The Gypsy Crown Read Online Free

money for Beatrice,’ Jacob said. The worry-lines on his weather-beaten face were deeper than ever. ‘How else are we to do it if we do not go to the fair?’
    â€˜I’d feel safer if we went back to Norwood,’ Maggie said. ‘The Whitehorses will give us work.’
    â€˜Aye, digging ditches and hedge-trimming for a few pennies a day. It’ll take us a year to raise the gold for Beatrice. Yet if we go into Kingston, on fair day, we could earn ten times as much, twenty times as much, if we’re lucky. It’s the only market for miles around, you know that. Everyone comes to market with their pockets jingling, ready to be amused. I’ll play for them, and Bea can sing, and Luka tumble, and you can tell the gorgios’ fortunes …’
    â€˜I will not go to town today,’ Maggie said. ‘I tell you, death lies ahead.’
    Jacob was silent. ‘For us?’ he asked at last.
    Maggie looked at them all, her scraggy grey brows drawn close. ‘Nay,’ she said at last. ‘I don’t see the shadow on any of you. But still I think you should not go. The Rom should keep to the Rom.’
    â€˜Except none of the Rom have gold in their pockets,’ Ruben pointed out. He was a plumper, more easy-going version of his brother Jacob. ‘We will not go for long. Just a little wander through to test the temper of the town.’
    â€˜It’s market day,’ Luka cried. ‘Everyone’s happy on market day.’
    Maggie shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘You be careful, boy,’ she said. ‘Keep your sticky fingers in your pocket. We do not want any attention drawn to us.’
    Luka’s grin faded. ‘I’m not going to steal anything,’ he said indignantly. He rattled the coins in his pocket. ‘I’ve got money. I can buy what I want.’
    â€˜Easy come, easy go,’ Maggie said, and climbed stiffly up the steps into her caravan and shut the door.
    Luka shrugged and petted Zizi, who was sitting on his shoulder as usual, her tail curled about his neck. What was money for if not to buy things?
    â€˜There’d be salmon from the river,’ Jacob said. ‘Happen we could barter with the fishmongers. I haven’t tasted salmon for many a long year.’
    â€˜Sweets,’ Mimi cried, clasping her hands together.
    â€˜I need some new clothes for Mimi and Lena,’ Luka’s mother Silvia said. ‘And I’ve made a whole lot of baskets I could sell.’
    â€˜The Major-General is gone,’ Jacob said. ‘Surely the people of Kingston will be glad for a bit of song and dance after all the gloom of these last few years? It used to be a merry town, I remember.’
    â€˜It’s not as if it’s a Roundhead town,’ Ruben said, ‘with a name like Kingston.’
    Everyone snorted with laughter, for the new fashion of every inn and town changing its name to curry favour with Parliament had caused a great deal of confusion all over the country.
    â€˜If we leave now, we’ll be home by sunset,’ Silvia said, untying her apron from about her waist.
    All the children began to shout with joy, and Luka turned cartwheels all round the camp, Zizi tumbling head over heels behind him. She did not know why Luka was so excited, but she shared in all his emotions as always.
    Emilia had never been to a market fair, since she had been only three years old when the old king had had his head cut off, and since her father had died that same year, and her mother the year after, they had not travelled far from the Great North Wood since. She had never even seen a big town, spending most of her days roaming in the forest, looking for mushrooms and nuts and berries, or tickling for trout in the streams.
    A year ago they would not have risked leaving the safety of the wood. A year ago, Cromwell’s major-generals had ruled England. It had been their job to arrest anyone found singing or swearing or