Rough Waters

Dangers lie off the coast in this engaging short story by Alyson Hilbourne.

NELL splashed through the shallow waters of the estuary. The tide was out and the water was clear. She bent down and picked up a stone.

What had caught her attention was the perfectly round hole in the centre.

She clutched it, her hand feeling the years it had been bounced and scoured by the water. The stone had a warmth that made Nell want to hug it.

“Nick! Paul! Look what I’ve found!” she called to her brother and their friend, but Nick ran off, dragging Paul after him.

Paul looked back at her and shrugged. Nell could tell he was torn between his friendship with Nick and herself.

She sighed, paddled out of the water, picked up her stockings and shoes and hurried after them.

When they got to the beach the boys stripped off their shirts and breeches and plunged into the sea.

Nell took off her dress and put the stone down on top of it, then ran into the water after them.

The chill made her gasp as the water reached her thighs but she pushed through the cold and dived under, coming up laughing and shaking the hair out of her face.

All of them had been swimming since they could walk, and had no fear of the ocean.

Nell ducked under the water again and swam to Paul’s legs.

She pulled at him so he toppled over. He chased her back through the waves, laughing.

Only when the sun began to sink towards the horizon did the three come out of the sea.

Nell’s shift clung to her as she shivered, pulling her damp dress over her head.

The minister would be shocked if he saw her, but he never came to the beach. She was safe.

They walked back home, swinging their shoes from their hands.

Nell saw Anna watching them from outside her family cottage.

She was neatly and demurely dressed, her cap in place hiding her hair, her apron spotlessly clean.

She smiled at the boys and a flush of frustration ran through Nell.

She wrung out her hair, but there was nothing else she could do to tidy herself.

Nell hurried forward and walked between Nick and Paul until they had passed Anna.

At the junction of the lanes, Paul waved goodbye and Nell and Nick climbed the hill up to their grandmother’s cottage.

“Come and sit down. The stew is ready,” their grandmother said as they ducked to enter the low doorway.

The cottage was warm. It smelled of the plants that hung from the ceiling, drying ready to be made into the potions and cures that their grandmother sold to earn a living.

As they sat down at the table, Nell pulled the stone from her pocket.

“Look what I found,” she said, pushing it across the table to her grandmother.

“A stone?” Nick said, turning his attention to the meal.

“It’s a hag stone,” her grandmother said. “A nice one. Keep hold of it – the force of water will protect you from evil.”

Nick made a face. Nell clutched the stone tight.

When dinner was over, Nell tucked the stone away with her other treasured possessions: a square from her late mother’s dress, a blue and black striped jay’s feather and a fossil she’d found on the beach.

Next morning, Nell heard Nick get up. It was still early and the cottage was lit by the dawn half-light.

“Where are you going?” she asked, rolling over on her mattress.

“Fishing,” he said. “With Paul.”

“I’ll come,” Nell said, pushing back her blanket.

“Nell, I need you to help me prepare some cures for market on Saturday,” her grandmother called over from her cupboard bed. Nell’s shoulders sagged. Nick shrugged.

Nell would find a way to protect her loved ones from the incoming storms . . .

“Sorry,” he said, but Nell didn’t think he looked that sorry. Sometimes she thought he was glad to have Paul to himself.

When they’d been small they’d played together all the time, but as they got older, Paul and Nick often went out in the boat to fish, while Nell had to help her grandmother.

Nell longed to be outside instead of spending the day in the cottage.

She hated being a girl and being told her place was in the home, but their grandmother had worked hard to bring her and Nick up since their parents had died of fever.

Now it was their turn to care for her.

If Nick brought in a good catch, it would earn them a few much-needed coins, but Nell chafed, knowing she was just as good in the boat as he was.

It was only that people didn’t think it seemly for a girl to be out on the water.

By Saturday Nell and her grandmother had prepared a basket of cures.

It was Nell’s job to walk down to the square and set up their pitch.

She put her basket down and looked around.

Across the green, Anna was talking to Mr Gresham, her uncle, who had brought lambs to sell.

Anna appeared to be deep in conversation but Nell noticed her gazing around.

When Anna pulled herself upright and patted her cap and smoothed her apron, Nell turned in the direction Anna was looking.

Paul.

He strode into the square, a bundle of dried fish under his arm.

He came over to Nell and squatted down beside her. “Morning,” he began. Anna wandered across. She looked at Paul from under her eyelashes.

Something burned inside Nell.

Paul was her friend.

She’d never thought of him as anything but a friend, but he was her friend.

“Hello, Paul.” Anna’s voice was honeyed.

As Paul stood up to have a conversation with her, Nell’s heart sank.

Anna waved a hand dismissively at the cures and potions that Nell had spread out in the basket and would no doubt have said something snide if

Paul wasn’t there.

A spark of anger ran through Nell. Anna’s family had bought the cures as often as anyone, and hadn’t Mr Gresham come to the cottage for help last winter when his son had a leg wound?

Nell scowled, but there was nothing she could do.

All through the summer Nell noticed Anna following them about.

She appeared on the beach when they were swimming.

Anna didn’t go in the water and kept her cap pulled forward to protect her from the sun.

When Nell came out of the sea she was very aware of her dripping hair sticking to her face and her linens clinging to her, but nothing would stop Nell swimming.

Her grandmother said she was born half dolphin and water was where Nell was in her element.

Each Saturday, too, Anna was there, hanging around the market, fluttering her eyelashes at Paul and acting coquettishly.

Nell became snappish with Paul. She could see his head was being turned.

Things he’d never been interested in before, like farming, suddenly needed a long conversation with

Anna as she asked his advice about lambs and chickens.

“You don’t have any chickens!” Nell told him afterwards. “What do you know?”

“She asked,” Paul said with a shrug and the gentle smile that made Nell’s heard skip faster.

As the night of the summer fair came round Nell was uneasy.

A niggle of worry irritated her. She’d always gone to the fair with Nick and Paul.

They wandered round, watching the showmen and looking at the stalls set up by pedlars and travellers.

The minister and the church had tried to ban the fair but it still went on, quieter, more restrained and further from the eyes of the authorities.

This year, when they arrived in the field, Anna grabbed Paul’s arm and pulled him towards her.

Nell looked at Nick, expecting him to protest, but he merely shrugged.

Nell thinned her lips as Anna walked right in front of her. She skipped round until she was next to Paul again.

“Come and see the trinkets the traders have brought,” Nell said to Paul.

“We don’t need to see them,” Anna cooed, giving Nell a pointed look. “They are just childish geegaws.”

Nell swallowed a retort and followed the others.

Travellers had their caravans in a further field and in the distance Nell heard a fiddle playing.

Anna’s eyes sparkled and she pulled Paul towards the sound.

Nell and Nick trailed behind. The travellers had built a fire and they sat round it.

Nell saw their shapes looming in and out of the shadows as the flames leapt.

Several couples were dancing, like wraiths in the dark, swinging each other round and round.

The church did not allow it. Nell looked at Nick. He shook his head but Anna pulled Paul towards the dancers.

Nell watched fearfully. It was fine for the travellers. They would be up and away before word got to the authorities, but the villagers would face shaming or worse if they were found wanting.

Word had it that the witch finder was in the county looking for those who went against the word of God.

As the music became faster Anna grabbed Paul and pulled him round.

He was awkward at first but as she watched, Nell saw him throw his head back and laugh, cavorting round and round.

Her eyes filled with tears. She blinked and turned away.

“I’m going home,” she said to Nick, glad it was too dark for him to see her.

“I’ll be along soon,” he said.

Nell clenched her fists. Even Nick was deserting her.

She ran back across the fields and flung herself at her grandmother.

Her grandmother rubbed

“Mark my words. A storm is rising”

her back and hugged her.

“’Tis courting season, child,” she said, her voice even and gentle.

“Warm weather turns heads. You have to wait for winter to knock sense into people again.”

“I can’t wait until winter . . .” Nell sobbed, leaning her head on her grandmother’s shoulder.

They stood, looking out of the cottage door at the clear sky, bright with stars.

In the distance, Nell heard the calming whoosh of the waves coming up the beach and smelled salt carried on the breeze.

She loved the village by the sea.

“Weather will change tomorrow,” her grandmother said, giving Nell’s shoulder a squeeze.

“It’s set fair,” Nell countered.

Her grandmother shook her head.

“Nay. Mark my words. A storm is rising.”

Next morning Nick was up early.

“You’re not going out?” Nell asked.

“It’s beautiful. It’ll be lovely on the ocean,” Nick said.

“There’s a storm coming,” Nell warned.

Nick opened the cottage door. The sky was blue with hardly a cloud.

He turned to her with a triumphant look.

Nell shivered and rushed to find the

hag stone.

She hurried to the beach after Nick to find him and Paul pushing their small boat into the shallows.

“What’s that?” Nick asked as Nell tied the stone to the prow of the boat.

“It will protect you,” Nell said.

Nick gave a disbelieving grunt and shook his head.

The boat bobbed on the water and Paul and Nick jumped in.

Paul rowed them out into the bay and Nell watched, with a leaden feeling of foreboding, until all she could see of the boat was a speck on the horizon.

As the day got warmer and the air became thick and cloying, a sharp breeze began to blow from the sea and dark clouds rolled across the sky, blackening the water so that the horizon was barely a smudge.

Raindrops the size of pennies crashed down on the roof of the cottage.

Nell paced up and down. “I’ll see if Nick is back,” she told her grandmother.

She hurried to the beach, pulling her cloak around her.

She peered at where the boat was usually moored but there was no sign of it.

She waited on the shingle, a hand shading her eyes, watching the sea.

A fork of lightning lit up sky, followed by a rumble of thunder.

The breeze was pushing huge waves on to the shore, crashing down in an explosion of foam.

Nell wasn’t aware of anyone approaching until a hand clamped down on her shoulder.

“That’s her.” She turned at Anna’s voice. “She sells potions in the market. I’ve seen her consorting with the devil at night.”

Nell gasped.

Anna was pointing at her. A group of men edged forward and surrounded Nell. Many of them she had known all her life.

People who had bought cures from her, who had sought her grandmother’s help with aches and pains.

The man with his hand on her shoulder began pulling her.

“No, wait! Nick and P–” She pointed out to sea and saw Anna blanch.

But whatever Anna had set in motion was unstoppable.

Nell found herself dragged into the village and thrown in the lock-up.

As she hammered on the door she heard someone say, “The witch finder will decide.”

Nell sank to her knees, feeling weak and dizzy. Her mouth was dry and her heart racing fit to explode.

The cell was cold and damp and she was already soaked through from waiting on the beach.

The straw on the floor stank and was rife with insects.

What was happening? Where were Nick and Paul?

She struggled to make sense of things.

Nell didn’t know how long had passed before she heard footsteps and a key jangle in the lock.

She was pulled roughly from the cell and taken across the street to the inn, where the ground floor room was full of people.

Sitting at a table, dressed entirely in black, was a large, jowly man.

Broken veins made his cheeks appear flushed and he had thick eyebrows.

His tall, wide-brimmed hat rested on the table in front of him, and he was tapping his fingers irritably as Nell was pushed forward.

Somewhere on the journey from the beach she’d lost her cap and one of her shoes.

Her cloak was drenched and her hair wild. She noticed a mix of pitying looks and grins.

“What is she accused of?” the man in black asked.

The man who had pulled her from the beach stepped forward.

“Consorting with the devil and casting spells,” he said.

Nell blinked in surprise. Adrenaline fizzed round her body and she had to hold her breath to stay quiet.

“She’s witched the boat with my sweetheart in.” Anna’s voice was strident. “It’s not come back.”

She hiccupped as her voice broke.

“There’s been a storm,” Nell wailed. “Someone should go and look for them. My brother is on that boat. Why would I wish it harm?”

Heat flushed through her body. The injustice of it!

Beads of sweat bubbled on her forehead as her body tensed.

“She’s against me,” Anna said, jabbing a finger towards Nell. “She’s trying to spite me.

“Everyone knows she makes potions and has a pact with the devil.”

The man in black ran a hand across his forehead. “Quiet!” he snapped. At that moment the door to the inn opened, and the crowd turned as one to see who was there.

There was a gasp.

Nell blinked as the crowd parted.

“Nick! Paul!” she cried. “Who are these?” the man in black asked.

“These are the men she’s accused of witching,” one of the crowd shouted.

“Well, they appear to be alive,” the jowly man said with evident distaste. “I see no way she could be guilty. Release her.”

Someone stepped forward and untied the ropes around Nell’s wrists.

She swayed and Paul stepped forward and put his arms around her.

Nell heard a shriek but she remembered nothing more until she found herself in front of the fire at her grandmother’s cottage, clothes steaming and her hands around a cup of hot camomile tea.

Sitting next to her were Nick and Paul, staring into the flames.

“What happened?” Nell asked. “Where were you?”

“There was a storm,”

Nick began.

“I told you,” Nell said, looking meaningfully at her brother.

“The boat was hit by a freak wave,” Paul added.

“It broke the backbone and we were flung in the water.

“I thought we were done for, but then the prow bobbed up in front of us, with this tied to it.” He pulled the hag stone from his pocket.

He grinned at her. “Reckon it saved our lives. We clung to the prow and were pushed down the coast by the current, which is why we took a time to get back.”

“It was a long walk,” Nick said ruefully.

“Out there, in the waves,” Paul said. “I realised something, too.”

Nick and Nell turned to him expectantly.

Nell was aware of her heart beating loudly and wondered if Paul could hear it.

“Anna means nothing to me,” Paul said. “It’s this family I love. If I needed proof then that trick she pulled on you, Nell . . .”

His voice trailed away as they all realised what the dire consequences of

Anna’s accusation could have been.

Nell shivered.

“Will you marry me, Nell?” Paul asked. “You were all I could think about as we clung to the boat.

“And then in the courtroom . . . I don’t want to risk losing you again.” Nell swallowed.

“Excuse me,” Nick said. “But you have no boat and no prospects. How can you marry my sister?”

Paul punched him playfully on the arm.

“Of course. First thing is to build a new boat, then maybe a cottage?”

Marriage? Nell turned the word over in her head.

She’d never thought about Paul like that, but then she thought of her tumbling emotions when it seemed she might lose him to Anna.

“Yes,” she said, feeling breathless and tingly.

She looked up at Paul. “On one condition.”

She saw his eyes widen. “That when you build a new boat you’ll put the hag stone on it to keep you both safe.”

Paul’s shoulders sank with relief and he smiled.

“Of course,” he said. “We will.”

The End.