Free Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson Page A

how do you know Abel Darkwater?’ asked Silver.
    ‘He be that man,’ answered Micah. ‘He be that man who named us.’
    ‘What, in the Bedlam place?’
    ‘Yea, he be the Warder of Bedlam.’
    ‘But that was like two hundred and forty years ago, or something. He isn’t that old – I mean, he’s old, but he’s not, like two hundred and forty or whatever.’
    ‘I be as old as he.’
    ‘Nobody lives to two hundred and forty! Even Mrs Rokabye isn’t a hundred!’
    ‘In thy world I would be dead. In my world, I am alive.’
    Silver fell silent. She didn’t know whether to believe him or not – she wanted to believe him, but how could he be so old? And Abel Darkwater too?
    Micah put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. ‘You be young. Our story be strange to you. Rest now. Sleep.’
    ‘I left my shoes behind,’ said Silver, looking sadly at her torn socks and blistered feet.
    Micah gestured to one of the women, who brought Silver what looked like a pair of clogs with shiny buckles. She gave them to her, and a pair of hand-knitted woollen socks. When she saw the state of poor Silver’s feet, all bleeding and sore, she went away and came back with a tin of something thick and yellow and nasty-smelling, and rubbed it all over Silver’s feet. It felt wonderful.
    ‘What’s that?’ said Silver.
    ‘Dog grease and cloves.’
    ‘Dog grease!’
    ‘When a dog of ours be dead, amen, we renders him in a cauldron, and we forms him into this good grease.’
    ‘You do that to your dogs?’
    ‘Yea, but not afore they be dead, amen. What do Updwellers make with their dogs that are dead?’
    ‘Um, we bury them or the vet takes them away.’
    ‘Wasteful,’ said the woman. ‘Wicked wasteful.’
    Silver felt quite sick to be covered in boiled-down dog, but she didn’t dare say anything. She just pulled on her socks quickly and tried to forget about what was on her feet as she drank the delicious hot apple cider she had been given.
    Soon she fell deeply asleep.

Strange Meeting
    Mrs Rokabye was eating breakfast.
    It was rather a good breakfast of kippers and toast and hot chocolate, and she was glad that no Silver had appeared to come and spoil everything. She had promised herself the last kipper, and she was eyeing it so greedily that Sniveller got up with a sigh and slapped it down on her plate.
    ‘If the child wants to sleep, she can’t expect breakfast,’ announced Mrs Rokabye.
    ‘Sleep she may, but not today,’ said Sniveller.
    ‘What are you talking about?’ asked Mrs Rokabye, who longed to be alone with her kipper.
    ‘She’s run away.’
    Mrs Rokabye put down her knife and fork. ‘Run away? From here? From me?’ She bit the head off her kipper. ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth.’
    ‘Found a bone, have you?’ said Sniveller.
    ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is a thankless child,’ finished Mrs Rokabye, who only ever quoted the nastier bits of the Bible.
    ‘Last night, what a sight!’ said Sniveller. ‘Master blames me. You never said she didn’t eat tomato sauce.’
    ‘I have never given her any tomato sauce! Children shouldnot be indulged.’
    ‘Master hypnotised her, and –’ Before Sniveller could continue, the door to the dining room opened and in came Abel Darkwater in his outdoor clothes.
    He sat down heavily, and motioned to Sniveller to fetch him coffee.
    ‘Have you found the child?’ asked Mrs Rokabye, who had no interest in Silver’s welfare, but every interest in her own get-rich-quick opportunity. Mrs Rokabye had slept soundly, not knowing she had been drugged, and she had awoken to find herself happy, in her own mean-minded way. Yes, happy at last, and now the wretched child had upset everything.
    ‘I have not found her but I know where she is,’ said Abel Darkwater. ‘I know a number of things that I did not know until last night, oh yes.’
    ‘Was the hypnosis successful?’ asked Mrs Rokabye eagerly.
    ‘It was, and it was not,’ replied Darkwater