Chapter 31
Earlier that day, the knights had made one discovery very quickly—a group of boys ran toward Alric, shouting that one of their number couldn’t be found.
“We’ve been looking for ages!” one shouted.
Rafe asked, “Was it Goswin?”
“The new boy, yes!”
“Where did you see him last? Were there any others in the woods today?”
The boys conferred, and reported that a big man asked one of the boys the way to Cleobury, and if they were at hide and seek—which prompted the boy to start exactly that game. The man had been armed, and he was described as a giant.
“A stranger,” Alric said under his breath. “And a giant, if he’s bigger than Peter, as the guard described. He must have watched the boys playing and took Goswin when he was hiding during the game.”
“But where?”
The boys directed the knights to the area of the woods where the game had been played. There, they found evidence of several people walking. That led to a clearing, where they found signs that a whole group of people had been there, with horses and all.
“Too many riders,” Octavian said. “Too many to be hiding out in the woods, that is.”
“They were afraid to use the road this close to Cleobury,” Alric agreed. “We’ll have to track this backwards. They might have gone through Bournham without resorting to stealth. We’ll ask if a party of this size rode through today, and which direction.”
In the nearby village of Bournham, where Alric was very well known, several residents told him that a party of at least ten men came through in the morning, and then again later in the day.
“There were women too,” added Margaret Dyer, whose giant tubs of fabric dye sat in the yard of her business. She always saw who passed by, since her work kept her outside much of the day. “One or two, I think. Odd, for the men looked to be soldiers. They rode out the north way.”
Alric thanked her, and they rode on.
“North could be anywhere,” Octavian said. “They could be hours away by now.”
“We’ll keep looking till we find a reason to stop,” Rafe said. He hated to think that Angelet was getting further from him by the moment. Why had he wasted a whole morning talking to everyone but her?
“There’s a place I’ve got in mind,” Alric said suddenly. “If they’ve been following you, Rafe, they might have come across it. You wouldn’t have noticed on your ride here—you had other concerns.”
At Alric’s instruction, the three men rode toward the abandoned farm he told them about, one that had yet to gain another owner after two years of neglect. “They might be using it, if they needed to stay close for a few days.”
The knights rode on. Though anxious to reach their destination, Rafe still had the impression that someone was following them. He looked back often, but saw no one. He decided that he’d been trailed for so long he no longer had any ability to forget the feeling—he would simply have to get used to the creeping sensation of being followed for the rest of his life.
The bright sun crawled across the sky, then began to drop toward the horizon. Rafe felt that everything was taking too long. It took too long to discover Angelet’s absence. Too long to hear about Goswin. Too long to prepare to ride out.
Then, Alric pulled his horse to a stop where the road climbed a small rise, obscuring the other side. The others followed suit.
“The farm is up ahead, just beyond this hill. It’s possible they took Lady Angelet there.”
Octavian nodded, saying, “We should plan how to approach the place.”
“Here’s the plan,” Rafe interjected, already nudging his horse to the front. “I’m riding directly there. If I see anyone I don’t like, I’m killing them. You two can follow me.” He kicked once and was off.
“You used to make better plans!” Alric called after him.
Rafe didn’t care. Hitting the top of the rise, he reined Philon in so he could judge the scene before him. The startled horse reared once.
“Stop that,” Rafe muttered. He saw a farm below, where people moved about. He nudged Philon once, and the horse sped down the slope toward the ramshackle clutch of buildings. A small group of people stood near what looked to be the stables, and a few more were emerging from the house. Several horses cropped grass in a paddock.
One of the figures wore a pale blue gown. Angelet. She was being held in place by a huge hulk of a guard. But her eyes were on Rafe.
He picked out the other figures, identifying the irritating Ernald, as well as the maid Bethany, and Goswin. The other men looked like hired soldiers.
Rafe jumped down from his horse, drawing his sword.
“Ernald!” he yelled. “This is your doing?”
The lordling lifted his chin into the air. “You shouldn’t have come after us. You shouldn’t have taken Angelet away in the first place. Made my life quite inconvenient these past few weeks.”
“I offered to fight you before, at Dryton,” Rafe said to Ernald. “I won’t wait any longer.”
“Don’t be absurd,” Ernald retorted. “You’re alone, and I’ve got ten men with me. In fact,” he added, raising his voice, “the first person to kill you will get an extra reward!”
“No,” Angelet protested. But her cry was drowned out by the shouting of others. Some came from the soldiers who stepped forward to fight Rafe. Another was a cry of dismay, howling that two more riders were coming.
Rafe turned to see Alric and Octavian galloping toward them.
“Ah. Reinforcements,” he told Ernald.
“Not enough. Anyway, you can’t do anything while I’ve got Angelet under my command. One word from me and she dies at Ulmar’s hand.” He nodded toward the big man, who stood by Angelet, his blade drawn.
Then Ernald’s expression changed. He was looking at Angelet with puzzlement. “What in hell are you smiling about, woman?”
Angelet was indeed smiling. Though she faced Ernald, her eyes didn’t seem quite focused on him, but rather on a distant point. She lifted one hand and pointed toward Ernald. “I see you,” she said, speaking slowly.
“I’m standing in front of—”
“Surrounded by gold,” she went on, oblivious to his outburst. “Gold as bright as the sun. Like the ocean at dawn.”
Rafe got a twinge in his gut. He’d seen that vacant look before. Angelet must have been under tremendous strain all day, and now another seizure was imminent.
Before he could say anything, Angelet took a step toward Ernald, then another. Ulmar remained rooted to his spot, unnerved by what was happening.
“I see you above this gold,” she continued. “No other but you.”
“And?” Ernald demanded, interested in spite of himself. “What else?”
Her voice was dreamy, disconnected. “Now you’re falling. You’re drowning. You’ll die.”
“Shut up with your rambling!” Ernald snapped. “Get back!”
Angelet didn’t react to his command. Her gaze was locked on Ernald, who appeared truly shaken by her words. Then she swayed on her feet, and crumpled to the ground. Goswin yelped and bent down to check on her, leaning in to see if she was breathing.
Rafe’s first instinct was to get to her as fast as possible, but there were too many other people in the way.
“Damn, she’s having another fit,” Ernald said. “Of all the times to suffer a vision.”
“What’s your order?” the massive guard named Ulmar asked.
“Leave her. She’s not going anywhere for hours. I’ve seen it. Everyone, get these men!”
Ulmar dutifully walked forward, though he clearly didn’t want to engage an armed, angry knight. And now Alric and Octavian had joined the fight, wreaking havoc.
Before Rafe could do anything—whether fight or try to get to Angelet—Goswin rushed toward him at full speed.
“Distract them!” he hissed. “She’s fine. She’s only playacting now!” Then he started to run in a circle around the group, drawing several pairs of eyes due to the way he was waving his hands and yelling.
Rafe glanced at the still form of Angelet on the ground. She certainly didn’t seem to be pretending. But he had to trust that she was. He rushed Ulmar, keeping the gigantic guard’s attention on him.
Fighting always made Rafe’s muscles tense and his whole body heat up as though a fever was coming on him. He always felt like he could hear everything, smell everything. No matter how many times he fought, each time felt like the first, the primal fear of death reaching out to him. But having faced that fear so many times, Rafe also knew how to get through it, using his heightened senses to focus within the inevitable chaos that all fights created.
Ulmar swung his blade like a woodcutter swung an ax. Rafe could tell the other man relied on pure mass and intimidation to win his fights. However, Ulmar had probably never fought a trained knight before, and not one as well-trained as Rafe. The big man showed not a trace of the fear Rafe always felt, but he knew it was there.
Despite his earlier hasty words, Rafe didn’t want to kill him, so he kept parrying, waiting for an opening to deliver a blow that would just incapacitate the man. But the situation grew dicier when another guard rushed up to attack Rafe from behind. He dodged the first blow, and ducked out of the way.
Ulmar howled as his next swing hit not Rafe, but his other ally. Rafe took advantage of Ulmar’s second of surprise to hit him hard in the side of the head with the flat of his blade. Then he kicked at Ulmar’s knee, causing it to buckle. The giant slid down, clutching at his head, moaning.
Rafe moved away, and saw that Alric and Octavian were both fighting just as he was. The two knights had started fighting as a pair, but got drawn away from each other, exposing their backs.
Yet another fighter went for Alric, wielding his own sword with much more skill than Ulmar did. Rafe yelled out a warning.
Alric turned just in time to avoid being struck. He shifted to avoid being trapped, and regrouped with Octavian.
Rafe turned, intent on getting to Angelet. All of a sudden, a crossbow bolt rushed past him and buried itself in the ground a few feet beyond, not far from Angelet’s prone form.
“Hell,” he muttered, tracing the path back to see where it had come from.
The path led directly to Bethany, who stood yards away from the farmhouse, holding the weapon. She cursed at missing and set about reloading.
“Bethany.” Suddenly, Rafe knew she’d been the one who was responsible for the previous attacks, that she regarded Angelet as more of a threat than any of the knights.
“Bethany, get over here!” Ernald had avoided the fight, instead moving to one of the saddled horses in the paddock. “This is not the time for revenge.”
“Everyone’s always fighting over her,” Bethany said. “Why? She’s a freak, and she should have run while she had the chance!” Now Bethany held the weapon at the ready, sighting the unprotected form of Angelet, ready to shoot once again.
“Don’t you dare,” Ernald yelled, furious that Bethany wasn’t listening. “She still has a use.”
“I will!” Bethany shouted back at her lover, her composure gone. “I won’t miss this time!”
But she didn’t fire. There was a whistling sound, and Bethany dropped the crossbow, transfixed by the shaft of an arrow protruding from her neck.
Everyone was silent for an endless moment, as Bethany collapsed, dead.
“They have archers!” Ernald shouted. “Mount up! Ride!” He went for the nearest horse, got up and rode off, without waiting to see if any of his men were with him, and without any more thought for his slain lover.
“He’s getting away!” Rafe yelled to his fellow knights.
“Let him go.”
Rafe looked down, where Angelet lay, her eyes now open and alert. “Let him go,” she repeated quietly. “Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t,” he said, helping her up.
Once on her feet, Angelet embraced him, heedless of how it would look. He held her tightly for a moment, absurdly happy to know she was safe. Then he released her. “Enough of that,” he muttered. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Angelet sighed. “What happened was simple. Ernald followed us all this way, and then took Goswin in order to get me out of Cleobury.” She explained everything, concluding that she had been foolish to trust Ulmar. By then Octavian and Alric joined them, and Goswin also hovered near.
“I should have known something was wrong,” Angelet said at last.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Rafe said. “You thought it was an emergency, and you couldn’t have known Cleobury’s guards all by sight.”
“You were really worried I was hurt?” Goswin asked.
“I was,” she said. “And you were hurt in the end!” She looked angry.
At last Rafe noticed that the boy’s shirt was stained red on the back. “You were whipped?”
“Once,” Goswin said. “It doesn’t hurt.”
The boy was obviously lying, wanting to appear strong in front of Angelet. Rafe gave him a nod. “If you say so.”
“We should return to Cleobury,” Alric said, looking worriedly at the darkening sky.
Octavian said he’d retrieve the horses, who had wandered away somewhat. But the moment he spoke, another rider appeared.
Rafe squinted, since the rider was backlit by the setting sun. “Is that…”
“Robin,” Octavian said, sounding unsurprised, and also unhappy. “Our hidden archer.”
“What the hell is she doing here?” Alric asked.
By that time, Robin reached them, holding her bow. “I followed you,” she said bluntly. “And a good thing too. Three against twelve? Plus a crossbow? Not good odds.”
“A battle is no place for a lady,” Alric said.
“I attended as an archer,” Robin said defensively, plucking at the leather bracer she still wore on her forearm. “And some thanks would be pleasant.”
“Thank you for saving my life,” Angelet said. “But Sir Alric is correct, it’s time to go.”
They rode back to Cleobury in the deepening twilight. The lack of extra horses meant Angelet rode with Rafe, while Goswin rode behind Alric. As they rode, Octavian and Robin dropped back, immersed in a heated argument about Robin’s “whim,” as Octavian put it. The word seemed to infuriate the young woman, whose cheeks had gone beet red.
“I will say that having that first arrow appear was convenient,” Rafe said quietly to Alric.
“But she’s barely more than a girl,” Angelet said worriedly.
“A girl who can shoot,” Alric said. “I know all too well. I met her at arrowpoint, an experience I don’t want to repeat.”
Suddenly, Robin’s voice grew louder. “Because I was bored! And I wasn’t in danger at all. Not with three knights in earshot!”
Octavian said, in a more measured tone, “It was irresponsible.” The rest of his argument was too low to hear.
Rafe didn’t think the knight had much chance to influence Robin. “And Octavian’s argument will…do what?”
“Chasten her, perhaps,” Alric said. “At least she listens to him sometimes. She never listens to me.”
Angelet said, “I’m glad she followed. Ernald might have succeeded if she didn’t. He was going to force me to go to Basingwerke. Which sounds like a horrible place.” She told what Ernald shared about the abbey’s practices.
Rafe’s arm was around her waist, holding her so she wouldn’t fall. Now he tightened his grip. “He’s probably telling the truth. Lord Otto acted strangely about it when he first hired us. We were told not to bring you back. He ordered me to ignore any pleas you might make. I was to see that you passed through the gate, and then leave when the gate locked behind you.”
“And you agreed to that?” she asked, aghast.
“I made no complaint,” he corrected. “I let Otto believe what he would—my reputation is that of a man out for himself. But I didn’t like his words, and I never let another decide my course. If I didn’t like what I saw, or if you’d asked…Otto’s orders meant nothing to me.”
He laid a kiss on her head, enjoying the silky feel of her hair. By that point, the sky had changed to a purple-blue, the last shade of twilight. Rafe used the darkness to hold Angelet closer to him than he otherwise could. He almost didn’t want to see the gates again.
Back at Cleobury, the party rode in to find an audience, despite the late hour. Many of the residents knew of the crisis and found reasons to be in the courtyard when they returned. At the sight of Angelet, many shouted in relief. She smiled happily. “I don’t ever remember being cheered upon my arrival anywhere.”
Cecily made much of Goswin, and took him away to tend the wound across his back. Alric asked if Angelet felt up to talking briefly. “Rainald ought to be told what’s happened.”
She nodded, but leaned against Rafe as they walked.
“Are you well?” he asked in a low voice.
“Well enough, if you are here to help me.”
The warmth of the statement kept Rafe going during the discussion that followed. Angelet related all that Ernald told her, including the fact that he intended to go before the king after Easter.
“He’ll do everything he can to advance his own cause and hurt any other. He hoped to have me behind walls, and also to recover the stolen gold. But he’ll settle for destroying reputations. He’ll destroy mine to ensure that I’ll never get to see Henry again. And he’ll destroy Rafe’s because Rafe thwarted his plans, more than once.”
“Then we should go there too,” Rafe said.
“Go there?” Angelet said. “Away would be a better choice!”
“Ernald just threatened to blacken my name with the king. He might be able to do it, especially if he gives his story before I can tell mine. I’m not going to let that miserable excuse for a man ruin the name I just regained.”
“Your name is important to you,” Angelet said softly.
“Of course it is. It’s all I have. Without it, I’m nothing.”
She smiled, but her face looked even paler than usual. “Then we should go. To Northampton. You can put your case to the king, and he’ll see the right of it.”