Diane Setterfield - Bellman & Black

Thank you for downloading this Emily Bestler Books/Atria Books eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Emily Bestler Books/Atria Books and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

For my parents, Pauline and Jeffrey Setterfield, who, amongst other things, have taught me everything I needed to know about catapults.

You will have seen rooks.

Dont be put off by any sense of familiarity.

Rooks are enveloped in a glorious sky-cloak of mystery.

Theyre not what you think they are.

M ARK C OCKER , FROM C ROW C OUNTRY

I have heard it said, by those that cannot possibly know, that in the final moments of a mans existence he sees his whole life pass before his eyes. If that were so, a cynic might assume William Bellmans last moments to have been spent contemplating anew the lengthy series of calculations, contracts, and business deals that made up his existence. In fact, as he approached the border with that other placeborder toward which we will all find our path turning sooner or laterhis thoughts were drawn to those who had already crossed into that unknown territory: his wife, three of his children, his uncle, cousin, and some childhood friends. Having remembered these lost, dear ones and being still some moments from death, there was time for one last act of remembrance. What he unearthed, after it had lain buried some forty years in the archaeology of his mind, was a rook.

Let me explain:

Will Bellman was ten years and four days old and the glory of his birthday was still fresh in his veins. He and his friends were in the fields that ran between the river and the woods, fields where the rooks descended, flapping and swooping, to jab robustly at the ground in search of grubs. Charles, inheritor-in-waiting of Bellmans mill, was Wills cousin. Their fathers were brothersand though that sounds simple, it wasnt. Fred was the eldest son of the baker. His mother was from dairy people. He was said to be the best-fed boy in Whittingford, and he certainly looked as though he had been weaned on bread and cream. He had white teeth and solid flesh over his strong bones, and he liked to talk about the bakery he would take over one day. Luke was one of the blacksmiths offspring. There would be nothing for him to take over: his older brothers were too numerous. His bright copper hair could be seen a mile off; at least, it could when it was clean. He kept a safe distance from school. He didnt see the point. If it was a beating you wanted, you could get it just the same at home. Unless he was exceptionally hungry he kept a safe distance from home too. When he couldnt feed himself by scrounging, he thieved. A boy had to eat. He was passionately devoted to Williams mother, who sometimes gave him bread and cheese and once a chicken carcass to pick.

The boys lived different lives, but something had drawn them together at the beginning of this summer and it was their age. All had been born in the same month of the same year. The power of the symbolic anniversary had acted upon them like a physical force, and as the days of August slipped by, it was not only friendship that drew them back, day after day, to these hedgerows and these fields. It was competition.

They ran races, climbed trees, and engaged in mock battles and arm-wrestling matches. Every yard run made them faster, every upper branch attained won them a broader horizon. They egged each other on, never refused a dare, took greater and greater risks. They laughed at grazes, bruises were badges of honor and scars trophies. Every minute and every day they measured themselves against the world and each other.

At ten years and four days old, Will was pleased with the world and with himself. He was a long way from being a man, he knew that, yet he was no longer a little boy. All summer, woken early by the stony cawing of the rooks in the trees behind his mothers cottage, he had felt his power growing in him. He had outgrown the kitchen and the garden: fields, river, and woods were his territory now, and the sky belonged to him. He still had a lot to learn, but he knew that he would learn it as he had everything else so far in lifeeasily. And while he learned he could enjoy each day this new and exultant sense of mastery.

I bet I can hit that bird, Will said now, indicating a far-off branch of a far-off tree. It was one of the oaks close to his home; the cottage itself was visible from here, half-screened by hedges.

You cant! said Luke, and immediately he called to the others, scrambling up a bank and pointing into the distance, Will says he can hit that bird!

Never! the other pair called, but they came running to see the attempt all the same.

The bird, a rook or a crow, was well out of range, on a branch half a field away.

Will pulled his catapult from his belt and made a great show of searching for a stone. There was a mystique around the best missiles for catapults. A reputation for recognizing the right kind of stone was prized, and lengthy conversations were had comparing them by size, smoothness, texture, and color. Marbles were superior, of course, but rare was the boy ready to risk the loss of a marble. Williams private hunch was that any roundish, smoothish stone was as good as another, but he knew the value of mystification as well as any boy, so he took his time.

Meanwhile it was his catapult that interested the boys. He entrusted it to his cousin while he hunted the missile. Charles handled the weapon casually at first, then, feeling its fine balance, studied it more closely. The two prongs extended from the handle in a Y shape almost too perfect to be natural. You could search an entire forest and not find a Y like that. Will had a good eye.

Fred joined him in studying it. He frowned and the corners of his mouth turned down, as if he was inspecting a churn of disappointing butter.

Its not hazel.

Will did not look up from his hunt. Hazel cuts easily. But you dont have to use it. He had sharpened his knife, climbed, sawed patiently to excise the shape he had spotted. The elder was of an age to be strong, young enough for springiness.

The sling was familiar: Will had reused his old one, cut from the tongue of an outgrown shoe. Lines of small, neat slits made with a sharp blade allowed the leather to be stretched so that it made a bed for a small missile. But one element of the catapult was entirely novel. At the level where the sling was attached, Will had carved shallow inch-wide grooves. In the center of each groove were tied the narrow strips of leather that attached the sling. But above and below this knot, string was wound. It lay neat in the groove, above and below the leather laces. Charles ran his fingers admiringly over it. It was deftly done, but he couldnt see the reason for it.

Whats this for?

Luke reached out and ran an appraising finger along the winding of string. Stops the sling riding down, does it?

Will shrugged. Im finding out. It hasnt shifted so far.

Until today the boys had not known that a catapult so perfect could exist. They had always thought of catapults as things that were good or bad by the will of the gods, things of chance, of hazard. To use one was to pit your chances against fate, fifty to one youd miss. There was nothing accidental about Wills catapult. It had been made, fashioned, engineered.

Luke tested the give of the leather strips. They were supple enough, but he couldnt resist the chance to contribute something to this enviable catapult. He spat onto his fingertips and applied the wetness lovingly to the leather strips.