He hitched his
horse and climbed Honey Hill. At the plateau he stopped to catch
his breath. Pines blocked most of his view of the lookout post near
the cabin but just in case the Constable was in it, the Landlord
waved his arm back and forth in one long arc. He then continued up
the slope to the top and immediately saw the farm below.
The property was a
good size, several acres, with a large barn and a house. There were
rows and rows of crops growing in the field behind the barn. He
could make out tall corn stalks supporting rows of beans. It was
far too much food for one man. The Landlord knew all the crop
distributors between Andrastyne and New Key and the old man was not
one of them.
He watched as the
door to the barn suddenly opened and one of the orchard children,
one of the daughters, emerge. She had blonde hair and, despite her
baggy trousers, he could see she had a good figure. She filled a
bucket from the cistern and went back inside. From this distance he
couldn’t be sure it was the same one; he seemed to recall that at
least two of them had been blonde. Still, he could call her up in
his mind in a heartbeat. How beautiful she was, how she stole into
this thoughts more nights than not, even those nights when he
wasn’t alone. And there was no parent hovering over her now.
Well, there’s the
old man. He must be the relative, he thought, remembering what PC
Pierre had told him. Figures they’d be related to a crazy old coot
like that.
He watched the
property for a while longer but no one else appeared. The sun had
almost set by the time he reached Jonathan. He headed towards the
Constable’s cabin; he would go to the farm tomorrow morning.
___
With the
Constable’s return Pater had been about to descend the lookout post
when he caught sight of a figure descending Honey Hill. He
recognized him in an instant. There wasn’t a person in the county
who didn’t know who the Landlord was. He was the man who had kicked
the children off the orchard and made them his responsibility.
He kept sight of
him as he rode along the road and turned down the side trail that
led to the Constable’s cabin.
Pater wasn’t sure
what to do. It had already taken this long for the Constable to
show up and he couldn’t go to see him now that the Landlord had
shown up; he didn’t want that man knowing his business. But why was
he there? Was he trying to steal his land? His soul ached for a
drink. Titania wasn’t going to be happy with him.
By the time he
reached the bottom of the ladder Pater’s mind was already at his
still, deep in the woods on the other side of Honey Hill.
___
Long grasses
zippered open and closed around Jones as he moved through the
valley. Every so often he had leapt onto a boulder or scrambled up
a tree to check his progress. Less than two hours after he’d left
his sister and brother, Jones stood at the base of the cliff. The
familiar crooked pine tree hung above him. Beyond that tree was the
orchard. Home.
Jones wasn’t
unhappy on the farm. But neither had he been unhappy at the
orchard. Like his sister, he was calm and observant and not much
fazed him. He had more freedom here; he and Bull came and went as
they pleased, going where the game went. When he wasn’t with Bull
he was free to be with any of his other sisters and brothers or
alone if he chose. But something about the farm wasn’t right. A
feeling wasn’t there. The farm didn’t feel like home.
Jones searched for
signs of his father’s body. Blood stains. Fabric. Bone. He found
nothing but he knew that didn’t necessarily mean anything. There
was a thick, springy bed of water moss at the base of the cliff.
Jones jumped up and down on it a few times. If Pa had landed on it,
in just the right way, he could have survived the fall. His father
could be alive but he could just as easily be dead, killed by a
predator and his body dragged away. The heavy spring rains would
have washed away any remaining evidence.
Jones sat down to
think. He leaned against a boulder facing the cliff edge and
watched as turkey vultures glided above him. The sun was bright and
he shut his eyes.
He opened them to
someone he’d never seen before. A woman with a wide face was
looking down at him. She held a large pruning knife at her side,
the point of its curved blade facing upwards. He scrambled to his
feet.
"Who are you?" she
asked.
Jones had
instinctively calculated his escape route but the moment he moved
she appeared in front of him. He tried another route; she beat him
to it.
"So," she said,
"you’re one of us. A defective."
"No! We’re
not!"
"We?"
"I’m not," he
said, flushing.
She apprised him.
He was skinny and had a narrow face and dark brown, almost black
hair, slicked back with sweat. His eyes were green, like her
brother’s.
"Your name is
Jones, isn’t it? You’re, let’s see, number six. You were born a
minute ahead of your sister Jelly."
Jones backed up a
pace. The woman moved forward a step.
"You can’t run
from me. Besides," the woman said, sheathing the knife, "don’t you
want to see your Pa?"
___
Jelly and Forest
scouted for plants while they waited for Jones to return. They
stopped for lunch when the sun was overhead. They could only carry
so much back so they’d carefully selected which plants to bring
with them. As they’d foraged Jelly had marked down other plants’
locations so that they could find them on future trips.
"Too bad we don’t
have a Josephine," Forest said.
"Or a horse," said
Jelly. "A horse might be better."
"Horses are
expensive. Why do you think the Constable rides a mule?"
"Oh I think he
likes Josephine," she said. She munched on clover flowers. "You
know, Narrow might be able to come up with something."
"Like what?"
"I don’t know. But
he’s always got an idea for something. Just like Pa used to."
Forest finished
his lunch and glanced in the direction of the cliff, far across the
valley floor.
"I wonder where he
is?"
"He’s all right,"
said Jelly. Ever since they could remember, the twins had had a
sense of each other, as though they were still physically joined.
Another heart that beat a second ahead of her own.
___
Marvellous helped
Jones up the cliff face and walked him to the press house where he
was enveloped in his father’s arms. He couldn’t breathe very well
but he didn’t care. It was wonderful to see his father again. He
smelled better than he remembered.
"The boy can’t
breathe, Hap," said Marvellous. Hap started and jumped back holding
onto Jones’ shoulders.
"I’m sorry, son!
Are you okay?"
"I’m fine,
Pa."
They hugged again,
gentler this time.
When each had
caught the other up and Jones had told his father that Jelly and
Forest were waiting for him in the valley, Hap leapt from his
seat.
"I’ll come back
with you," he said. "It’ll be a surprise!"
"Hap," Marvellous
said, "think about it. You wouldn’t be able to keep up with Jones!
It’d be dawn before you reached the other side."
"You could come
back with me, though," Jones said without thinking. He looked at
Marvellous; he liked her. "You kept up with me."
"What do you
mean?" Hap asked.
"Marvellous. She’s
as fast as me!" Jones said.
"This is news to
me," Hap said. "Since when?"
"Since always Hap.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about each other."
"Okay, well, now
that I know you have to go! Please, please! Find my children,
Marvellous! Tell them I’m okay and that I’ll see them as soon as I
can."
Hap started to
cry. Jones stood up and hugged his father.
"It’s okay
Pa."
Her brain raced
forward. If the Landlord returned to the orchard and failed to find
her there, found only Hap instead, there was no telling what he
might do. Then again, the Constable hadn’t been gone that long.
That probably meant that she had some time before the Landlord
found out. Could she afford to chance it? The children meant
everything to her brother and he had come to trust her completely.
If he couldn’t see the children for himself, she was the next best
thing. The thought of a longer journey was also appealing. Since
being at the orchard Marvellous had raced around the property,
slaloming through the pearl apple trees more than once, relishing
the feel of the wind rushing by her. In the end, and for no other
reason than the cat was out of the bag, she relented.
She packed a few
things and thought about what Hap had told her about the children,
their personalities and their defects. He’d called them talents. He
hadn’t said if any of them were sensors — Jones certainly wasn't —
but for their own protection Marvellous hid her thoughts from view.
She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment.
"I’ll be back by
sunrise tomorrow," she promised her brother. Jones led her
back.
___
PC Pierre was
unloading the cart when the Landlord rode into the yard.
"Ah Pierre, good,
you’re here," he said. He dismounted.
"Yes sir. How was
your trip to New Key?"
"Oh you heard
about that, did you? I suppose my aunt told you?"
"No sir. Your
barman told me when I asked. Mrs. Baker only told me that you'd
taken Jonathan on the ferry with you." The Constable nodded to the
Landlord's large black horse that stood silently behind his
rider.
"Did she? I’ll be
staying the night. If you don’t mind."
"Not at all. I
have something to discuss with you anyway."
The Landlord half
expected the Constable to offer to tend his horse but he had turned
and walked into the cabin carrying a crate. He was chopping onions
when the Landlord returned from stabling Jonathan. The Landlord
took a seat then removed a flask from his inside jacket pocket and
sipped.
"So, what’s this
you have to tell me?"
PC Pierre tossed
the onions into a frying pan. They sizzled in a pond of hot fat. He
added water, then some dried venison and vegetables and let it
simmer.
"Hap is alive," he
said.
"Hap? Orchard Hap?
You told me he fell off the cliff."
"He did but
somehow survived the fall. He’s back at the orchard. The woman you
hired, Marvellous, found him. He seems to have lost his memory.
When I questioned him he said that until he returned to the orchard
he had no memory from before the accident."
PC Pierre saw the
Landlord narrow his eyes. He was getting impatient.
"As you know sir
the duty to land laws are quite clear about productivity," he
continued. "Hap already knows the orchard and Marvellous agreed to
the arrangement. At least until I could inform you."
The Landlord
relaxed his shoulders and leaned back in his chair. He should know
better than to think the Constable would do anything against the
law.
"But how did he
get there?"
"Marvellous told
me that she found him by the edge of the cliff. He must have
climbed back up."
"Well, well, this
is interesting."
"Interesting
sir?"
"That I find out
that Hap is alive on the same day that I see his children," he
said. "Yes, Pierre I found out where you put them. Well, one of
them at least. But if there’s one, the others can’t be far away."
Like rats, he thought. "I stopped by Honey Hill and got a good view
of that farm. An old man used to live there if I remember."
When PC Pierre
didn’t respond the Landlord said, "He’s the relative."
"Yes sir."
"Hap always was
good with the apples," said the Landlord, stroking his chin. He
needed a shave; his fingers made a rasping sound as they moved over
his face. "It’s a pity you don’t drink, Pierre. Hap’s cider was the
best I’ve ever tasted."
"I’ve had his
fresh cider, sir, and I agree. Best around."
Hap, the Landlord
thought, was the type of sap who would want his children back and
that would mean more money; a man with children had to be paid the
county family labour rate but Marvellous worked at a fraction of
that. But the thought of going back to, potentially, subpar cider
didn’t appeal to him either. He had always fetched a premium for
Hap’s cider that more than made up for the extra labour costs and
he had hated to lose it.
The Constable
stirred the meat and vegetables. PC Pierre liked Hap. He was a good
man but easily distracted and before his wife died she’d kept him
focused on what he needed to do. From what he’d seen of their
relationship at the orchard Marvellous had picked up where Mary had
left off. Without her to look out for him and the children, the
Landlord would take advantage of them wherever he could.
He had a pretty
good idea of just how much money the Landlord had lost without Hap
and was counting on the Landlord being greedy enough to take him
and the children back. He wasn’t as sure that he would keep
Marvellous. If all else failed, what he knew of the unpaid bonuses
could help him broker a deal that helped everyone.
PC Pierre ladled
the stew onto plates and set them on the table. The Landlord
reached into his pocket, withdrew a small container of salt and
sprinkled it liberally over the food. They ate in silence.
The Landlord
thought about the man who owned the farm. He remembered him as
being old all those years ago; he must be ancient by now. If the
children were sent back to the orchard, it wouldn’t take much to
dispatch the geezer and snatch the land. The farm would make a
handy stopping point on the way to New Key and he could move
Marvellous to it and let Hap and his brood tend his orchard.
"Very nice Pierre.
Thank you."
As the Constable
took the dishes and began to wash up, the Landlord picked a piece
of meat from between his teeth, inspected it then popped it back in
his mouth and swallowed.