The Gypsy Crown Read Online Free Page A

drinking or dancing. Christmas had been banned, and the smell of roast goose on Christmas Day would have been enough to have the major-generals breaking down the door. Maypoles had been cut down all over the country, theatres had been closed, and horseracing banned. It was said the major-generals even patrolled the streets, making women scrub their faces free of makeup.
    Thousands of vagrants and beggars had been arrested then, it was said, and certainly the gypsies would have been taking a huge risk to go into the biggest town in the county while Thomas Kelsey was major-general. He was gone now, though, like all the other major-generals. Cromwell had been forced to dismiss them or lose the support of the common people. The gypsies had heard accounts of morris dancers daring to parade the villages at Christmas, and maypoles being put up in spring. If people dared to dance about a maypole, which the Puritans thought a most ungodly thing to do, surely it could do no harm for the gypsies to mingle with the crowds at the fair and maybe sing a song or two?
    Besides, everyone was sick of hiding out in the forest, too scared to show their faces in case an overzealous constable took it upon himself to arrest them simply for being gypsies. A day at the fair could be very profitable, and everyone knew that Beatrice’s uncles would have great difficulty raising the bride price they had put on her. It was a matter of family pride that the gold was raised quickly.
    So the girls chattered and giggled as they put on their best skirts again, and Emilia groomed Alida until she shone, and plaited her mane and tail with bright ribbons. Luka changed his shirt and combed his hair for the first time in quite a long while, and then combed Zizi’s hair too, much to her delight. Then they all set off for Kingston-Upon-Thames, leaving Maggie alone with the caravans and looking very dour.
    It was a bright, sunny day, though the wind was sharp enough that the girls kept their shawls over their shoulders. It was a long walk, a matter of six miles or more, and so it was midmorning by the time they were coming into Kingston-Upon-Thames. They were all used to walking long distances, so none of them were very weary, not even Mimi, the youngest of the girls, who still had energy to hop about like a grasshopper in her excitement.
    Kingston-Upon-Thames was a large town, made prosperous by the building of Hampton Court Palace just across the river, which had employed many local craftsmen and tradesmen. The streets were crowded with wagons and carts, and people pushed and shoved all around. There was a girl herding along a flock of geese, a long switch in her hand, and several boys carried big baskets of corn and vegetables. A man dragged along a cart filled with crates of chickens, all of which squawked loudly. A fishmonger was growing harassed as he tried to force himself through the crowd, lifting his catch high above the dust that swirled up from the ground. The air rang with shouts and cries, honks, cackles, bleats and barks.
    Looking about them with interest, the gypsies made their way to the marketplace, surrounded by a row of inns and shops, those on the west side backing onto small wharves on the Thames. Luka and Emilia were wide-eyed, fascinated by the hustle and bustle and burley of the fair. Zizi clung tightly to Luka’s neck, her tail wrapped about his throat, her wrinkled brown face anxious, while Emilia kept a tight hold on Alida’s lead rein. She did not want her being stolen.
    Already Silvia was away at a stall, trying to barter one of her homemade baskets for some fish. Mimi and Sabina lingered by the food stalls, and Ruben delighted them by buying hot corn on sticks for them all. Noah was overwhelmed by the noise and stench and press of people all about. He clutched very tightly to Beatrice’s skirt with one hand, and kept his other hand on Rollo’s back, looking about him with a furrow of puzzlement on his thin brown