Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

Author:Martine Leavitt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Teen & Young Adult, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781590789490
Publisher: namelos
Published: 2009-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

VIII

Soor Lily and I concur; Ben brings a squash;

the arrival of Tobias with lemons that disappoint;

and I cook pies.

Henry quickly spread the word that John Temsland would address his people in the village square, and just as quickly the people began to gather.

The sun was hot, and no breeze blew in from the bay, and soon people were grumbling and miserable. How had half the day gone by, I wondered. I willed time to slow. John led me to the square and climbed to the top of a pile of cobblestones.

“My people,” he said, his arms toward them. “I stand on these stones that should by now be laid over the square. But no one came to the work today. Would you not have the king come and see that our village is everything my father said it was?”

“There is still much left to harvest, young John,” said George Puddington. “We have our own work to do.”

“Will the leavings of the harvest not wait until after the fair, George?” John countered.

George cast a sullen look at me and said nothing.

“We have the bay, and the forest for hunting,” Peter Whitty called. “We are not ashamed of Tide-by-Rood.”

“But why do you object to making it even better?” John said, smiling, cajoling.

“We are tired at the end of the day,” Peter replied. The crowd murmured in agreement.

“Peter, George, all of you—did you stop to think why the great lords have put it in the king’s mind to come to Tide-by-Rood at this time, and on such short notice? They don’t like my father, who advises the king to be merciful and kind to the commoners. He tells the king that his power comes to him because of the people’s love. The great lords want to oppress the people, assert even greater authority, and so they wish to have my father shamed, to take him further out of favor with the king. Perhaps they will take away his lands and a new lord will come, one who would be less kind to you than my father has been.”

The crowd murmured.

“What has she to do with you, John?” Peter asked, pointing at me. “Has she cast fairy dust in your eyes? Or worse?”

“If loyalty to my father is not reason enough, then Keturah Reeve has something to tell you,” John replied. “I adjure you to listen to her.”

Only a few days before, men had looked on me with soft eyes. Now they were reluctant, suspicious, hard.

“She is why we stopped work on the road,” Paul Stoppish called out. “It was her idea first, wasn’t it?”

Others joined in. “Who told you to speak up about the road, Keturah? Was it Death, wishing to see us perish from heat and fatigue?” a voice called out. “Will he send down a stone on the head of an unsuspecting one?” cried another. “Will a hammer break and kill him who wields it?” shouted Patsy Krundle in front.

John held up his hand to silence them. “Listen to her, I tell you.

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