Undercover - Steam Power - Book 5

Part 5 - The way to Lostwithiel

The conversation was interrupted as the carriage stopped at a fork in the road and Jonathan asked, 'Which road should I take, zur?'

Mr Watt looked around. 'Ah thought ye said ye knew the road, man.'

Two elderly men dressed in smocks and wide brimmed hats were walking slowly along the side of the road. They carried wooden pitch forks and sickles. Jonathan spoke to them. 'Good arternoon to yeh, zurs. Can yeh tell us the way to Lostwithiel?' 

The two men looked at us suspiciously but kept on walking. Our driver tried again. 'Zurs, good arternoon to yeh.'

One of them looked around. 'B'ye tawking to oy?'

'Aye. Will ye help us?'

 'Tha'll depend on whither tha be voreign.'

'We are good Englishmen, zur.'

'Thee talks like some'un vrom Blymut,' the man said sharply. 

 'Or maybe Bris'le,' his companion added. 'And they be voreign parts. Allus causing strife. Damn voreigners.'

'Can you understand a word they're saying?' Licia asked me.

'No,' I replied, 'but maybe Mr Watt can.'

'No,' Mr Watt said with alarm. 'I ha' tried already. I dinna ken the Cornish dialect and they canna understand the King's English. And, they have the most ungracious manners of any people I was ever among. To them, I'm a cursed Jacobite from the north.'

The two men resumed their ramble whereupon Denny got out of the carriage. 'Good morning, gentlemen,' he said. 'I am very pleased to meet you. My name is Denny Vernier. May I know your names.'

'Jediah,' the first man said reluctantly looking at Denny with misgiving.

'Ye duth spik voreign an' ye be dressed voreign,' said the other, examining Denny from the tip of his running shoes to the zippers on his overall and carefully pronouncing his words. 'And us don't like voreign 'round yur. Alus causing strife.'

Licia, Miguel and I climbed down from the carriage as two younger men walked up. 'Arternoon Jediah, Obediah,' said the first one. 'Y' finished work early today? Wha's goin' on?'

'Them wants to know way to Lostwithiel,' Jediah said reluctantly. 'But they be voreign. Bain't that right Obediah?'  (Bain't = be that not)

Obediah said, 'Arr.'

 'For they are lost with all,' the young man joked. 'Obedia, ye remember Parson Higgins in his zermon last Zunday said, "Thou shalt love thine neighbour."'

'But 'e didn't say naught about lovin' voreign, did he now.'

'Well, how're ye going to tell them the way to Lostwithiel when ye never bin there?'

 'Y' young whipper snapper. Oy was born and raised in this parish and oy knows every field and tree.'

'Not to say every kiddlywink (unlicenced beer shop) and dunghill.' The young man grinned as he turned to Denny. 

 'Whithersoever goest thou?' Denny took a guess at what that meant. 'Lostwithiel.'

'Then ye must take the left fork at the top of the hill. When y' comes to an old ruin at a cross road, turn left and that will take y' to Liskeard on the Lostwithiel road.'

'Tha's not the way, Jack,' his friend said. 'Tha' way lies the ale house and the bog.'

''t'is the better way,' Jack insisted. 'The mud is only up to the horses hocks.'

'No,' Jediah interrupted. 'Ah mind tha' must turn left at old pig sties. B'ain't tha' right Obediah?'

Obediah said, 'Arr.'