Thimblewinter by MIles Dominic

Author:MIles, Dominic [MIles, Dominic]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2016-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

By late afternoon the next day we were hidden in woods above a crossroads just at the foot of the mountain. We’d cut through here on our way down to the Rock and Fountain on our journey out, dropping down off the mountain tracks onto what had once been paved road, then through the crossroads, picking up the main road down this side of the valley. Then, the houses at the crossroads had been empty, or at least, had showed no signs of life, but now from where we had halted we could see the smoke of two fires and what seemed to be some kind of barricade drawn up across the road.

“They’ve chosen well,” Cal said, “we can’t take the vehicles past on the land-ward side, the country is too broken up and the river meadows on the valley side are too sodden to take any weight.”

We did not know who they were. They seemed to be organised into some kind of band. The sergeant scanned the barricade though his binoculars and told us that he could see a junk heap of old carts and other vehicles pushed into an old lime quarry just off the road and under the slope of the hill. The sergeant did not choose to guess at the fate of the former owners of these, but even I had little hope for them.

“It looks like they’ve set up some sort of customs post,” the sergeant went on, “as if they’ve staked out territory.”

The Constable told us that there had once been a toll-house there, a few hundred years ago and he indicated a round building on the cross, but for once I paid little heed to him as my mind was on this other thing.

“I reckon there’s no more than a dozen,” the sergeant said. Then he went into a huddle with Cal, the Constable and the others, leaving Mrs. Sharma and I over by the vehicles, while Nes, some way up the slope of the hill, was observing the barricade. I, meanwhile, was watching our new companion, the new member of our party.

She had appeared in the morning, just as we were set to leave the Rock and Fountain, appearing out of the mist that rose along the course of the river, wraith –like, shrouded in a shawl, with a rucksack and a bundle of sticks wrapped in an old torn canvas. She had a quiet conversation with the Constable and he beckoned her over to the embers of the fire. He then announced to us that she had asked to accompany us and he had agreed. The sergeant didn’t say anything, but later, when we climbed in the Land Rover Cal asked:

“Was that wise, Richard?” People never seemed to call the Constable by his first name, so I knew this was a serious question.

The Constable shrugged: “She’s looking for her sister and her niece. What could I say to her? There’s no-one else going up-valley.”

The issue was left at that. Rowena, as the woman was called, had climbed up in the Land Rover with us and sat next to me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.