Chapter 30 #2
“Only if he knew you had anything to do with it. Please.” She put a hand on Bethany’s arm, but the maid jerked her arm away.
“Don’t touch me, you freak!”
“You’re afraid of me?” Angelet asked, surprised. Bethany’s eyes, shifting between Angelet’s hand and her own sleeve, told her the truth. “You think you’ll get the same affliction, just by being near me? You’ve been my maid for years!”
“And I hoped to never see you again!” Bethany hissed. “Why does he want you so?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never encouraged him.”
“You draw him on with your aloofness then. Men always want what they are denied.”
Angelet closed her eyes. “So it’s my fault if I encourage a man and it’s my fault if I discourage a man! I can’t win!”
The maid sighed with vexation, but then said, “That’s truth, I grant you. Any woman knows that.”
“Then as a woman, please help me out of this mess. I’ll slip away. Ernald will never find me again.”
Bethany leaned closer. “All right. A deal. I’ll let you escape…if you tell me where the money is.”
Frustration gnawed at Angelet. “I don’t know! I never did anything to the chest, and I was just as surprised as anyone when it broke open and there was no gold in it.”
“You had the key. You must have done something.”
“I swear I know nothing of it. I’d tell you if I did…all I want is to get away from here. I don’t care about any money.”
“That’s what people who’ve always had money say,” Bethany said. “Still, I believe you. I bet it was the knight who took it.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Please, Bethany. It’s not that long until dark.” Until the time that Ernald threatened to force her to bed with him. Angelet shuddered.
Bethany glanced behind her, then beckoned Angelet closer.
In a low voice, she said, “I’ll draw Ulmar away from the door for a moment.
Watch and sneak out. Go to the left and hug the side of the hut to hide behind it.
Then you’re on your own. Head to the woods for cover.
But if you’re caught again, it will be worse than before. ”
“Thank you,” Angelet breathed.
“Just go quickly.”
Bethany stepped outside, leaving the door cracked. She chatted with Ulmar, in that flirtatious way she had. The guard laughed at something she said, then the sounds of their conversation drifted away.
Angelet, peeking through the opening, saw her moment. She slipped out and hurried to the back of the hut. She took a moment to get her breath and survey the land. No other buildings were in sight from this side, and the forest lay not far beyond. She could run.
But that left Goswin alone. How could she abandon him?
No, she’d have to bring him along somehow.
She had a little time. The late afternoon light was still bright, and it was at least an hour until sunset, possibly more.
Ulmar would assume she was safely in the hut, so he had no reason to sound the alarm.
Angelet peeked around the other corner of the hut, toward the main farmhouse. Was that where Goswin was?
She then looked toward the stables and saw a familiar figure.
Not content with merely kidnapping him, they had put Goswin to work feeding and watering the horses.
He was lugging a wooden bucket filled so full that water sloshed over the brim with every step.
Then he disappeared into the darkness of the stable building itself.
She waited until she saw another guard walk out the door, heading to the main farmhouse. Seeing nobody else, she picked up her skirts and ran around the perimeter of the open area until she reached the back of the stable building.
There she leaned against the stone wall, trying to catch her breath.
She heard no shouts, and it seemed that she had succeeded.
She waited several moments more, but the quiet endured.
The only sounds were the wind stirring the highest branches, and the twitterings of hidden birds.
Angelet moved to where the stone wall of the building gave way to wood. In one spot, a plank was missing.
“Goswin!” she called in a low voice.
“My lady?” Goswin’s voice was excited. “Where were you? They wouldn’t say!”
“In a hut, but I got free. Listen, we can wait until dark, then—”
At that moment, a huge hand clamped down on her shoulder. She turned to see Ulmar standing over her.
“Did you think it would be so easy?” he asked. “One of the men by the house saw you running.”
He dragged her around to the front of the building, and she faltered when she saw Ernald approaching with several others, including Bethany, who regarded her with cold eyes.
“I heard,” Ernald said, “that you were attempting to escape.”
“Should I have just sat there and accepted my fate?”
Ernald just looked at her in confusion, and she realized that was exactly what he expected her to do.
“You were stupid to go to the stable,” he said at last. “The woods would have hidden you.”
“Goswin was in the stable.”
“And you wanted to save him? Silly. You’d have got away if you hadn’t bothered with the boy.”
“I wouldn’t have left without him.”
“Well, now you won’t leave at all.” He grabbed Goswin, thrusting him toward Ulmar. “Tie the boy to the post and take his shirt off.”
“What are you doing?” Angelet said.
“You disobey, but he’s the one who will take the punishment. I’m whipping him ten times.” He retrieved a whip from inside the stable.
“No!” Angelet tried to grab Ernald’s arm. “You can’t do that.”
“Well, I can’t hurt your pretty flesh, Angelet. I have other uses for it. And you don’t want to be stripped bare to the waist in front of everyone, do you?”
She followed him. “Ernald, please. I beg you. Don’t do this. I’ll never run away again. I promise.”
He paused, flicking the whip against the ground, where the end of it twisted like a snake. “Promise? You give me your word?”
“Yes. I swear it. Leave Goswin alone. He did nothing.”
“What if you’re lying, Angelet? You planned to run away, didn’t you?”
“I give you my word I won’t ever again. Please.”
“You’re sweet when you beg, Angelet. Very well.”
She sighed in relief.
Then, without warning, Ernald swung the whip in an arc, directly toward Goswin’s unprotected back.
Goswin screamed once, a high piercing shriek that split the air. A bright red welt appeared on his back.
“No!” Angelet shouted. “Why did you do that? I promised!”
“A little reminder that if you break your promise, others will suffer.”
She broke past two guards in the way and rushed to Goswin. She fumbled at the rope until it came untied. “I’m so sorry, Goswin. Oh, Lord, you’re bleeding.”
“It’s nothing, my lady,” Goswin said, fighting back tears.
“I’ll get the wound tended.”
“Don’t make pronouncements you can’t keep, Angelet.” Ernald stood above them. “You’re not in charge.”
“Then you can tell someone to tend his wound!” she said.
Ernald sighed. “You’re almost more trouble than you’re worth.”
“How much is that?”
He laughed. “That depends. Though even if I don’t recover the money, I’ll still get you to that nunnery, and soon.
After your behavior with that knight, you ought to be locked away, to restore the tarnish you’ll bring to our family.
Then I’m going to Northampton, where the king will hold his Easter court.
That will be my opportunity to make an impression.
My father has been holding me back long enough. I’m sick of it.”
“So you’ll tell the king that you fixed Otto’s mistake, and that’s why you deserve to run Dryton?”
“Possibly. Or the king might offer me another position. Or a wife.”
“Kings don’t just hand out rewards,” she said in disgust. “You need to earn them. Prove your loyalty.”
“Don’t lecture me on loyalty, woman.”
Just then, one of the soldiers in Ernald’s retinue gave a shout. “Someone’s approaching!”
“Send them away!” Ernald growled.
“Armed!”
That got everyone’s attention. They all looked to the track leading west, the access point of the isolated farm to the main road.
“My lady,” Goswin said. But Angelet had already seen the same thing.
On the road, on a small rise so the sunlight shone behind him and turned him into a silhouette, was a black-clad knight on an equally black horse.
“Rafe,” she murmured. The image was so similar to the one she saw in her visions that she wondered if a seizure was imminent.
Then the horse reared once, and Rafe began to ride directly toward her.