Harvest

Walter sees Master Jordan’s groom prowling around the village. He imagines the man feels dissatisfied, since as a lesser servant he had to guard Master Kent during the night and played no part in the torture. Now he must be eager to find Mistress Beldam, as she’s a “free-roaming sorceress to lay his hands upon.”

The groom spots Walter and asks if he knows anything about the whereabouts of Mistress Beldam. From his swaggering demeanor, Walter knows the man doesn’t understand how much the villagers hate everyone associated with Master Jordan. On any other day, they’d be too busy working to bother with him, but with the women not returned and the Derby twins and Brooker Higgs still gone, everyone is tense and upset, and no one has picked up their tools. Walter himself has nothing to do, since Mr. Quill is in hiding.

The villagers’ idleness shows that “already our village fabric is unraveling.” They haven’t bothered to care for the harvested barley or the cattle, or to keep the rats away from the crops. Walter has heard that they’re holding a meeting at noon, but he knows he’ll be unwelcome there.

The groom is a small man, able to hurt a woman but not a grown man, like Gervase Carr, Lizzie’s father, who approaches and asks roughly where his daughter is. Thinking himself protected by his attachment to Master Jordan, the groom responds scornfully, telling him that she’s likely to burn with the other women. Lizzie’s mother grabs him, Gervase throws the first punch, and all the other villagers gather and join in, beating the groom. In the tumult Walter falls to the ground and gets kicked in the face; he curls onto his side and waits for the attack to end.

One of the men strikes the groom with a pruning blade, and the rush of blood makes the villagers realize how much they’ve hurt the man and how much trouble they’ll face when he reports the incident to his master. Everyone steps back and scatters, leaving Walter and the groom on the ground. The groom is alive, but barely moving. Walter knows no one in the village is safe from the reprisals that will follow this attack.

In the afternoon, he sees the Carrs and the Saxtons, the two families who attacked the groom first, leave the village quickly. Walter’s old friend, John Carr, barely looks at him as he leaves. Walter knows they’re not abandoning Lizzie, but trying to reach safety outside the village, where they can regroup and plan how to rescue her. Soon, the other families leave, knowing that Mr. Baynham will soon arrive with more men to enforce his aims and clear the village by force. Only Walter remains.

Walter knows it’s difficult for everyone to leave. The families who were less involved in the beating worry about the loss of their livestock, and the pain of parting with the land on which they’ve lived “since Adam’s time.” They don’t want to melt into the large towns where they will be anonymous and without community. However, as people who have lived off a harsh land their entire life, they’re resilient and practical, and know they only face death by staying in the village.

Most of the families leave via the wide lane, in order to take some livestock or a wagon with them. They will end up among the “restless, paler people of the towns.” Only the Carrs and the Saxtons set out into the forest, into land that “might not have seen a human face before.” This means they’ll be safer from pursuit by Jordan’s men. Walter hopes they reach another village in a few days, where they can build and hut and fire and hope the inhabitants respect the custom that allows them to stay.

That night, Walter lies in Kitty Gosse’s bed. Even though he was never very attached to her, he’s both comforted by being in her cottage and anxious at the thought of her ongoing imprisonment. He doesn’t want to stay in his own cottage in case Jordan’s men come looking for him. Now that the villagers have left, he could sleep wherever he wants, but he’s keeping to his accustomed spaces in a display of loyalty that his neighbors will never see. He’s still worried that he will be blamed for everything.

On the other hand, Master Kent has told Walter that Master Jordan doesn’t suspect him, and on the contrary considers him a man he can “rely upon.” This knowledge comforts Walter but also makes him ashamed. Walter imagines that Jordan sees that he’s not a true villager.

Walter sleeps fitfully all night. In his dreams, he’s tormented by “demons” who say that he’s Jordan’s servant now, and that worse things are coming for him. He also dreams that his neighbors burst into the cottage and kill him. Outside the cottage, the wind blows and the abandoned livestock make noise.

Walter is also worried about Mr. Quill. He doesn’t want him to be killed, and he hopes he’s warned Mistress Beldam, but at the same time he’s vaguely jealous that Mr. Quill might have caught up with the fascinating woman and might be spending the night with her right now.

Besides the women imprisoned in the manor house, there’s no one left in the village who was born in the area. The only people left are Walter, Jordan and his men, and Mr. Quill and the strangers.

Walter knows he has to concentrate on something in order to fall asleep. He closes his eyes and dreams he’s in the barn, threshing the barley crop. He knows his neighbors will be proud of him for carrying out this task on his own.