Mary and Elizabeth

CHAPTER NINE

Back in her familiar pen, she slept as long and deeply as before, waking in the late afternoon to find that she had been given food and water while she was asleep. After eating and drinking her fill, she was debating whether to go for a walk round and round her pen to work off her unusual restlessness when her dilemma was settled by the appearnce of Belle to take her to the patio where the end of her leash was handed to her Mistress. Just as once before, she was led through the scented garden and into the paddock where Elizabeth removed her leas. With an excited yelp of gratitude and joy, Mary ran off into the seemingly limitless expanse of the small paddock, leaving her Mistress to walk languidly to her saded seat and take out a book.

Mary ran round and round for some time; then she rolled over and over in the sweet-smelling grass, delighting in its coolness against her skin, so used by now to the coarse prickliness of her straw. Panting, she sat up and raised her right 'foreleg' to lick her forearm.

She turned her head to see the departing back of a slave, going back to the house after having brought her Mistress a jug of iced tea. Unbidden, the thought came to her mind that her hour had come at last. Stealthily, she padded off to where the gap under the paddock fence had been the last time she'd had to opportunity to look.

It was still there! She turned to search for her captors. Both slaves were out of sight; only Elizabeth, seated far away on the other side of the field, engrossed in her book, was visible. Mary hesitated, steeling herself. This opportunity might not occur for some months. Conditions were ideal; her Mistress two hundred yards away; her slaves even further – Mary could be under the fence and into the sceening shrubs in seconds; in minutes she would be unfindable. And she had a full belly too! The chance was too good to miss; after a final glance at Elizabeth, she scuffed away the undergrowth and debris with her front paws and wriggled under the fence. Seconds later she was out of sight in the dense scrub.

Scrambling on all-fours through the low, brittle scrub, Mary grinned to herself, imagining the hated Elizabeth's fury and panic at her escape. Who knew? She might even be obliged to get her her hands and clothing dirty, helping her slaves to pack up and leave – much the best thing they could do now. She chucked vengefully at the thought of Elizabeth's pampered and expensively scented body dripping with sweat and panting with exertion as she made her way steadily North-West, away from the main track to the county road her captors would soon be anxiously patrolling, and towards the old and forgotten one she alone knew about.

Half an hour later she was forced to stop in order to defecate. As she did so, she swore that this would be the last time she'd have to squat and open her bowels in full view like an animal. When she found outside help Elizabeth would rue the day when they met!

Pleasant visions of her tormentor sobbing her repentance to an unsympathetic Judge and Jury occupied Mary's mind until she realised that the light was failing, and that further progress would soon become difficult – if not impossible. She was tired, too; even after more than a year confined to all-fours her arms were aching with the strain of supporting her upper body, and even her leathery knees were painfully sore. And the first of the dry water-courses she meant to follow hadn't yet appeared.

She stopped and looked around uncertainly in the rapidly failing light. She wasn't covering nearly as much as ground as she'd imagined she would - dreaming of her escape in her captivity – and she'd badly overestimated the speed she'd be able to move at though the dense scrub.

There was nothing else for it, she realised reluctantly, but to find somewhere to sleep the night away - unless she could make progress by moonlight – and she had no idea of the present phase of the moon, having been kept under the roof of the barn for so long.

Immediately fresh difficulties presented themselves: where was she to sleep? And how was she to hide from the wild animals of the district? Coyotes, feral dogs, the occasional wildcat – all had sharp teeth and claws against which she'd have no defence. There would be rats, and snakes too ; and she shivered at her thoughts. But there was nothing else for it, and she curled up on the hard, sandy ground and attempted to sleep.

She lay awake for a long time, starting in terror at every rustle in the surrounding scrub, imagining every moment some predator leaping out to them to fall on her with tooth and claw. Or worse, some stealthy snake slithering over the ground towards her attracted by her body heat.

In the end she fell into an uneasy doze, broken by her occasional fits of alarm at the sinister noises in the scrub around her. Once the despairing scream of a trapped rabbit brought her to full, trembling consciousness, but, in the end, it was the growing cold which made further sleep impossible.

She curled herslf into a ball as tightly as she could and lay there waiting for the dawn, breathing out through her mouth into the hollow between her tightly folded arms and her breasts to conserve as much body heat as possible.

Never did any creature, human or animal, greet the dawn as fervently as did Mary. The sun climbed above the horizon even as she watched, and soon she was basking in its increasing warmth. She was cheered to see, from where the sun rose, that she was headed in the right direction, and, after emptying her bladder, she trotted off purposefully North-West, doing her best to ignore her growing thirst.

At about mid-morning she reached the dry water-course she'd been aiming for. Despite her aching arms and sore knees, she gazed down at it in delight. Painfully climbing down onto its sandy bottom, she trotted up-stream with renewed hope.

Long before noon the torrid heat of the sun forced her to stop. She lay panting under the shade of the overhang of the bank and tried to calculate her progress. At least she knew where she was; she recognised the gaunt outline of a skeletal tree nearby. She groaned as she remembered previous excurion into the scrub; the tree was about two and half miles from the house. The journeys had used to take her two hours, but that had been on two legs, with thr advantage of being able to see over the the tangles of scrub around which she now, on all fours, had to find a way around. And the stout boots and thick jeans she'd worn had protected her from the briars which, in her present nakedness, she had to avoid. For the first time her resolution began to fail her; she had still three miles to go though the trackless brush – and she must find water soon, or she would die. Telling herself that the way would easier now, along the sandy floor of the dry stream, and that some pool would still linger trapped among the rocks further upstream, she fell asleep.

She woke in the mid-afternoon. The sun had lost some of its heat, and the increased length of the shadows cast by the shrubs gave her welcome shade as she trotted upstream. After half a mile she had a stroke of luck – a small pool of muddy water, a remnant of the last storm, trapped in the exposed roots of a gnarled old thorn and protected from the sun by its shade. Animals had been using it as a watering hole, for Mary could see their paw prints in the sand around it, along with their droppings, but they wouldn't be around now, and Mary lowered her head and filled her belly with the murky liquid. She paused to add her own droppings to the collection and trotted off again with renewed energy.

Disaster struck an hour later. As the water course climbed and narrowed, it became choked with rocks which she was obliged to climb over slowly and painfully, losing yet more time in the process. Then she rounded a bend to find the way ahead completely blocked with debris washed down by the last flood. The solidly wedged collection of branches and scrub was impassable, and the walls of the low ravine too steep for her to climb. She was obliged to go back a quarter of a mile to a place where she should mount the left-hand wall and retrace her steps by following the rim of the streambed. The going was harder, with thick scrub growing right down to the banks, and she had to make frequent detours around them.

Then she came to a major obstacle. A huge bank of brambles stretched ahead of her. Patiently she turned to her left to go around it. But it stretched on longer and longer, forcing her further and further to the South, and when she did finally round it and begin her weary journey back to the streambed it was beginning to get dark. Still she trotted on, until, amost as she was despairingly thinking she'd never reach it, she tumbled over the bank and landed on her back in the soft sand of the dry streambed.

Righting herself, she stood panting with exhaustion, appalled at the nearness of her escape. If she'd broken an arm or leg, she would have died out here. Despite her weariness she continued through the darkness, aided by the ease of movement along the empty water course. It was broadening as it widened, and her heart leapt. She must have crossed the low ridge her prevous path had been climbing; now she was going down into the shallow valley at the bottom of which the County road ran. All she need was to follow this dried-up stream and it would fun into the small river which drained the valley, and which ran along the side of the road. There would be water there, and momentarily she quickened her pace. But she was much too tired to continue, and she lay down in her tracks and slept, confident in the knowledge that tomorrow would see her free.

After a broken and unrefreshing sllep, she woke shivering with the pre-dawn cold. When the sun had finally risen, she lay for a time warming herself in its weak rays before getting painfully to all-fours. With some effort she placed her front paws on the top of a small rock and raised her upper body to scan the way ahead, fully expecting to see the line of trees that bordered the river in the distance. But the scrub was usually high and dense in this area, and she could discern nothing. There must be water nearby, she thought. Heartened by this conclusion, she trotted doggedly onward through the cool early morning air.

By mid-morning she knew she was lost. Any traces of the water-course had long gone as it widened out into theis sandy, scrubby plain under the pitiless sun. Wearily, Mary raised her head. There, in the hazy distance, was a dark line of taller vegetation promising the shade she must have soon. When she reached it, she collapsed in exhaustion and fell immediately into a deep slumber.

She woke in the mid-afternoon. Dazed with thirst, she staggered to her feet. Hunger as well as thirst was weakening her now as she made her painful way though the thick scrub. Finally she collapsed in exhaustion.