Still they walked the horses until Severin raised a hand. “Quietly,” he called out. “Quietly.”
He lifted Hastings onto Marella’s bare back, then swung onto his stallion. The moment the horses’ nostrils were released, three animals neighed loudly.
“Onward!” Severin shouted.
They were away. They rode hard until the horses were lathered and panting. Severin then called a halt. “All of you remain here, rest your mounts.” He nodded to Sir Alan and they rode back along the narrow rutted wagon trail.
Hastings was patting Marella’s neck, speaking softly to her and telling her how brave she was, when Severin pulled his horse beside hers. “No one follows. By now de Luci must know of our escape. But he isn’t a complete fool. He knows that we can reach Oxborough before he can catch up to us.”
He leaned over, kissed her hard, then patted his palm to her cheek. “You have done well, wife,” he said, then kicked his stallion in his heavy sides.
They were safely within Oxborough’s gates before dawn.
It wasn’t until they were in the great hall that they discovered that someone else from Sedgewick had escaped with them.
32
“MY LORD,” LOTHAR SAID, STEPPING FORWARD, “I HAVE something to tell you.”
Severin, tired, hungry, and so weary he wanted to lie down beside Edgar the wolfhound, turned to the large burly soldier who was one of Sir Alan’s trusted men. “Aye, what is it, Lothar?”
“You see that I am very healthy, my lord, my three friends as well. It is not because of chance that this is so. It is because of something entirely different, something that I ask you think about carefully before—”
“Speak, man!”
“Lord Severin, Lothar brought me with him.”
Eloise came from behind one of the other men. She was dressed like a little boy.
“She saved us, my lord. Before Lord Richard came upon us with stealth, the child was friendly to me. When I was thrown into the dungeon, she brought me food. I shared the food with the men close enough to me that I could reach them. We all survived. We are well. Eloise couldn’t feed all the men else de Luci would suspect.”
Hastings walked slowly to Eloise, pulled back the coarse woolen hood. She smoothed the child’s braids. She lightly ran her fingertips over her thin cheeks.
“I do not understand, Eloise. Come drink some milk and eat, then you will tell Lord Severin and me everything.”
Eloise spoke even as she stuffed MacDear’s sweet white bread into her mouth. “He told Marjorie he would kill me if she did not do just as he said. He hurt her as much as he hurt me. She tried to protect me. I thought if I left, then he could not force her.”
Lady Moraine, who was pressed tightly against her son, afraid to let him go to the jakes by himself for fear he would disappear, said, “I will take care of you, Eloise, but you must promise me something.”
The child was chewing more slowly now on a piece of mutton. She nodded.
“You will not treat Hastings badly.”
Eloise bowed her head. When she looked up, Trist was sitting on the trestle table in front of her. He reached out his paw and patted the back of her thin hand.
Eloise burst into tears, sobbing and hiccuping. “I want Marjorie!”
Hastings looked toward Severin, who was chewing a big hunk of yellow sweet cheese. She didn’t like this one bit. Now she had to feel sorry for Marjorie? That damnable witch with the black insides? It was not to be borne. “We have to rescue her?” she said, barely above a whisper.
“I will think about that,” Severin said.
Lady Moraine looked up at Hastings, then drew the child to her. She rocked her against her. Then she pressed her back at arm’s length. “It is difficult, Eloise, for anyone to want to help her. Marjorie tried to poison Hastings.”
“No, no, she did not.” Eloise brushed her hand over her eyes. She drew back her shoulders and took a deep breath. “It was I who put the powder in Hastings’s wine. And it wasn’t poison. It wouldn’t have killed her. I just wanted to punish her for making Marjorie’s nose grow large and red. Marjorie knew but she took the blame for me.”
“I really don’t like this,” Hastings said.
Severin was on his feet. “I don’t either. As I said, I will think about all this. I must go now, Hastings.”