Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman Read Free Book Online Page A

act of
The Judgement of Paris.
"
    "And the boys?"
    "Roger you know. The other boys are apprentices, and rascals all," she said, lifting a crawling babe onto her lap, "but this little fellow is mine. Master Grimm wanted him to be Chestnut Fustian, but I said, 'Master Grimm, if you think I will call a helpless babe Chestnut Fustian, you may think again. He will be Russet Wool.' And so he is, be you not, Russet, my love?" She cooed at him, and Meggy felt a pang, remembering long-ago cooing and cuddling. Her gran, soft and warm and smelling of meadow grasses and ale, had cooed at her so and sung her to sleep. Meggy let the little girls snuggle up against her, which eased her spirit just as the drink eased her bones.
    In the sudden quiet of the room, Meggy could hear bits of conversation from the two gentlemen at the fireplace: "How know you these things ... Thomas Bacon has left the stage and will ... a license to play ... noble patronage..."
    Now the voices grew louder. "But a
bribe,
Cuthbert?" asked Master Merryman. "How have we the money for a bribe, even if we knew who and how?"
    "We must do something bold," Master Grimm said.
    "But will it serve us? The authorities are ever anxious to catch players in misdeeds and missteps, even when there are none."
    Meggy looked quizzically at Mistress Grimm. "Another law has of late been passed against 'masterless men,'" she explained. "All players must now be licensed and attached to some noble person, lest they be taken as vagabonds, dragged before justice, whipped, stocked, burned, and packed out of the parish." She shook her head. "Fie upon it! Players, hooligans and scoundrels, discharged prisoners and landless peasants, jugglers and tinkers and horse thieves—all be treated alike."
    Just then Master Grimm slammed his fist against the wall and shouted, "To treat me so—me, Cuthbert Grimm, the finest player in London. Nay, in all England! You may bow and kiss their feet if you like, you chicken-hearted coward, but I will not!"
    Mistress Grimm stood, sending Russet Wool tumbling to the floor. "I will see the gentlemen calmed. Roger," she called up the stairs, "come see your Mistress Swann home."
    Roger bounced into the room. He winked at Meggy and touched his cap in agreement.
    Meggy looked at Roger and then at Mistress Grimm. "You, mistress," she said, "may call me Meggy, as my gran did, if you will." Mistress Grimm nodded.
    Meggy leaned down to Louise and stroked the soft whiteness of her. "Farewell, Louise. Keep out of mischief," the girl said, and then added, in a whisper, "Oh, I shall sorely feel the want of you, Louise Goose. Now I be truly alone."
    Smothered with attention as she was by the little Grimms, Louise did not appear to mind being left. She blinked and preened and snapped at Roger's woolen-clad knee as he passed.

EIGHT
     

    "I am not your Mistress Swann, you tottering wretch," Meggy said to Roger as they started down Pudding Lane. She had to struggle to keep up with him, for, being straight and strong, he was not compelled to stick-swing-drag as she was.
    "Fortunate that is for me, you mewling, flap-mouthed flax wench," he responded, slowing down a bit.
    "Gleeking swag-bellied maggot," said Meggy.
    "Knoddy-pated whey face."
    "Fly-bitten—" The girl paused. "You have yet to say cripple-some or crookleg or leaden foot. Why do you not?"
    He grinned. "When I look at you, I see not your crooked legs but your black eyes that blaze and snap and those cheeks like apples ripened in the sun," he said, which irritated but also oddly pleased the girl, which irritated her the more.
    "Go to!" she snapped. "I am right surprised that you required bellows to tend your master's fire, you bloviating windbag."
    Roger laughed, and Meggy found herself laughing, too. They stopped for a moment and let their laughter overtake them. Holding his side, Roger said, "You, Mistress Margret, are passing skilled at this matter of insults, you milk-livered minnow."
    "I grew up in an alehouse, you