Buch lesen: «Leaves On The Wind»

Prologue

Beckford, Yorkshire, 1095

Judith stood in the doorway of the herbalist’s hovel, staring up at the castle. She should have been giving her full attention to the advice the old woman was offering, but whenever she came to the village it was the same. She could not tear her gaze from the blank cliff-like walls of the keep that loomed over the villagers’ simple wooden houses. Her blue eyes narrowed and fixed on the grey stone walls in much the same way as a puzzled scribe would stare at a parchment written in a language he could not understand. Two slender window slits scowled back at her from the top of the tower, like hostile eyes, she thought.

“Judith? You’re wandering,” Aethel chided gently, her rheumy eyes full of sympathy. “Did you hear what I said?”

Judith started. “I’m sorry, Aethelgyth,” she apologised, using the old woman’s full name to atone for her transgression. “You said I’m to continue giving Mother the horehound…”

“Aye, and remember: boil plenty of it in t’water, strain it off and give her the infusion. She should take it four times a day. And mind ’tis fresh each time.”

Judith wrinkled her nose. “Poor Mother. It tastes foul. And I’ve been giving it to her for so long. Don’t you think she should be improving by now?”

Aethel bent her head quickly over the herbs she was sorting and ignored the young girl’s question. “You can sweeten it with honey, if that helps,” she offered.

Judith opened her mouth to demand a more specific answer to her question, but a distant flurry at the drawbridge of Mandeville Tower drew her eyes once more in that direction. At this Aethel gave a soft sigh of relief, like the breeze rustling in the autumn leaves. She did not like telling people unpleasant truths.

Judith did not hear Aethel’s sigh. “Oh, God, Aethel…look!” she cried, snatching at the old woman’s arm. “The knights are riding out!”

Aethel’s face shrivelled up like a wrinkled apple and she made the sign of the cross. “Lord ha’ mercy,” she muttered. “What are those devils up to now?”

Judith tossed her blonde plaits over her shoulders and stepped boldly out into the main village street.

“Judith!” Aethel shrieked. “Have you run mad! Stay out of sight. Come back here!”

“Nay, Aethel. I want to see them. With my own eyes. I cannot believe what my brothers have told me about these knights. I’ll see them with my own eyes. Then I’ll believe.”

“Judith, Judith, you don’t know what you’re saying. Aethel shook her head, and tried to force her old bones to obey her. She must get that girl out of the way. “You’re fifteen now. Stay out of sight.”

But Judith stayed put in the middle of the road, blue eyes burning, cheeks flushed, hands clenched tight at her sides.

Already the Norman knights were clattering across the drawbridge. Each rider had his place in the troop. They were carrying burning torches. To a man, they wheeled their mounts round on to the worn track, and galloped straight at the village. Feet scurried. Doors slammed.

Judith’s heart missed a beat. It was beginning to look as though Eadwold’s stories were true.

By the time the riders reached the cottages, their route was clear. Even brainless chickens knew better than to peck in the path of the lord and his men, for they had scuttled to safety. The knights could have been riding through a plague village. It was still as death.

Judith’s blue gown fluttered in the warm, evening breeze. Ten pairs of hard eyes, concealed beneath steel helmets, noticed the movement. They saw a slender wand of a girl standing before one of the meanest huts, watching them with open curiosity. A strand of wavy fair hair floated free from her braids and shone in the waning rays of the sun.

“Here’s sport!” one of the riders bawled. He hauled on his reins and broke line. The lack of fear in the girl’s eyes was a challenge he could not resist.

Judith felt a small hand slip into hers. It gripped hard and tugged. “Judith!” a child’s voice piped up at her. “Grandma wants you!”

“Leofric,” Judith did not need to look at the boy to know his identity. It was Aethel’s young grandson. “Run along, now. I’ll be in in a minute.” She ignored the insistent pull on her arm.

The rider had pointed his mount at Judith. His destrier came forwards slowly, huge feet stamping the dry earth. Fine clouds of powdered soil curled like mist round the stallion’s hocks. The knight’s shield hung from his saddlebow, blue with a silver device—a crescent moon? Judith found herself looking up into a face that was all steel. She could see nothing human beneath the mail and helmet. His torch flickered and muttered.

“John!” a commanding voice shouted, loud but slurred with drink.

The knight checked, reluctantly, and glanced over his shoulder. He was the only one who’d left his place. “My lord?” There was insolence in his tone.

“Curb your lusts for once, will you?” Baron Hugo, their Norman lord, was in command. Wine made his words run together. “I thought we’d other fish to fry. That one’ll keep.”

“My lord.” The knight’s helmet dipped in reluctant acknowledgement. The eyes behind the steel turned once more to Judith and gleamed. The man saluted. She could see his teeth. She knew he’d be back.

Spurs flashed, dust rose, and then the riders were gone, riding like demons from Hell.

Judith stared after them. “They’re crossing the ford,” she announced, puzzled. “The water’s splashing up; I can see the spray. Where can they be going?”

Aethel shuffled to her door, and propped herself on her stick. Her face was haggard. “They’ll be taking t’shortcut through t’Chase,” she said heavily.

Judith frowned.

“Why are Baron Hugo’s men carrying torches?” Leofric demanded.

Judith stiffened. She felt the hair rise on the back of her neck.

“Baron de Mandeville to you, young Leo,” Aethel corrected her grandson.

Leofric released Judith’s hand and picked up a stick. He swished it through the dead leaves that had blown in from the Chase. “Aye, Grandmother,” he muttered sulkily. “Baron de Mandeville. But why are they carrying torches? “Tis light still, and I’ve not heard the Vespers bell.”

Judith had gone cold all over. She looked sharply at Aethel.

Suddenly severe, the old woman snatched the stick from her grandson and frowned at him. “Why don’t you occupy yourself with something useful—like helping me to tie up those bundles of herbs.” She waved her stick in the direction of her hut.

“Oh, Grandma!” Leo wailed his complaint, painfully aware that this was work for girls.

“Cease your moaning. Inside with you.” Not unkindly, the old woman pushed the boy through the door and made as if to follow.

Judith opened her mouth. “Aethel…”

Aethel froze.

“You…you don’t think they’re headed for our cottage, do you, Aethel?” Judith blurted at Aethel’s back.

Stiffly Aethel turned her head. She did not speak. Her old, tired eyes were sad.

Judith stepped backwards. Her blue eyes widened “No! No!’ Her voice rose. “Not my mother! Not my father! No!”

Aethel sighed. “The miracle is, me dear, that it did not happen sooner.”

“No! I won’t let them!” Judith cried. She took hold of Aethel by the upper arms. “I need a horse,” she got out. “Quick, a horse, tell me…where can I find one?”

“But Judith, you can’t—”

“I can, and I will.” Judith shook the old woman mercilessly. “Now, for God’s sake, Aethel, tell me. I must find a horse!”

“Smithy…he’ll be shoeing—”

“My thanks, Aethel.” Judith whirled and began to run.

Aethel sighed, and shook her head. She sagged against the door-frame and her eyes were sadder than ever. There were days when she thought it was a curse to have lived so long.

The dust had settled, the village square had come alive again, but Judith did not notice. Hens scratched in the road. Two pigs guzzled, snuffling with delight, on a tumble of apples spilled from a basket. A girl stalked up to the swine, stick in hand, and, shrieking, beat them back; but Judith did not hear her any more than she heard the rising chatter of peasant voices or the rhythmic swishing of flails.

Her ears were tuned to the dull clanging of hammer on iron. It matched the pounding of her heart. She raced towards it. The saints were with her. The smith was in his forge. Outside, unattended and tethered to the rail, a dainty bay mare waited, begging to be taken.

Judith snatched at the reins, hitched up her skirts, and launched herself on to the animal’s bare back. The mare sprang forwards. Judith turned her towards the ford, thanking God that her skill made the lack of a saddle unimportant. Cold water splashed on her bare legs. Behind her someone loosed a string of curses. Judith ignored them.

She leaned forwards over her mount’s neck. “Come on, my beauty,” she addressed the mare. “Show me your paces. Show me how you can fly.”

She dug in her heels and thought of her mother. Edith, whose beauty still shone through the deep furrows that pain and loss had scored across her face. Edith, who had not let bitterness sour her sweet nature. She dug in her heels and thought of her father. Godric Coverdale. A proud Saxon thegn in that other lifetime, before she’d been born. He was a cripple now, he needed a stick to help him hobble about. He’d lost more than his health at Hastings. The howling winds of change had blown her mother and father down from their rightful place, and now it seemed that fate had not finished with them. Sweet heaven, her parents were unprotected—Eadwold and Saewulf had gone to Tanfield! Surely God would not desert them?

The bay plunged into the Chase. Blackthorn twigs plucked at the skirts bundled about Judith’s hips. They scratched her arms and knees, and left long, red trails along her thighs.

“Faster, beauty, faster!” Judith urged. She must get there in time, she must. She would warn them. They could hide in the wood, until the Baron had gone, until her brothers returned. Then they’d go to the Abbey. They could hide there, claim sanctuary. What had they done wrong? Their only sin was that they were of the old nobility. They were Saxons, and it seemed their Norman lord had sworn to be rid of them.

Horse and girl streaked past a clump of hazels. The bay stumbled. Judith held her together by sheer will-power. She gulped in some air. She should not be riding the woodland path at such a speed. She knew that. If the mare fell, and broke her leg, she’d have to be destroyed. Judith set her jaw and ruthlessly wrung another spurt of speed from the beast.

Judith had never ridden so fast. The air rushed past her face and tugged her hair free from her braids. It was like flying. But a sinking feeling in her stomach warned her that it was not fast enough. They’d reached the tall oaks that grew in the heart of the Chase. A pheasant started up with a clatter of wings from a browning patch of bracken. The mare shied. Grim-faced, Judith clung like a leech, and pressed on.

She could smell burning.

On the fringe of Mandeville Chase, Judith reined in, and flung herself to the ground. Panic had not driven prudence entirely from her mind. She was now only a spear-throw from the cottage. Quiet as a mouse, she crawled forwards. A sturdy tree trunk blocked her view.

The burning smell was stronger now. She wrinkled her nose, a pretty nose, slightly uptilted, with a scatter of freckles left by the summer sun. Judith swallowed. She felt sick. She dared not look. She told herself it was the time of year for bonfires. She’d left her mother preparing food stores for the winter. Perhaps she was smoking the fish herself this year, perhaps…

The mare snickered behind her. An answering whinny floated back on the warm, evening air along with the smell of the woodsmoke. Judith’s heart slammed. Her parents had no horse, and the mule had gone to Tanfield…

Then the screaming began.

It was an ungodly sound, barely human, more like a wolf howling. It was her mother. Judith braced herself to peer round the tree. How could that raw, animal lament be her soft-voiced mother? She prayed her instincts were wrong and stuck her head out.

A gasp stole the breath from her lungs. Wide-eyed, Judith stared at a scene straight from the mouth of Hell.

The Baron and his knights filled the clearing. War-horses stamped and shuffled by the fallen tree her father liked to sit on to catch the last warmth of the setting sun, and ease his stiff joints. But the sun had betrayed him. It was not warming Godric now. Silver-bright, it flashed instead from the mail coats and helmets of the Norman knights.

Something was winking at her through a shifting forest of horses’ legs. With a sudden feeling of detachment, as though she was looking through a veil, Judith saw the sun was bouncing off the polished steel blade of a spear—a spear that was rammed through Godric’s chest.

Judith’s vision blurred. She swayed, shook her head to clear it, clutched at the rough bark of the tree, and looked again.

Her eyes locked on her mother’s green robe. Edith was bending over Godric, and that unearthly sound was still issuing from her mouth.

One of the knights had wrenched the spear free. A rush of blood stained her father’s tunic, her mother’s green gown, and the leaf-littered grass. Edith was keening loud enough to be heard in London.

“Cease that wailing, woman.” A voice as hard as stone sounded through the rushing in Judith’s ears. The man’s accent was as foreign as his chain-mail coat. “And be warned. So die all traitors to the King!”

Judith was still numb with horror. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. Oddly, other senses were heightened, for she could feel the hard, deep ridges of the bark beneath her fingers and palms. She heard an animal rustling in the Chase behind her. A wood pigeon cooed.

One of the Baron’s men wheeled his horse round and the pigeon was forgotten. He drew back his arm and threw his torch. It described a flaming arch through the evening air and landed squarely on the cottage thatch. It was then that Judith realised why the smell of burning had set that tocsin pealing through her brain. It was not her mother’s cooking fire that she’d smelled. It was more than that. The cottage had been fired. That knight had not been the first to fling his torch. Blue smoke and yellow fire were already creeping up from under the eaves.

It had been a long, hot summer. Long enough and hot enough to ripen all the grain. Judith had helped Edith dry pounds of fruit for their winter store. The straw on the roof was dry too; a small spark would have been enough to fire it. Now the dry grasses crackled. Golden flames shot along the length of the roof; greedy tongues licked upwards. It would not take long.

“Burn! Burn out all traitors!” Another fiery brand was chucked with cruel carelessness on to the thatch. The man who’d flung it was grinning, pleased with his handiwork. Edith’s lament was loud enough to split the heavens apart. One of the riders laughed. Baron Hugo de Mandeville swayed like a sot in his saddle.

Judith could taste bile in her mouth. To think she’d not believed the stories…to think she’d wanted to see with her own eyes. She believed now. Eadwold was right. They were Devil’s spawn. Something snapped inside her. She felt a scream of outrage rise in her throat. It threatened to choke her. Murderers! Norman swine! She set her teeth and snatched out her dagger. She’d get one of them, or die trying…

Judith lurched forwards.

A hard arm clamped round her waist and jerked her back.

““I wouldn’t if I were you,” a male voice hissed urgently in her car. “A pretty girl like you is all they need to complete their day’s entertainment.”

“Let me go!” Judith twisted to try and confront the owner of that iron arm. “Let me go!”

The arm slackened enough for her to turn, and she found herself looking into the bronzed face of a young man she had not seen before. Judith caught a glimpse of unruly brown hair and vivid green eyes. Someone had slashed his face with a whip. A red weal cut across one cheek.

She remembered her dagger, but before she could even blink the young man moved, and conjured her knife into his hand.

Judith stared at it. Her mind was spinning thoughts so fast she couldn’t take them in. She did not believe any of this was happening.

Her mother’s keening stopped abruptly. Judith’s skin chilled. A horse blew through his nose. A harness jingled. And her mother? Judith moaned and struggled to see.

The house was burning furiously. It crackled and spat. Flames streamed from it like golden pennants fluttering in the breeze. The roof ridge sagged. There was a dull crash. The main beam had collapsed, and a shower of bright sparks went spiralling upwards in the twilight air. Her mother lifted a grief-ravaged face and stared blindly at the wreck of her home.

Desperate to reach her parent, Judith lashed out. Her captor held fast. She opened her mouth, but the wretch read her intention, threw her dagger aside, and clamped a firm hand round her mouth. A piece of burning thatch rolled off what was left of the roof and landed in the grass at Judith’s feet. She was whipped clear.

“We’re not safe here,” the voice muttered from behind her. “That wall is about to fall. We’ll hide in the Chase.” He began to drag her into the wood.

Judith fought to hold her ground. She clawed. She kicked. She bit. Her captor yelped, and snatched his hands away. She’d drawn blood. Revolted, she spat it out. She faced her captor and backed to where her dagger lay. Eyes on the young man, she caught it up. “Go and skulk in the forest, coward!” Her voice shook. “I go to help my mother!”

As Judith’s scornful words penetrated, the tanned face hardened. Green eyes dropped to her dagger and came back to look into her eyes. Judith frowned. She did not want to strike him…

He stepped towards her.

Judith brandished her dagger. She hesitated. It was a grave mistake. A swift hand flicked out, and clamped on her arm. The young man twisted lithely, and suddenly Judith was dangling over his shoulder like an unwieldy bundle of sticks. He made straight for the cover of the trees.

“Put-me-down!” Judith shrieked, legs flailing. The Chase seemed to be swinging up and down. It made her dizzy. She could not see straight. “Let-me-go! I-must-help-my-mother. Please, please, put-me-down!” The words jerked from her mouth in time with her abductor’s running steps. She was wasting air. Her captor did not even falter and she needed all of her breath, for it was being bounced from her with every step he took. Her hair swept the forest floor. A few strides, and her already loosened braids unravelled completely.

Judith clenched her fists and tried beating them against the young man’s leather-clad back, but it had no effect. She thought of her mother and let out a strangled moan.

Suddenly the jarring stopped. The young man bent his knees and Judith was tipped into a drift of red leaves.

She pushed herself to her knees, twitched a leaf from her face and watched him through the golden tangle of her hair.

“We’re far enough away. I don’t think they saw us. You’ll be safe now.” He was breathing heavily, but his voice was low and pleasant. He smiled.

Judith saw him wince. His hand rose briefly to touch his damaged cheek, and continued upwards to rake back his hair.

Judith was in no mood to respond to an easy smile. She glared at him from her ignominious perch among the leaves. “Who are you?” she demanded. “What gives you the right to carry me off like this? Did you not see what they did to my father? And my mother. I cannot desert her. What kind of a man are you to run off and leave a helpless woman to face those…those bastards?”

Her eyes ran over him, and a frown creased her brow. She could not make him out. He was no serf. No serf she knew ever possessed a fine leather over-tunic and trousers like his. His belt was a good one. It boasted a silver buckle, but it was not elaborate enough to mark him as noble. Her gaze dropped to his hands. They were fine-boned and unscarred by manual labour.

A sob rose in her throat, Judith held it down. A ghastly suspicion was taking root in her mind, and she knew she’d gone white. “Who are you?” she repeated. “And what are you doing in the Chase?” Her stomach twisted. She threw a harried look over her shoulder. Was he alone?

There was only one reason that she knew of for a stranger to be lurking in the Chase…

“My name is Rannulf. I was hunting.” He shrugged easily. “What else is a chase for?”

Again that persuasive smile. Judith mistrusted it. She had to find out. She’d never be able to help her mother if her supposition was correct. She sat back on her heels and decided to try a direct attack. “I’m told the slavers are back in the Chase,” she said, bluntly.

“Slavers?” The young man called Rannulf looked startled.

That had wiped the smile from his mouth. He had not been expecting that. Perhaps she might trust him…

“Aye, slavers,” she said. “Where have you been that you’ve not heard the warnings?” Again she watched for his reaction.

He looked utterly bewildered, utterly at a loss. He was no slaver.

“So,” Judith freed a trembling breath. “You claim you’re a hunter?”

Rannulf was frowning at the ground, muttering. “Slavers,” he mumbled, and nodded absently in answer to her question.

That explained the leather jerkin he wore, but not his presence in the Chase. “For whom do you hunt?” Judith demanded. “This wood belongs to the Baron de Mandeville. He was leading those brave warriors who just murdered a helpless old man.” She sobbed. “Do you hunt for him?”

Suspicions crowded back, curdling the food in Judith’s belly. She edged away from this man, Rannulf, feeling like a cornered hind facing the hounds. It appeared she had escaped one trap, only to find herself in another. She shot another look over her shoulder. If she could run very, very fast perhaps she could lose him in the dense undergrowth…

His green eyes were watching her. “I wouldn’t if I were you,” he recommended drily. “I know every inch of Mandeville Chase. I would soon catch you.” He dropped to his knees, and held out a hand palm uppermost, as though she were a wild beast that needed gentling.

Judith shrank back. “You did not answer,” she prompted.

“What?”

“Do you hunt with the Baron’s men?”

His lips curved, and Judith felt her stomach tighten. He had very white teeth.

“I?” He seemed to find that amusing. “Hunt with the Baron’s men? Never!” He fingered the red weal on his cheek. “I hunt for myself. Do not fear that I shall take you to him. He did ever like to break things, and I will not give you up to him. Did I not snatch you from under his nose? I did that to save you. Why should I deliver you to him now, having winded myself in getting you away?”

His hand remained outstretched towards her. Judith hesitated, wanting, but not daring, to trust him. She took refuge in scorn. “You think to reassure me by such words?”

“Aye.”

“Well you do not. If you are not in the pay of de Mandeville, you must be an outlaw.”

“Must I?” Rannulf smiled.

“Why else be hunting in the Chase? “Tis reserved for that nest of Norman vipers. Anyone else caught hunting here is hanged as a thief, and if you don’t mind taking that risk you must be desperate indeed. A man with a price on your head. What would an outlaw want with me?”

Rannulf’s lips curved. “What indeed?” he murmured, eyeing her. Then, seeing her worried look, he relented. “Don’t look so worried, I’ll not harm you. I give you my word.”

“The word of an outlaw is meant to reassure me?”

“I begin to think I have rescued a shrew,” he sighed. “Perhaps I should have left you to Hugo’s men. They’re hot blooded enough to knock some sense into you, though I doubt that you would benefit from the lesson.” Rannulf rose to his feet and swung away.

It seemed to have gone very dark in the wood. The trees loomed in on them, like twisted bars in a prison cell. Judith shivered. She did not want to be abandoned here.

She scrambled to her feet, ran to Rannulf, and touched his sleeve. “I’m sorry, R…Rannulf. Don’t leave me. P…please, take me with you.”

Rannulf’s hand closed over hers. It felt warm.

“I won’t leave you. I know where you can stay the night, and tomorrow—”

“Tomorrow?” Judith bit on her lips to stop them trembling. Her voice broke. “I never want tomorrow to come. My father is dead. And my mother…Oh, God! What has happened to my mother?”

Rannulf grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. His eyes were as green as the Chase in high summer. “Listen,” he said. “We’ll get you safe, and then I’ll go back. I’ll see to your mother.”

Judith clutched at his arm. “You will? Oh, Rannulf—”

“Trust me?”

Judith nodded and swallowed.

“Come on, then,” Rannulf said briskly. “We’re wasting time.” He waved towards the thick of the Chase. “That way.” He offered his hand for the second time, and Judith put hers in his.

Rannulf had been gone from the shelter a long time. Judith pulled the folds of the fur-lined cloak he had lent her more tightly about her body, and willed him to return.

She could hear the night-time stirrings of the forest rise and fall outside the hunter’s hide. That was the sound of the wind in the dying dew-damp leaves, and that was the shriek of an owl baulked of its prey. It was black as pitch.

Judith huddled further into the small bower, wondering what protection it would offer her should a wild boar or a wolf come across her scent and decide to investigate. She fumbled for the branches of her refuge, and shook them to test their strength. She was not reassured.

Two large wattle hurdles were leaning against each other. Tied tightly at the top, they left an opening at either end. Two pieces of leather served as doors, and the outside was camouflaged with turves and leaves. It kept the wind off, but it was not designed to protect its occupant from other, more tangible enemies.

A twig cracked outside the bower and Judith’s breath caught in her throat. Rannulf had returned her knife to her. She groped for it.

The leather curtain was drawn inside. “Judith?”

Rannulf’s voice. Judith dropped the dagger. “M…my mother?” she asked at once, moving to make room for him.

He found her hand. “Judith, I’m sorry—”

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

“Judith,” Rannulf hesitated. “Judith, I don’t know.”

Hope flared. “What do you mean?”

“I went back, as I promised. Your father was lying as we last saw him. Your house was no more than a smouldering pile of ashes, but your mother was not there. I looked everywhere. She has gone.”

“My brothers!” Judith exclaimed. “My brothers must have got her away. They must.”

“Brothers?”

Judith nodded before she remembered the darkness hid her face. “Aye, I’ve two of them. They are both older than I. They will have her. I know they will.”

“I pray you are right.”

“Tomorrow I will find them,” Judith declared. “And tomorrow we will…we will bury my father.” She sniffed and dashed away a tear. She’d not cry before a stranger.

“Judith?” Rannulf’s voice came softly through the blackness.

“Aye?”

“’Tis no shame to weep.”

Judith sniffed again. A silence fell over them. She could hear the wind soughing in the branches above them.

Rannulf shook her hand. “You must rest. You will need your strength tomorrow.”

“I won’t sleep. How could I?” she asked, rousing herself with an effort to speak.

“If you cannot sleep, at least you can be rested. Come. Lie you here. And my cloak, thus. There. I will stand guard over you. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Rannulf. My thanks,” Judith whispered, and settled down into the softness of his ermine-lined cloak.

The Normans had thrust a knife in her heart. They were twisting it. The pain was not to be borne.

Judith screamed and woke. She did not know where she was. Memory flooded back. She groaned aloud.