Moon Cutters
Authors: Janet Woods
Table of Contents
Recent Titles by Janet Woods from Severn House
AMARANTH MOON
BROKEN JOURNEY
CINNAMON SKY
THE COAL GATHERER
EDGE OF REGRET
HEARTS OF GOLD
LADY LIGHTFINGERS
I’LL GET BY
MOON CUTTERS
MORE THAN A PROMISE
PAPER DOLL
SALTING THE WOUND
SECRETS AND LIES
THE STONECUTTER’S DAUGHTER
STRAW IN THE WIND
TALL POPPIES
WITHOUT REPROACH
Janet Woods
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First published in Great Britain 2013 by
SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of
9-15 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM1 1DF.
First published in the USA 2014 by
SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS of
110 East 59
th
Street, New York, N.Y. 10022
eBook edition first published in 2014 by Severn House Digital an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited
Copyright © 2013 by Janet Woods.
The right of Janet Woods to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Woods, Janet, 1939- author.
Moon Cutters.
1. Sisters–Fiction. 2. Orphans–Fiction.
I. Title
823.9’2-dc23
ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8335-3 (cased)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-478-2 (ePub)
Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.
This ebook produced by
Palimpsest Book Production Limited,
Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland.
1840s
‘Gerrout of here, you thieving beggar!’
Keeping a tight hold of the loaf of bread she carried, Miranda dodged under the scrubbed wooden table and out through the kitchen door, knowing that the stout cook could do little more than waddle.
But she’d underestimated the prowess of the cook’s throwing arm and aim. The wooden rolling pin bounced off Miranda’s head with some force and for a moment her knees gave way under her. Lake, trees and the fancy house spun around her and she felt sick.
Miranda remembered that Lucy was waiting for her in the woods, and her sister was fevered. She gritted her teeth against the throbbing inside her skull. She had to escape and find them shelter for the night.
Drawing in some air, she managed to run. She tried to keep in a straight line as she followed her own footprints through the snow, but it was hard work and her legs began to buckle. As she made for the line of trees, the landscape slowly revolved. Earlier, the low mist had turned the crusty white landscape into watery slush. Now the mist had lifted and a chill wind blew. It stung her with ice needles borne on the wind. Breath scoured through her throat, and her body jittered with shivers. Miranda had never felt so cold.
Behind her, the cook kept on screeching. It reminded her of a gaudy parrot in an exotic land – a story her mother had once told her.
The immediate past seemed so far away now: the cozy house they’d once lived in, the father who’d died falling from a horse, and their mother – turned out by the new estate manager and losing her life while giving birth to a stillborn infant. Passing strangers had done the rest, robbing them of everything of value.
They were tired and hungry, and Miranda doubted if she could go any further … especially now Lucy seemed to be sickening for something.
As she neared the trees, she heard the shrill whinny of a horse and the excited bark of dogs. She closed her eyes.
‘Please God, don’t let them catch us,’ she prayed, but although she could run fast, Miranda knew she’d never be able to outrun a horse or a dog.
She managed to gain the shelter of the woods and staggered on to where she’d left her sister, seated on a fallen log.
Lucy stood when she saw her. Her face creased up, as it did when she was going to cry, her eyes widened and her teeth chattered. ‘You have blood on your face.’
Picking up the hem of her skirt, Miranda wiped the blood away. ‘It’s a scratch, that’s all,’ she said, and the fright drained from Lucy’s eyes.
‘Did they give you something for us to eat and drink?’
There was a rattling growl behind them and she turned to find a lurcher standing there. It was a handsome dog with a rough hairy coat and a lean body designed for speed. Another came to the left of her and growled softly in its throat. She saw the third one a little to her right, obviously endowed with the same parental mix. With the tree at her back, the dogs had her trapped.
Dread filled her. She wouldn’t be able to outrun them.
Lucy gave a little whimper and clung to her skirt. ‘Quickly, climb on to my shoulders and into the tree,’ Miranda whispered, and her sister clambered over her with alacrity.
Miranda had no time to join Lucy on the branch; besides, it wouldn’t take both their weights.
The dogs edged closer, yellow teeth bared and offering her rattling growls. Miranda daren’t turn her back on them. Slowly bending from the knees, and not taking her eyes off the dogs, she groped around and picked up a stout stick. As she straightened, her head swam. She’d hardly righted herself when the first dog took a run at her. Judging it nicely, she rapped the stick sharply across its snout. It yelped loudly and backed away, pawing at its nose. The two beasts on her flanks attacked at the same time, as though they’d rehearsed it.
Borne to the ground by the weight of the dogs and trying to prevent the snapping teeth from tearing at her flesh, Miranda screamed and gathered the shawl round her head. The dog’s teeth sank into her thigh, and at the same time her arm was gripped. She lashed out with the stick in her free hand. Above her in the pine tree, Lucy gave terrified moan.
The dogs pulled Miranda every which way, and above the snarls and screams she could hear the ripping noises as they worried at her clothing and tried to pull away the old shawl she wore, to get at her throat. One of them snatched the stick from her hand.
There came the thud of a horse’s hooves, followed by a lively curse. ‘Come here, the lot of you. Nero. Drop her! You too, Roma.’
Blessedly, the snapping, snarling teeth were withdrawn.
‘Caesar. Leave that bloody stick alone and sit.
Sit
, I say!’
Footsteps scrunched through the soggy remains of the autumn leaves. The blanket was flicked aside with a braided-leather riding crop.
Everything swam as Miranda struggled into a sitting position. There seemed to be two of him. Two pairs of dark eyes gazed at her; two heads, with grey-flecked dark hair as tossed as a stormy sea, slowly came together as one.
One of the dogs dropped the stick in front of her and wagged its tail. When the man grabbed it up from the dog and threw it as far as it would go, the animals went bounding after it.
The man leaped from the saddle. ‘You’re bleeding, girl.’
‘Your dogs attacked me.’ She hugged the loaf of bread against her chest, slightly warm, moist and smelling of yeast, so that her mouth watered despite the predicament they were in.
‘They wouldn’t have touched you if you hadn’t hurt their pup. They’re trained to flush out the prey, not kill it.’
‘That’s a pup? It looks as big as a lion.’
‘Yes, I suppose he does. He’s not technically a pup, just
their
pup. Isn’t that right, Caesar?’ The dog wagged its tail at the mention of its name. ‘Come, girl, I’ll help you stand and we’ll go back to the house.’
As soon as he laid a hand on her, Lucy’s smaller figure hurtled down from the pine tree. She landed on the man’s back, sending a surprised huff of air from his mouth. She began to pummel him. ‘Leave my sister alone, else I’ll tell the soldiers and they’ll come and shoot you.’
He rolled his eyes, clearly exasperated. ‘You didn’t have to try to break my back, young lady. If you’d waited, I would have lifted you down. I daresay the soldiers would enjoy having an excuse to come here and make a salmagundi out of the place. Last week Nero ripped the arse out of the breeches of one of them, so I must make sure I stay out of their way.’
When the man began to rise, Lucy slid to the ground and scrambled over to where Miranda sat, her face screwed up with anxiety. Miranda couldn’t bear to see her sister worried, so put an arm around her and held her close. Lucy’s heat reached out to her and she had red fever patches on her face.
Miranda’s head ached and blackness crowded in. She fought it, even though the thought of having someone else take responsibility for her and her sister was almost overwhelming.
‘Allow me to see how badly injured you are. Are your ribs painful?’ the man said, and when Lucy kicked out at him again, he told her, ‘It will be dark in an hour or so. If you don’t behave yourself, I’ll leave you here. I won’t hurt the pair of you, you know.’
‘Enough, Lucy,’ Miranda whispered, because she was all but spent and she sensed nothing sinister about this man, despite his air of toughness.
Indeed, his fingers were gentle against her scalp as he parted her hair. He probed the cut on her head before murmuring, ‘That might need a stitch or two.’
Lucy burst into tears and snuggled close to her for comfort. She was shivering now, even though her face was hot. She began to cough. When she finished the spasm, she was exhausted and whispered, ‘I’m thirsty. Shall I eat the snow? It’s all dirty here and it makes my tummy feel like being sick.’
The man laid the back of his hand against Lucy’s face and told Miranda what was obvious. ‘Your sister is feverish.’
Miranda screwed up her eyes, trying to discover whether he was young or old. He was in his fifties perhaps. ‘You won’t hurt her, will you? She has a fever and needs help. It doesn’t matter about me. A few dog bites will soon heal.’
‘Unless they become infected – which they will if they’re left untreated.’ For a moment, she saw his face clearly. He wasn’t exactly handsome. His features were firm, his expression stern, so you knew he would not take any nonsense from anybody. But his eyes, despite their dark secretive depths, were filled with concern. ‘What should I do with you both? Custom dictates you should be handed over to the authorities?’
‘They’ll put us in a workhouse. Or, worse still, prison.’
‘Prison? Have you committed a crime, then?’
She handed him the loaf of bread, now squashed, dirty and wet. ‘We were hungry.’
‘Hmmm … I suppose they would send you to prison, then. Both places are overrun with unloved and unwanted children, so two more won’t make much difference. The board is governed by pompous, flatulent fellows with fat stomachs.’
Her splutter of laughter earned a chuckle from him and his eyes were filled with amusement. ‘Perhaps I should tell you that I’m one of them, and a magistrate as well.’
Her heart sank, but she rallied enough to say, ‘And perhaps I should tell you we were neither unloved nor unwanted but are perfectly respectable orphans. Why are the soldiers interested in you if you’re a magistrate?’
‘I’ve never met anyone who described themselves as perfectly respectable orphans before.’ He slanted his head to one side and smiled. ‘I don’t believe I suggested you were otherwise. I suppose you could also be described as a perfectly respectable thief, with my loaf of bread tucked under your arm and still steaming from the oven. What have you got to say to that?’
She thought for a moment, then said, ‘Well … there is thieving out of necessity and there is thieving because one can.’
‘Good grief – such logic from such a small female! I shall have to find you a seat on the reform board. Oh, don’t look so worried, girl. I will listen to your tale of woe when I get round to it, and we shall work things out to our mutual satisfaction. Once you have a roof over your head and a meal in your stomachs, you’ll feel more lively.’