"Of course it"s yours! You know it is. Whatever I did in the past has nothing to do with it."
He regarded her broodingly. "Maybe not, but you were already a practiced wh.o.r.e when you came here. You seduced me with sighs and words and gestures, and I believed you knew what you were doing, that there would be no harm in it. I am not in the habit of soiling my own midden."
"You were as eager as I," she said sulkily.
"Maybe . . . How come you never got caught before?"
"Medicines, herbs; they are not available here."
"Then it was either intentional, because you thought my son would never return, and you wished me to keep you as my mistress-"
"It was an accident. Do you think I wanted to spoil my figure on the chance you would accept the child? No: like you I gave way to something I could not help." She spoke with conviction, and apparently he accepted it.
"Then there are two ways to deal with this-three, if you count being sent home in disgrace. But I shall not do that. Your dowry has been paid, and some of it already spent. The second way is to seek out the witch in the wood, and try one of her potions-"
"I have already tried that. The maid you gave me was pregnant by one of the grooms, so I sent her for a double dose. It worked for her but not for me. Your child is l.u.s.ty, Robert: it wants to live."
He thought for a moment. "Then it has to be the third way, and no delay. No one knows about this but us, so let"s keep it that way, but I shall want your full cooperation. . . ."
She nodded. "You have it."
"Right. The first thing is to get my son to your bed now, tonight-no, listen to me! I will give you a potion that I have sometimes used when my wife has failed to excite me. Make sure he drinks it, and if you cannot tempt him to your bed, then visit his. He will be so befuddled he will not know whether he has or has not performed. He will sleep without memory, but make sure you are there beside him when he wakes. He is a simple man: he will believe whatever you say."
"And the child?"
"There are plenty of seven-month babes. And he could be away. . . . There are many errands I could send him on."
"But your wife . . . She would know."
"She will say nothing. Her only thought is of Gill, what would make him happy. She may suspect, but once the babe is born, she will accept it. And once he, and everyone else, is persuaded he has slept with you then the wedding can take place within the week."
"The sooner the better . . ." She moved forward and rested her hands on his shoulders. "You think of everything. I had rather it had been you, but I promise to make your son a good wife." She was smiling like a pig in muck.
"And your son-our son-will be the next in line, after Gill. Quite something, don"t you think?" She leaned forward and kissed him, and I noticed he didn"t draw back, but rather folded his arms around her and returned her embrace.
"And perhaps, another time?"
"Get away with you, hussy. . . ." but he didn"t sound displeased. "Remember, my son mustn"t suffer over this."
"Of course not! I am really quite fond of him. There will be no complaints from that quarter, I swear. I know some tricks that even that girl he traveled with would not know-which reminds me: I fancy he became quite close to her, and I would not wish her to distract him from what we have planned. I have caught him looking at her a couple of times as if he were quite ready to disappear with her again-and we can"t have that, can we?"
Oh, Gill, you idiot! I thought, shrinking back into the shadows as far as I could go. She is much cleverer than you thought. . . .
"She shall be disposed of, if you play your part. By tomorrow morning I want to see everyone convinced that my son will be the father of your child."
"Disposed of?"
"An accident, a disappearance: what do you care? No problem. It will be in my interest as well as yours, remember? But first, you must do your part.
Tomorrow I will take care of Winter, or Summer, whatever she calls herself. .
. . Meet me in the chapel in ten minutes and I will give you the potion."
I started back down the stairs, carefully closing the door behind me, shocked and horrified by what I had just heard. First their arrant duplicity regarding Rosamund"s pregnancy: what could I do? Rush and find Gill, tell him what I had heard? I didn"t even know how to find him and if I did, would he believe me? I doubted it. Whatever happened, I realized that Gill"s dream of running away with me was gone forever. If his father"s plan succeeded, by tomorrow morning he would believe he had seduced a virgin, his betrothed, and would be honor bound to marry her as quickly as possible; in cases like these his knightly training would give him no choice, however much he fancied someone else. And had I the right to try and stop it, even if I could? That baby could not be born illegitimate; I was myself, and I knew how it felt, not to have a father and to be jeered at because my mother was a wh.o.r.e. It would be worse in the sort of household Gill"s father ran, and I believed both he and the perfidious Rosamund would bring the child up as Gill"s. He need never know, and I was sure he would make a good father.
So now the choice I had thought would be so difficult was taken from me.
Why was it that with no decision to make, I now felt a great sense of relief?
Did that mean that what had happened was for the best, that Gill was not, never had been meant for me? I should always remember his declaration of love, I thought, but now I need never discover he would change, or I would as we traveled the roads. It was as if he were dead to me already: I should just remember the best, and nurse a few sentimental regrets.
"Infatuation," said the Wimperling at my elbow. "Nothing like the real thing.
You wait and see."
"What are you doing! You made me jump out of my skin!"
"Just wanted to remind you that we"d better not tarry-yes, I was listening to your thoughts-because I reckon they mean you harm. . . ."
Of course! How could I have forgotten. I had to be got out of the way, and that didn"t mean a bag of gold and a lift to the nearest town, I knew that. Headfirst down the nearest well, a stab in the back, perhaps a deadly potion . . . It would have been better to leave right away but I wanted to be sure, quite sure, that there was no chance Rosamund had failed in her plan. I knew in my heart she would succeed, but something within me wanted to twist a knife in the wound already so sore in my heart. Besides, Sir Robert had said he would do nothing until the morning.
During that long night I packed everything securely into two bundles, one for the Wimperling, one for me. The only money we had left were the few coins tossed down for our performance before Gill"s miraculous appearance on the first night, but I wasn"t worried. The countryside was still full of apples, late blackberries, enough grain to glean to thicken a stew, fungi and mushrooms.
Besides we could always give a performance or two.
The last thing I did was to write to Gill: I felt he deserved some explanation, even if not the true one, and it might also serve to put his father off trying to pursue us. I tore a blank page from the back of my Boke and thought carefully.
"Gill:- I am sorry to leave without a farewell, but it is time I was on my way.
Besides, I hate good-byes. Perhaps I should have confided my hopes to you earlier, but I have not had the chance to speak with you alone. . . ."
That should allay their suspicions, I thought.
"I am going back to Matthew, and will now accept his proposal. It will be a good match for me."
I paused, flicking the end of the quill against my cheek. Yes . . .
"Please thank your family for their hospitality. I wish you and your betrothed every happiness, and many sons."
I signed my name "Someradai" as it had been written in the church register at home. After some thought I scratched out "Gill" and subst.i.tuted "Sir Gilman."
There, that would do. I rolled it carefully and tied it with one of the ribbons Gill"s mother had given me. I would leave it on the table.
Satisfied that I had done all I could until dawn, I s.n.a.t.c.hed a couple of hours sleep, but was up and ready as soon as the kitchens opened. We might as well take something with us, so I made up some tale about spending the day out- of-doors, missing meals, etc., but everyone was only half-awake, so it wasn"t difficult to help myself to a cold chicken, some sausages, a small bag of flour and a string of onions.
After taking these back and packing them, I slipped into the Great Hall for breakfast, as if everything was normal, the Wimperling and Growch with me as usual. We should have to eat as much as we could, for the other food would have to last some time.
I watched carefully as the family appeared, one by one, on the top table. First Sir Robert, yawning hugely, downing two mugs of ale before touching any food. He never even glanced in my direction. Next came Gill"s mother, who picked listlessly at a manchet, dipping it in wine, her eyes downcast. Where, oh where was Gill?
At last he appeared, but I would not have recognized him. Even on our worst days on the road he had not looked so disheveled, haggard, outworn.
Unshaven, tousled in spite of his cropped head, it seemed as though he had thrown his clothes together in a hurry, and as soon as he sat down next to his mother, he grabbed her arm and started whispering in her ear; no food, no drink, nothing. He didn"t glance in my direction either.
Then came Rosamund, and as soon as she appeared she made the position quite clear. In an artfully disarranged dress, she yawned, rolled her eyes; her hair was unbound, her cheeks flushed, and as she made the obligatory curtsy to Sir Robert and his wife she pretended to stagger a little. She sat down next to Gill, and to everyone"s fascinated gaze, proceeded to examine her arms and neck for imaginary bruises, smiling contentedly all the while. Above the neckline of her low-cut shift were strawberry bruises; love-marks. She could not have placed them there herself. She appeared to notice Gill for the first time, and her hands flew to her mouth and she gazed away as though she were ashamed.
It was a consummate performance, and it quite halted breakfast. Eating and drinking were temporarily suspended as elbow nudged elbow and nods and winks were exchanged. The message was quite clear, even to those on the bottom tables, and there was a sigh of envious relief as she suddenly swamped him in her arms, pouting, grinning, cuddling up, murmuring in his ear. He looked half-awake, bemused, bewildered, but she leaned across and spoke to his parents, then she nudged him and, prompting as she went, she made him say what she wanted.
I had seen enough, and even as Sir Robert rose to announce that his son"s wedding would take place a week hence, the animals and I were making our way back across the courtyard. Now the plotting was confirmed, I had no intention of finding myself suffocated in the midden or letting the Wimperling crackle nicely on a spit; Growch would escape anyway, but what use was that to the pig and me?
I loaded up the Wimperling and myself as quickly as I could and made our way to the gate. We were in luck; two carts were about to go down to the cider-apple orchards, farthest away from the house, and we accepted a lift; no one questioned our right to leave, though all the talk was of the coming wedding and who would be invited. It had been less than a half-hour since Rosamund"s performance, yet it seemed everyone had a topic of conversation to last for days. I tried not to listen.
We were only a quarter mile from the forest when the wagon halted. Getting down I thanked them for our lift, and at a nudge and thought from the Wimperling, asked for the quickest road to Evreux, making sure they remembered the direction I had asked for.
"Now, make for the gates as fast as possible," said the Wimperling and within a quarter hour, breathless, we were on the road again. A couple of foresters were at work clearing the undergrowth, and once again, on the Wimperling"s prompting, I asked the road to Evreux. Once out of earshot I asked him why the insistence on that road.
"Because if they come after us, they will waste time looking along that way,"
he answered tranquilly. "We will take the other road west just to throw them off the scent."
"I see. . . . In the note I wrote to Gill I said we were going to Matthew"s, so everything is consistent. Clever pig!"
"But your knight won"t get the note."
"Why not?"
"If he had done, then he wouldn"t bother any further, and the road would be clear for his father to pursue you uninterrupted. Without it he will worry, perhaps insist he goes out with a search-party. . . . Sir Robert won"t have it all his own way, and it will give us a better chance."
I hadn"t considered this: the Wimperling was cleverer than I thought. He must also know who I was writing to. How did pigs know things like that?
"But what did you do with the letter?"
"I ate it. Ribbon and all."
"Did it taste nice?" asked Growch interestedly.
"No."
"Oh."
"But why should anyone come after us now?" I questioned. "Sir Robert and Rosamund have everything as they want it, surely?"
He didn"t answer for a moment, then he said: "Just suppose you had been bothered by a mosquito all night, but hadn"t caught it? Then in the morning you saw it again, ready to swat? Would you leave it, on the off chance it would disappear, or would you annihilate it there and then, so there was no further chance of it biting?"
"I see. . . . At least, I think I do."
"All that matters to Sir Robert now is that his son is born legitimate, and no one to question it or deflect his son"s interest. He is a very proud man, and to ensure this he would do almost anything, believe me."
The Wimperling wouldn"t even let us stop to eat at midday; instead we had to march on, chewing at the chicken. I was getting crosser and crosser as we approached the fork in the road we had turned off before, the right-hand fork, leading to Evreux, the left to the west. I was about to demand a rest when we came across a swineherd grazing his half-dozen charges along the fringes of the forest.
By now I knew what question we were supposed to ask. He pointed the way to Evreux, but as soon as we left him at the turn in the road the Wimperling directed us into the trees to double back.
"Why? Can"t we leave it a little longer? This is a good road, and so far no one has come after us. . . ."
"You"ve still got a lot to learn about human nature! Do as I say. . . ."
We crept back through the trees till we were almost opposite the fork in the road again, and skulked down behind some bushes. Ahead I could see the swineherd patiently prodding his pigs.
"Now what?"
"We wait."
Nothing happened for five, ten minutes, a quarter hour. Then I heard them: hooves thudding down the road from the de Faucon estate. A moment later two hors.e.m.e.n clattered by, wearing swords but no mail. They halted by the swineherd and one called out: "Seen a girl on the road with a couple of animals?"
The swineherd pointed in the direction we had supposedly gone, but when asked how long ago he looked blank; time obviously meant little to him. The hors.e.m.e.n rode off in the direction of Evreux and in a moment were out of sight.
I stood up. "Gill might have sent them. Why should we hide?"
"They would hardly have come seeking you with an invitation to the wedding armed with swords and daggers! Be sensible. It"s as I said; Sir Robert wants to be rid of you."
I had the sense to become frightened. "Then, what do we do?"
"Once they find you are not on the road they have taken, they will come back and take the western road. And if they don"t find us, others will be sent out.
So, we go back to the estate."
"You must be mad! That"s straight back into danger!"
"Not at all. The last place they would look is on their own doorstep. Come on: there"s a good five miles to go before sundown!"
Chapter Twenty.Nine.
So, using the road, but dodging back into the forest when we thought we heard anything, we made our way back to the estate. We had one more narrow escape: Growch was fifty yards ahead, the Wimperling the same distance behind, and their danger signals came at the same moment. Luckily I had time to hide, only to find that the first couple of hors.e.m.e.n had ridden back, to meet up with a fresh contingent of four who had come straight from Sir Robert. They halted so near my hiding place I could smell both their sweat and that of their lathered animals.
"Find anything?" asked the leader of the second band.