out to the front gate.
CHAPTER THREE
The stables of the Burning Oak were as clean and organised as his uncle’s were dirty and disorderly. The floor was spotlessly clean and the half-dozen horses stabled there were all well bred, with fine posture and gleaming coats-not like the ragged nags he had always groomed before. Beside the entrance, he found a small room with a proper bed and a shelf above it and a chest for keeping his belongings in. The drawers were all hanging out as if the last stableboy had left in an almighty hurry, with one stocking still lying on the floor. The room had a door he could close and was not at all draughty like the stall his uncle had given him-it was like a
Samuel was putting his new clothes carefully into the drawers when a knock came at the door and Mr Kelvin entered, his hands clasped together in front of him.
‘Please forgive me for seeming a little absent-minded at times,’ he said, smiling down, ‘I do have a lot on my mind at the moment. What is your name, young man?’
‘Samuel, Sir.’
‘Very well, Samuel. Breakfast is served at seven, lunch at noon and dinner at seven. Yours will be given to you at the kitchen door and you should bring it back to your room to finish. Our guests demand the highest privacy and so you should not bother them in the slightest. You may not wander around inside the inn, but you are free to roam the gardens as you choose. Also, you strictly cannot leave the grounds without my approval and most important of all-should you learn or see anything that could be considered…well, let’s say, should you learn or see anything at all, you should not speak of it to anyone. Is that understood?’
‘Yes, Mr Kelvin,’ Samuel responded with a gulp.
Mr Kelvin smiled then. ‘Excellent! Here is your first month’s pay in advance.’ And he handed Samuel his coins and promptly turned and left, leaving Samuel grinning into his palms with glee.
It took Samuel several days to adjust himself to his new environment, with the long-nosed and ever-brooding servant, Kans, helping him begrudgingly whenever he had a question. Samuel quickly learned the most surprising thing about the Burning Oak-everyone there wore entirely black clothes without exception and there were no women at all. Unlike the men of the town, very few of them sported beards or long hair, seeming to focus fastidiously on keeping themselves well groomed, having everything combed and tucked into place. Most came and went wearing an entirely black cloak that covered black shirt and black trousers, so that they looked very mysterious, and they spoke little, although they were usually polite and well spoken when he did manage to wrestle some words out of them. Samuel was instructed to leave them be and not to bother them, which he thought was fine, because the few times he had tried speaking with the men, they had stared at him intensely-as if there was some bizarre object growing from the side of his head. They would always say very little and then find some excuse to send him away again.
There was always much work to be done at the Burning Oak, yet Samuel found the experience very rewarding. He actually took pleasure in keeping the stable neat and the horses well groomed and fed. The guests of the inn came and went day and night, so that he was often woken at all hours. But they were always polite and patient with Samuel when he struggled with the saddles and harnesses, even helping him when he faltered, which was quite often at first, for many of these horses were tall-great mountains of muscle compared to the stubborn ponies he was used to.
Samuel was sometimes given time in the afternoons to do as he wished and for the first time in as long as he could remember, he found himself with more time than he knew what to do with. Kans, somehow knowing when he was scaling the walls or adventuring within the branches of a tree, would scurry out from the inn and tell him off, saying how such conduct was intolerable. Unruly behaviour was scowled upon by the inn and its guests and so Samuel was forbidden to make noise or do anything that might disturb their thoughts. For a boy such as he, this meant anything remotely enjoyable.
Samuel had found a small box of chalk hidden away in the back of the stable and he pushed a few short pieces into his pocket. That afternoon, he sat by the furthest wall in the garden and drew simple pictures with his chalk on the smooth paving stones at the wall’s base. He thought it such a harmless thing, as he could always rub the marks away with his sleeve, but he was always wary of the guests, lest he should somehow disturb them. He drew people and animals and beasts that he had heard of; battles and castles and rivers and moats. Finally, as the afternoon sun waned and his hands and sleeves were white with chalk, Samuel lay beside his drawings and looked up at the sky. He had not been allowed from the confines of the inn for all his time here so far. He could often hear wagons and people passing by just beyond the wall, and longed to be away from the quiet, strange, black-clothed men and experience the colours and smells and sights and sensations of the town and the market place. Most of all, he missed Jessicah and her reassurance. He did not have to fear a beating from his uncle here, but neither did he have any friends to talk with. Along with the boredom, he found himself feeling terribly lonely.
As his thoughts turned to Jessicah, Samuel sat up and began dragging his chalk once more across the stones. He was surprised to look down and find that he had scrawled some letters and decided to see what words he could remember. He wrote
Another guest had arrived and Samuel was summoned to care for the horse he had arrived on. Kans came to help him check the animal over and the rest of the afternoon was taken up with a list of chores that Kans had produced from thin air. As Samuel swept and brushed and polished and tidied, he scowled at the pointy-nosed man from afar.
The months, at first slow, had been passing very quickly and Samuel now felt quite proficient at his job. He had found the perfect balance of busyness that kept Kans satisfied and also allowed Samuel free time to rest or do as he pleased. The guests often commented on his good work and he was pleased when they did so. Although he was now firmly set in a daily routine, something unusual began happening in the odd hours of the night. Samuel found himself often waking for no apparent reason. He would lie there, staring at the roof, unable to return to sleep for some time. Perhaps he was catching a cold. He had not been ill since leaving the filthy stall he had slept in at his uncle’s. This room was like a real room in a real house, all cosy and comfortable. It was the most pleasant room he could imagine, with a soft bed and drawers and everything he could want for. His life seemed ever-changing, but at last it was changing for the better.
Samuel was bursting with excitement when he was finally given an errand to run to the market. The cook at the Burning Oak was simply known as Cook, and she was chiefly responsible for ordering the food and wine to be consumed, but on this particular day, she had finished all her supplies of some particular spice, so Samuel had been sent to fetch some more. She had given him a note with exactly what to buy, and how much, so he could not possibly make any mistakes. He had been surprised, at first, to learn there was a woman in the Burning Oak, but then Samuel supposed that she was just a worker, the same as he was. She was actually quite friendly and very talkative, so Samuel found himself often lingering outside the kitchen door or helping her in the kitchen with the peeling and cutting of vegetables.
Naturally, upon being set free back into the town, Samuel went directly to his uncle’s inn and, peeping through the door, managed to get Jessicah’s attention. She nearly cried out with glee at seeing him and they dashed out into the street together while he told her all the news and what he had been up to.
‘How are Aunt and Uncle?’ Samuel asked at one point.
‘The same,’ she replied. ‘They were so angry the day you left. They had to pay ten crowns to those guards.
