Chapter 20: Worry

(Will Archer narrates)

Another day draws to a conclusion, and still no deliveries from Alwen, and no message returned from Henry, usually so reliable in his work. Even if there is no ale fit to send, the fresh water sent on earlier carts was invaluable. I have the maids and cooks boiling more cauldrons than ever, so I avoid the kitchens like the ... well, I just don’t go there any more.

The plague is still raging through Riverside where I have confined the pestilence. There are still more and more deaths every day for its evil ravaging of body and mind, and sometimes I wonder whether I did the people of Riverside a disservice by insisting that any person who appeared well could be a carrier and I dared not let them roam, less they spread it throughout the county or the Kingdom. But there are far fewer people catching it in the other quarters, thus isolating it in Riverside. Even in the Castle, where so many were housed at the beginning of the outbreak, many of the initial sufferers are now recovering their strength, including Jake Moor and Robert my Castle lieutenant.