World Without End Page 0,310

and fell against him with her hand on his chest. "Oops!" she said, and smiled at him as she recovered her balance. Wulfric flushed with pleasure.

You blind idiot, Gwenda thought.

They went inside. Perkin sat at the table, and his wife, Peg, brought him a bowl of pottage. He cut a thick slice from the loaf on the board. Peg served her own family next. Annet, her husband Billy Howard, Annet's brother, Rob, and Rob's wife. She gave a little to Annet's four-year-old daughter, Amabel, and to Rob's two small boys. Then she invited Wulfric and his family to sit down.

Gwenda spooned up the broth hungrily. It was thicker than the pottage she made: Peg was putting stale bread in, whereas in Gwenda's house the bread never lasted long enough to go stale. Perkin's family got cups of ale, but Gwenda and Wulfric were not offered any: hospitality went only so far in hard times.

Perkin was jocular with his customers, but otherwise a sourpuss, and the atmosphere in his house was always more or less dismal. He talked in a disheartened way about the Kingsbridge market. Most of the traders had had a bad day. The only ones doing any business were those who sold essentials such as corn, meat and salt. No one was buying the now-famous Kingsbridge Scarlet cloth.

Peg lit a lamp. Gwenda wanted to go home but she and Wulfric were waiting for their wages. The boys began to misbehave, running around the room and bumping into adults. "It's getting near their bed time," said Gwenda, though it was not really.

At last Wulfric said: "If you'll give us our wages, Perkin, we'll leave."

"I haven't got any money," Perkin said.

Gwenda stared at him. He had never said anything like this in the nine years she and Wulfric had been working for him.

Wulfric said: "We must have our wages. We've got to eat."

"You've had some pottage, haven't you?" Perkin said.

Gwenda was outraged. "We work for money, not pottage!"

"Well, I haven't got any money," Perkin repeated. "I went to market to sell my apples, but no one bought them, so I've got more apples than we can eat, and no money."

Gwenda was so shocked that she did not know what to say. It had never occurred to her that Perkin might not pay them. She felt a stab of fear as she realized there was nothing she could do about it.

Wulfric said slowly: "Well, what's to be done about it? Shall we go to the Long Field and take the seeds back out of the ground?"

"I'll have to owe you this week's wages," Perkin said. "I'll pay you when things get better."

"And next week?"

"I won't have any money next week, either - where do you think it's to come from?"

Gwenda said: "We'll go to Mark Webber. Perhaps he can employ us at the fulling mill."

Perkin shook his head. "I spoke to him yesterday, in Kingsbridge, and asked if he could hire you. He said no. He's not selling enough cloth. He'll continue to employ Jack and Eli and the boy, and stockpile the cloth until trade picks up, but he can't take on any extra hands."

Wulfric was bewildered. "How are we to live? How will you get your spring ploughing done?"

"You can work for food," Perkin offered.

Wulfric looked at Gwenda. She choked back a scornful retort. She and her family were in deep trouble, and this was not the moment to antagonize anyone. She thought fast. They did not have much choice: eat, or starve. "We'll work for food, and you'll owe us the money," she said.

Perkin shook his head. "What you're suggesting may be fair-"

"It is fair!"

"All right, it is fair, but just the same I can't do it. I don't know when I'll have the money. Why, I could owe you a pound come Whitsun! You can work for food, or not at all."

"You'll have to feed all four of us."

"Yes."

"But only Wulfric will work."

"I don't know-"

"A family wants more than food. Children need clothes. A man must have boots. If you can't pay me, I will have to find some other way of providing such things."

"How?"

"I don't know." She paused. The truth was, she had no idea. She fought down panic. "I may have to ask my father how he manages."

Peg put in: "I wouldn't do that, if I were you - Joby will tell you to steal."

Gwenda was stung. What right did Peg have to take a supercilious attitude? Joby had never employed