Later that evening we were surprised by a sharp rap on the door. It was Miss Wardle, the lady who loved her pigs more than her neighbours.
‘There is a young man in my Sally’s sty and I think he needs some medical attention. He says you are his friend and might help.’ Her voice was irritable but I detected a kindness beneath.
‘It must be Billy,’ I said. I reached for my wrap and with Mrs Makepiece followed the elderly lady into the dark.
The sty was dark and I could barely make out Billy who was sweating profusely and covered in scratches and small wounds. He was wet, dirty and worryingly hot. I struggled out backwards and reported to the ladies that he was in need of a doctor. I volunteered the thought that he had been attacked.
‘Well, as long as he has nothing infectious,’ Miss Wardle, barked. ‘You’d best bring him into my kitchen while one of you fetches someone.’
I struggled back in and eventually managed to drag Billy out of the sty. He wasn’t objecting, he just seemed unable to understand what I was trying to do. I managed eventually and half carried, half dragged him to Miss Wardle’s house.
Luckily it was a good-sized place with a cooking range burning contentedly so I laid Billy on the floor in front of it. Miss Wardle produced some cloths and I gently tried to clean him without opening all the cuts. His clothes were so thin they had given him no protection at all and I was fearful that an infection was setting in. As I took the scraps of clothing from him I wondered briefly why I seemed to be drawn to undress sickly people who I barely knew. Gradually he responded to the warmth and dry towels and his shivering lessened.
‘What happened, Billy, where have you been?’
I couldn’t get any sense out of him at all and we sat there waiting for the physician. I cleaned some of the cuts with water and for one particularly deep one I pulled the skin together and bound it with thin cotton. Miss Wardle, tutted and worried all around us but was unable to help – I asked her for some clean water for Billy to drink.
She made a hot drink as well and we were all quite comfortable waiting.
‘Well, Esther, you seem to attract lost souls to you,’ Dr Grieve said as he strode into the kitchen his voice booming over us three women and Billy.
He raised the patient on his pitifully thin legs and inspected the damage before opening his bag and choosing medicants and bindings.
‘Who did this to you, lad?’ he asked.
Billy was still unable to answer and the physician finally gave up trying to get any information from him. Miss Wardle said that he could stay the night on her kitchen floor and she produced a blanket. I made him as comfortable as I could before Mrs Makepiece and I went back home much disturbed by Billy’s misfortune. Dr Grieve had said he wanted to see Billy as soon as he had recovered enough to travel. I promised to get him there and hoped he would be able to answer some questions.
The next day I hurried to Miss Wardle’s. I kept my shawl across my face so no one would question who I was and link me to Becca. Billy-alone was sitting at the kitchen table and looking a great deal better than he had last night. Next to him and propped against the table were two items, one I had never seen and the other made my heart soar. The first was a stave, sharpened cruelly to a point. The second was Becca’s cradle. I picked it up and smelled it, there was a faint baby smell – how could that be possible after such a time out in the open?
I rushed to hug him but was speedily repelled. ‘Get orff, mind me bruises…’
We thanked Miss Wardle for her care and she seemed quite softened by the time we left, making our way to the physician’s house as quickly as we could. Billy was concerned as to how he was going to pay the doctor.
‘Don’t let’s worry about it until he gives us a bill,’ I said glibly. ‘First we have to get you better.’
We had brought the stave and cradle with us and the doctor was mightily interested in them after he had redressed some of Billy’s hurts.
‘Tell me lad, how you came to be up near Coad Farm?’
Billy yawned, tired of this repeated questioning. ‘I went up to find the cradle.’
I had to explain how Becca had made the cradle in readiness for the birth and so she could float the baby down to find new parents much as in the story she heard Farmer Coad, in all his hypocrisy, read from the bible. The physician shook his head in wonderment and spent the next few minutes inspecting it minutely. I asked him to sniff the cradle and he would be able to smell baby. ‘I don’t think my sense of smell is that finely tuned Esther but I accept that this was indeed a cradle, if only for a short while.’ He turned to Billy.
‘Where did you find it boy?’
‘It was caught up in some reeds. I had to go into the river a long way down from Coad’s in case I missed it.’
‘Can you swim?’
‘No. Leastways, I think I can now, but I couldn’t then.’
‘So, you stepped into the shallows and waded upriver searching the reeds for this little basket. Then what happened?’
‘I was quite near Coad’s when I heard some lads laughing and messing about. Reckon they were the sons, they started throwing stones at me and I kept falling into the deeper water. I tried hiding in the reeds but they knew where I was and kept at me. One of them ran off and came back with sticks and a dog. The sticks were tied to their wrists with long cords so they couldn’t lose them.’
‘Did they know you Billy?’
‘Nah, I was just an easy target for a bit of fun, like.’
‘How long did this skirmish go on?’ asked the doctor, ‘You have a lot of cuts and bruises.’
‘I dunno, it seemed like most of the morning,’ Billy said. ‘I was losing ground and couldn’t keep meself up no more. If one of the fishermen hadn’t come down the river in his little boat I would have been a goner. He shouted at the lads and they ran off but not before losing this spear. It broke at the strap and fell into the water. He hauled me into his boat and we collected the spear and the cradle before coming back to the town.’
‘Did he know who the boys were?’
‘Oh, aye,’ he said. ‘They were the Coad brothers.’
‘Who was the fisherman Billy?’
‘Dunno ’is name but I knows where he lives.’
The physician looked grave and studied the spear closely before comparing it to the one that was already in his room. They were the same, except for the remnants of binding.
‘Well, lad, you’ll live, but you must keep clean and come back to see me if you feel at all feverish, by that I mean unnaturally hot, sick or sleepy.’
I spoke for Billy. ‘Thank you doctor. I will ask Mrs Makepiece if we can take care of Billy until he is all healed.’
As we left the doctor’s room he put a hand on my sleeve. ‘This changes things completely Esther, I hope you will be vindicated in your story. Don’t tell anyone about the stave and cradle until I have had time to speak to the constable. You are a very lucky girl to have such a good friend in Billy.’
We had started to leave when he called me back. ‘There was one other thing Esther. Coad maintains he gave you nothing to care for the child as his story is that you stole her. Is there anything that can link him to the money you say you have – how much was it?’
‘He said he was giving me fifty pounds but it was only thirty-five. I think he thought I couldn’t count.’
‘Even so, thirty-five pounds is a lot of money just to have in hand. Do you know if he might have been doing some business that day with anyone?’
‘No, but the bag was stamped with the bank’s name and his own brand.’
‘Thank you, that might help. Can you remember how the money was made up – notes, coins etc.?’
‘Aye, I can. I do not have that much money that I would get confused.’
I was able to tell him the exact denominations.