At the Crossing Places Read Online Free PDF Page B

said. “Winnie last week! And now this Gatty! Who next?”
    By the time Gatty and Izzie had come back up to the hall, Lady Judith had already wished me a peaceful night and retired to her solar. Gatty yawned and pulled the sacking off her head; her fair curls gleamed in the candlelight. Then she yawned for a second time.
    â€œYou haven’t seen half,” I said. “I’ll show you in the morning.”
    Across the fire, Gatty looked at me, worn out, wistful; then she buried her face in her bolster.
    I had planned to show her my writing-room, and creep into Lady Judith’s solar and show her the wall hanging. I was going to take her down to the dark river because there are stepping-stones right across it, and you can see big trout suspended and gliding just under the water’s skin. And I wanted to ask Gatty about her and Jankin’s betrothal, and whether Lankin was still against it, and everything else that’s happened at Caldicot. It’s already ten days since I left.
    But when she woke up this morning, Gatty had a fever. Her blood was too hot and her nose was streaming, and she said she had a knife in her throat. She just lay by the hall fire and kept shuddering.
    Lady Judith instructed Izzie to boil fennel and mullein and dill in wine, then add a little horehound, and strain it all through a linen cloth.
    â€œDrink it warm,” Lady Judith told Gatty. “It will clear the foggy smoke in your nose and throat, and wash away the harmful slime.” Then Lady Judith glared at me. “This is all most irregular,” she said. “She’d better stay here today.”
    Before midday, I heard rolling cartwheels, and when I ran down to the courtyard I saw Jankin arriving with Easy, our old affer, and my wooden chest.
    â€œJankin!” I called. “She’s here! Gatty’s here!”
    â€œGatty!” exclaimed Jankin, quite amazed. And then he hugged me. “Everyone’s searching for her. The barns. The millpond. The forest. Some people thought she’d been caught in a snare…”
    â€œI knew it.”
    â€œâ€˜Little runt! Stupid reckling!’ That’s what Hum keeps saying.”
    â€œShe slept in the forest.”
    â€œShe didn’t,” said Jankin.
    â€œTwo days in Pike Forest,” I said.
    â€œThe clucking clinchpoop!” said Jankin, grinning.
    â€œShe is,” I said. “And she’s a crock of mucus. She’s got a fever.”
    â€œWhere is she, then?”
    I pointed over my shoulder.
    â€œWhat? In the hall?”
    â€œAnd Lady Judith’s looking after her.”
    Jankin shook his head and whistled.
    â€œWhat about your father, then?” I asked.
    â€œNo change,” Jankin replied. “He says he’ll see Hum dead before I marry his daughter. Can I go up?”
    â€œI will first,” I said, and I ran up the circular steps to the solar, and informed Lady Judith of Jankin’s arrival.
    â€œBehold the Hand of God!” Lady Judith exclaimed, and she crossed herself. “He can take Gatty back to Caldicot.”
    â€œJankin and Gatty want to be betrothed,” I said.
    â€œThey’d better get on with it, then,” Lady Judith said, “before some bear snaffles her for breakfast. Make sure Jankin gets something to eat.”
    Gubert gave Jankin bread and three collops and a draft of milk. Then he unloaded my chest and carried it up to my room, and after that we went off to find Rhys in the stables. He let us have a big bundle of wheat straw and some dry sacking, to make a bed for Gatty in the cart.
    â€œBetter than walking,” I said.
    â€œYou ever ridden in a cart?” Jankin asked me. “Bruises every bone in your body.”
    Last night Gatty was too tired to talk, and this morning she felt too ill to talk. But what would we have said anyhow? We never say much, Gatty and I.
    I stood on the back of the cart and stared down at her.
    â€œYou got