Chapter Three
Clarimond walked south to market as the sun rose, there to purchase samphire, walnuts and the last peas of the summer for her pantry. She had thoughts of crafting a nourishing diet for her mother, though Mrs. Waregrove scarcely seemed to require it, for her health only continued to improve. So sprightly was she, she might have been ten years younger.
Some days had passed since her mother’s miraculous recovery, and there had been no more talk of apples since — or pears either, for she had received Tobias’s account of Barnaby Longstaff’s fate with interest. But the dreams continued to haunt her sleeping hours, and sometimes she fancied she discerned the scent of apples upon the air when she awoke.
‘Should you encounter such another fruit,’ Tobias had said to her, ‘I charge y
