With Dismal Stories - Episode 6

This is the sequel to 'Who So Beset Her Round'

 

When she thought about it afterwards, which was often, and particularly in the early hours of the morning, she always saw it as a series of disjointed pictures.  As if she was hurrying down a long gallery, barely taking in the framed images flashing past.

The first image was always that of the watchman, uncomfortably close to her face, his stale breath bouncing off her cheeks, that awful leer.  At the same time, she could feel his hands, urgently tugging on her nethergarments.  She could remember the feeling of helplessness, of being totally powerless to do anything to stop what was happening, other than to beg and to shout.  My word, she had shouted, long and hard.

The next picture was that of Gwladys, standing where the watchman had been just a moment before, breathing heavily, looking shocked and clutching a length of wood.

Then there was the final picture, the glance downward at the body lying below, the smashed skull, the blood and fragments of bone.  That was when she always woke, screaming.

At the time, she stared at the last image in utter disbelief, then was violently sick.

“D’yer mind?” One of the girls standing further up the passage asked, sharply, “some of us ‘ave to work ‘ere, you know?”

“What…what are you doing here?” Gwladys asked, still breathing heavily and looking shocked.

“Came out for a breath of fresh air.  Felt faint” Aefelthrith managed, eventually.

“But this is where the girls do their…business!” Gwladys hissed.

“What, like in a garderobe?” Aefelthrith looked even more confused.

“No, not that sort of business.  I mean they’re, well…friendly to men, for money.  Yer know what I mean, don’t yer?”

“I’m not sure that I do” Aefelthrith said, sniffily.

“Well, yer know, like if you were man and wife, only ‘stead of getting a ring an’ all that, cash changes ‘ands, style of thing”

Aefelthrith looked blank.

“Look, you were betrothed weren’t you?  You must have been…you know, intimate sometimes?”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable discussing such things”

“Well, comfortable or not, we’ve got a problem ‘ere and no mistake” Gwladys shook her head.

“Is ‘e dead or what?” The other girl at the end of the passage had wandered down to look at the scene.

“Well, I dunner think many wander about with the back of their ‘ead looking like that!” Gwladys answered, flatly.

“Good riddance!” The second girl had come to join her friend, “’e was always after summat for nowt, if yer know what I mean.  Then ‘e’d want a cut of your takings an’ all.  Bastard!” She spat at the remains.

Gwladys rummaged through the Watchman’s pockets and produced some coins.

“All this’ll muck your night’s business up, won’t it, girls?  Why don’t yer ‘ave this and take the rest of the night off. eh?” She suggested to the girls, handing over a pile of coins.

“Oh, ta!” The first girl grinned, “don’t mind if I do”

“’Cause you ain’t seen nothing, right?” Gwladys asked, looking from one girl to the other.

“Nah, nothing ‘appened ‘ere” the second girl shook her head.

“Ta girls” Gwladys winked at the two, “you pop off and I’ll clear up round ‘ere.”

“What was all that about?” Aefelthrith asked, when the girls had sauntered away.

“Come on, we’ve got to move fast” Gwladys set about dragging the clothes off the former watchman.

“What on Earth are you doing?”

“We need to get rid of owt what’ll say who this bugger is.  Give me an ‘and!”  Aefelthrith held back, appalled, but Gwladys grabbed her arm and dragged her to the corpse.  “You need to get yer finger out, I can’t do this on me own”

Aefelthrith gingerly started to collect up the clothes that Gwladys was hurling to the floor.  After some frenetic activity, the remains of the watchman were stripped naked.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.

“Right!” Gwladys panted, “there’s a bit of a stream just over there.  You an’ me ‘ave got to get ‘im to it, come on!”

Aefelthrith wilted before Gwladys’s commanding tone and was soon dragging the body, with great difficulty, to the bank of the stream.

“We’re in luck!  It’s runnin’ full, and fast” Gwladys said, with relief.

“How does that make a difference?”  Aefelthrith panted.

“It’ll mean that ‘e gets washed away a bit sharpish, which’ll give us a fightin’ chance.  Give us a lift!”

Gwladys and Aefelthrith heaved the body into the rushing water and watched it bob and career away.

“Right, now we’ve got to get crackin’” Gwladys wiped her hands on her skirt, took a deep breath and set off at a rapid pace.

“I think I’m going to be ill again” Aefelthrith gulped.

“Swallow it down an’ gerra move on, we ain’t got time for owt else”

“Why?  Where are we going?” Aefelthrith asked, jogging after her maid.

“Back to the room”

“Oh good, I could do with a rest” Aefelthrith said, with relief.

“You’ll be lucky! No time for that” Gwladys snapped, “we’ve got to get our bags packed and get out the town gate afore they shut it for the night”

“Oh no!  We’re not running again, are we?”

“Case of ‘aving to!  Come on!”

The next hour was a blur to Aefelthrith.  Things were thrown into bags, including the watchman’s clothes and other bits.  Then they were running down the stairs and into the night.  They slipped through the town gates, just as they were being dragged into place.

Once out, on the road, they were able to slow down to a fast walk.

“We should be alright, once we’ve put a bit of distance between us and the town” Gwladys panted.

“I’m feeling a little hungry, actually”

“You can forget that!  I’d got us a nice meal sorted out back in that inn, then you decided to set up in business for yerself”

“I don’t know what you mean!”  Aefelthrith sniffed.

“No, I know you don’t” Gwladys shook her head and sighed, “by and large, I reckon yer not safe to be let out!”

They plodded on, at a brisk rate.

“Just as a matter of interest, why are we running again?”  Aefelthrith asked, between pants.

“We killed someone, didn’t we?” Gwladys stated, “an’ a watchman an’ all”

“Well, to be absolutely accurate, YOU killed someone!” Aefelthrith said, sharply.

Gwladys stopped her furious pace, bent over and gasped for breath for a while.

“So, that’s ‘ow it is, is it?” She managed, eventually, “I did ‘im in, did I?”

“Well, you did!” Aefelthrith said, sulkily.

“Never mind that I was mindin’ me own business, getting’ us summat to eat and drink without a care in the world, but you…you…were gallivantin’ off out when I’d said to yer to stay put!”

“I felt faint” Aefelthrith muttered.

“Faint!” Gwladys snapped, “Faint my ar…”  She stomped off down the road.

“I did!” Aefelthrith said, pleadingly, as she hurried to catch up, “you cannot blame me!”

“Look!”  Gwladys stopped in her tracks and turned to face her ex-employer with a face like thunder, “I ‘eard someone yell ‘Glad’ at the top of their voice, I dropped everythin’ an’ came runnin’ an’ what do I find?  You ‘bout to ‘ave yer virtue taken!  So, I grab a length of wood, belt ‘im across the nut, an’ do I get any thanks?  Do I buggery!”

Aefelthrith stared at this new, assertive Gwladys and felt a little scared, and more than a bit ashamed.

“I…I’m…sorry” She gulped.

“Yeah, well” Gwladys shook her head.

“Could we not have stayed in the town?  No-one saw what we did, except the girls, and they said they wouldn’t say anything” Aefelthrith asked, hopefully.

“An’ ‘ow long do you think that would last, eh?  When that watchman turns up missin’, there’ll be a ‘ue an’ cry, questions asked, prob’ly rewards offered, then what?  Them girls’ll soon forget our ‘andful of coins an’ it’d be all up for us!”

“Oh, I see” Aefelthrith looked crestfallen.

“Look” Gwladys said, noticing Aefelthrith’s expression, “I said I’d look out fer yer, an’ I will, fer as long as I can.  But, you’ve got to ‘elp yerself an’ all, an’ that means keepin’ an eye out, partic’ly when it comes to blokes, ‘cause there’s a lot more like that watchman, an’ they won’t all take ‘no’ fer an answer, if yer get my drift?”

“Yes, I think I understand” Aefelthrith nodded, glumly, “I…I didn’t know what was happening.  I just knew I did not want it to happen”

“Fair enough” Gwladys smiled thinly, and set off again.

After a while, she said,

“You an’ his Lordship, yer were betrothed an’ all that, yeah?”

“Yes, that’s correct” Aefelthrith agreed, as she skipped to keep up.

“Well, you must ‘ave ‘ad, yer know, a bit of…touchin’ an’ stuff, eh?”

Aefelthrith looked blankly at her.

“Kissin’ an’ that?” Gwladys asked, hopefully.

Aefelthrith shook her head, sadly.

“Nothin’?”

More head shaking.

“Yer poor bugger!  No wonder yer didn’t know what was ‘appening with that watchman!”  Gwladys shook her head in appalled wonder, “dunner fret lass, I’ll look after yer ‘onour”

“How about breakfast?”  Aefelthrith asked, hopefully.

“All in good time, lovey, all in good time”

“You know,” Aefelthrith began, thoughtfully, “I think, under very different circumstances of course, I might quite like this…touching and so on?”

“Aye, I think so ‘an all, lovey, but…all in good time, eh?”