Alchemy and Meggy Swann Read Online Free PDF

wax spattered Meggy's hand. "I gave him no leave to go."
    "Shall I—"
    "Fie upon him!" And the man turned and went back up the stairs, leaving Meggy alone in the dark.
    "But ... but ... but..." Meggy said. She sat down and examined the wax on her hand. It hurt, she thought, so I must be here, even if he does not see me.
    To quiet her hunger, she laid herself down on her pallet, although late-day light still peeked through the dirt on the windows. But her mistemper kept her from sleep. The man had sent for her and now ignored her. He was cold as a codfish, an unfeeling lout, a stale old mouse-nibbled piece of dried cheese. She had not expected much of this sudden father, but she had gotten even less. She would not stay with him. But where would she go? How could she survive? She had already made a bumble of her search for something to eat.
    Her legs tormented her, her scratches and scrapes stung, and her stomach rumbled like a cart. The house was full of strange noises—creaking of timbers and rattling of windows, footsteps thudding on the floorboards above, the whispers of men who came and went in the dark. What would befall her here? Hot tears began again. I weep so much of late, she thought, 'tis as if I carry an onion in my sleeve.
    At last she fell into a fretful sleep and dreamed of sausages that teased and tempted and then ran from her. Startled, Meggy woke to singing at the window, but it proved only the watchman on his rounds. "Twelve o'clock," he cried, "look well to your lock, your fire and your light, and so good night." She slept again, feeling not quite so alone. And thus ended Meggy's second day in the house at the Sign of the Sun.
    She woke to soft rain. She stretched, and her belly rumbled with hunger. She had seen London. She had seen beggars and sailors and women with skirts like great seagoing ships, hobbyhorse peddlers and ballad sellers and pigs' heads on sticks, but she had seen little she wanted and no place where she belonged. She berated God and Roger, fortune and her father, for leaving her helpless and unwanted in this place.
    When next she saw Master Peevish, she would address him. "Your pardon, sir, I have been awondering wherefore you sent for me" would be the most polite utterance, "I thought you wished me here, but you do not, and what am I to do now?" the most disappointed, and "Oh ye toads and vipers, you are as poor a parent as my mother. I wish my gran were alive" the most true.
    Louise hissed a hiss that meant she wished to visit the garden plot next door for her breakfast. "Pray remember to eat some grit for your gizzard," Meggy told her as they went out, "lest your belly ache."
    Louise honked in agreement.
    As they tarried in the garden, a small boy came out of the cooper's shop and called, "Be that your goose?"
    He was a stranger, but a very small stranger, with ears like a jug and the same red hair as the cooper. He did not seem to have a store of stones handy, nor was he poised to flee.
    Meggy nodded. "Aye. I call her Louise. And who might you be?"
    "I am Nicholas," he said. "I have no goose, but I do have me a horse. This is Charger." He presented a small horse carved of wood and gaily painted. "He is a mighty steed and runs fast as the wind."
    Meggy went closer. "'Pon my honor," she said, "he looks very swift indeed."
    The boy watched her walk up to him, stick, swing, drag. "Why do you walk with sticks?"
    He did not ask in a taunting manner but quite simply, and Meggy surprised herself by answering in the same way. "Their strength makes up for my weak legs."
    "Why does your goose ever have her wings spread out like that?"
    "Louise is as lame as I am. She cannot fold her wings against her," Meggy said, "and she cannot fly. We are condemned to walk this earth with the same waddling gait. Belike that is why we be such friends."
    "I would that I waddled also," said the boy, taking a few waddling steps.
    "Nay, do not say that. I know I would rather walk, and certes Louise would fly if