The two men stared at the surprising contents of the package for some moments, before George spoke up.
‘It seems like I was told something in Gorlis that might have been true, that indeed The Forrester did bring back something from across the seas. Do you think though that this mushroom could drive a crew to mutiny?’
‘Perhaps. I remember when I was very young going along with my mother to a wise man. He was famous in the area for his medicines that he would make from herbs and plants and so on, and he gave my mother a potion made up with mushrooms. They certainly had an unusual effect on her.’
Where they were sat now, in a little copse of trees, they were covered in thick shadow that contrasted deeply with the bright sunlight that bathed the fields all about. The rapeseed was glowing in yellow splendour, and the sky was a luminous blue that was painful to look at. A wind could be heard about them, rustling dry leaves, but in the distance the wind simply produced the gentle swaying of the plants.
‘Let’s keep going for now, we can think of what to do as we sit on the cart.’ Roy hid the package in the cart, under some sacks filled with potatoes, and then they set off again, this time with more caution in their eyes and their thoughts more feverish.
George’s brain was trying to piece together what had happened. The Forrester, the ship that he had seen in the harbour of Gorlis, half sunk, really must have gotten into trouble somehow. By complete chance, or what he had thought was just chance, he had been instructed to take a little parcel. Then, they had just been stopped and questioned, and his destination had come up. Perhaps, thought George, he really had been told the truth and the parcel was indeed from the woman’s husband who had leapt overboard to escape; his possible wanted level by the police could be because he really was, inadvertently, smuggling something the state were after.
‘Maybe we should just dump the package and go our separate ways. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble Roy.’
However Roy remained silent and looked deep in thought. The cart rattled onwards, the horses’ tails continuing to swish and their hooves pressed into the compacted soil, and when the sign for Teverton came and went George spoke up again.
‘I thought we were going to stop there Roy? Do we need to turn back?’
‘We were going there, but instead we can go to the next town over, it’s not far, and I know someone there who might be able to identify what is in that box.’
