Chapter Nineteen
Bradley Manor, Lincolnshire
“Nay!” the young woman screamed as the knight dragged her from the reception room of the large manor house known as Bradley Manor. “I will not go with you! Let me go!”
Unfortunately for Lady Holland, Duchess of Exeter, Bradley Manor did not have the retinue of soldiers that most of her husband’s properties had, mostly because she didn’t like for her home to have the feel of a military installation.
At this moment, her preference was her undoing, for about twenty soldiers bearing the red and blue of Warwick had burst into her home and taken hold of one of her wards, a young woman named Katryne St. John.
Now, a few men were dragging the girl from the house while the rest of the Warwick soldiers were holding her servants and guards at bay with big swords and well-aimed crossbows.
“Where are you taking her?” Lady Holland, extremely well dressed in heavy silks and with a tight white wimple around her head, scooted after the men who were dragging her young ward away. “How dare you break into my home and take Katryne with you! Where are you taking her?”
The Warwick soldier who seemed to be giving the orders came to a halt as his men pulled the hysterical Katryne behind them. He stopped Lady Holland from following by gently raising his hands to her, being very careful not to touch her, but Lady Holland slapped at his hands furiously.
“You will not raise your hands to me!” she screeched, smacking at him. “Move out of my way! Bring that woman back here!”
The soldier was trying to be very careful with the Duke of Exeter’s wife.
He didn’t want to harm or overly harass the woman because it would bring Holland down on Warwick.
Not that the man wasn’t going to come down on him, anyway, for bursting into his wife’s residence and stealing away one of her wards, but the soldier was trying to be as careful about it as he could.
He didn’t want to use more force than absolutely necessary but he had his orders – bring St. John’s sister to Warwick at all costs.
The woman was to be used in exchange for Kenton le Bec’s life, as her brother was le Bec’s captor, but Lady Holland need not know any of that.
Fed a proper lie of Warwick’s creation, that was all she ever need know.
“She will be treated well, my lady,” the soldier explained, saying the same thing he had said when he had first come to Bradley Manor and politely asked for St. John’s sister.
“It seems that the lady’s brother has been badly wounded and wishes to see his sister, so we are taking her to him.
Warwick has sent us on this mission. I explained this all to you before, Lady Holland. ”
In the distance, Katryne screamed as she was unceremoniously tossed onto the back of a horse. Lady Holland yelped at the sight of her manhandled charge.
“But she does not want to go!” Lady Holland gasped. “Why must you take her now? Can we not bring her later in a carriage and with proper chaperones?”
The Warwick soldier shook his head. “Her brother may not live long enough for that, my lady,” he said, moving in the direction of his men as they secured Lady Katryne atop one of the horses. “He is dying, my lady. He wishes to see his sister. You must allow her to go to him.”
Lady Holland scurried after the soldier, out of her front door and across the grassy garden that comprised the front of her manor home. It had been a wet spring so far and the bottom of her fine silk gown soaked up the mud as she ran.
“But… but…!” she cried, trying to stop what could not be stopped. “This is completely improper for the young lady to ride unchaperoned with a gang of soldiers! This simply will not do!”
The Warwick soldier suddenly came to a halt.
“Whether or not it will do makes no difference to me,” he said, his manner suddenly not so polite.
“We are taking the girl and you cannot stop us. She will be well treated and I personally guarantee that she will not be molested or harassed. Warwick has ordered me to bring her and that is exactly what I intend to do. Good day, Lady Holland.”
With that, he turned away, swiftly, jogging off across the muddy grassy until he reached his horse.
He mounted swiftly as Lady Holland ran after him, waving her hands and screaming for them to stop.
Katryne’s loud and fearful weeping did nothing to ease the old woman’s anxiety and she finally came to a halt in her running, watching the group of soldiers as they thundered off the same way they had come, joining up with the road and then disappearing when the road moved into a thick cluster of trees to the north.
She lost sight of them, then, and for a moment, Lady Holland simply stood there, gasping and shrieking, terrified that her young ward was in great danger. But she didn’t have the manpower to stop Warwick’s men, prevent them, or even to fight them. She didn’t even have enough men to follow them.
Fearful that she had just let Lady Katryne St. John go off to her death, Lady Holland stood there and screamed.