Free The Wilding by Maria McCann Page A

meat and onions stood on the table, waiting to be trimmed: Rose had already cut the pastry lattice but had gone away before fitting it into place. In a dish near the window lay a couple of skinned rabbits swimming in blood.
    I crossed the kitchen and walked slowly along the corridor that connected it with the dining room, put my head in there just to be sure I would not miss Aunt Harriet, then went on through all the downstairs part of the house. She was nowhere to be found. I came back into the hallway and mounted the stairs. The treads creaked; my breath came quickly. I reached her chamber and tapped at the door. There was no sound from within. I dared not open the door. If I barged in, and Aunt Harriet was sitting inside, I would have played into her hands; my aunt was nothing if not cunning and would immediately pass off any shock as the natural surprise of a woman who finds her privacy violated. I wanted to see her dismayed with no cause for dismay; I wanted to see her shamed and struggling for words.

    Where was she? Gone to market? Not gone to visit a friend, for she had none as far as I knew. I stood outside her chamber, feeling a fool.
    A door banged at the front of the house. This was not at all what I had planned; instead of catching her, I would be caught. There followed a silence, and it came to me that what I had heard was not someone coming in, but someone going out. I crept to the banister to check if the way was clear. Thus it was that my aunt, newly entered from outside and fiddling with her gloves, glanced up and saw me standing at the top of the stairs.
    Her reaction was everything I could have wished: even from where I stood, I could see her face drain of colour.
    ‘ You … ! ’ she cried.
    I smiled, but otherwise remained silent and motionless. My aunt made to walk towards me, but after a few steps she sank down with a tiny, suffocated cry, keeling over sideways before sprawling full length on the floor. Alarmed now, I no longer acted the statue but ran down the stairs towards her. When Rose came through the door with my aunt’s basket, she found me sitting on the floor and Aunt Harriet lying senseless, her head in my lap.
    * * *

    While Geoffrey carried my aunt up to her chamber, there to deliver her over to the care of Hannah Reele, I went to fetch Bully from his station in the lane. Once he was safely in the stable, Rose took charge of me. She brought me to the kitchen and gave me gingerbread and cider-royal.
    ‘Who’d have thought it?’ she mused. ‘She’s tough as an old hen. Tell me again what happened.’
    ‘There’s nothing to tell. She saw me, said “You,” and fainted.’
    ‘She’s banged herself, all right.’ Rose picked up the pastry lattice and arranged it over the pie, deftly pinching the edges together.
    ‘Shall I send Tamar for the doctor?’
    ‘Tamar.’
    ‘What’s that look for, Rose?’
    ‘What look?’
    ‘My aunt’s been talking to you, has she?’ I blazed up. ‘It’s all false! That is,’ for Rose was now narrowing her eyes and I thought perhaps I had overstepped the mark, ‘my aunt’s mistaken.’
    ‘I don’t know what you mean, Master Jonathan. Your aunt doesn’t discuss her family business with me.’ I felt as if I had been slapped. Rose went on, with a little air of dignity, ‘But I do know that Tamar is no longer part of this household.’
    I gasped. ‘Because of me?’
    ‘Because she’s a thief,’ Rose countered. ‘She took a ring from the master, God rest his soul. My word, you’re like snow! Don’t you go fainting on us, Sir.’ She moved the jug towards me. ‘Have a drop more cider-royal.’

6

Of Murc and Rot

    During most of that day I was kept from my aunt’s room. Geoffrey relayed instructions that I was not to venture near and Hannah Reele, coming downstairs after an hour or two, reported that Aunt Harriet was delighted to learn that I was in the house, but was not yet equal to seeing me. Hearing this, I knew I had lost