The Remembered

Chapter Nine

November 1437



The remainder of the trip to Trowell was made even more unbearable by the news that Bromley had delivered to Elizabeth and her family. She hadn't yet told her mother and father that she was pregnant and didn't think that she would be able to conceal it from them for much longer. She held out hope that Richard was yet alive and would find her.

The family passed south of Nottingham on their way to Trowell. In the distance, Elizabeth could see the large church of the towne. She thought that it must be a grand church and she longed to be there. She thought that Nottingham looked like a beautiful towne and she was looking forward to living near it. Surely it would have a large market.

Before they reached Trowell, Elizabeth changed back into her own clothing. It was so nice to look like a woman again. She decided though that her father was probably right in having her dress the way he had. Traveling had its risks and traveling with a man who was ill, left them with little protection. The men's clothing had been a reasonable means of reducing the risk.

They entered Trowell on the Nottingham road and passed the small village church of Saint Helen's.

Trowell was a small village with only a few houses near the church. Her father's sister didn't actually live in the village, but just outside on the road to Ilkeston. There were few people on the village street when they passed through and those that were there stopped what they were doing to stare at the wagon loaded with household items and the strangers with it.

Elizabeth's father perked up some as they started on the Ilkeston road. He had been telling the family about his sister and his brother-in-law and he was anticipating the reunion. Elizabeth and her brothers had never met them and her brothers wondered whether there would be cousins their ages. Elizabeth's father was sure that they would find a welcomed respite there until he recovered.

As they neared the cottage, it seemed very quiet. There were no animals in the pasture. The shelter for the animals stood in disrepair. It was clear that something was not right. As they passed by the large oak trees that were partially obscuring the view, they came in full view of the cottage. It was only a shell. The thatched roof had evidently caught fire some time ago. The roof lay crumpled in a heap in the middle of the standing four stone walls. Other than the chimney, that was all that was standing. The family looked aghast upon the sight. Elizabeth didn't know when she had ever seen a more horrifying sight. Where would they go now?

'Whot will we do now?' cried Elizabeth's mother. 'Where will we go?'

'I do nay know,' sighed her father. He had sunk down into the wagon and the energy had left him.

Her brothers were rummaging around in the burned out shell.

'Get oot of there,' yelled her mother. Elizabeth sensed that her mother was seriously strained by this new discovery. Her mother got down off the wagon and fell on the grass and cried.

Elizabeth's father laid his head back against the wagon and closed his eyes. She didn't think that she had ever seen him in such despair.

'Father,' whispered Elizabeth. She didn't want to cause her mother any further distress. 'Where will we go? We can nay stay 'ere. It will be dark soon and it is get'ing cold.'

'We still 'ave a lit'le muney,' replied her father without opening his eyes. 'We will stay in the inn that we passed in Trowell.'

'Boot, where will we go tomorrow?'

'I do nay know, Elizabeth.'

Her mother stood slowly and wiped her tears. 'I 'ave family near Not'ing'am. It is nay far. Let us go there.'

Elizabeth's father opened his eyes and looked straight at her mother. 'I will nay beg from your family. I will dee at the side of the road first.'

'And shall we dee with you?' posed her mother in a raised voice. 'You and your pride will be our deeth.'

Elizabeth hadn't realized it until now that her mother's family had not approved of her parent's marriage. Elizabeth had never met her mother's family and now it made more sense to her. Not only was the distance measured in miles, but it was also measure in pride.

Her father started coughing violently now and he held his chest in pain. He had lost the energy to argue and just shook his head in reluctant agreement that they should go to his wife's family for help. Their situation was getting critical and without help, they would not last long. They were nearing the end of their meager food and money supply. With winter settling in, if they didn't get help soon, the family would surely be broken up.

A light rain started falling as the family turned the wagon around and slowly made their way back to the only inn for miles around. Their hopes were dashed, but Elizabeth's were crushed.

'ow will Richard find us?' she moaned as the wagon creaked along the roadway.

'Elizabeth,' replied her mother, 'you do nay even know that 'e is yet alive.'

'Boot, I feel that 'e is,'

Elizabeth and her parents spent the night in the inn and her brothers spent the night beneath the wagon, trying as best they could to stay dry. Elizabeth's father could not manage the stairway in the inn, so she and her mother helped him. Before laboring up the stairs, her father asked the innkeeper where the family with the burnt out cottage had gone. He wasn't sure, but thought that they had gone to Worcester.

There was one bed in the room, so Elizabeth slept on the floor and her parents shared the small bed. She had grown accustom to her father's snoring, but his illness seemed to intensify the snoring. Elizabeth awoke to the ringing of the church bells the next morning. Odd, she thought, since she rarely was still in bed when the bells rang in Burghley. Opening her eyes, she could see that the sun was peering through the window covering. 'Strange that Father did nay wake me. I wonder whether 'e is checking on the boys. 'ow culd 'e get down the stairs?', Elizabeth thought to herself. She looked at the bed and noticed that her father was still in bed. Then she realized that she didn't wake at all during the night to his snoring.

Elizabeth got up off the floor and rushed to her father's side to wake him. She reached out to gently shake him and she recoiled. He was stiff and cold to touch. She let out a gasp and covered her mouth with her hands. Then she cried out, 'Mum, 'e is deed! Father is deed!' She sobbed and ran downstairs to find her brothers.

'Lads, comb quickly! 'urry, your father is deed!' she cried.

Returning to the room, they found their mother kneeling on the bed and bent over their father. She was sobbing and apologizing to him for being angry with him the previous day.

'No, Dear God, do nay take 'im from me,' she cried as tears dropped from her face and onto her husband's face. 'I can nay go on withoot 'im.'

Elizabeth and her brothers knelt by the bedside and hugged their mother. Elizabeth felt a huge burden rest upon her shoulders as she realized that her mother really meant what she said. Elizabeth was going to have to be a strength and support for her mother until her brothers grew up some. Her concern for Richard slipped to the recesses of her mind as she considered their plight. She now needed to get her family to Nottingham as quickly as possible.

'Shhh, Mum,' said Elizabeth 'let us be very quiet and not draw more attention to ourselves than needed. We do nay want any trouble in this village where they do nay know us.' She expected that if they were to take him to Nottingham it would be easier to get a priest familiar with the family to give him burial rites and find a burial site for him. They didn't have money for a burial here. Hopefully, her mother's family would help.

'Lads,' Elizabeth said, ''urry and 'itch the ox to the wagon. Mum, let us get Father downstairs before sumeone sees.'

Elizabeth checked the hallway and stairs. There was apparently no one in the inn. She looked out the window to the back of the inn and saw that innkeeper tending to some animals in the pasture. She and her mother lifted their father between them with his arms over their shoulders. He was heavier than Elizabeth had expected, but they managed to 'walk' him down the stairs and out the side door of the inn.

There was no one in the courtyard and they carried him in the same way to the wagon. The boys helped them lift him into the wagon. They leaned him against the side of the wagon in the same position that he had occupied the entire trip. Elizabeth was about to climb into the wagon when she looked back at the inn and noticed with alarm the tracks that they had left in the soft earth. Two pair of footsteps with two long grooves in between where his feet had dragged led to the wagon from the inn. She quickly grabbed a nearly empty bag of potatoes and dragged them to the inn and back to erase the marks.

At last the wagon pulled slowly away from the inn and pointed toward Nottingham. The innkeeper came into the courtyard at about that time and watched as the family moved along the Nottingham road.

As they neared Nottingham and when her brothers were out of earshot, Elizabeth turned and said to her mother, 'Mum, I am with child.'

'You are with child?' asked her mother with excitement. Her excitement was short lived and was tempered by the realization that Elizabeth no longer had a husband. 'Elizabeth, you must nay tell anyone. Promise me,' urged her mother.

'Well, I will nay be able to keep it a secret for very long,' observed Elizabeth with a smile.

'Elizabeth,' replied her mother in a serious tone, 'you do nay 'ave a 'usband. People do nay take kindly to a woman with a child and no 'usband.'

'I do 'ave a 'usband,' Elizabeth replied quietly, but with some force. Her brothers were closer now, so the women spoke in hushed voices.

'And where is 'e then? Maybe 'e is in the wagon with your father.' Her mother felt sorry for saying it as soon as the words had escaped. But, she felt that she needed to cause Elizabeth to accept that Richard was gone. She also was pained that she was now alone.

Elizabeth sat down inside the wagon and faced the other direction, burying her head between her knees to hide her tears.

'I am soory, me luv,' offered her mother. 'Please forgive me.' Elizabeth didn't respond. ''ow long 'as it been that you are with child?'

Without lifting her head, Elizabeth replied that she wasn't certain, but that it wasn't long.

''ow 'ave I nay not'iced, me child?' asked her mother.

'You culd nay not'ice, Mum, you 'ave been caring for Father. I am fine.'