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Cowspiracy

Written by Kerryn Offord

January 1633, The Bristol Channel

Anna Kettenacker tried to keep her eyes on the horizon. She'd been told that it would make her feel better. Her stomach tightened and she could taste bile surging up her throat. The sailor who had advised her to get out of the cabin and to stand amidships to minimize the action of the ship had been right. She did feel better. Still miserable, but no longer suicidal.

"Try this, Anna." Richard Tomkins, one of the Englishmen in her party, was trying to push a bottle into her hand. She grabbed it gratefully and rinsed her mouth out.

"Agh. I feel awful."

"Not long now, Anna. The captain says we should be in Bristol in another five hours if the wind holds."

"Five hours. Why did I ever let Swiger talk me into this?" Another surge from her stomach made Anna hang her head over the rail again. "Agh. How can you stand there looking so healthy?"

Richard snickered. "No idea. I don't get seasick, I guess." He took the bottle of boiled water from her hand, then said, "As for Swiger, he offered a lot of money."

"I should have asked for more."

"Probably. But look on the bright side. It could be weeks before we find what we're looking for and have to start back for Grantville."

Anna gripped the rail, trying to hold herself upright. "You're not helping, Richard. Why don't you just leave me alone so I can die in peace?"

Richard gave Anna a quick grin before leaving her to her misery.

****

"How's Anna holding up?" Thomas Welford, the second Englishman on the four-person team, asked.

"She'll live. Not that she'd agree with me right now," Richard said.

"It was stupid to bring her along. What do we need her for?" Valentin Weber, a very self-important German merchant and the self-styled leader of the team snorted. "I know what we're looking for as well as she does.".

"I doubt you've got her experience," Richard said. "We need someone who can recognize the cowpox when they see it. Dr. Alexander, the large animal vet, said she was the best of his students,"

"She's the best Grantville had to offer? All they did was show her some pictures in a couple of books. I saw them, too."

Richard sighed. "Herr Weber, Anna's father was a knacker . . ."

"A knacker! Nobody told me I'd be pretending to be married to a knacker's daughter."

"Nobody told you, Herr Weber, because they probably didn't think it mattered. Anna probably has a better chance of recognizing cowpox when she sees it than anybody in Grantville. And that includes Rudi Muller, who's been dealing with animals all his life."

"Better than Rudi?" Thomas shook his head. "Seriously?"

"That's what I heard Dr. Alexander tell Herr Swiger." Richard turned to Valentin. "And I'd be careful of letting your prejudices show, Herr Weber. Anna's not one to suffer slights meekly."

Bristol, England, several hours later

"No! Absolutely no way. You are not getting me back on some poky little sailing boat." Anna folded her arms and glared at her colleagues.

"Come on, Anna. It won't be so bad. It's only about sixteen miles. The Little Avon River runs into the Severn River, and we can sail right up that to Berkeley. We could be there inside three or four hours. If we go by road, we can't leave until first light tomorrow. And we risk spending a night on the road." Richard tried to get Anna to see sense.

"No. The next boat I get on is the one taking me home. Anyway, we really should travel by land. We might miss an infected animal if we don't. We don't know exactly where Dr. Jenner found the cowpox he used in his experiments. All we know it that it was from somewhere near Berkeley."

"Anna's got a point," Thomas said. "There's a pretty big bonus at stake if we can bring back an infected cow. It'd be foolish not to maximize our chances of finding one."

Anna turned to Valentin. "Herr Weber, I suggest you see about getting some horses. There's over sixteen miles of farmland between Bristol and Berkeley. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can start looking."

Valentin bristled at the order, as he'd been doing for days. It was obvious that he didn't care to take orders from anyone, much less from Anna. Richard wondered just how much trouble the self-important little squirt was going to cause.

****

"Anna, have you finished yet?" Valentin called.

"Nearly. Just another three to check."

Valentin stomped away, calling, "Will you hurry? If we want to get to Bevington before nightfall, we have to leave soon."

"It takes as long as it takes." Anna returned to examining the cows. They'd been on the road a week and hadn't found any sign of cowpox. There hadn't even been scars on the cows to suggest they might ever have had the disease. Surely if there was any cowpox in the area, some of the hundreds of cows she'd examined should have had it at some stage. But the signs weren't looking good and Anna was starting to lose hope.

She finished her examination of the last animal and stood up. The rest of the team was watching hopefully, so she shook her head to indicate no luck. Wiping the worst of the muck from her hands with a rag, she followed the farmer's wife into the wash-house where she could get cleaned up. That was something she had been able to do, pass on the Grantville ideas of hygiene and sanitation. After drying her hands, Anna reached for her satchel and withdrew several printed pamphlets.

****

"Woman! What took you so long? I thought you were only supposed to be washing your hands?"

Valentin was obviously annoyed. Not that Anna cared. "I'm supposed to talk to them. It's all a part of spreading the knowledge and you knew that when we started on this trip." Anna had given the woman several of the Sanitation Commission pamphlets, and because the woman had had difficulty reading them, she'd gone over each pamphlet with her. Anna wouldn't be surprised if the woman sold the information to her neighbors, but that wasn't any of her concern. Distributing the information was the important thing. If the woman made a little money in the process, that was just a bonus. "I'm ready now."

"Right. Well, hurry up. We have to get the pack animals loaded before we can leave." Valentin nodded to Thomas and Richard before leading the way toward the waiting ponies and horses.

Anna sent a speaking look toward Richard and Thomas before following Valentin. Why didn't that idiot start loading the pack animals while I was talking with the farmer's wife if he's in such a hurry?

Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England, a couple of days later

"So this is Berkeley." Anna sat on her pony and gazed at the irregular structure that was Berkeley Castle, infamous as the site of the murder of Edward II more than three hundred years ago.

"It's no good looking in that direction, Anna. There'll be no beds for the likes of us there," Thomas said.

"I was just wondering if they offer tours of the room where Edward the Second was murdered. And maybe we could tour the park and some of the tenant farms. The more animals we can check out, the better."

Thomas groaned. "Not more animals. It was bad enough chasing around in the muck on the way here. I'm learning more about cattle than I ever wanted to know."

"You do want that bonus, don't you? And I'd have thought you knew a lot about cattle. You come from Hereford, don't you? The up-timers say the Hereford was a well-known breed."

Thomas shook his head. "Never heard of no Herefords. Mind, before I became a soldier, I worked on the orchards. Richard?"

"There were no cows on the hop fields I worked on," Richard answered.

"What?" Valentin's face was nearly purple with anger. "Neither of you know anything about cows? Then why did Herr Swiger lumber Team Delta with a couple of useless ex-soldiers from Hereford? Surely there are suitable people in Grantville who know cows?"

Richard shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. Maybe Herr Swiger figured we'd speak the local language, Herefordshire being so close to Gloucestershire."

Anna did her best to ignore Valentin. The man was a royal pain as far as she was concerned and she was getting very tired of him and his attitude.

Stroud, England, Two weeks later

Thomas looked up from his mug of hot cider and sniffed. "When can we head home? It's been three weeks, the last two in miserable weather, and you still haven't found any sign of cowpox . . ." Thomas wasn't happy. It was winter, and it wasn't just cold, it was wet and cold.

"We can't give up yet, Thomas. We've barely started looking," Anna answered.

"And we are being paid by the day. So it's not as if we lose out by taking our time," Richard added.

Thomas was so deep in his misery that their comments passed over his head. ". . . and as for the lousy oilskin rain capes we were ...