, to his left, he could not have said.  Perhaps the squeak of a stair tread or the rustle of a skirt?  In any event, he was not expecting to see Gwladys and Aefelthrith frozen in the act of making their way down the stairs.  Each was dressed in their outdoor clothes and clutching a number of very well stuffed bags.  Both parties stared disbelievingly at the other.

“Gwladys?  Aefelthrith?  What is the meaning of this?”

“We’re leaving!”  Aefelthrith announced, briskly, making to descend the stairs.

“Leaving?  But why?”  Clarence looked astounded. 

Gwladys raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

“Oh, my Lord!” Aefelthrith sighed, and sat down heavily on the stairs, “you know, as well as I do, that I was never born nor raised in the expectation of servitude.  I have tried my very best to become accustomed to this situation, but I find that I cannot”

“And you, Gwladys?”

“We’re a team” Gwladys said, flatly.

“Aefelthrith, you cannot leave like this!  Where will you go?  What will you do?”

“We will take our chances” Aefelthrith said, firmly.  Gwladys’s eyebrows shot up again.

“But, this is so unnecessary!  In twelve months’ time, if my plans come to fruition, this place will be a little goldmine” Clarence beamed with the enthusiasm of the newly converted.

“Indeed, my Lord, and I truly hope that will be the case.  But, it will be your goldmine, yours and Dolly’s, not ours” Aefelthrith said, sadly.

“Well, there must be something we can do!  How about…”  He thought, rapidly, his mind whirring, “if I spoke to Dolly, and we made you our, erm…our governess?”  Clarence looked at her, hopefully.

Aefelthrith shook her head.

“I would still be in your service, my Lord”

“But, when I first came upon you, back in the port, you and Gwladys were skivvying, cleaning on your hands and knees, surely this is better than that?”

“We were, that is true, but we were doing that because we chose to do it.  We had the opportunity, should we wish, to walk away from it at any time” Aefelthrith pointed out.

“You can walk away from this at any time.” Clarence pointed out,  “As a matter of fact, you are doing!  Look, I have to go and get this beer or there’ll be a riot in there” He nodded toward the bar, from where the din was becoming increasingly raucous, “promise me you won’t do anything rash?  That you will stay, right here on the stairs, until I can come back and talk to you?  Will you do that?”

“Yes, I promise” Aefelthrith nodded, “but do be warned, I doubt there is anything you can say or do that will change our minds”

“No ‘arm in trying though, eh?” Gwladys mused.

The two women sat down on the stairs, surrounded by their bags and their voluminous skirts, making a definite point of not speaking to each other.

*****

Clarence opened the cellar door, which creaked ominously, put down the collection of jugs and lit a candle.  It was annoying, he thought, just how difficult it was to manage even the most basic of things when you only had one hand!  He made his way, gingerly, down the damp, stone stairs, leaning heavily against the equally damp cellar wall to maintain his balance.  He supposed he would become more confident with this manoeuvre with practice, but, right now, he had a horror of plunging to his doom in the darkness.

Once safely at the foot of the steps, he sighed with relief, arranging the jugs in a row, placed the candle on top of the barrel and began to fill the first jug.  When he felt the point of a knife at the base of his spine, it took him a moment or two to realise exactly what was happening.

“Nah, don’t go makin’ no sudden moves, if yer get my drift?”  Jarvis suggested.

“Could ‘urt you more than it ‘urts us” Cocker tittered.

“Is this a robbery?  I have no money with me” Clarence said.

“Not as such, no” Jarvis answered, “more of a, what do they call it now?  Oh, I know, an apprehension”

“An apprehension?  Look, I’m sure we can sort this out” Clarence started to turn around, but the knife dug a little deeper into his back and he stopped.

“Nah, don’t go makin’ trouble fer yerself” Jarvis cautioned, “yer don’t move until I say so, alright?”

“Fine, whatever you want” Clarence raised his hands in the air and nodded.

“So, it’s Parson Brown – Landlord now is it?”  Cocker asked.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean?” Clarence shook his head, “my name is John Thomas, I’m the new landlord of the Crossroads Hotel”

“John Thomas, that’s the game now, is it?” Jarvis asked, with Cocker tittering in the background, “an’, guess what Cocker,  ‘e’s short of a left hand!  D’yer know what struck us as funny?”

Clarence shook his head, silently.

“Well, yer see, we were thinkin’ about it and we realised the Parson we dropped off ‘ere, with ‘is family, ‘e didn’t ‘ave a left hand…”  Jarvis began.

“That’s right” Cocker agreed.

“…and, strange as it may seem, and yer won’t believe this, but there’s a bloke back at the port where we come from, what certain folk want to talk to, and, guess what?  ‘E didn’t ‘ave a left ‘and either!”

“He has my sympathy” Clarence muttered.

“And now, there’s you, John Thomas, and what are yer short of?” Jarvis enquired.

“Only a left ‘and” Cocker giggled.

“Quite right, Cocker!” Jarvis confirmed, “nah, yer see, the folk what want to talk to that bloke, back at the port, they’ve put up quite a reward fer ‘im”

“And we want to get our ‘ands on it, if yer get our drift” Cocker smirked.  “All four of ‘em”

“I don’t see how I can help you” Clarence shook his head.

“Well, yer see, we think yer may be that bloke” Jarvis said.

“I can assure you, I am not”

“Well…mebbe!  If yer right, it’s an ‘eck of a coincidence, I’ll give yer that” Jarvis conceded, “but, just in case it ain’t, we think we’re gonna take yer back with us, any road”

“Just to be on the safe side, style of thing” Cocker expanded.

*****

“’E’s been gone a bit, ‘asn’t ‘e?” Gwladys observed.

“Oh, you know what he’s like!  Brain like a butterfly!”  Aefelthrith grumbled,  “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s forgotten all about us and taken the beer back into the bar by the other entrance”

“Perhaps ‘e’s ‘urt ‘isself down the cellar?”  Gwladys suggested.

“We would have heard if he had done anything like that” Aefelthrith snapped, “well, I’m not sitting here, waiting on his pleasure!  We need to get on” She hauled herself and her bags upright.  “Are you coming?”

“’E did say to wait” Gwladys pointed out.

“Not for the rest of our natural lives, he didn’t!” Aefelthrith blazed, “I’m going, are you coming with me, or not?”

“Oh, I suppose so” Gwladys said, resignedly.

They trooped down the rest of the stairs and exited the inn by the side door.

“I don’t much fancy walkin’ many miles with all this luggage” Gwladys moaned.

“Well, I don’t either, but, as I said before, in the absence of a fairy godmother leaving us a…” Aefelthrith had just turned the corner from the side alley to the front of the inn.  There, in front of them, was the carriage and horses in which they had travelled from the port.  “What the…?” Aefelthrith stood, transfixed.

“Strewth!” Gwladys was open-mouthed, “they must ‘ave come back for summat”

“Probably that free drink he promised them” Aefelthrith nodded, “seems rather fortuitous, doesn’t it?”

“Yer what?” Gwladys frowned.

“I mean, here we are, laden with luggage and in need of transportation and there, right before us, is a carriage and horses that we know well.  You might even say it was…by God’s good grace?”  Aefelthrith mused, looking slyly at Gwladys.

“’Ow d’yer mean?”

“Well, here is a carriage and horses, just waiting to be used.  And here are we, in need of transportation.  It would seem a shame not to”

“Yer mean, pinch it?”  Gwladys looked horrified.

“Yes” Aefelthrith nodded.

“That’s an ‘anging offence!”

“You may recall, we are wanted for murder!” Aefelthrith hissed.

“Ah yeah, fair comment” Gwladys nodded, “in which case, we’d better get a move on, afore they come back!”

Luggage was quickly thrown into the carriage, and Aefelthrith and Gwladys clambered aboard.  Gwladys insisted on driving.

Seconds later, the carriage, pulled by two black horses, steered softly away from the Crossroads Hotel, with Jarvis and Cocker’s white steeds tethered to it and following behind.

*****

Jarvis, Cocker and Clarence had made their unsteady way back up the cellar steps, with Cocker leading the way, armed with the candle, then Clarence, spurred on by the knife in his back, wielded by Jarvis at the rear.

“Where to now, Jarvis?” Cocker asked, at the top of the steps.

“We’re ‘eading out the side door” Jarvis ordered, “don’t want none of ‘is chums in the bar gettin’ any bright ideas, nah do we?”

Cocker looked left and right, carefully, before exiting the Cellar Door and scurrying over to the exit.  Clarence and Jarvis followed him.

Once outside, both Jarvis and Cocker breathed a sigh of relief.  In the inn, they had been expecting to be caught at any moment.  Out here, with everyone enjoying themselves inside, they felt they were on the home straight.

“Nah then, John, Parson Doo-Dah or whoever yer are, I’m gonna ‘ave to tie yer up a bit when we get to the carriage.”  Jarvis explained, “’ow much I ‘ave to tie yer up, depends on ‘ow sensible yer gonna be, right?”

“Right!”  Clarence nodded, desperately hoping for an escape route before then.

“Carriage is just up ‘ere” Cocker hurried down the side alley and onto the front of the inn.  Where he stopped, open-mouthed.

“What’s up?” Jarvis hissed, seeing his compatriot frozen.

“Yer’ll never believe it!”

“Never believe what?”

“It’s gone!” Cocker wailed.

Jarvis and Cocker, with Clarence standing just ahead of them, looked in amazement at the empty space where their carriage and horses should have been.  They looked at each other and then back at the space.

“It can’t ‘ave gone!” Jarvis said, irrationally.

“Well, where is it then?”  Cocker asked, reasonably.

“Ow the ‘ell are we gonna explain this?  And what are we gonna do with ‘im?” Jarvis wailed.  Two questions that became rapidly redundant, when their heads met up with a plank of wood wielded, from behind, by an irate Dolly.

*****

Gwladys and Aefelthrith’s progress had temporarily halted as they stopped, in the forest, to untie Jarvis and Cocker’s horses and leave them to their own devices.  As Gwladys had said, there was no need to take any more than they actually needed.

Climbing back onto the carriage, Gwladys picked up the reins and turned to Aefelthrith.

“Where we goin’ then?”  She asked.

“You know, it seems a long time ago now” Aefelthrith arranged her skirts and turned to look at her companion, “but I remember asking you the same question, back in the castle.  Do you remember what you told me, then?”

“Not to be ‘onest, no I don’t” Gwladys shook her head.

“You said, you were working on the general principle of ‘away’” Aefelthrith grinned.

“Oh yeah” Gwladys smiled, “that’s right”

“I think that would be a good destination this time, too, don’t you?”

“Yes, m’Lady” Gwladys grinned, and spurred on the horses.

 

THE END…for now!

You can catch up with the whole story in the Collection, right here on ABCtales, by following the link below:

The Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid)

and, if you like your stories in a handy format, watch out for the forthcoming novella, to be published shortly