Jack Frost: King of Thieves

CHAPTER XLIV: Dorfeld Attack

Elsa could not remember a finer day in Dorfeld. Yes, Jack was gone, but she believed with all her heart that he would return. And signs of what the man had brought to the hamlet were all around. The village bustled as it hadn't in years.

Everywhere, townspeople went about their chores wearing smiles and greeting one another cheerfully. Farmers sold vegetables and fowl from carts. Older children played marbles and bowling hoops in the lanes, while their younger siblings rode hobbyhorses or followed their mothers from cart to cart.

As Elsa made her way through the town market, she thought she heard music playing. A fife and a flute, and at least one drum; more likely two. Itinerant musicians often travelled the countryside this time of year, but it seemed a bit odd to her. Until recently there had been little music of any sort in  Dorfeld.  Now, only a few days after the dance by the bonfire, musicians had come to the hamlet.

Hearing the music, some of the children gave up their games and ran to investigate. Elsa watched them go, smiling at the glee she saw in their faces.

And then she heard another kind. Hoofbeats. Of many horses. Dozens of them, perhaps hundreds.

Lifting her skirts, Elsa hurried down the lane toward the village gate to get a better look. What she saw froze her blood. An army of nearly two hundred men was approaching Nottingham through the fields. At least half the men were mounted, and all of them well armed.

Townspeople had gathered around her, and others were coming forward to see for themselves what was happening. The smiles Elsa had seen on their faces only moments before were now gone. They looked scared, grim as if every one of them sensed in the soldiers' appearance a return to the dark times from which the village had so recently emerged.

Elsa watched the soldiers for another moment before turning and fighting her way back through the villagers toward the alarm bell in the village centre. Reaching it, she pulled the rope, and the bell began to peal, echoing loudly through the lanes. But she knew better than to expect that anyone would come to their aid; Jack and his friends were too far away to help them. The men and women of the village would have to protect themselves.

The Sheriff of Dorfeld had just lathered his face to shave when he heard the commotion outside his home. Holding his razor in hand, he walked to his door and stepped outside to see what was happening.

He recognised Pitch's men right away, saw the king's tax collection force fanning out through the village, and he grinned at the sight. The rabble in this town had ignored him and mocked him in equal measure. They had refused to submit themselves to his authority and had dismissed him as a man of little consequence. And none had shown him less respect than the troublemakers up in Burlington Manor.

Well, their time of reckoning had arrived at last. The sheriff was a loyal servant of His Majesty, King Hans. Few others in Dorfeld could claim as much. He would enjoy watching them get their comeuppance.

He watched as Kay walked through the village, directing his men, and shouting to the villagers.

"Tax collection! Valuations free! No exceptions!"

Kay seemed to be enjoying himself. He grinned broadly and nodded his approval as the soldiers moved from house to house, taking what they could.

The sheriff leant against the door frame and grinned as well. Yes, he would enjoy watching this.

North could hear the tax collectors' cries from within the Church of Saint Grogune, and he hurried around his small nave hiding what he could from King Hans' men. He had little time, and with Overland and his friends gone, for the time being, it fell to him to protect the people of his parish as best he could.