I, Coriander by Sally Gardner

Author:Sally Gardner [Gardner, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little Brown
Published: 2010-08-04T22:00:00+00:00

It was not long before Maud Leggs came waddling into the shop. She had become so large that she had to enter sideways. With the voice of a fishwoman rather than that of the wife of a respectable merchant, she began to shout abuse at Master Thankless.

‘Mistress, please,’ said Master Thankless, ‘remember who you are.’

For a moment that settled her, at least long enough for Gabriel and me to clear the shop of its startled customers and close the door.

‘I want to see my daughter,’ said Maud. Her voice was so loud that it could be heard all through the house and halfway along the bridge.

‘Please keep your voice down, mistress. Your daughter is still poorly.’

‘I care naught for that. She be faking it so that she can get out of working. I want her home with me.’

‘No one will be coming home with you today, mistress, nor tomorrow nor the next day,’ said Master Thankless.

‘I demand to see my daughter,’ said Maud again.

‘If you please, mistress, this is my shop and I do not want you in it. Now leave.’

‘Hester, you miserable girl, you come down this minute or I will give you such a beating,’ bellowed Maud, taking no notice of Master Thankless.

‘If you do not go,’ said Master Thankless, ‘I will call the constable. I am sure he will be pleased to have a word with you.’

‘Go on then,’ said Maud. ‘Call him. I am not afraid of a miserable little stitch-and-pin like you.’

‘I should hope not,’ said Master Thankless. ‘And neither should you be afraid to tell the constable where all Master Hobie’s furniture and fine wines have gone.’

Maud went very quiet.

‘Gabriel,’ said Master Thankless, ‘will you be so kind as to fetch the constable?’

‘Wait,’ said Maud. ‘Less haste. There be no need for that. As you know, the Lord is most particular about his furniture, being offended by turned legs and any form of decoration. Arise Fell says it be as close to Sodom and Gomorrah as you are likely to come, and he should know.’

‘I suppose he should,’ said Master Thankless. ‘And he found the wines no less displeasing?’

‘Oh no,’ said Maud, ‘we drank those. I mean -’

‘And the Good Lord has no objection to your beating and half-starving your daughter and locking your stepdaughter in a chest?’

‘You devil!’ snapped Maud. ‘You twist my words, that you do.’

‘No, mistress,’ said Master Thankless, ‘it is you who are twisted, not my words. Now I would like you to leave.’

She huffed, she puffed, she stamped her fat feet on the floor. ‘I will be back, damn you, so I will. You have no rights over me and my own,’ she shouted as she slammed the shop door shut. The bell went on jangling long after she had gone.

Master Thankless and I went upstairs to find Hester sitting up in bed, looking pale and shaken.

‘I would rather die than go back there,’ she said.

‘I will not hear of it. This house is yours,’ said Master Thankless. ‘Over my dead body will you ever be treated like that again.

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