Bonds of Earth, The (10 page)

G
ORAN HAD BEEN
surprised it was not Nessa who had brought the dictionary to him at Elworthy and disappointed that the middle Pyne daughter had not come to congratulate him on taking over the tenancy of the farm, but he was given little time to dwell upon her apparent unexpected lack of interest in him. It was time for haymaking on both farms although first it was necessary to take Elworthy Coumbe and what possessions he required to Roach Farm, to begin life there with his sister.

There was also the move to the farmhouse with his mother and, only twenty-four hours later, the Bolithos arrived to take up residence in the vacated Elworthy farm cottage.

Harriet Bolitho was ecstatic at the move from the hovel on Bodmin Moor. Assisted by three miners from the Wheal Hope she and her family arrived early in the afternoon, the injured Albert being conveyed in an iron-wheeled wheelbarrow with the sickly youngest Bolitho child in his arms.

Goran was not there to greet them on their arrival, but when he returned from working at the Roach Farm, he was greeted with a warm kiss from an emotional Harriet who declared, ‘Goran, you are the best thing that's happened to the Bolithos for more years than I care to remember! What you have done for Albert, Jenken and the whole family has given me … no, given
all
of us, new hope for the future. The cottage is
lovely
and Jenken is so happy to be working with you!'

Goran was forced to back away from her before she kissed him again and her happiness smothered him. ‘I'm glad you're pleased with the cottage. I hope it leads to a change for the better in the fortunes of everyone.'

‘How could it be otherwise? The very first thing Albert did was to limp to the back door and stand there telling me what he intends planting for us in the garden, and where it would go. All this while he was propped up on two crutches, barely able to stand! It's lifted his spirits as nothing else could have done.'

Embarrassed by such effusive gratitude, Goran said, ‘I hope having you here will suit all of us. I'm certainly very happy to have Jenken working for me, I've never known anyone try so hard to please as he does. I've had to tell him to slow down otherwise he'll exhaust himself!'

‘He's a good boy and I would be very happy if I knew his future was on the land and not burrowing beneath it.' Suddenly looking beyond him, she said, ‘But where's Morwenna Pyne? I was hoping she might take care of the boys while I sort out the rooms, ready for their bedtimes.'

‘Morwenna? What made you think she would be here?'

Now it was Harriet's turn to show surprise, ‘I thought Annie said Morwenna was spending a lot of time here, at the farm. I must have got it wrong.'

At that moment there was a shout from one of the boys. He had just seen one of the farm cats in the back garden and Harriet hurried off to ensure he did not do anything to make the cat scratch him, leaving a puzzled Goran wondering why Annie Pyne should think that Morwenna was spending time at Elworthy.

Within a few days all thoughts of Morwenna and most other problems had been forgotten as haymaking began in earnest on the two farms. It was hard and concentrated work, involving far more than could be achieved by Goran, even with the assistance of Elworthy Coumbe and Jenken and he needed to recruit a number of helpers from the local workhouse.

Their daily wage, paid to the workhouse, was four pence for the men and two and a half pence for the women. The paupers enjoyed food cooked for them by Agnes Roach and Mabel and ale rationed out to them by Goran but, in spite of such incentives, they had neither the will nor stamina for the work involved and Goran ended each day thoroughly exhausted, his only thoughts being of sleep and the hope he could complete haymaking before the weather broke – a prospect that had been threatening and receding with a baffling frequency for a number of dry weeks.

Every countryman whose everyday life was dictated by the weather agreed that although the continuing absence of rain was important for haymaking, a drought such as was being experienced had serious long-term implications.

Older denizens of the countryside gloomily related stories of past periods of drought which had inevitably been followed by violent storms and torrential rain, as nature sought to right the imbalance it had brought about.

Eventually, much to Goran's relief, haymaking was completed, the hay cut, dried and built into ricks in which hay would be cured and compressed by its own weight and waterproofed from the onslaught of inclement weather by the skills of rick builders, a craft at which the simple Elworthy excelled. Lofts above the stables at both farms were piled high with hay, to be used when severe winter weather made access to outside ricks impossible.

With hay safely gathered in and the celebrations funded by Agnes over, Goran should have been able to relax a little, but it was now time to advance the plans he had for Elworthy Farm.

Jenken was by now sufficiently acquainted with the routine running of the farm to be left to carry out the work without supervision, so Goran felt able to go ahead with preparing two of his fields for crops, beginning with potatoes which would help clean the ground, but first the fields would need to be ploughed and prepared for growing crops. For this he would have to buy a second-hand plough with one, or perhaps two, good plough-horses to carry out the work, and learn how to use a plough. It was something he had never been required to do while Agnes dictated how the two farms should be worked.

In a few days' time a fair was being held in the town of Liskeard, some nine miles away and Goran thought he might be able to purchase a second-hand plough there and possibly find someone to teach him how to use it.

The night before the fair was due to begin, when Goran returned from an afternoon and evening spent working at Roach Farm, he called in at the Bolithos' cottage to find Jenken. The family was in a jubilant mood. All except Albert and the two youngest boys had been able to earn a few pence during haymaking and this, together with a variety of foodstuff donated by Mabel and Agnes, had enabled Harriet to cook more substantial meals than they had known for a very long time. They were even able to offer Goran a mug of ale.

Aware of the pleasure it gave to the head of the family to be able to offer something to a guest instead of being forced to accept their charity, he accepted, even though he would rather not have had a drink this late in the evening.

Sipping the drink, Goran said to Albert, ‘I must go sparingly with this … and so must you, Jenken. I want you up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get the farmyard chores done as quickly as possible.'

‘That's all right,' Jenken replied. ‘I don't like ale very much anyway, but are we doing something special tomorrow?'

‘We certainly are! We're going to take the horse and a light wagon to Liskeard. It's Fair Day and Agnes has loaned me money to buy a plough and harrow – if I'm able to find them at the right price. If they're too expensive I'll need to pay someone to do the work for me, but I'd rather not do that. I'll also need a plough horse … probably two, but I should be able to get them cheaper at a market a bit closer to home.'

‘Do you have any experience of ploughing?' The unexpected question came from Harriet.

‘No,' Goran confessed, ‘but I expect I'll be able to pick it up as I go along.'

‘It would be much easier if you were able to learn straightway from someone with experience of the work. I know from when I used to work on a farm that ploughing's a skilled job. A man who can plough is paid more than the other men on a farm. You'll have to be sure the horse you buy knows what it's doing. You can't set any old horse to a plough and expect him to get on with the job. You'll need to know when to rest him too, ploughing's hard work, even for the strongest horse, especially if you're working land that's never been ploughed before.'

‘Perhaps I ought to take you along to the fair with us.' Goran suggested, only half-joking. ‘You obviously know more about ploughing than I do!'

Harriet gave him a wry smile and shook her head. ‘All I know comes from listening to farm talk when I was working down west, I'd be no good to you even if I was able to come to the fair. Anyway, I couldn't leave Albert to look after the boys by himself all day. But I'm serious about you finding someone to help you choose the things you're going to need. You can't afford to buy any old rubbish.'

Goran knew she was talking sense. He did not have the necessary knowledge himself, but hoped there might be farmers at the fair willing to express an opinion on the worth of farming implements being offered for sale.

‘H
AVE YOU EVER
been to Liskeard Fair before?'

The question came from Jenken as he and Goran were driving the horse and wagon to the fair the next morning. Despite the clouds overhead and an ominous dark mass gathering in the sky to the west, the young boy was thrilled at the prospect of attending something as exciting as a ‘fair'.

‘A couple of times, but never to buy anything, I was only looking around.'

‘What's it like, what goes on there?'

‘It's noisy, with a lot of buying and selling going on and men and women hoping to find work on farms, although this isn't the best time of year for that, most of the hiring takes place at the early spring fairs. There's a lot of fun things going on too: sideshows, dancing bears and monkeys, music, fire-eaters, sword swallowers – and there's usually a band and the hurdy-gurdies.'

‘Do you need to pay to see these things?' Jenken asked anxiously, adding, ‘I've got seven pence but I'd like to use it to buy something for Ma, she never gets anything.'

‘You have to pay to see a lot of the things but there's always something going on you can look at for nothing.' Looking sideways at the excited boy on the wagon beside him, he added, ‘Anyway, Agnes gave me a shilling to give you to spend at the fair because you've worked so hard for her during haymaking – and I'll give you a shilling too, for the same reason.'

It was not a vast amount, but it was more than Jenken had ever possessed before to spend on himself, all the money he earned on Elworthy Farm being given directly to his hard-pressed mother. He wriggled in pleasure as he thought of what he might be able to purchase with his new-found wealth.

The fair was everything Goran had promised and more. It was being held on open ground on the edge of the town although stalls sprawled over into the adjoining streets which were crowded with horses, carts and people, all seemingly moving in differing directions.

Goran was obliged to leave the pony and cart some way from the fair in a field, the owner of which was making more from this one day than a bumper crop would have fetched after a year's labour.

As he and Jenken moved among the crowd thronging the fair, Goran suddenly pulled Jenken to a startled halt. He had recognized a man he would rather not meet up with today. It was Marcus Grimble, the Spurre estate gamekeeper and he was accompanied by a younger man whom Goran had never seen before.

When Jenken saw the gamekeeper he began trembling. Laying a hand on the boy's shoulder, Goran said, ‘It's all right, Jenken, he's never seen enough of you to recognize you, but try to steer clear of him and I'll do the same. There's nothing he can do to either of us with so many folk around, but he's nasty enough to be unpleasant if he met me. I wonder who the young man is with him, I've never seen him before.'

Controlling his fright, Jenken said, ‘I have … at least, I
think
I have. I believe I saw him talking to Morwenna up by the Spurre estate, when I was out looking for that lamb we lost.'

‘Morwenna with a friend of Grimble? No, you must have been mistaken.' Dismissing the suggested link between the two, Goran said, ‘You go off and enjoy yourself now and forget all about Grimble. Meet me in a couple of hours over by the stall where they're selling pasties. I'll buy one for you before we head back home. If it starts raining we'll meet up there earlier.'

Not entirely reassured, Jenken set off on his own, a final warning from Goran about the danger of pickpockets ringing in his ears, although he was far too excited with everything going on around him to pay much attention to his words. Besides, although he
felt
rich there was hardly enough money in his pocket to attract the proficient and highly professional pickpockets Goran had said frequented the country's fairs.

When the two parted company, Goran made his way through the crowds towards an area where he believed he would find farming implements for sale. Unlike Jenken, he
did
carry a great deal of money on him, money that Agnes had loaned him for buying a plough and harrow. He had it in a leather bag hanging from a long leather thong tied about his neck, the hidden bag a comforting weight beneath his shirt. He also had a few pounds of his own money tucked inside a pocket to spend on other things.

On one of the many stalls he passed a man who was offering cheap jewellery for sale and with a particular present in mind, Goran decided he would return to the stall after concluding the purchase of a plough.

Pausing only momentarily at some of the pens where pigs, sheep and cattle were being offered for sale, he eventually reached a clear space on the edge of the fair where various farming implements were laid out for inspection. Some were new, but a great many more were used, some obviously very well worn.

He found he was able to browse here at his leisure, his youth saving him from the attention of the implement vendors who dismissed him as being too young to be a potential buyer.

He had stopped to admire a new three-bladed iron plough when he was joined by an old, bearded man who had the weather-beaten appearance of someone who had spent a long lifetime working in the open air.

Standing beside Goran and looking at the plough, the man said, ‘'Tis a beautiful thing, no doubt about it, but it'd need at least four horses to pull it, and that's too many for good ploughing.'

‘You know about ploughing?' Goran queried.

‘I should do, it's how I've earned my living since I was only a little older than you are now, but it's not usual to find someone your age interested in ploughs and ploughing. It's too much like hard work for youngsters these days.'

Goran smiled to himself at the other man's comments. He had yet to meet a farmer who gave young men credit for working as hard as they claimed to have been obliged to labour when of a similar age.

‘Well, I've just taken the tenancy of a farm that's never seen a plough and I hope to change that.'

Looking at Goran sceptically, the old man said, ‘
You've
taken on a farm? You're a bit young for such a responsibility. Your family must have plenty of money to give you a farm of your own.'

This time Goran laughed out loud, ‘It would make life a whole lot easier if that were so … but I mustn't grumble, I've got the next best thing. I've worked for a generous widow since I was eleven and she's not only given me the tenancy of a farm she owns, but has made certain I have enough money to make a success of it.'

‘Is that so? I wish I'd met someone like that when I was your age, but I've nothing to complain about. I was a ploughman for more than twenty years for as good an employer as you'd be likely to find anywhere, and he left me a sum of money when he died. It wasn't a huge amount but enough for me to buy a plough and two good horses and set out on my own when I fell out with his son and one of his favourite gamekeepers – who I've seen today for the first time in years, right here in the fair.'

Remembering whom he and Jenken had seen when they first arrived at the fair, Goran said, ‘You're not talking of Marcus Grimble, head gamekeeper on the Spurre estate?'

‘That's him. Do you know him? Is he a friend of yours?'

All affability left the old man's voice when he voiced the questions and Goran said hastily, ‘I know him and saw him when I arrived at the fair today, but he's no friend of mine, quite the opposite! The farm where I've worked is next to the Spurre estate and I've upset Grimble so often he's threatened what he'll do to me if he ever gets the chance.'

‘It seems he hasn't changed, but what's the name of your farm, boy?'

‘I've been working at both Roach and Elworthy Farms, but I've taken over Elworthy now – although I still put in time at Roach.'

His expression one of delight, the old man said, ‘You've been working at Roach Farm? Is Agnes still there? I haven't heard a thing of her for years. But why have you taken over Elworthy Coumbe's Farm? Has something happened to him? No, don't bother to tell me here, come to the inn just across the road, you can buy me an ale and tell me all about what's been going on there.'

‘But I want to look at the ploughs, that's the reason I'm here at the fair.'

‘They're not going to go away, boy … and there's nothing here worth your money, but buying an ale or two for me might prove the best investment you're ever going to make….'