The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer

Author:Linda Buckley-Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

FOURTEEN

GIDEON’S STRATEGEM

IN WHICH THE PARSON PREACHES A CURIOUS SERMON

AND THE PARTY SHOWS THEIR BOTTOM

It should have been a peaceful scene. The swallows swooped over a landscape turned pink and gold by the setting sun, crickets chirped in the long dry grass, and a warm breeze agitated the leaves of the great oak. But peaceful it was not. The wrecked carriage sat like a giant carcass in the road, surrounded by scattered trunks, their contents strewn all about. Parson Ledbury was bound to the tree, a double length of rope wrapped around his broad girth. The driver and Sidney were tied to two wheels of the carriage. Kate, Hannah, and Jack sat huddled together on one side of the tree whilst opposite them Ned Porter and the foul thugs who held them at their mercy sat around a wood fire. Whenever the breeze changed direction, they were choked by smoke. Jack started to cough.

“Hush, Master Jack. If we keep quiet and brave all will be well,” whispered Hannah. “Put your face in my lap so you cannot see the ugly, wicked brutes, and I will sing you a song.”

Hannah tried to sing but her voice trembled so much she soon gave up and hummed quietly instead. She slowly stroked Jack’s back, and gradually, soothed by Hannah’s touch and with his head hidden in the folds of her skirt, Jack fell fast asleep. Hannah leaned over toward Kate and spoke into her ear.

“I think he is not quite well. He has a slight fever. I do not like him being in this chill evening air—”

“Who said you could speak!” barked the leader of the footpads, who was striding toward them. “One more word and you’ll feel the back of my hand.”

“I was only saying that the child—oww!”

Hannah cried out in pain as a handful of acorns smacked into her face from the other side of the fire.

“Leave her alone, you great bully!” shrieked Kate.

The other two footpads looked on and laughed. Now the leader began advancing angrily toward Kate. She clenched her fists and for a split second a surge of adrenalin made her believe that if he so much as touched her it would be the footpad who would come off worse. But the footpad grabbed hold of both Kate’s arms as if they were two twigs and bent them behind her back until she cried out in pain. She struggled and screamed, but he may as well have been holding a kitten for all the effect her kicks and wriggling had.

“And the same goes for you, you meddlesome baggage,” he growled. “If you can’t behave, you’ll get tied up like the rest!”

He held her against him and forced her to walk toward the others. She was dimly conscious of the parson shouting something to her and Sidney straining against the ropes that tied him to one wheel of the carriage, but it was none other than Ned Porter who came to her aid.

“Let her go,” he said sweetly, his green eyes glinting in the light of the fire.

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