Anne of the Fens Read Online Free Page B

orders.
    â€œDamnation. By command of the Earl. The Sheriff is coming.”
    He turned pale, and began to work the ropes that raised the bridge.
    I ran back up to find Simon and passed my mother coming down the stairs. Father had already told her about the moat. Simon was no longer in the library, but I found him in his own small office on the second floor. He grasped the problem instantly and began flinging papers every which way. Since it was May, there was no fire in the fireplace. He thrust a pile of papers and a book into my arms and told me to run to Cook’s fire. Again, I sped down the stairs, heading toward the kitchen. It was about a hundred feet from the castle in a building made of gray stone instead of brick. The kitchen was outside the castle, of course, to protect against a fire from the ovens spreading and burning everything down.
    â€œWhere are you going in such a speed, young Anne?” Cook has always treated me like I was her child, and saved special treats for me.
    â€œNo time to talk, just let me throw these things on the fire. The Sheriff is coming.”
    Her smooth broad face crumpled into worry.
    â€œAh, what will happen now?”
    Everyone knew of the tax, and that the Earl had not paid it.
    I pushed past Cook and placed Simon’s papers and the book on top of the fire. I hated to burn a precious book, but there was no choice. The flames licked the very top of the hearth, the fire so big it was suspicious in itself. I hoped it would die down before the lawmen came. I left the kitchen and went outside to watch.
    Patience had come out as well. We could hear the Sheriff’s men shouting angrily around the guard house.
    â€œOpen, open, in the name of the law!”
    Patience grabbed my hand and we stood. “Mother has sent Erik away and is managing the ropes herself,” Patience said.
    We could hear Mother crying out to the Sheriff’s men. “It has caught. I cannot loosen it.” She looked helpless.
    â€œShe is magnificent,” Patience said.
    I nodded. I had never admired her more.
    â€œHas Father come down from seeing the Earl?”
    As I asked, Father emerged from the castle, his arms full. He went into the kitchens and when he came out, without the papers, he called to Erik to go out and lower the drawbridge.
    Patience and I hurried back into the kitchen before Father could redirect us. It was a good listening place, through the open door.
    We did not have to wait long. The Earl emerged from the castle, looking young and ill at ease, with Father at his side. Father handles most difficult situations for him, but no doubt Father had said it would be best if the Sheriff were greeted by the lord of the manor himself. The Earl had put on a robe of maroon velvet trimmed in ermine, which made him look like royalty. It also looked hot, since it was now past noon. I had missed the midday meal, and the sun was high in the sky.
    The Sheriff and his men galloped over the drawbridge, with that huge hollow noise that hoofs make on a bridge. The Earl and Father walked slowly toward them, as though there were no hurry. The Sheriff’s men made a show of stopping suddenly, by drawing the horses around in a circle at the last minute.
    The Sheriff, a large man with a belly, got off his horse with a little difficulty. The sun glinted on his fat, red face, and his small eyes had to squint a little. The men were close enough that we could hear them. The Sheriff took off his hat as he approached the Earl and Father. He made a low bow and said, “Greetings, My Lord,” to the Earl, and nodded to Father.
    My breath came more normally. Perhaps nothing bad would happen. The Earl welcomed the Sheriff and his men to the castle in a polite way, and introduced my father. The Sheriff responded graciously as well. Although the Sheriff was the Law and the representative of the King, the Earl owned a great portion of the shire and made the decisions about the people on it, some