[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.‘Alys, there’s going to be trouble.You must come.Open the door!’Gervase’s voice was added to his mother’s.‘Quickly! We think we’ve found a way to safety.You can open up, we’re alone.’It was against her better judgement, but the prospect of safety was too much.She moved the barricades aside and opened the door.After the last few hours it was a strange relief to have them in the house, to not be alone.Gervase was obviously ready for an incursion, for he had an axe in his hand, as well as a knife at his belt.Mistress Guildersleeve was already pulling at her arm.‘Alys, come! The fighting is heading this way.I and some other women are going to take to the river, they won’t reach us out on the water.We’ll leave the men to defend our homes.’Alys did not see the connection.Her mind was full of confused questions.The river? What sort of safety is that? Surely it would be more dangerous out there?But Mistress Guildersleeve was adamant, half dragging her towards the door.‘You don’t understand.Once one side or the other has won, there will be looting, and no woman will be safe.All those soldiers, crazed with blood and ale and lust, do you understand?’Alys belatedly realised what she was talking about.Violation was a relatively commonplace event in the town; women and girls out on their own in strange places, especially after dark, were never safe, and since the town had been full of soldiers it had been worse.A victorious host full of drunken soldiers didn’t bear thinking about.But the river?She tried to use reason.‘But Mistress, we have no idea how to get a boat, or how to control one.And surely we’re safer in here than out in the open? How will we reach the river? And the regent’s forces are here to rescue us, surely they won’t let the city come to any harm if they win?’But her neighbour was beyond reason.‘Come, you must come!’Gervase’s face had changed at her last words.Perhaps he had seen sense and would be more level-headed.He spoke.‘Mother, you go now, with whatever belongings you can carry.I’ll stay here and try to help Alys and the children.’She seemed torn, but in the end the thought of her own personal safety was obviously too much.She kissed her son and was gone.Once she had left, Gervase swiftly shut the back door and moved a bench across it.She looked at him.He would help.He would see them safe.She opened her mouth to speak of her relief.Before she could utter a word, he spoke calmly.‘So, you know it is the regent who is here.’She gasped at her own stupidity.She had discovered that from Edwin.But surely it was a reasonable guess for anyone to have made? Could she cover up? And besides, Gervase was a townsman too … oh dear Lord.She looked at him closely.He spoke again, still calm.‘It was you.After all this time, all this effort, I find that it was you who told them.’In a huge surge, everything became clear to her, and she staggered from the shock.She whispered.‘It was you.’Amazingly, he still seemed composed.‘Oh yes, it was me.For weeks I’ve been paid to see what the townsmen were up to, to find out what their pathetic little plans were.We followed your father but could find out nothing – after his head was crushed he couldn’t say a word.I took your snivelling brother and beat him to a pulp, but he wouldn’t say anything.Dear God, we cut one of his fingers off but the brat fainted from the pain, and there was no time to wait for him to come round.I couldn’t find out, and they were growing more anxious for an answer!’ He strode across the room, agitated now, almost talking to himself.‘I couldn’t let him go in case he told anyone, so we had to kill him.I left him here as a warning, but I thought it was for Aldred, not for you.If I’d only known it was you …’He moved towards her, hardly recognisable as the man she thought she had known, and she backed away, trying not to be sick.Behind him, the door started to inch open, the bench being pushed forward.She tried not to look in case it distracted him, but he was too wrapped up in his own diatribe to notice.He continued.‘And now, and now – ’ suddenly he snapped and spewed forth a searing rage.‘And now I find it was you! You betrayed me and told that spy about the gate! All the time it was you, you snivelling little girl! Pretending to care only for your miserable children while you were working for the castle!’He raised his axe and leapt at her, but in the space of a heartbeat the door was flung open and a figure lunged through to throw itself at Gervase [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]