Bonds of Earth, The (2 page)

‘W
HAT A HORRID
man!'

The remark was made by the second of the three girls, who Goran had heard called ‘Nessa' by her younger sister.

‘He's not particularly nice,' Goran agreed, ‘but what he says is quite true. Anyone caught trespassing on the Spurre Estate is taken before a magistrate who always points out that there are a great many signs around the estate giving warning that it's private land.'

‘You must have been trespassing or you wouldn't have found us there,' Nessa pointed out.

‘I
was
trespassing,' Goran admitted, ‘but only because it was a short cut back to the farm where I work, I was keeping a sharp look-out for anyone belonging to the estate – and wasn't contaminating the water from one of their springs by bathing in it! What made you choose to bathe there anyway? Where do you come from? I haven't seen you around this way before.'

‘Where we come from is none of your business,' Morwenna said sharply, feeling she had been left out of the conversation for long enough.

‘True enough,' Goran shrugged, ‘but if I knew where you lived I could tell you the best way to get back there without going on Sir John's land. I could also probably tell you of a better place to bathe than in water from a spring on the estate…. You were stupid to be there in the first place. As I've said, there are plenty of signs telling you it's private.'

‘That's all very well if you can read. I've never bothered to learn and don't see any reason to.'

‘Nessa can read,' Jennifer said seriously. ‘She reads stories to me sometimes. She's going to teach
me
to read too.'

When Goran looked at Nessa questioningly, she said, ‘I saw the signs telling people to keep out but Morwenna wouldn't listen to me.'

‘I don't take any notice of such things,' Morwenna said defiantly, ‘I'll go wherever I like.'

Aware Morwenna was being deliberately confrontational, Nessa said placatingly to Goran, ‘It was just as well you came along when you did, Pa wouldn't have been very happy if we'd got into trouble. We've just moved here from West Cornwall because he's been asked to open up a mine a little way along the edge of the moor from here.'

Startled by her news, Goran queried, ‘Whereabouts?'

There
were
mines around the fringes of the moor, many mines, but they were well to the south of the Spurre Estate and the farms of Agnes Roach and Elworthy Coumbe. He knew little about any of them even though his father had been a miner who died in a mining accident. The mining and farming communities chose not to mix with each other.

Observing the sudden tightening of Morwenna's expression and trying to avoid another bad-tempered outburst from her, Goran added quickly, ‘I know the area around here as well as anyone and could probably point out a spring that's closer to your home and more private than the one you were using today. There are quite a few of them coming off the moor, although some are no more than a trickle when there hasn't been much rain up there.'

‘What you mean is you'll show us a place where you'll be able to watch us bathing without us seeing you,' Morwenna suggested spitefully.

‘Please yourself. You can find your own place … find your own way home too, as far as I'm concerned, I'm just trying to be helpful.'

‘Take no notice of Morwenna: she's been an old misery-guts ever since we arrived here,' Nessa said, adding in explanation, ‘She had a sweetheart down west and was hoping he'd ask her to marry him before we left.'

‘He would have done,' Morwenna said, heatedly. ‘I don't know why we had to leave there at all!'

‘Pa explained that to us – and even promised to give Alan work if he wanted to come with us.'

Addressing Goran once more, Nessa explained, ‘Alan was Morwenna's sweetheart, but we had to leave because the mine Pa was managing was almost played out and Alan didn't want to come with us. Mr Williams, the man who owned our mine, told Pa they'd found copper around this way and he'd bought mining rights for some parts of the moor. When Pa came to look around here a few weeks ago he found somewhere that looks promising this side of Hawkswood. A few of the miners Pa brought with him have put up a house for us nearby. It's not much of a place at the moment but Ma says she's lived in worse. If the mine comes good Pa's promised to have a really big house built for us, one where we can all have our own bedrooms.'

‘You don't have to tell our life story to every stranger we meet up with,' Morwenna said, peevishly. ‘We hardly know the first thing about
him.
'

Jennifer had been following the conversation and now she said unhappily, ‘I don't want to sleep in a room on my own. I like us all sleeping in a bed together.'

‘Well we won't have to worry about it for a long time yet,' Nessa said comfortingly. Turning back to Goran she said, ‘Now you know where we live can you think of a place where we can bathe without being spied on?'

‘I think so. It'll take me out of my way but I'll show it to you now. It's quite a good spot. Although it's on Agnes Roach's land it's right at the top end where it borders her brother's farm. It's moorland really, and far from both farmhouses. Agnes is getting too old to toil all the way up there even if she did have objections and Elworthy wouldn't bother you. He never bothers anyone and is far too busy doing things around his own farm to notice what's going on elsewhere. It's pretty well hidden from view too. I sometimes put one or two sheep up there, although more usually it's the milk-cow … and that reminds me, I'm supposed to be looking for her! I need to find her before dark because she'll need milking and we have to make butter for market day in Launceston. Come on, I'll show you where the spring is.'

‘If we do decide to use it for bathing you can be sure we'll have a good look around each time, in case you're hiding anywhere to watch us!'

Nessa began to apologize to Goran at her sister's words but stopped when he smiled at her. He had only just met the three girls but he felt it might be pleasant having them around … especially Nessa.

Agnes Roach was not amused when Goran told her of his encounter with the girls – omitting their state of undress when he had first discovered them. ‘There's me thinking you'd come to grief on the moor and all the while you were passing the time of day with some girls! As for the milking-cow, it's as well she went off in the direction of the village and not up on the moor. At least there was someone down there with sense enough to recognize her and bring her back, even though I had to give him threepence for doing it. I ought to dock it off your wages.'

‘Would you rather I'd have left the girls where they were so they could get caught by Marcus Grimble?'

Goran was not too concerned by Agnes's threats. She was basically a kind and generous woman and he was aware she liked neither Grimble nor his employer.

Capitulating, Agnes said, ‘You know the answer to that. They were lucky you got to them before Grimble did … but where's this house of theirs and the mine their father's supposed to be captain of? I've heard no mention of it from anyone hereabouts?'

‘I never actually saw the cottage, but it sounds as though the mine's going to be up on the moor, just beyond our high grazing lands.'

‘Is it, now? Well they're not driving any road through my farm to get at it.'

‘I shouldn't think they'll need to. As they're already up there and built their cottage it must mean they've found another way to reach the spot – probably by coming across the moor.'

‘You're probably right, but it makes me uneasy. When miners start working in an area they're not particular who they upset and have no consideration for anyone or anything but themselves and their mining. All they're interested in is making a profit for them as are backing them – “adventurers” I think they're called. For the most part these adventurers are men like Sir John Spurre, paying little attention to the rights of others.'

Her mood changed suddenly and, looking at Goran speculatively, Agnes said, ‘But you might not have wasted all your time today after all, young Goran. Now you've met with this mine captain's daughters we might be able to make some use of it if you get to know him and can find out what it is he expects to find and how far the mine is likely to extend. I'd like to know how deep and in which direction they're going to be tunnelling. We can't have land collapsing under our sheep or cows, or us when we're driving a loaded wagon. Besides, if he's coming beneath our farm there are dues to be paid. You might be able to find out what it is they're up to. When you do, be sure you let me know about it.'

‘I don't think they are likely to affect us too much and we might be able to sell milk, butter and eggs to them … wheat too if you'd let me till a couple of the fields down by the river.'

For almost as long as he had been working for Agnes, Goran had wanted to sow wheat on the farm, but she had always dismissed the idea – unreasonably, in his opinion. He felt it would be profitable, especially during the times when it was in short supply – as it was at the moment – but Agnes Roach was in no mood to change her mind on the subject.

‘If you think you have time to do all the work involved in growing and harvesting wheat then it's obvious I'm not giving you enough to do about the farm. Now, the cow's in the shed waiting to be milked and there's butter to be made; you'd best be getting on with it if you want to be home before nightfall.'

When Goran returned home to the Trebarthas' small cottage on Elworthy Farm that evening and told his mother about the events of the day, he found her no more enthusiastic about the new mine than Agnes had been.

A small, tidy woman, Mabel Trebartha had not had the easiest of lives. Married to a tin-miner and widowed when Goran was seven years old she had needed to work hard to bring him up ‘properly', despite suffering from debilitating asthma. When Goran reached the age of ten she had been fortunate enough to find work in the house of Elworthy Coumbe, the simple-minded brother of Agnes Roach, and she and Goran moved into a small cottage that was part of the Elworthy Farm complex.

Her work involved running the house for Elworthy and carrying out light work about the farm, but it was not long before Goran began working for both Elworthy and Agnes on their adjacent farms. With the income he brought in, although it was by no means generous, she was able to take things easier than at any time in her adult life. Goran's news of the opening of a mine near the farm troubled her.

‘I don't like the thought of having a mine as close to us as this one,' she said, ladling out a thick potato and ham-bone stew from a pot suspended by a hook above the open fire. Carrying the brimming plate to the table and placing it carefully in front of him, she added, ‘Miners bring trouble with them. If the mine doesn't produce as well as it should there'll be hungry families scouring the countryside for anything they can lay their hands on to keep from starving and nothing will be safe. If they strike it rich the miners will spend much of their earnings on drink and causing mayhem as a result. I'd sooner they all stayed up Caradon way where they belong. That's plenty close enough.'

‘I thought you'd be understanding, Ma, especially as Pa was a miner.'

‘It's
because
he was a miner that I know what we can expect from them! Your pa was a good man, but he was as wild as any of them before I married him. Mind you, my mother used to tell me that was the reason I married him in the first place. Perhaps she was right, but she never really approved of him, even though he was as good to her as he was to me. Mind you, things weren't easy for us and living among miners and their families was very different to the life I'd known as the daughter of a farm worker.'

Intrigued by what she had revealed to him, Goran said, ‘You've never talked very much about your life before you married, Ma. How did you and Pa come to meet each other?'

‘Hard times are best forgotten, but the way you found those miner's girls today has brought back memories. Your pa and me met up in a very similar manner. It was harvest time on the farm and rain was threatening, so everyone who could be rounded up was working hard to gather the crop in before the weather broke. Then someone noticed that a couple of old ewes being fattened up for the winter had got out of their field. As I couldn't work as hard as the others I was sent off to fetch 'em back. They led me a merry dance right up to the moor but your pa happened to be up there. He'd hurt a hand and was off work. When he saw what was happening he headed off the ewes and turned 'em back. Then he helped me drive 'em back to the farm.'

Giving the fire an unnecessary poke with the iron rod that was used as a poker, her mind took her back many years. Gazing into the red ashes that had been stirred into flickering life, she continued, ‘I was just seventeen at the time and don't think I'd ever spoken to a miner before, but we got to talking about his work and how he'd come to hurt his hand and I thought it must be very exciting to be working far underground doing something so dangerous. Well, when we got the sheep back to where they belonged he helped me build up the wall where they'd got out, then he went back to the place where he lived, close to the mine.

‘I thought that was the last I'd ever see of him and was very disappointed, but the very next day he came back to the farm asking if we had any butter and eggs we could sell him. I knew he must have really come back to see
me
because while we were bringing the sheep back he'd told me his family kept chickens up at the mine. I was thrilled to bits because he seemed so much more exciting than the boys I'd met around the farm.

‘He came back a few times after that and I began walking out with him. Ma never approved but Pa was relieved I'd found someone. Because of my asthma I couldn't work as hard as other girls and I think he believed he'd need to look after me for the rest of his life!