Shadow on the Highway Read Online Free PDF Page B

doubtfully, and every villager shook her head, until by the end I was so hunched and sullen that nobody would even look twice. I could have borne it all, except for their pity – that I could not endure.
    Ralph squeezed my hand. ‘It’s hard for Mother with the two little ones since Father was killed. She despaired when nobody would give you a chance. And you wouldn’t do that to her would you? Give up at the first try?’
    I pictured the hopeful look on Mother’s face, when we’d tried to find work, and the thought of it tugged at my heart. It was my fault we had lost everything and I just couldn’t bear to think of failing her again. Ralph was right. It wouldn’t be fair to give up so soon. After all, nobody else had ever offered me any sort of work.
    I squared my chin and took a deep breath. ‘But I didn’t ask for leave.’
    ‘A month’s trial, that’s what’s usual,’ Ralph said.
    ‘What will they say, though when I go back?’
    ‘Don’t worry. I’ll talk them round.’ He squeezed my arm and I believed him. Things never looked so bad when my big brother was there. Before I knew it we were on the road and Ralph was talking, to keep me from thinking. He knew I had to keep watching his face and hands in case I missed anything. ‘It will only be for a while anyway. In a few years we’ll have our new Digger community running, and you can join with us. Once the trouble’s died down. And I’m telling you, there’s bound to be trouble.’ It sounded as though he relished it.
    ‘Wait.’ I was breathless trying to keep up with his stride and to read his words as we walked. We stopped then and leaned up against a wall. ‘Tell me,’ I said. ‘Tell me again. I didn’t understand it all. What trouble?’
    ‘Some of us are settling on common land, ours by right. They call us the Diggers, because we’ll dig the land ourselves and make our own living in service to no-one.’
    ‘What land? You don’t own any land, do you?’
    ‘This land.’ He stamped his feet up and down in the grass. ‘God’s land. We’ll plough the common land that belongs to us all. Cultivate it and live from it. People have already tried it in Wycombe and in Iver, led by a man called Winstanley. I’m telling you, it’s the only way forward. Jacob and I are going to see Winstanley next week.’
    ‘But taking common land – doesn’t that make you as bad as them? As bad as the landlord who takes our best grain, as bad as the Fanshawes?’
    ‘No, you don’t understand. Any of us can work it, that’s the point. It’s common land, for the common people.’ He ran his hand through his hair, opened his eyes wide and spread out his arms as if he would blast me away with his idea. ‘It belongs to us all, every man whatever his position in life. There’ll be no buying or selling, no profiteering. Each man can take what he needs. Everything will be held in common.’
    No buying or selling? I took a step back. I couldn’t imagine it, that people could survive that way. Just the idea was frightening. How would they get soap, or linen, or laces if they didn’t buy them? I pulled up a grass stalk, sucked on the sappy root. ‘I can’t think it will go down well with the Sheriff. Who will he tithe, if not us?’
    Ralph shook his head at me in frustration. ‘Look, it’s a new idea, see? It’s simple. We just share everything, work together for the common good. If someone has flour and another needs it, they can just help themselves. Won’t that be fine! They tried it on St George’s Hill, Winstanley’s men, but folk came and fired their houses. But fast as they tread us down we spring up again, like the corn.’
    ‘And what about Jacob, is he for it?’
    ‘He’s right behind it.’
    I let this sink in. If Jacob believed in it, it couldn’t be all bad.
    Ralph strode about, warming to his theme. ‘There’s about twenty of us, mostly young folk, but some older ones too that fought in the last skirmish for Parliament, ones