Chapter 13

I was awoken later that afternoon by noise from further down the beach. I sat up and saw two young girls collecting driftwood. An older lady was watching them. She turned, saw me, and waved.

I was in two minds about what do, but it was too late she was walking toward me. She had a kind-looking face, but could I trust her I wondered.

“Good morning Sir, “she said and gazed down at Makosi, “Your friend, she is ill?”

I looked down at Makosi, her face was covered in a sheen of sweat. The lady dropped to her knees next to Makosi and touched her face

“She has a fever; she is burning up!” she said and looked up at me.

“She needs urgent medical help,” The lady said calmly but firmly.

“What should I do,” I asked.

“Well, the first thing we need to do it get her to my house,” she said and before I could comment she called out to the two girls.

“Milly ... Mary ... go to the house and fetch your father, tell him it is urgent “she yelled.

“But mother...” one of them replied.

“Now girls and tell him to bring the pony and trap” she shouted. There was an urgency in her voice. The girls ran off into the woods without another word being said.

“Now young man please help me move her” she moved the blankets and saw the wound. She looked at me and then back at Makosi, but she did not say anything. She ripped some of the fabric from Makosi’s dress and dipped it in the pot of now cold water and applied it like a compress to Makosis forehead.

“What’s her name?” She asked. I paused ... could I trust her?

“Her name is Makosi and my name is John” I blurted out.

“Well john we need to get your friend into the house, and we need to care for her,” The woman told me “and my name is Mary by the way”

She sent me off to get some fresh cold water.

All the time we were waiting she was using cold water to wash Makosi’s face with the water. I just sat on the sand, lost ... not knowing what to do for the best.

Then she looked at the wound, as she uncovered it a putrid smell filled the air.

Half an hour later a man appeared on the beach, he was dressed in black and his dog colour gave away his vocation.

“Mary what is going on?” he said as he approached but one look at Makosi told him all he needed to know.

“We need to get the girl to the house,” he said, and she nodded in agreement.

“So, my lad can you carry her?” the vicar asked.

“My name is John and yes Sir I can carry her,” I told him.

I lifted her and carried her, following the vicar and his wife as they hurried along to a passage in the woods. The two girls were there with a pony and trap. I lay Makosi in one of the seats and the vicar and his wife jumped up with her. The vicar’s wife looked at me and smiled.

“We will take care of her,” she said to me Then she spoke to the girls.

“Bring the man back to the house”

I watched as the pony pulled the trap at quite a speed up the lane and out of sight.

“Come on Sir there is a short cut through the woods,” one of the girls said. I picked up the big basket of driftwood and carried it for them.

The walk to the house took just over half an hour and it was walked in silence. When we got there the girls led me into the kitchen. The vicar was there, and he welcomed me in.

“Come in John and sit down, my name is David,” he said and shook my hand.

“David, how is Makosi?” I asked, eager to know what was going on.

“She is fine we need to bring her fever down and sort out that wound,” he said.

There was a big pot of water boiling in the hearth and tray of surgeon tools lay next to it. David saw me look and smiled at me

“Before I dedicated my life to God I was in the army, I worked as a surgeon.”

“and you can save her?”

“I can try,” he said and dropped some of the tools in the water.

“I can only thank you, sir,” I said. He smiled at me...

“Girls, please feed our visitor,” he said to the two young girls and then he used a hook to fish the tools out of the water.

“I promise we will do all we can to help Makosi,” he said and left the room.

The girls fed me, game pie and pot of cider. The asked me questions, lots of questions, I just told them we had been attacked by villains and they took my answers as gospel. I ate and they chatted.

It was an hour later before the vicar and his wife came into the kitchen. They both washed in the sink before anything was said. Mary poured me more cider and then a pot each for her and husband was poured.

“Girls please go and make up the bed in the guest room and prepare a fire,” David said.

Once the girls had left the room, he turned to me and smiled.

“Right John, before we go on let me make this clear, you are in Gods house and nether God nor I will judge or question you, “ he said and the way he said it made me believe him

“Thank you, sir,” I replied.

“Please called me David and this is my wife, Mary,” he said.

“Thank you, David,” I said and shot them both smiles.

“Right Makosi is ill, we have cut away the rotten flesh from around the wound and I have cleaned out and closed the wound,” He said.

“The fever is still in her and that worries us,” Mary said, “but we have used a mix of herbs and wildflowers to make a compress to try to draw it out”

“John, we have to be honest with you, if she makes it through the night, she will have a good chance of living”

It was easy to read between the lines if she made it through the night...

“Well I guess we just have to see what tomorrow brings,” I said and sipped on my cider

“God will do his best, “David said, and Mary chipped in with an amen.

I was eager to do something to repay the vicar and his wife for their kindness, so I asked them to let me do any jobs they needed doing.

I spent the rest of the day cutting firewood, mending a fence, and helping the girls collect eggs. It was good to be busy, I knew there was little I could do to help my lover, my friend.

We all ate supper in the kitchen, a fine meal of Pie and roast meats. I sat with Makosi before I went to my bed. She was still feverish, but I knew she was in safe hands. She had not woken and that worried me.

The following morning, we breakfasted on porridge. Mary told me Makosi was still sleeping. I walked down to the beach to make sure that the fishing boat was still safe. It was still there, and it did not seem to have been disturbed.

I jumped aboard and did a search of the small cabin, I found two bottles of brandy and a bag of gold and silver coins. I put my swag in a sack and took it back to the house. They would be a nice present for the vicar and his wife.

As I approached the house, I heard voices, so I ducked down behind a hedge. There were three or four men in armed men standing outside the house, they were either soldiers or the local militia I was not sure which. My blood was boiling, had the vicar and his wife betrayed me.

I heard a noise behind me, I spun ready to fight or flee and saw that it was Mary, the older of the two young girls.

“John my father sent me to find you, he said not to go back to the house until nightfall,” she said excitedly.

“Is there somewhere we can hide?” I asked the girl.

“Yes, John please come with me “she whispered She led me into the woods and out the other side, there was a small shepherd’s hut, it had seen better days. I gave her the sack to take to her mother and father. I sat and I waited, and I waited some more, there was no movement apart from some nosey sheep wandering around.

Darkness fell out of the sky and I was wondering what I should do next when a noise.

“John ... John ... it’s me David” I heard the voice call out.

I stepped out of the shepherd’s hut and looked toward the woods. I could see the silhouette of a man. I could see that it was David.

“Is everything okay?” I asked he led me into the woods.

“Yes, the men at the house this afternoon were from the local militia,” he said as we walked along the path to the house.

“What did they want”

“A body has been found washed up on a beach further down the coast,” David said.

“Bodies wash up all the time,” I said trying not to wonder if it was the body of Barny Mcgrew.

We walked in silence, once back in the house I went to check on Makosi. Mary was sitting with her. she was still asleep.

“She is doing better John; the fever is leaving her,” Mary said and touched me on the arm.