Chapter 29
Chapter
Isabeau had been separated from her guard when they panicked at the duchess’s disappearance, and suddenly Elesbed found herself in a terrified crowd, high in the rickety stands, holding tight to a frightened Isabeau’s hand.
Isabeau was brave, but she had never been outside the watchful protection of her family.
She could not squirm away unnoticed the way Elesbed could.
She looked like a princess and she was dressed like a princess.
She could hardly run in her layers of silk.
Elesbed saw the wild fist coming at Isabeau blindly, moved to take it herself, feeling her eye start to swell shut.
Whoever had struck her didn’t even know they were there.
She didn’t know what was happening. She didn’t know where was safe. They had to hide and then see. It was a big jump down from this part of the stands, but the moat was there to catch them. “We can cross the moat,” said Elesbed. “Hide in the shadow of the wall. We can’t stay here.”
Isabeau said, panting, “I can’t swim, I’ll sink.” Already her dress was torn.
“It’s too shallow to sink,” Elesbed said. “Someone is going to try to capture you unless we get out of sight.” She didn’t trust that this unnatural dark rain would last, and it was the only thing half-hiding them.
Isabeau set her jaw, obviously nerving herself to do it, but as she hesitated, the darkness parted like bed-curtains and Elesbed saw someone notice them, squinting through lingering shadows. “Jump!” she cried, and Isabeau did, and Elesbed right after.
Isabeau almost did drown, for her skirts got heavier in water than ever Elesbed could have imagined.
She floundered frantically, until Elesbed untied her sleeves and her overskirt and pushed them off so they could scramble onto the bank in the shadow of the wall.
They were both soaked and already beginning to shiver.
The darkness had leached all the heat from the day.
Isabeau’s hair clung to her face, but she’d taken off her crespine herself and mussed the elaborate plaits of her hair.
Elesbed was already unlacing her dress. “Take mine, you can’t go about in just a chemise,” she said.
“What about you?” demanded Isabeau.
Elesbed said, “No one cares what I’m wearing.”
Without a word, Isabeau let Elesbed help her put the dress on, and tie a mud-daubed kerchief over her hair—so dirty that no one could see its quality, or the complexity of Isabeau’s plaits beneath.
Elesbed, who knew how to hide, pulled them both into the deepest shadow beneath the drawbridge and wondered what in Heaven to do.
“We have to get back into the city!” said Isabeau. “We have to find my sister!”
“We can’t go right now,” said Elesbed, listening hard. It sounded like when the brigands came to the farm; shouting and clashing. “Someone will trample us or grab us or do something terrible to us. At night, maybe. When we can hide better. Or someone will be looking for you.”
Isabeau bit her lip, listened uncertainly to the rising noise. “Very well. We’ll just wait.”
Elesbed didn’t know how long they sat there, huddled together. Then Isabeau gripped Elesbed’s arm tightly. “What?” whispered Elesbed.
“Look,” said Isabeau. “That is the duke of Orléans riding there. And—” She faltered. “And that is the king of France next to him. Just riding up to the gates—” Isabeau was biting her knuckle. “What is happening? Do you think Orléans is a traitor?”
Elesbed wasn’t sure what difference it made. Orléans wouldn’t hurt them, and there were plenty of people in that screaming city who would. “We must go to him! He can take you safe to your sister.”
Isabeau was shaking her head hard. “No, he’s with the king of France. I’ll be his captive, and they’ll hold me to make my sister do what they want.”
Elesbed said, “If they’ve taken the city, won’t they already have your sister? There’s no other way, we cannot just run through the streets, there is nowhere to go.”
“No!” said Isabeau. “I won’t be held to ransom, I won’t.”
“Isabeau,” whispered Elesbed, gripping her friend so she wouldn’t run. “Look at the duke’s face. Everything has gone wrong. Why would you be a ransom if they have Rennes already? Come on. We can’t stay here.”