Where the Stones Sing (7 page)

‘You’m just be making them worse, I’d say,’ he said in a thick Bristol accent. ‘But if you’m can hold onto any, and help me get them to the stables in Cook Street, I’ll give thee a farthing.’

At this, Kai slid down the bank and went to help Jack. A farthing was not to be sniffed at. Tom sat for a moment. He
was more nervous around horses than he would ever admit to Jack and Kai. In fact, he hated being near them. He had been kicked by one of the mill horses when he was very small, and he had never forgotten the pain and the shock, and the sight of the horse’s red, rolling eyes. He still had nightmares about it. Even now sometimes, after he had been running or jumping, the scar on his knee throbbed and he was reminded yet again of that horrible moment. But he did not want to be left behind. He drew a breath and followed them down.

Kai was used to horses, and did her best to help, and Tom overcame his fear enough to lead one or two of the quieter horses along. But Jack was the star. It seemed he had only to lay his hand on the beasts and whisper in their ears for them to calm down immediately. It was as if he had some special link with the beasts that made them quiet as soon as he touched them. They worked out a system where Jack first soothed each animal and then one of the other children led the beasts to where the groom was ready to drive them to the stables. When the horses were unloaded, they went along with the groom, with Jack circling round the beasts, rather like a sheepdog, thought Kai. Though, unlike a sheepdog, he did not yap or nip, just laid his hands on the horses that looked restive and spoke calmly and encouragingly to them.

‘Where did you learn to do that?’ Kai asked him.

He shrugged. ‘Nowhere. It just comes to me. Maybe my
father was a horse thief!’

‘Or a knight,’ said Kai.

Jack snorted. ‘Say that to Roland and see how he reacts!’

‘This fine herd is going to market on Michealmas, later in the month,’ said the groom. ‘They should fetch good prices.’

Jack was looking longingly at an especially beautiful foal, pure black with a white splash on his forehead. Kai caught his eye and he grinned ruefully. Neither of them would ever have the money to buy such a fine beast.

When they got to the stables, the groom pulled out his purse and doled out a halfpenny to be shared by Kai and a by now rather pale Tom. To Jack, he gave a penny – a whole day’s pay!

‘You saved me a muckle of time and trouble, lad,’ he said. ‘And if you should ever want to work with horses, you come see me and I’ll have a job for you. You have a gift with them that not many have. Not even myself.’

Jack smiled and tossed the penny in the air.

Dinny

ut as the autumn drew on, the children had less time to explore. There were days after the service when Brother Albert would ask one or other of the children to help him in his works of charity around the city, tending the sick and the poor. The canons of the cathedral, unlike many monks, had the right to leave the monastery, and many of them, like Albert, felt it their duty to help where they could. Other monks, such as the ones at Thomas Court and St John the Baptist to the west of the city, brought those who were ill into their monasteries and looked after them there, but the canons of Christ Church went out into the homes of Dublin, bringing food and
medicines
and warm clothes. Kai did not mind going out with Brother Albert. He was always so cheerful, even when he had to face the most desperate cases. But even he grew worried as the number of illnesses in the city grew greater and began to show some disturbing symptoms.

Kai also really enjoyed visiting Dame Maria, who asked
her to help with gathering the autumn apples and pears, and promised to bring her nutting through the hazel bushes along the Liffey when the time came.

One day, as they cut back the raspberry canes in her garden, she looked at Kai, puzzled. ‘You are a very gentle little boy, Kai, but would you not rather be out with Jack and Tom, having adventures?’

Oh no, thought Kai. I hope she’s not going to start
suspecting
something. But she smiled and said, ‘I do spend lots of time with them too.’

This was true; she had had lots of adventures with her two friends. She smiled to herself as she remembered what they had been up to just the day before. The three of them had sneaked onto one of the boats docked in the Liffey and, thinking there was no one on board, they had gone into the captain’s cabin. Jack had wanted to have a look at the
mariner’s
equipment; he had been fascinated with the wooden astrolabe and the compass. But while Jack and Tom had been engrossed in examining the compass, Kai had heard a
movement
from the deck, and the three of them had had to dive under the bunk in the cabin and lie there, squashed tightly in, as a pair of leather sea boots appeared. Kai, who was on the outside, had the best view of what was happening. She deeply regretted this, when the whistling sea boots sat down on the bed. The sailor removed the boots and his hose, and then began to pare his toenails with a knife. She could feel
Jack’s silent laughter at her back, barely contained, and the more he laughed the more she could feel it spreading to her. To make things worse, the dust under the bunk and the strong smell of feet made her want to sneeze. Luckily, the sailor was called outside just as he began to clean between his toes, and the children had managed to make their escape through the porthole and along the rope that kept the ship moored to land. They had arrived home to a scolding for being late and for the state of their clothes, but it had been worth it.

Any time she thought of their adventure she could feel the laughter rising again. But she knew she could not tell any adult about such escapades, especially not Dame Maria, who was such a gentle person. Kai liked these quiet times with her. There was something so restful about being with Dame Maria; she never hurried or shouted, and yet she seemed to get an enormous amount of things done. Like Brother Albert she was very busy helping the poor and sick in the city.

For now, Kai continued with her answer: ‘And Tom is bringing us out to his house in Kilmainham next Saturday, for the day. It’s his sister’s Saint’s Day and we are going out there for the celebrations.’

Dame Maria smiled. ‘You will love it there. Here, let me send out some of my comfrey ointment with you. I know Alisoun, Tom’s mother, will be happy to have some. With such a large family there is nearly always somebody tumbling or falling and bruising themselves.’

Saturday turned out to be a perfect autumn day, bright and cool. The children left the cathedral directly after lauds, having been given the whole day off from choir duty. It was less than an hour’s walk to Kilmainham, but they wanted to be there as early as they could be so they could spend as much time as possible at the farm and the mill. Brother Albert had also asked them to gather some acorns in the woods for the priory pigs. He impressed upon them the need to be back at Christ Church before it got dark.

‘For we live in lawless times, and you never know who might be out there on the road, lying in wait for travellers.’

Roland watched them go with a sulky face. Tom had invited him to come along, feeling it would be too mean not to ask him, but Roland had made it clear that he had no interest in visiting Tom’s family. Now he seemed to be annoyed because he wasn’t going with them.

‘Should I ask him again? Tom said anxiously. ‘Maybe I should, though I know he’ll just ruin the day for all of us.’

Jack shook his head vigorously.

‘Don’t bother. He probably just wants the chance to say no and be rude to you, and make horrible comments about your family. We’ll be far better off without him, won’t we, Kai?

Kai had to agree. She had long since given up trying to include Roland in the fun they had together. ‘I’m afraid so. Any time I have tried to be nice to Roland it has just made him nastier to me.’

They made their way through the early-morning streets. Although it was so early, there were signs of activity around. They passed where a market was being set up. As the
traders
emptied their big wicker baskets, piling meat and fish, autumn fruit and vegetables on the trestles that lined the street, they shouted greetings to the children. Already, pigs foraged underneath, hoping that something would fall down to their eagerly waiting snouts.

As the children went out past St James’s Gate, which marked the boundary of the real countryside, on past Dame Maria’s house, and further west, the scenery became a
patchwork
of fields and small stands of trees. Westward, there were the woods which grew wild and stretched for miles out beyond Kilmainham. Walking along, Tom explained that his father’s mill was one of three on the Cammock, the little river that branched off the Liffey.

‘One of them belongs to the Knights Hospitallers – you will see the walls of their priory soon. They are a very rich order who own almost all the land around Kilmainham. My father’s mill has always belonged to his family though, and he supplies flour even to the Hospitallers. We have a farm too, and some orchards. And we keep a few horses. Though
they are just farm horses, so I don’t know if you will want to bother seeing them.’

‘I will,’ said Jack. ‘Any horse is better than none.’

Tom could hardly contain his excitement as they came closer to the village of Kilmainham. He had not been home since the beginning of the summer. Part of him was very proud of his home, while another part was really sad because he realised that he could not go back to live there. He missed his family. He missed the noise and bustle and comings and goings of the mill.

Now he walked so fast that it was hard for Jack and Kai to keep up with him, chattering all the while.

‘Can we stop for a moment?’ said Jack breathlessly. ‘I want to have a look at the horses in that field.’

Reluctantly, Tom stopped walking but could not stop himself from jigging up and down impatiently as Jack went over towards the horses. Kai smiled at him. Tom was usually the quietest of them all, the last one to react to anything. But of course he was going home; he had been born in the mill and lived there all his life. Unlike herself and Jack, he had a real home to go to. But at least, thought Kai, she had her father and her brother; poor Jack had no family. Yet it did not seem to bother him; he was smiling now, stroking the soft noses of the horses they had stopped to see. The whole herd had immediately raced over to him when he had called to them from the fence.

But Tom was urging them to move on. ‘When we get to the top of the hill, we will be able to see the Knights
Hospitallers
’ priory. Come, on. Look, there it is.’

The children saw a large group of stone buildings rising up beyond the walls that enclosed the priory. From where they were looking, it looked almost like a little village. Then they had reached the banks of the Cammock and Tom was racing the last bit of the journey. The mill house, old stone and golden thatch, stood before them, its door open as if to welcome them in. But as Tom led his friends into the kitchen and started to introduce his brothers and sisters to his
companions
, he realised one face was missing.

‘Where’s Edith?’ he asked. ‘Surely she’s not lying abed on her Saint’s Day?

‘Poor Edith is not well at all,’ said his mother, coming over to hug him and greet Kai and Jack. ‘A summer cold, but she’s shivering like a leaf, so she is staying in bed. She’s very
disappointed
not to be able to get up to greet you, but you can go up to the chamber and see her if you wish.’

Edith, fair-haired and blue-eyed like Tom, was pale and, even under the mound of blankets and duck feather quilts, was shivering as if with cold. She hugged Tom tightly and smiled at his friends.

‘I’m so annoyed that I can’t get up,’ she said. ‘I was really looking forward to spending the day with you. But Tom, you go on and show your friends the mill and the farm, and
come and see me later. Maybe I’ll feel better then.’

Tom looked at his mother anxiously.

‘It’s just a summer cold, I’m sure,’ Dame Alisoun said again, tucking the blankets more closely around her daughter. ‘Or it could be the over-excitement of the day. Maybe the thought of too many sugar sticks! Now, you bring your friends around and show them everything. Perhaps Edith will be feeling better later and able to go out with you.’

So Tom began the tour of the farm. They went first to the orchard by the river and picked fruit to bring back to the canons. Tom led them from there to the oak wood along the riverbank where they gathered a sack of acorns for the priory pigs. There they stopped and paddled in the little river, splashing each other and laughing. But Jack was impatient to see the stables.

Taking a shortcut through the dairy, where the cows were milked, they reached the stables, where the great workhorses were kept. Tom shivered a little as he entered them: this was where the horse had kicked him when he was small. Kai looked at his pale face and asked him if he was feeling ill.

‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘But I’m dying to show you the mill.’

It took a while to get Jack away from the horses, but when they eventually went to the mill the giant mill wheels fascinated him almost as much. Tom’s
father
was there. After greeting them kindly, he left them alone, and went to deal with a customer who had come to collect flour.

‘Tom will be able to tell you as much as I could about how the mill works,’ he said, ruffling his son’s hair affectionately.

Tom started a long explanation of how the mill wheels ground the corn, and Kai, bored, began to wander around, looking out of the windows onto the yellows and reds of the autumn trees that grew along the riverbank. She had her back to the boys when she heard Tom shouting.