Shakespeare's Globe Read Online Free Page B

wrapped a hunk of hard cheese in an old cloth, then set off for the woods with Hoppy.
    I had no idea where they were camped, so we went to the place where I’d last seen Gilbert. I called his name softly.
    Nothing.
    ‘Rosa?’ I called.
    No answer.
    I dared not call any louder for fear someone might hear and tell on them.
    Then I remembered the hollow in the yew tree where Gilbert kept the rabbit. I found it with no trouble and put the jug and cheese in there. Then Hoppy and I went home.
    When I got there, Goody Wyse was sitting by the fire talking to Mother, who was nursing Susan. The old lady’s sore foot was wrapped in bandages and a strip of leather. She reckons she can
cure everyone else, I thought, so why can’t she do something about her foot?
     

     
    Aunt Meg had her back to me, rolling out pastry, listening to whatever Goody Wyse was blathering about.
    The moment Mother saw me, she turned to Goody Wyse and put a finger to her lips.
    Women’s talk, I thought, and made for the stairs. Goody Wyse didn’t stop to draw breath and, out of her ramblings, the word ‘players’ jumped at me.
    I stopped. ‘What’s that about players?’
    Mother put Susan into Aunt Meg’s floury arms and came to hug me.
    ‘What? I said, pulling away.
    ‘I’m sorry, Billy, my love,’ she said.
    For a heart-stopping moment I thought something had happened to Father, but Mother was not weeping, so the moment passed.
    ‘Billy, I’m sorry,’ she said again. ‘Goody Wyse told us that the players… They’re going back to London.’
    I couldn’t understand. ‘Going? Why? They can’t. The playhouses are closed.’ I felt sick.
    One day. My big chance was one day away, yet I was to be robbed of it.
    Tears sprang to my eyes.
    ‘The playhouses are opening again,’ Mother told me. ‘The company is packing up already. The word from London is that the plague is officially over.’
    Oh, those magical words! ‘
The plague is officially over.
’
    I must have grinned, because Mother shook my shoulder. ‘Billy? Are you all right?’
    ‘Better than all right, Mother,’ I cried. ‘Don’t you see? If the plague is over, we can go back to London, too! I’ll be in the play there. At the Globe!’
    I turned to run upstairs and start packing, but Mother caught my arm.
    ‘Listen to me!’ she said. ‘Your sister is too ill to travel. You must be patient.’ She put her face in her hands for a moment, then looked up. ‘Believe me, I want
nothing more than to be in our own home, but it’s not possible. You have to understand. We’re not going anywhere. Not for a while.’

CHAPTER EIGHT
    I couldn’t believe it. One minute my life was almost perfect and the next, everything was wrong.
    I needed to see Master Burbage and Master Shakespeare. Maybe they weren’t leaving until after tomorrow, after I’d played my part. Either way, I could tell them I’d be back in
London as soon as Susan was better. I wanted their promise that I could still be in a play, on the stage, in front of an audience.
    While Aunt Meg took her sewing up to the manor house, and Mother was singing to Susan, I crept out. I left Hoppy behind, because I had to run. I daren’t be on the road after nightfall.
    I had a shock when I reached the inn yard and found the company already loading the carts. I asked old John Merry where Master Shakespeare was.
    ‘Gone, lad,’ he said. ‘Will and some other players rode ahead to get the Globe ready, and Richard is leaving once everything’s loaded. We last few will drive the wagon
and carts to London tomorrow at first light.’
    I tried to interrupt, but you can’t stop old John once he starts.
     

     
    ‘There’s handbills to print and send out so people will know we’re back, and the costumes that have been boxed up for months, they need airing. The food
sellers must be told and—’
    I gripped his arm. ‘What about me?’
    ‘You, lad? What about you?’
    Just then Richard Burbage came out, carrying an armful