Admonition by Chris Throsby

Author:Chris Throsby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

Jabez

Manchester

Delivery of the barrels went as smoothly as I hoped and I saw no one when I delivered the rest of the first consignment. Harry and John did see a couple they knew from the village when returning the last barrel, but Harry said they’d passed each other with nothing more than a mutual ‘good afternoon’.

Sam had made sure at least one of his men was in the pub each evening checking on progress. Late in the evening, following the last of the first week’s deliveries, Sam himself walked in. When everyone else had left and while I locked up, Adie closed the blinds. Returning to the bar, I was surprised to find Sam still standing, drink in hand. When I invited him to sit with me, he shook his head and said,

“I can’t stay because I’ll be bringing tonight’s consignment myself. I’ll need you to be ready to receive it and then to take it straight to Manchester.”

“Manchester!”

I couldn’t hide my surprise.

“Yes Jabez, Manchester. I have a customer there who has already paid me for the cost of his order and he won’t be happy if I don’t deliver.”

Sam might have a good reason to send me to Manchester, but I knew it would take me two days to get there and back, so I asked him,

“Even if I’m able to walk all that way, what am I going to do about running this place? I can’t leave Adie to run it on her own for two days.”

Sam had already thought about this.

“You can ride a horse, can’t you?”

Mr Dodds had taught me to ride, but I hadn’t ridden since the old horse had died.

“It’s been a while, but yes, I can ride,” I told him.

"Well then, I’ll lend you a horse and you can lead the donkeys. If you travel out overnight, you should reach my customer by mid-morning and without any load, you should be back here about closing time. I’m sure Adie can run this place for one night and a couple of my lads will be in, just to make sure there’s no trouble.

Now, put these barrels in your stable and tonight, wait for me there. Make sure the beer is already in the barrels and I’ll help you transfer the salt."

So that was that. It was clear it would be pointless arguing with him because his mind was made up and moments later, after saying he’d be back in an hour, Sam left. As soon as he’d gone and with Adie’s help, I fetched the barrels from the cellar, filled and sealed one side with beer and rolled them all to the stable. We rolled the last two barrels in, then sat on bales of hay in complete silence and waited for Sam to reappear. Not for the first time I heard noises in the dark and also not for the first time, told myself it was just animals moving in the undergrowth.

We’d only been waiting about a quarter of an hour, though sitting

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