The Fleethaven Trilogy (117 page)

She walked slowly up the curving driveway, stopping
every so often to listen, fancying she heard another sound
like the crack of a twig. She glanced from side to side but
there was nothing and no one.

Just as she reached the curve in the driveway which
brought the big house into view, a stick hurtled across the
path in front of her and at the same time a blood-curdling
yell sounded as Jimmy Souter came crashing out of the
bushes, waving a home-made bow and arrow.

‘I’ve caught the Sheriff of Nottingham. I’ve got you
now, Sheriff. You’ll not escape back to your castle . . .’ Jimmy cupped his hands around his mouth and, as he
made a sound like an owl, Ella heard someone trampling
through the undergrowth and Rob leapt on to the driveway,
with Janice, panting, a few yards behind him. He
stopped when he saw Ella and stared. Then he grinned.
‘Hello. Come to play Robin Hood with us?’

‘Ya can play with us if ya like,’ Jimmy Souter volunteered
generously.

‘She can’t be Maid Marian. I’m Maid Marian,’ Janice
put in swiftly, smoothing back her hair with a preening
action. ‘You can be Will Scarlet, Ella, or Friar Tuck.’

‘No, no, she’s got to be the Sheriff of Nottingham, else
she can’t play,’ Jimmy said, ‘and I’ve just captured her –
him. He’s Robin Hood,’ he pointed at Rob, ‘and I’m Little
John.’

‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ Ella said airily. She glanced to her
left and saw that her way was clear along a path leading in
amongst the trees. ‘I’ll be the Sheriff, if you like. But first –
you’ll have to catch me . . .’

And she was away, running amongst the bushes, weaving
her way through the trees before any of the other three
had realized what she was doing. She laughed to herself as
their shouts followed her and she heard them come crashing
after her.

She ran on and suddenly coming out of the trees, she
found herself on the edge of what had once been a huge
lawn, smooth and well kept. But now it was overgrown,
the grass long and unkempt. In front of her, across the
open expanse of grass, was the house.

She stopped and gazed up at the building. There was no
sound of the others following her; they must have lost her
trail. She waded through the long grass, so thick it was
almost like pushing her legs through water. The old house
rose above her, majestic yet so lonely and forgotten. Birds fluttered in and out of a broken first-floor window and ivy
crawled, unrestrained, over the walls, suffocating the windows.
A sudden sadness gripped Ella’s throat. What a
beautiful house this must have been once and what a waste
to see it falling into decay. For a fleeting moment she
understood Rob’s vow to live here one day.

Her child’s mind could not visualize the adult Rob;
could not even imagine herself grown. But she could see
the house loved and cared for, the lawns smooth and the
borders luxuriant with flowers. She could even picture Rob
and herself running across the lawn . . .

A sudden sound from amongst the trees made her glance
about for a hiding place. Set at the edge of the lawn and
where the wooded area began, was a summer house, the
wooden boards rotting and broken, the door standing
open, drunkenly half-on, half-off its hinges.

Ella bounded back through the grass towards it and
pushed at the door. It scraped on the floor but yielded
when she put her shoulder against it. The inside was dim
and musty, littered with old tennis rackets with broken
strings, a tennis net rolled up loosely and a collection of
long-handled mallets. Everywhere was covered with a thick
dust and Ella pinched her nose to try to stop herself
sneezing.

She hid behind the door as she heard the voices of the
other three youngsters coming closer.

‘Where’s she gone?’

‘There she is, in the grass. Look, it’s moving. Let’s get
her!’ This from Janice.

‘Dun’t be daft. There’s no track. She’d have made a
track through grass that high.’

‘What about the summer house?’

Ella shrank back against the wall, but the rustling of
their feet through the grass came closer and she heard the rasp of the door as it was pushed open and a shaft of
sunlight crept across the floor.

The dust tickled her nose and Ella could no longer hold
back the sneeze. The two boys were upon her dragging her
out and Ella screwed up her eyes against the bright light.

‘Back to the forest, Robin. We’ve caught the Sheriff of
Nottingham.’

Hustled along by the two boys, their strong young
fingers digging into her thin arms, Ella gritted her teeth
and set her jaw against making any sound of complaint.

Janice skipped along beside them. ‘Let me hold her –
him – too. I want to capture the Sheriff too.’

‘If
you’re
Maid Marian, you wouldn’t be chasing the
Sheriff, now would you? You’d be back at the glade,
cooking or summat,’ her brother said scathingly.

Janice sniffed. ‘Tuck’d be doing that.’

‘Yeah, but we ain’t got no one to be Friar Tuck, a’
we?’

‘Well, we just pretend we have,’ Janice spread her
hands. ‘I ain’t sitting in the middle of the wood waiting
whilst you lot play.’

Ella said nothing whilst they argued. She wasn’t bothered
one way or the other whether she joined in their game
or not, but anything was preferable to going home; cleaning
out the chicken hut was next on her list of tasks.

The ‘glade’ was an area in the middle of the copse on
the outskirts of the grounds where the boys had trodden
all the undergrowth flat to make it their meeting place for
Robin Hood and his Merry Men. To one side, amongst
some thick bushes, they had constructed a den, entered by
crawling under the bushes and then standing up in the
centre.

‘Tie him up,’ Janice said. ‘Ya can use the belt off me
dress.’

‘Robin wouldn’t have had something like that—’ Rob
began.

‘Yes, he would. Maid Marian would have had a sort of
braid belt on. I’ve seen pictures.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Rob said. ‘You go and keep watch if any of
his men come after him, looking for him.’

Joining in the spirit of the game, making it up as they
went along, Janice obeyed and went to the edge of the
clearing, climbing on to the lowest branch of a tree as a
look-out. Jimmy, too, staff at the ready, patrolled the
perimeter of the area.

Ella giggled and whispered softly to Rob, who was
busily tying her hands together. ‘I don’t think Maid Marian
would climb trees, but don’t tell her I said so.’

Rob grinned at her, his dark eyes twinkling. ‘She’s not
my idea of Maid Marian. But she will insist that’s who she
wants to be. Can’t think why. She’d have much more fun
pretending to be one of the Men.’

‘Maid Marian was Robin’s girlfriend,’ Ella said slyly.

Rob pulled a face. ‘She’ll be lucky! What you doing here
anyway?’

‘I found a shrimping net in the old stable. Your dad’s
going to mend it for me. Then I can come shrimping too.’

‘We can’t get rid of you pair, can we?’ Rob said, but he
was laughing and Ella giggled too.

‘What you two laughing about?’ Jimmy demanded,
moving closer. ‘You ain’t supposed to be laughing with the
prisoner, Robin.’

Rob put his mouth close to Ella’s ear. ‘Teks it all so
serious, does Jimmy,’ and Ella laughed again.

‘’Sides,’ Jimmy was saying again, ‘it’s time I was Robin
for a bit. You said I could.’

Rob shrugged good-naturedly. ‘I dun’t mind. Be who ya
like.’

‘I’ll be Maid Marian then,’ Ella teased Jimmy, knowing
that her suggestion would not please him.

Jimmy prodded his finger towards the birthmark on
Ella’s face. ‘Maid Marian wouldn’t be a scar-face,’ he
sneered.

At once Ella’s good nature vanished. ‘If you’re going to
be horrible, Jimmy Souter, then I’m off home. Undo my
hands, Rob.’

Janice slithered down the tree and jumped to the
ground. ‘Aw, don’t go, Ella. They run off an’ leave me if
I’m on me own.’ She glanced round the other three, from
Ella’s angry, red face, to Rob’s embarrassed expression
and then her gaze came to rest on her brother. ‘I ’eard
what ya said.’ Suddenly Janice raised her hand and clouted
him across the back of his head with the flat of her hand.
‘I’ll tell our mam.’

Without waiting for Rob to untie her hands Ella began
to run, out of the clearing and through the trees back
towards the driveway. They caught up with her at the big
gate.

‘Aw, don’t be like that Ella. Come back and play,’ Rob
said.

‘Leave me alone,’ she snapped and carried on walking,
the other three following her down the lane and away from
the Grange. Awkwardly, Ella climbed over the stile into
the meadow thinking the others would tire of trailing after
her, but they climbed over too.

‘Who’s come across the field trampling all the grass
down?’ Rob said.

Ella felt her face growing red.

‘It’s ’er. She did it,’ Jimmy jeered, pointing at Ella. ‘Look
at her face. You did it, didn’t you?’

Ella glanced at Rob, who said quietly, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Ella. It makes it more difficult for the
reaper to cut it.’

‘She dun’t know any better. She’s only a townie,’ Jimmy
scoffed. ‘Townie! Townie!’

Through gritted teeth, she muttered, ‘Untie my hands,
Rob. Now!’

‘Don’t you dare, Rob Eland, she only wants to clobber
me again,’ Jimmy said.

Walking round the edge of the field they came to the
plank bridge across the dyke. Rob went across first and
stood watching from the opposite bank whilst Ella stepped
on to the two wooden planks. She was half-way across,
looking down and watching where she carefully placed her
feet, when she heard a scuffle behind her and then Rob
shouted, ‘No, Jimmy, don’t!’

Ella looked up to see Rob starting forward towards her
and at the same moment she felt a hand push her in the
back. Ella lost her balance and, with her hands tied, there
was no way she could save herself from falling. Rob, reaching
out to her, was a split second too late to catch her.

She fell sideways into the dyke, amongst the thickly
growing nettles and into a foot of stagnant water in the
bottom of the dyke. She let out a yell of shock as she fell
and then as the nettles stung every exposed part of her –
face, arms and bare legs – she cried out again.

Ignoring the stings, Rob jumped down into the dyke
beside her, his feet splashing into the water. He reached
down and pulled her upright and then pulled her up the
bank. All the time the nettles grabbed at them, leaving
their sting.

On the bank, he untied Ella’s hands at once, but it was
too late now. He glared at Jimmy. ‘That was a rotten thing
to do.’

Jimmy shrugged. ‘Me? I didn’t do anything. I was
crossing behind her, that’s all. I never touched her, did I,
our Janice?’ He turned on his sister and his look dared her
to disagree.

But Janice was not intimidated. ‘Oh yes, you did. Now
I
shall
tell Mam.’

‘Don’t you dare,’ he pointed at her, ‘else I’ll tell her it
was you, not the cat, that knocked her best teapot off the
table last week.’

Janice stuck her tongue out at her brother. ‘See ’f I care.’

‘We’d better tek Ella home,’ Rob said, glancing from
one to the other of the Souter children. ‘
All
of us.’

‘You going to tell?’ Jimmy sneered, prodding Ella. ‘Telltale
tit, ya tongue will split . . .’

‘Come on.’ Rob took Ella by the arm.

As they walked around the edge of the meadow, Rob
leading the way, Ella felt the cold flap of her wet clothes
against her back and looking down at the state of Rob’s
boots, knew that her back must be covered in evil-smelling,
black mud. And all the while the nettle stings throbbed.

‘Gran’ll kill me,’ Ella muttered.

‘
Now
what have you done, Missy?’

Her grandmother was standing in the middle of the
yard, hands on hips. ‘Just look at ya shoes. Ruined! You
naughty child. Ya’ll be the death of me!’ With a swift
movement Esther moved forward and before Ella could
move, her grandmother had delivered a stinging slap to the
back of the girl’s leg. Esther’s hand, now covered with the
black mud, swung Ella round none too gently, and she
saw, for the first time, the slime covering the girl’s back.

‘What on earth were you doing?’

‘Missus—’ Rob began.

‘Be quiet, Boy, I’m asking her. Well?’

The fearsome green gaze bored into her and though her
eyes smarted with tears and her face, arms and legs
throbbed with the pain of the nettle stings – and now from
Esther’s smack too – Ella set her jaw and refused to cry.
She returned her grandmother’s stare doggedly.

‘I fell in the dyke coming across the planks.’

‘Then you should be more careful. Can’t you even walk
across a bridge without tipplin’ into this muck?’

‘Missus—’ Rob began again, but Esther was moving
away towards the wash-house.

‘Strip ya clothes off. It’s a cold bath for you, me
girl.’

‘Come on,’ Ella heard Rob mutter to the Souter children.
‘We’d better go.’ They turned and as they moved away, Rob said, ‘You should have owned up, Jimmy. You
should have told the truth.’

‘I – I thought she’d tell.’

‘Obviously she’s
not
a tell-tale, is she?’

Then they were out of earshot and Ella was left standing
in the middle of the yard under the burning sun, whilst her
grandmother brought the tin bath from the wash-house,
placed it under the pump in the yard and half-filled it with
cold water.

‘Do as I told you, get them things off. Though how I’m
to get that stain out o’ ya dress, I dun’t know. Right, now
in you get.’

Ella glanced round.

‘They’ve gone. There’s no one to see you.’

And Ella was obliged to step into the tin bath and wash
herself in the middle of the yard. The cold water soothed
her nettle stings, but even when Esther saw the extent of
the white blisters covering Ella’s arms, legs and even her
face, all she said was, ‘Teach you to be more careful.’ She
turned away and went back into the house, saying over her
shoulder, ‘Up to ya bed and stay there!’