The Theft & the Miracle
Chapter One
Jacob Martin
It was in early November that the news began to reach
the city. Not that anybody took much notice at first.
Life was hard enough here, with the scurvy, leprosy,
food shortage, and crippling taxes following the recent
disastrous harvest. There was no point in bothering with
some new trouble, especially one so far away as Dorset.
Then one mild, wet market day in the middle of the
month, a peddler arrived from Gloucester with a sack of
knives for sale. That evening he shared a flagon of wine
and a salted herring pie with a little group of local
tradesmen at the Black Bear on the corner of St. Peter's
Street. They were glad to have a newcomer bringing
tidings from another part of the country.
But the news the peddler brought filled them with dread.
A terrible sickness had attacked the southwest ports,
and was spreading across the map of England like a dark
and evil stain. Now it had reached Gloucester and was
less than thirty miles off! There, the man told them,
the churchyards overflowed with new graves, and there
were not enough men left to bury the dead, ... read full excerpt from: The Theft & the Miracle ebook
