Do But Themselves Confound - Episode 8

“I really do not see why we have to keep moving all of the time!”  Aefelthrith sulked.  She had been sound asleep and had been dragged, very reluctantly, from her bed when the cart had arrived.

“Now then, Ethel, don’t take on, eh?”  Gwladys frowned at ‘Ethel’ and put her finger to her lips.

“Humph!” Aefelthrith folded her arms and scuffed, what remained of, her fine shoes against the cart floor.  “Why did we have to leave now?” She pouted.

“Because, Ethel” Gwladys began, with great patience, “Carter Jim here only comes by this way once a week and so it was most fortuitous that we were able get a lift with him, today.  Isn’t that right, Jim?”  She smiled warmly at the Carter, who nodded back amiably.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Aefelthrith was still sulking.

“To the coast, as good fortune would have it.  This is the Coast Road, apparently, and Carter Jim will take us right up to the harbour.  Won’t that be good?” Gwladys gave ‘Ethel’ a thin smile.

“I still don’t see why…”  Aefelthrith began, but was halted in mid-sentence by Gwladys grabbing her arm and dragging her to the back of the cart.  “What DO you think you’re doing!”  Aefelthrith asked, indignantly.

“I’m tryin’ to stop yer givin’ the game away!  ‘e may be a bit simple but ‘e’s got ears right enough.  Now listen, we’ve got to keep on movin’ ‘cause we need to put as many miles as we can between us and the last town.  Alright?” Gwladys hissed.

“I’m sure no-one is going to come all the way out here…”

“Yeah, but yer don’t KNOW that, though, d’yer?  We killed a watchman…”

“Well, to be perfectly accurate, YOU killed a watchman” Aefelthrith sniffed.

“Oh, that’s the way it’s goin’ to be, is it?  What ‘appened to lookin’ out fer each other, then, eh?”  Gwladys had a face like thunder.

“I was just saying…”

“Oh, I know what yer were sayin’ missy!”  Gwladys turned from her and made a point of studying the passing countryside, intently.

The cart rumbled on, as the two women sat in a frosty silence.

“My point” Aefelthrith felt that she had to break the silence, “was that I rather doubt that anyone is going to launch a search party this far away” 

Gwladys turned around and glowered at ‘Ethel’.

“Look, missy, let me tell you as ‘ow this might all work out, right?”  Gwladys hissed, “say they find the body an’ they realise it’s their missing watchman?  So they asks around and mebbe offers a reward or summat for information.  ‘Ow long do yer think it would be afore them two girls comes forward and tells them about us, eh?”

“Oh, surely they wouldn’t do that?  You gave them money and they promised not to tell!”

“Ar, but we ain’t there no more, are we, an’ they could get more money fer tellin’.  So now the Watch is lookin’ fer two women, right?  Strangers to the town, as it might be, an’ no-one’s seen ‘em fer a day or two.  Our landlady, she’d come round an’ say as ‘ow we’ve skipped off without payin’ ‘er rent.  So they start lookin’ outside the town…”

“I’m sure if we explained the circumstances…” Aefelthrith said, hopefully.

“Ha!  Fat lot of good that’d do us.” Gwladys shook her head, ruefully, “Oh, you’d be alright.  They’d take yer fer a gentlewoman an’ you’d prob’ly get off scot-free, but me, they’d ‘ang me as soon as look at me!”

“Surely not!” Aefelthrith was appalled.

“That’s ‘ow it is, missy.  So, if yer don’t want to see old Gwladys a-bobbin’ on a gibbet, I reckon yer need to do as I say.  Now, we’re ‘eading for a coastal town, a port as may be, an’ that’s a good thing”

“Why?”

“’Cause there’s always people comin’ and goin’ in ports, all sorts of people, so a couple of strange women ain’t going’ to attract no attention.  Also, there’s plenty of tradin’ as goes on in ports, so we should be able to sell a few of these bits what we’ve got”

“I’m just tired and worn down with running away all of the time!” Aefelthrith sobbed, “it’s been days since I have had a proper meal.  My clothes and footwear are in tatters.  I haven’t washed myself properly in an age!  And I don’t see why I had to be the maid back at that old woman’s house” Aefelthrith had the facial expression of someone who sucks lemons for a living.

“I know yer tired an’ ‘ungry, lovey, an’ I wish it were different, I do, ‘onest!”  Gwladys said, with feeling, “an ‘as fer yer bein’ the maid, well, yer wouldn’t ‘ave known the right things to say now, would yer?  We’d ‘ave ‘ad the Watch on our backs as soon as yer could say ‘knife’”

“Knife?”

“Yeah, just like that.”  Gwladys nodded, “Look, if we’re goin’ to get through this all right, we’re goin’ to ‘ave to work as a team, right?  Watch each other’s backs an’ that.  Which means yer goin’ to ‘ave to trust me if we’re workin’ with…common folk, type of thing”

“Like that woman back there?”

“Yep.  An’ if as ‘ow we’re ‘avin’ to deal with the gentry, perhaps…” Gwladys began.

“Then I can lead the way!”  Aefelthrith said, brightly.

“Well…mebbe” Gwladys conceded, dubiously.

The cart rolled on, lurching from time to time as it navigated a pothole or two.

“There’s one more thing about going to a port…” Gwladys began.

“Wha’s that?” Aefelthrith yawned.  She was attempting to organise a make-shift bed from a few old sacks she had found.

“If things don’t go right, we could catch a ship”

Aefelthrith stopped her preparations and looked at Gwladys with surprise.

“Catch a ship?”

“Yeah, could be.” Gwladys nodded.

“To go where?”

“I dunno!  Foreign parts, mebbe”

“Foreign parts?  I can’t go abroad!” Aefelthrith sounded shocked, “Why should I go abroad?”

“Yer the one what wanted to stop runnin’.” Gwladys pointed out, with a wry smile, “No chance of the Watch followin’ us abroad now, is there?” 

The cart rumbled on, bound for the sea and, possibly, foreign parts.

Catch up with the rest of the story in this collection:  The Chronicles of a Lady (and her Maid)