Bloodie Bones by Lucienne Boyce

Author:Lucienne Boyce [Boyce, Lucienne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781323618
Publisher: SilverWood Books
Published: 2015-05-10T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Kiomi’s face was swollen and pitted with red wounds, and there was a crusty, yellow discharge gumming up her eyes, but Anna assured Dan that she was healing normally. Kiomi herself was enjoying the attention. She had been given a doll, probably the first she had ever owned, which she was delighted with.

While Anna dressed her injuries, Taylor invited Dan to see inside his odd dwelling. Dan expected something like the seeping cellars of London, where for a penny a night you could share a lousy mattress on a filthy floor with half a dozen other unwashed bodies. Instead it was dry and warm, and the air was not stale. A number of small chambers led off a central passageway that ended in a wall of tumbled brickwork. There were alcoves in the walls where once corpses had been buried in all their finery.

Dan peered into the shifting shadows beyond the faint glow of Tom’s rushlight. “Don’t you mind sleeping in a tomb?”

“There are no spirits walking here. We had a cleansing ceremony before we moved in.”

The alcoves were packed with gifts from the village: bread, milk, a side of bacon, potatoes, apples, a basket of nectarines, and a lifetime’s worth of blankets and clothes. There were shoes and stockings too, although Mrs Taylor and her children still went barelegged in their old boots. Dan guessed that many of these items would be discreetly traded away when the donors had lost interest in the family.

They went back to the fire, and Taylor brought out a jug of local cider, dry and strong. To be polite Dan took a couple of mouthfuls, and his host swigged the rest. Mrs Taylor tended the perennial stewpot, which gave out the savoury smell of onions and rabbit. Every now and again Tom threw a log onto the fire and gave it a kick to keep it going. Anna sat beside the little girl, making up stories with the doll. No one said very much and the time passed companionably until Anna got ready to leave. Dan said it was time for him to go too. He picked up her basket and offered her his arm. She hesitated, then took it.

“What do you think, Mr Fielding,” she said when they were out of earshot of the barrow, “Dr Russell called on the family yesterday. Tom Taylor would be furious if he found out.”

Dan had already guessed where the nectarines had come from. “That’s very good of the doctor. What did he say?”

“The child’s sight is not damaged, and once the swelling has gone down she should be able to see as well as ever. Isn’t that good news? And how kind of the doctor to go out of his way like that. He also said that he was impressed with the speed the wounds were healing and wanted to know what was in the salve. It’s only an old recipe of my mother’s.”

“I’d keep it to yourself. You don’t want him patenting it and selling it off as Dr Russell’s Balm.

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