Bartolomé Read Online Free Page A

Bartolomé
Book: Bartolomé Read Online Free
Author: Rachel vanKooij
Pages:
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have to remain hidden from strangers. A man stood by his decisions.
    The miller opened the door cautiously, but when Juan explained what he wanted and said that he would pay cash for their lodgings and a pot of warm soup, he became more hospitable. He showed Juan the stable, where the donkey and cart would be safe.
    Joaquín unloaded the sleeping mats and blankets, the chest and the little wooden box with Isabel’s jewellery from the cart. The miller indicated a place where they could sleep in the grain loft. Joaquín and Ana had to carry the bedding and the jewellery box up, and Juan lifted the chest onto his back and, before the eyes of the curious miller family, he climbed carefully up the steep ladder with his burden.
    They’ll think I keep gold and silver in it , Juan thought, setting the chest down beside the millstone. In the meantime, Isabel had made a sleeping place with the mats and blankets.
    â€˜You’ll stay in the chest till we’re all up,’ Juan warned Bartolomé, without opening the lid. Then he went downstairs to eat the soup that the miller’s wife had hurriedly stretched with water and bulked out with eggs and tomatoes.
    Beatríz was too tired to spoon up the hot liquid. Isabel ladled a little of it into her and then carried her up the narrow ladder.
    Before her head had touched the pillow, Bartolomé could hear her soft, even breathing. He waited patiently. A little later, Ana and Joaquín came. Joaquín knocked on the chest.
    â€˜It was a thick vegetable soup with eggs,’ he announced through the lid. ‘Pity you won’t get any. But you can’t be hungry anyway. You didn’t have to bestir yourself today.’
    Joaquín’s feet hurt. Having pulled off his patched boots, he could see that they were swollen and fiery red. Why should Bartolomé get soup, when he’d ridden on the cart all day?
    Ana rebuked him: ‘He can’t help it. He’s a cripple and he can’t walk like us.’
    But she was too exhausted to make Joaquín apologise to Bartolomé. Tears sprang to her eyes when she took off her shoes and found big blisters on her heels and toes. She couldn’t imagine how she’d be able to walk the next day. She crept under her blanket without saying anything more.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ muttered Joaquín, lying down beside her.
    Bartolomé wasn’t allowed out of his prison until his parents came up to the loft, carrying the peacefully sleeping Manuel. Then he found himself a place between his sleeping brothers and sisters.
    â€˜Are you still hungry?’ asked Isabel in a tired whisper. Bartolomé shook his head.
    In the morning, they were awoken by the grinding and grating sounds of beams, wheels and millstones. The miller had opened the millrace outside and the great millwheel was starting to creak and turn. He’d be up the ladder any minute now to grind the corn and fill it into sacks.
    Isabel shook the tired children awake and started to roll up the bedding. Juan gave Bartolomé a silent look and nodded towards the chest. Bartolomé knew what that meant. He crept over quickly and climbed into the chest. Juan shut the lid tightly.

Torre de la Parada
    THE second day of the journey was much the same as the first, only that every step was more difficult. Joaquín and Ana didn’t want to go ahead and lead the donkey. Instead, they walked behind the cart, and when Juan wasn’t looking, they hung on to it so that they could get a bit of a pull.
    After the first hour of marching, Beatríz moaned so much that Juan finally gave in and let her ride on the cart. Bartolomé spent most of the time in the chest, because the road went through one village and hamlet after another, and they were so close together that Juan decided it was a waste of time to keep stopping the cart for the short times in between villages.
    â€˜When we reach the forest, he can come out,’ Juan said
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