My next stop was the school. It was a large building with five rooms. One small room to the right of the entrance was the office. There were four desks inside, one for each teacher. Each of the other rooms had large pieces of slate hanging on the front wall. On these the teachers wrote things with pieces of chalk they wanted us to remember. Every student who attended learned the basics from age six. If they weren't apprenticed, or paged, most children attended school. The difference was, since they weren't apprenticed or pages, every student was required to bring a chicken and a copper each week, or a pig plus a silver every three months. The teachers needed paid too. Sometimes other exchanges were made. Thomas and Roger were from the dairy farm, so they brought a bucket of milk almost every day instead of other methods of payment. The Taylors brought a new outfit made by their parents for each of the four teachers. This counted for a year.
I cleaned my feet off on the bottom stair before proceeding up the remaining two. Turning left into the office, two of the older year teachers were discussing building seesaws outside for the children to play upon as an alternative to the tree swing.
Looking around, I asked, "Where is the donation box?"
The two looked at me oddly since I wasn't a student. I was already apprenticed to my parents, so I didn't have to attend school. Seeing a strange new child enter the school was unusual unless someone moved here. Since I was apprenticed, it was expected for me to get an education from them during my apprenticeship. The younger man looked toward me pointed beside the door.
Just inside the office was a box secured to the wall with four latches securing the lid. On each latch was a lock. Each teacher had one key to one of the locks, thus, it required all of them to be present or their keys, to open the box. All monetary donations were to be placed within the box. Their money came from the students, so this money was for the school. Every so often, they would open it and use the funds for the school repairs, educational items, or sometimes, a book. The last major purchase was a bell, and the new steps outside.
I carefully counted out the coins, inside my pouch were now four silver hawks, eight copper nobs, and sixteen bronze bits. Half of this was eight bronze bits, four copper nobs, and two silver hawks. I placed exactly this within the donation box to the astonishment of the two teachers. Looking at them I said, "this is a donation from King Garret. He instructed me to donate it here to be used for the school."
They looked further perplexed. The king probably didn't even know Milltown existed as more than a dot on a map. Would he really donate to a school he had never heard about? The older teacher, not wanting to look ungrateful, responded, "thank you, miss. Please convey our thanks to the crown."
After I promised I would, I left four large treats in the office, one on each desk for each of them. Surprisingly, I still had plenty of treats left. Mr. Pakar must've miscounted.
Leaving the school, I made my way toward the orphanage farm near the edge of town. As I was crossing the field containing the school's play area, I heard a voice yell out. "YOU! Now you can't run to the creek, and you won't escape me!" Not even having to look back, I knew it was Michael Duncan. Who else could it be? I tightly clutched the pouch with the coins and the sacks of candy in my hands and took off at a run.
I knew I couldn't outrun him, but if I could get to a place with a lot of adults, he might not be able to give me a thrashing until he caught me alone later. Seeking a reprieve, I dashed as fast as I could. I pumped my arms hoping to get enough of a lead he wouldn't be able to catch me before I found sanctuary among adults. Darting through the trees at the edge of the schoolyard, I paused to survey the road leading here and pondered which way to go. Left would take me into the middle of town, but right would take me past the bath house which was likely to have adults at this time of day cleaning up before the festival. It would also lead me in the general direction of the orphanage which was my next stop.
I chose right. Sneaking a look over my shoulder, I discovered my momentary indecisiveness cost me several yards of my lead. After a few moments fleeing, I saw the top of the water tower for the bath house which doubled as a water reserve during the winter. The bath house was heated, and the chimney pipes from the various rooms crept up along the sides preventing the water from freezing and at least lukewarm throughout the winter. I was close to getting out of a beating. I sprinted stretching my pace to as long as I could when something hit my legs causing me to trip. Michael had thrown his scabbard at my legs.
Before I could stand, Michael Duncan was sending a kick toward my chest. I rolled causing him to miss. Unluckily, I found myself in the muddy sluice from the stream of water where the bath house's wastewater flowed. It smelled foul as this water contained everything which would end up in the midden pool at the end of this small run. Expecting another kick which had not arrived, I looked back to where I had been when I dodged the first kick. I had dropped my pouch and sacks.
Seeing the pouch, Michael reached down and grabbed it. Hearing the chink of coins, he opened it to look inside. Eyes wide with delight, he looked at her. "Thank you. For this, I'll let you go today. Tomorrow, though." He punched his fist holding the pouch into the empty one. With his empty hand he reached out grabbing the other two sacks expecting more coins, but he was even more pleased to find a large of treats in each. "Since you're giving me all this, I can forgive you this time; we won't worry about tomorrow," he sneered.
I panicked. "You can't have them. The money is a donation for the orphanage from the king and the sweets..." Well, the sweets were for children and regardless of his enormous size, he was only nine. "...you can have one big treat or a handful of small ones." I screamed standing. I did my best to look like Von's mom hoping to scare him, but I didn't seem to look menacing.
"Yeah, like you know the king. You probably stole the coins, so I'm just stealing it from you. Fair's fair." He took out a treat and popped it in his mouth and began to turn around.
Angrily, I ran toward him hoping to hit him while he was distracted, but the mud on the bottoms of my shoes caused me to slip. Sliding through the mud, I tripped into him. Lifting his fist, he punched me in the shoulder knocking me further off balance. As I fell, I reached out for the money pouch, getting a fair grasp on it. Holding the pouch prevented me from hitting the ground while pulling him off balance with me. Trying to dislodge me, he dropped the pouch and sent out a kick which knocked me back into the mud and muck. I still had the pouch! Pulling it toward my stomach, I got up and prepared to run toward the front of the bath house.
Michael seeing his treasure was back in my hand pulled out on of his daggers, "I will slice you! Give me my money!" He took several steps toward me and throwing down the sacks of treats.
As I backed away, I kicked up nasty mud which went straight up the front of his previously clean tunic and onto his face. He shook his head and spit out the mud which had entered his mouth. Knowing what it contained, he continued to spit as his face turned red with rage.
Throwing his dagger at me forced me to twist out of his way, however, my footing wasn't secure, forcing me to slide in to one of the supports for the water tower. It hurt, but not as much as being hit with his dagger would have. Seeing it miss, he took two large steps and dove at my midsection. The muck and mud surrounding me save me from his tackle causing him to slide face first into the foul muck. Again, he began to spit out this midden mud. I kicked another clod of mud at him and using the tower's support for balance, worked my way behind him. His timing was perfect as he looked up at exactly in time for the mud to enter his mouth as he attempted to shout at me.
Getting around to more solid land, I ran to the recently thrown sacks. Snatching them up, I darted past the side of the building as he was getting back to his feet. Reaching the front of the bath house covered in mud and muck, I ran through the door making this my sanctuary and a requirement before I could be seen in public.
Mr. Deering, the owner, who was watching the door took one look at me before directing me to the far-left area. Being midday, there was nobody present and instead of removing my clothes, I placed the sacks to the side and jumped in clothes and all. After a few minutes of splashing around with soapstone getting the muck out of everything, including my clothes, I drew up out of the heated wash water into the cool rinsing pool. Finally, with me and my clothes clean. I climbed from the pool. Walking toward a table full of towels, I heard Michael screaming at Mr. Deering wanting to know where I went. Instead, he directed him to a room for a bath saying he would speak to him only after he was thoroughly clean.
Taking a towel from the table, I dried off as best I could on the quick and threw my clothes on. Having turned Michael away, Mr. Deering knocked on the door. "Miss Cooper?" I opened the door, probably more than I should have as Mr. Deering looked in seeing the mess in the water, he blanched. In his very uppity voice, he continued, "Oh dear, what a mess. This will take some time to clean." Giving me the eye, then looking around at all the mud and discovering the smell, he continued, "I wanted to let you know, Michael's been sent to the bath before I will speak to him. Because I am certain this mess is very likely his fault, I shall charge Sir Regenald for the cleaning of both rooms. Might I strongly suggest you make haste be gone before he completes his bath."
Slipping out the bath door quietly, followed by the front door, I swiftly made my way through the woods instead of through town towards the orphanage. I wasn't about to get caught twice in the same day, and who knew how long it would take Michael to get cleaned up.