Chapter 9 The Parson's Terms

Cuthbert Lanyon came to the Saltwyke house on the seventh morning, at eight, before the pans were lit, with his coat buttoned to the throat and his collar up, and he did not come in. He stood on the shingle road in front of the door and he looked at Nissa and he said, "You have been out to the marsh." "Yes." "You have been further than the second step." "Yes." "You have been to the ninth step." "Yes." Cuthbert Lanyon put his hand on the door handle and he did not open the door, and he looked at Nissa with his red-rimmed eyes, and he said, in a voice that was not raised, "Then you know what the account is." "I know what the account is," Nissa said. "And you know what the substitution is." "I know what the substitution is." "And you know what Barsham has been keeping." "I know what Barsham has been keeping." "And you know why Merle never sent what the book said to send." "I know why Merle never sent what the book said to send." Cuthbert Lanyon put his hand on the door handle. He did not open the door. He stood on the shingle with the cold on his face and the marsh behind him and the Nine Steps under the water, and he said, "Then you are the Tidewarden, and you are going to make a decision in three days, and I am going to tell you what the parson of this parish has decided, for twenty-six years, for every Long Ebb since 1867, and it is the same decision, and it is that the book must be kept, and the account must be kept, and the substitution must be sent, and nothing else must be done." "Nothing else," Nissa said. "Nothing else. The village is fed. The village is kept. The village is alive. The children are alive. The pans are boiling. The boats are in. The book is closed. The account is kept." "The child on the steps," Nissa said. Cuthbert Lanyon did not move. "There is no child on the steps," he said. "There was a child on the marsh," Nissa said. "There was a child on the marsh." "She is seven." "She is seven." "She heard a bell." "She heard a bell." "Where is she now." Cuthbert Lanyon looked at her. He put his hand off the door handle. He stepped back. He looked at the marsh. He looked at Nissa. "She is at her father's house," he said. "She is at her father's house and she is well and she is fed and she is alive and she will not come to the schoolhouse this morning, and I have spoken to her father, and her father has told her she is to stay at home, and her father is a fisherman and a fisherman does not argue with the parson, and the parson has spoken to Barsham and Barsham has told the boy not to go out to the marsh, and the boy will not go out to the marsh, and the boy will not bring me a slate, and the slate is on your kitchen table, and the slate is empty, and the slate is going to stay empty, and the account is going to be kept, and the substitution is going to be sent, and nothing else is going to be done." Nissa did not speak. Cuthbert Lanyon did not move. The marsh was behind him and the water was out and the Nine Steps stood in the mud and the ninth step was dry and the ninth step had been dry since the morning and the ninth step had been dry for three days and the ninth step was not going to be dry for another forty years, unless the account was kept. "The substitution," Nissa said. "Barsham's book says the substitution is sent to the reed." "Yes." "The substitution is sent to the marsh, on the day of the Long Ebb, at low slack." "Yes." "Who sends it." Cuthbert Lanyon looked at her. "The Tidewarden sends it," he said. "The Tidewarden sends it." "Yes." "And I am the Tidewarden." "Yes." Cuthbert Lanyon put his hand on the door handle. He did not open the door. He looked at Nissa. He said, "You have until the third day. You have until the third day and the third day is Friday, and Friday is the third day of the Long Ebb, and Friday is the day I come to you with the straw and the salt and the flannel, and you send it to the reed, and I say a prayer, and the account is kept." "And if I do not send it." He looked at her. "Then the account is not kept," he said. "What happens if the account is not kept," Nissa said. Cuthbert Lanyon put his hand on the door handle. He did not open the door. He looked at her for a long moment. He looked at the marsh. He looked at the sky. He did not move. "Then the sea keeps its side of the trade," he said. "And the sea has kept its side of the trade for four hundred years, Nissa, and it does not keep it by the kindness of the village, and it does not keep it by the prayer of the parson, and it does not keep it by the bookkeeping of the Tidewarden, and it keeps it by what it takes, and it has taken, and it has taken, and it will take, and the Tidewarden decides what is taken, and the Tidewarden decides, and I am not the Tidewarden, and Barsham is not the Tidewarden, and the boy is not the Tidewarden, and you are the Tidewarden, and the Tidewarden decides, and the decision is Friday, and Friday is the third day, and the third day is the day of the Long Ebb, and the Long Ebb is here, and the Long Ebb is here, and the Long Ebb is here." He said it three times, and then he went away, and he did not come back that day, and the pans were boiling, and the boy was in the back room, and the slate was on the kitchen table, and the Ledger was on the shelf, and the account was kept, and the account was kept, and the account was kept. ---