10

‘What is this trickery?’

I could see that Quill wasn’t exactly over the moon about Kameran following us into the middle of the eighteenth century - but it wasn’t what I’d had in mind either. And I wasn’t exactly over the moon about Quill saying I’d tricked him.

I gave him one of my looks. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, only I didn’t feel remotely sorry; I felt furious. ‘Are you suggesting that I tricked you into bringing Kameran along?’

Quill gave me an equally withering look back. ‘’E be here, baint ‘e?’

Never let it be said that I can’t give as good as I get. ‘Yes, he’s certainly here, but let’s see, who was leading the way? Oh yes, you! And who’s the one who makes wigs float about the room and winds rage through schools and spring days feel like Alaskan winters? Hmmm, let me see... oh yes, it’s you again! So don’t you accuse me of trickery!’

Quill’s eyes narrowed - I think he was trying to look threatening but, to me, he looked even more smoulderingly gorgeous.

‘Who are you talking to?’ Uh oh! I’d got so mad with Quill that I’d almost forgotten Kameran. He was looking pretty bewildered. Oh boy - how was I going to explain this one?

‘You can see me, right?’ I asked him.

‘Durr! Course I can see you,’ Kameran replied.

‘But you can’t see him?’ I pointed to Quill.

Kameran looked beyond Quill to the man walking along the road. ‘I can see some old bloke wearing a brown smock thing.’

I shrugged. ‘OK, I’ll take that as a no.’ I turned to Quill and pointed to Kameran. ‘But you can see and hear him, right?’

‘Aye - as clear as Ah can see thee. And tha canst be sure, ‘tis not a happy sight,’ Quill said, glaring at Kameran.

I looked from one to the other. This was going to require some very careful negotiation. ‘Well, he can’t go back on his own, so I’ll have to go with him and ...’

But before I’d finished speaking to Quill, Kameran interrupted. ‘No way! I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going back. This is way more exciting than Spiggins’ Geography lesson.’

I’m not normally one to do I-told-you-so, but I couldn’t resist. ‘You see, I told you history was more than just a load of dead people.’

Quill folded his arms and glared at Kameran. ‘No good will come of this.’

‘What’s with all the negativity?’ I asked Quill, but he turned his back on me, so I spoke to Kameran. ‘OK, now you know how you’ve been really open-minded about my tarot readings and palmistry and stuff?’ Kameran nodded. ‘Well, if you stay, you’re going to have to open your mind about three hundred and fifty eight degrees further for this little beauty.’ I kept it as light as I could, explaining all the mysterious happenings he’d witnessed at the cottage, at school and on the cliff in a bright and breezy voice. I hoped that if I said it as though it was the most natural thing in the world, he might not get totally freaked out. ‘So there you go - Quill’s just like you really, only this particular incarnation of his was a couple of centuries before your present one.’

I waited for his response but from the look on Kameran’s face, I’d slightly misjudged the freak-out factor. He was standing stock still with an expression that I’ve only ever seen on rabbits who were sitting in the middle of the highway as a ten tonne truck was thundering towards them on full beam.

‘Kameran?’ I waved my hand in front of his face. ‘Hey, once you get your head round it, it’s no big deal.’ I prodded his arm. ‘Come on. Snap out of it.’ But still there was nothing.

‘Tha should never ‘ave brought ‘im,’ Quill chastised.

‘OK, enough of the period lingo. I know you’re mad at me but I’ve got enough stress at the moment. And, anyway, you promised to talk nicely.’

Things were getting distinctly tetchy but fortunately, at that point, Kameran started to come round again. He blinked a couple of times and then spoke very slowly.

‘I’m just going to assume that when I wake up, all this will have been some weird dream.’

I’ve never been one to miss an opportunity. ‘Oooo - Wanda does dream interpretation. You could go to her and see what she makes of it,’ I suggested.

Quill shook his head in exasperation. ‘I have business to attend to. Now, art’ tha coming wi’ me?’

I looked from Quill to Kameran. What a dilemma. I really really wanted to go with Quill but I didn’t relish the thought of having to give Kameran a running commentary on everything Quill said and did.

‘Hang on a minute!’ Kameran said, looking definitely more animated than he had been a couple of minutes earlier. ‘I can see something.’ He pointed to my right hand side, which was where Quill was standing.

‘Some thing?’ Quill said with disdain. ‘I baint some thing.’

‘Oh wow!’ Kameran was leaping about the field. ‘I heard that too!’ Then added, ‘Sorry mate; didn’t mean to offend you.’ He came right up to Quill and began moving his hand in and out of Quill’s chest and through to the other side. ‘This is amazing. I mean, does that hurt?’

‘Kameran!’ I was shocked. ‘Don’t do that. He has feelings, you know. He is a living being - well, when I say living ...’

Kameran cocked his head on one side and looked at me. ‘You mean living as in dead?’

‘Jeez! Don’t be so peridontic,’ I said.

‘I think you mean, pedantic,’ Kameran corrected.

Quill had a face like a blizzard on the north face of K2. ‘When tha’s finished,’ he said tersely, ‘come wi’ me.’

Before I knew what was happening we were standing in front of a five-barred gate across what was, at best, a muddy lane and, at worst, a long narrow bog. The man and girl were walking towards us.

The girl spoke nervously. ‘What wil’t be like, faither?’

‘Eh, lass, Ah’ve nivver bin further than Pickerin’ let alone York.’ The man shook his head, dismally. ‘’Tis a sorry venture, if nowt else.’

‘Will t’folk be grand?’

‘Aye, but no grander than Squire Cholmley up at Abbey ‘Ouse. Fret thissen not; tha’s a clever lass and an honest one. Tell t’truth an’ tha won’t go far wrong.’ He tweaked his daughter’s cheek affectionately. ‘Tha’ll be all reet. Ah’ll be there with thi.’

The girl hung her head and I thought she looked as though she was crying.

Suddenly, Quill passed through the gate till he was right in front of her. ‘Oh, Jenna, my love. Do not weep.’

I watched as the girl walked straight through him, her eyes still downcast. Hold on a minute - my love? Hadn’t he flirted with me only a few days ago and told me that I was a comely maid? And now, here he was, calling someone else his love - right under my nose! I felt my stomach tighten into a knot of irritation. Then I checked myself. What on earth was going on? How could I possibly be feeling jealous of someone who, if she were still alive, would be wrinklier than a pickled walnut?

As the father approached the gate, another man who had been sitting on a log by the side of the road, stood up. Resting on a gnarled old stick he opened the latch on the gate and limped forward allowing the couple to pass through. The girl’s father placed a coin in the old man’s hand.

‘Noo then, Tom,’ the gatekeeper said, nodding his head in greeting. ‘Tha’s off ti t’Sessions, ist tha?’

‘Aye,’ the father replied.

‘’Tis a bad job,’ the older man commented. ‘God’s speed an’ may justice be done.’

The man and his daughter set off along the road and Quill again drifted forwards, so that he was right in front of the girl. ‘Jenna, ‘tis me.’

But once more he was about as substantial as a bad smell as she walked through him without resistance. Quill spun round, his eyes following her as she and her father walked heavily along the road, her skirts hitched up and their boots caked with clay.

‘Well, I think we can assume you know them,’ I said, trying to keep the telltale ring of jealousy out of my voice. ‘But are you going to let us in on who they are?’

‘Jenna and I were handfasted. We were to be wed next Midsummer’s Eve,’ Quill explained. Uh oh! There was that little knot in my stomach again. I really needed to get a grip on the reality of the situation. ‘She’s on her way to York Assizes to give testimony of good character.’

Phew! At least there was some good news. If she was going to be a character witness, at least that meant Quill had survived the fall - even though he must have been arrested for smuggling afterwards. But then an even worse thought came to me - all the stuff he’d been saying earlier about the Hanged Man! Oh no! Surely he wasn’t going to take me to see him being hanged - that would be even more horrible than seeing him falling down a cliff.

‘Just hold on a minute,’ I said to him. ‘Let’s make one thing clear - I don’t really want to go to your trial unless there’s a happy ending. So if Jenna’s going to come up with the goods and get you off, then fine, but if not, I’m outta here.’

Quill looked at me as though I’d lost the plot. ‘’Tis not my trial. ‘Tis Isaac’s.’

‘Isaac’s?’ I queried. ‘So, what happened to...’ But even as the question left my lips, I knew the answer. ‘Oh no! You’re already dead, aren’t you? Did you die when you fell down that cliff? You did, didn’t you? How could you do this to me?’

Kameran was quick to come on my side. ‘Aw, man! That is so out of order.’

Quill shrugged; his eyes still firmly focused on Jenna as she disappeared from view. ‘’Tis not about you, or me.’

‘So why have you brought us here?’ I asked - not unreasonably. ‘I mean, it hardly warrants dragging me out of school, just so that you can have another gleg at your girlfriend.’

‘Nay, that’s not why I brought thee. But right now my heart is too full of love and sadness to speak. Pray, give me a minute.’ Which, to be honest, I thought was a bit much. After all, he’d had two hundred and fifty years to get over her, so what good would another minute make?

I was just about to say so when we were all suddenly zoomed through time again and, the next thing I knew, we were standing on a balcony above a large room, which was heaving with people. They were mostly men but there were one or two women who looked like rather tatty characters out of Cinderella with their big skirts and lace collars. At the back, there were scruffier people and even a few children, all crammed in and all pushing and shoving and shouting, ‘’Ang ‘im!’ I fanned my hand in front of my nose - the smell of bodies and sweat was worse than the boys’ changing rooms when the drains are blocked.

‘Eeew! Where is this place?’ I asked Quill.

‘Assize court at York,’ he replied, looking round distractedly.

‘Look,’ Kameran said, pointing down across the court room. ‘There’s that Jenna girl and her dad.’

At one end of the room was a panelled enclosure with several very grand chairs behind it and, directly in front of it, was a table with a load of men in white wigs. Around the room were other panelled boxes, some had men sitting down while others were rammed full of people standing. I could see Jenna and her father squashed in at the back of one of these and before I could say anything, we were all three of us standing next to them.

At that moment three men in long white, flamboyantly flapping wigs entered the room. One was wearing scarlet robes while the others were in flowing black gowns. They made their way along the bench and sat on the chairs in the raised enclosure at the end of the room.

‘Look, faither,’ whispered Jenna. ‘Is that t’King?’

‘Nay, lass. ‘Tis t’judges. ‘Tis them tha’ll ‘ave ti convince an’ Ah daint mind admitting Ah’ll not wager on a good outcome.’ He shook his head sadly.

As I was looking round the court room, I glimpsed a couple of faces I recognised from the night on the cliff. One was in the scarlet and white livery of the dragoons and the other was the pug-eyed Riding Officer, Josiah Proudfoot, in the blue uniform of the Preventives. Standing at the far side of the court, partitioned from the on-lookers, was Isaac Chapman. I was shocked to see how thin and ill he looked. His hands and feet were shackled and his clothes were dirty.

‘What’s happened to him?’ I asked Quill.

‘York Castle may be one of t’best prisons in t’land but ‘tis not noted for its comfort by them as has to reside there.’

‘Oh, prisons,’ I said. ‘Don’t get me started!’

A hush fell over the proceedings and the judge in red turned to the dock where Isaac was standing.

‘Isaac Chapman. You have heard testimony this morning of Riding Officer Proudfoot and Captain Paggett of the King’s Sixth Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons, to the effect that you did wilfully murder one William Newton ...’

It took me several seconds to realise that the judge was talking about Quill. I looked at him. ‘William? Really?’ I shook my head. ‘Neh - stick with Quill. It suits you much better.’ And then a second realisation hit me. ‘Did he say murder?’

Quill nodded.

‘But it wasn’t murder; you fell.’

‘Aye. Ah’ve telled thi all along, Ah need thi to right a wrong. And this is t’wrong.’

No problem - that was easily done. ‘No, stop!’ I called out. ‘You’ve got it all wrong.’ I pointed at Josiah Proudfoot and the solider. ‘They shot at him. They did it. They caused his death. I was there. I saw it.’

But no one took any notice. The judge continued speaking to Isaac, ‘...do you wish to address the court?’

He looked up. ‘Aye, mi lord.’

‘Where’s his lawyer?’ Kameran asked Quill urgently. ‘Surely he’s not going to defend himself?’

‘Baint none,’ Quill replied, without looking at Kameran - his gaze hadn’t left Jenna since we came in to court. ‘Lawyers were for t’wealthy ti prosecute them as wronged ‘em. T’accused man had to speak for himself.’

‘You’re kidding!’ Kameran was shocked. Quill turned slowly to face him with a look that would’ve turned butter to stone. Kameran held up his hands in a gesture of capitulation. ‘OK, OK, you’re not kidding. But that’s terrible.’

‘Where was Amnesty International when you needed them?’ I asked.

‘Ssh!’ Quill nodded towards the proceedings.

Isaac cleared his throat. ‘What tha heard this morning wor a parcel of t’confoundedest lies,’ he said, falteringly.

One of the judges in black leaned forward. ‘Are you accusing officers of the King of lying?’

‘Aye, mi lord. Ah am that. Ah’ll own Ah ‘ad a pistol wi’ me but Ah nivver shot at no one.’ Isaac went on to explain what had happened, but I was shocked because to be honest, the judges didn’t seem to be paying much attention - in fact, no one in court seemed to be paying much attention - they were all chatting amongst themselves.

Eventually the judge in red looked at Isaac. ‘Do you have any persons to speak for you?’

‘Aye, mi lord. Ah want ti call Jenna Nightingale ti tell of mi good character. She wor betrothed ti William Newton an’ would surely not speak well of ‘is murderer.’

A hush descended as Jenna’s father pushed her forward through the crowd. Her head was bowed as she stood in front of the judges. She spoke in a trembling voice.

‘Ah’ve known Isaac three year or thereabouts, and Ah’ve allus found ‘im ti be as kind an’ thoughtful a friend ti Quill as ...’

‘Quill?’ the third judge queried. ‘Of whom do you speak, madam?’

For a minute I thought she was going to burst into tears but then she gathered herself and said, quietly, ‘William Newton, sir. Only Ah calls ‘im Quill.’

‘You will address me as mi Lud,’ he barked, dipping his quill into a pot of ink without even looking at her.

If there’s one thing that gets right up my nose, it’s arrogance - actually there’s a few things that get up my nose, but arrogance is pretty near the top of the list.

‘Hey!’ I shouted out. ‘You lot should be careful how you speak to people in this life, because you never know how you’ll come back next time round. Just you show her some respect.’

Kameran leant over and whispered. ‘I don’t think they can hear you.’

I raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, maybe not on a conscious level.’

‘Come on, girl. Speak up!’ the red judge commanded.

I looked at Kameran and gave him a you-win shrug. ‘OK, maybe not even on an unconscious level. But believe me, they will get their comeuppance.’

‘Be hushed!’ Quill snapped.

Jenna’s bottom lip began to tremble and her eyes shot to her father. He nodded and smiled reassuringly.

She took a deep breath and went on. ‘Isaac be a good man. ‘E did teach Qui...William carpentry and William looked up ti ‘im. ‘E wor ‘is closest friend in spite of t’age ‘tween ‘em. An’ Isaac ‘ad respect for Quill. ‘E asked ‘im ti be godfather ti ‘is bairn when it wor born.’ She looked up and stared Isaac in the face. ‘Isaac Chapman baint no murderer. ‘E be an honest, wholesome man an’ Ah daint believe ‘e killed William Newton - whoever it is as says otherwise.’ Her eyes moved across the room to where Josiah Proudfoot and the dragoon were standing.

The judges continued writing, then the one in red spoke in a condescending tone to the court room. ‘An honest and wholesome man who did persistently smuggle contraband goods into the country and rob the King of revenue.’ He looked up, briefly. ‘Thank you, Mistress Nightingale.’

‘What a pig!’ Kameran said.

‘Hey, easy on pigs,’ I said.

Next, Isaac called Mr Fleming, the pastor who ran a free school for the poor children of the town. The pastor told the court how Isaac was a God-fearing young man with a wife and child who had been living in the poor house since his arrest.

‘OK - so, is that who taught you to read and write?’ I asked Quill.

Without his eyes leaving the proceedings, Quill nodded. ‘Ah wor his best pupil,’ he said, modestly. ‘’Twas how I got my name - Quill.’

‘Cool name,’ Kameran commented.

The pastor then told them how Isaac had looked after his brother-in-law until Robert’s transportation to Virginia in the Americas.

‘Transportation!’ I was horrified. ‘But Robert couldn’t defend himself. How could they transport him?’

‘’Twas because he was simple minded he got shown leniency,’ Quill explained.

Oh boy - I was finding this whole trial thing extremely distressing. I know it must sound weird, but I’d got to know these people and I was feeling pretty depressed about it all.

‘Do we have to stay any longer?’ I asked. ‘Can’t we move forward a bit?

The next thing I knew there was a whooshing sensation. The judges now had pieces of black cloth draped over their white wigs, and I was pretty sure that wasn’t a good sign. The two judges in the black gowns seemed to be nodding off but the one in the red robes was peering solemnly at Isaac. Uh oh! I was getting a very bad feeling about this.

‘Isaac Chapman, you stand convicted of the horrid and unnatural crime of murdering William Newton. This Court doth adjudge that you be taken back to the place from whence you came, and there to be fed on bread and water till Monday next, when you are to be taken to the Tyburn without Micklegate Bar, and there hanged by the neck until you are dead; and may God Almighty have mercy on your soul.’

The crowd gave a jubilant roar.

‘No!’ I called out, but no one took any notice. ‘He’s innocent!’ I turned to Quill. ‘This is terrible! Take us back immediately. Why do you keep doing this?’

In front of us, Jenna gasped and fell against her father, sobbing.

‘Baint finished yet,’ Quill said.

Then one voice could be heard above all the others. A woman in a shabby bonnet, with a shawl wrapped tightly round her, pushed her way through the crowd to the dock and reached up to try and grab Isaac.

‘A curse upon thi Isaac Chapman; and a curse upon all them as comes after thi.’ She spat at Isaac.

‘Eeew!’ I recoiled.

The woman pointed a grubby finger in Isaac’s face. ‘Tha robbed my lad o’ life afore ‘e could see ‘is own bairns grow; may t’devil deliver t’same fate ti’ thee an’ all as comes after thi’.’

Two men came forward and pulled Quill’s mother away. Quill shook his head and sighed.

‘Eh, mother. If only tha knew what tha’d done.’

Kameran looked shocked. ‘Whoa! I can’t believe this! Are you telling us that your mother put a curse on the Chapman family for all time and that’s why Joel’s having such a crap life?’

‘Aye,’ Quill said flatly.

‘But...’ You could almost see Kameran’s mind working. ‘That means.... that’s the reason Joel’s dad died young.’

‘Aye.’

‘And unless this curse is lifted...’ All the colour drained from Kameran’s face. ‘...Joel’s going to die young too.’

‘Aye.’

I must say, I think Quill sometimes takes the strong, silent thing a bit far.

‘So what can we do? How do we lift the curse?’ Kameran was almost pleading.

Quill nodded in my direction. ‘That’s for Mimosa to fathom.’

Oh great! No pressure, then.