IT WAS A full day’s ride down to Meaux. Apparently there had been some discussion about whether it would be advisable, owing to the shortness of the days, to break the journey and spend the night in one of Roger’s hunting lodges. Sibilla was keen to stop for the baby’s sake and Ralph agreed. But Melisen had to be consulted. Sueno explained all this to Hildegard.
‘And, sweet girl,’ he went on, ‘she was in floods of tears at the thought of Lord Roger’s body being shaken to bits in its coffin on the rutted track so she pleaded strongly that we should travel directly as she could not bear the thought of it all continuing “endlessly, endlessly, endlessly—” her very words and intonation,’ he pointed out, looking pleased with his performance. Hildegard said she did not doubt it.
His expression changed. ‘But it’s a bad business, Sir William behaving in that way. What on earth got into him? It was all so sudden.’
‘Were you present, master?’
He shook his head and gave a shudder. ‘I’d gone to my bed long before but I heard all about it this morning. They say—’ he leaned forward confidentially, ‘that is was jealousy.’ He sniffed. ‘Sir William fighting over a woman – a servant! Whatever next!’
The carts creaked alarmingly as they trundled over the track after the hearse. Their pace was slow because of the mud that kept clogging the wheels. Every few minutes a cry would go up from the carters, ‘Dun’s in t’mire!’ and the whole train would have to halt for a while to let the servants dig them out where they were stuck. Spare wheels were carried among the baggage, she noted, Ulf’s foresight against breakages.
She longed for an opportunity to show him the velvet chaperon and the fashionable shoes and see what he made of them, as well as to hear what else he had to say about William. But he was far up the trail, riding beside the driver of the six plumed horses.
The twists and turns of the track together with the failing light as the day drew on made the leading wagons difficult to see, and as they entered the thickest part of the forest even Melisen’s foliage-bedecked wagon was lost in the gloom. Soon they were guided only by the scent of crushed yew, the occasional commands of the servants, the jingle of harness and the light of flares carried by the lamp-men, visible as a chain of fire between the trees.
There were more shouts from in front and the train came to another halt. The two horses pulling the wagon Master Sueno had requisitioned were backed up by the cart in front and by the time the grooms had placated the skittering animals the shouting from up the track had increased.
It was augmented by a sound like the clash of steel. Hildegard stood up in the cart and tried to make out what was happening.
‘Somebody else stuck in the quag,’ suggested Sueno affably.
‘I think not. This is something else.’
Hildegard stepped down, lifting her hem above the mud, and took a few paces towards the front, but before she could go further there was the sound of horses crashing through the undergrowth and she was just in time to make out three shadowy riders, cloaks flying, riding their horses off into the night. She began to run. Her hounds followed. Slipping and panting, she reached the lead wagon to find Ulf crouching on the ground, one hand clutched to his left shoulder.
‘I’m all right,’ he managed to gasp as she knelt beside him. ‘Nothing but a flesh wound. It’s Melisen.’
‘What?’
‘They’ve taken her.’
There was a commotion in the undergrowth as half a dozen men on foot came panting back. ‘We lost them almost at once, sir. They vanished like wraiths. It’s too dark to follow. They must know these woods like the back of their hands.’
‘I’ll show you the back of my hand,’ gasped Ulf, evidently in pain, ‘if you don’t get on your horses after them.’
Arguing among themselves about who was to blame for giving up so quickly, and why the horses hadn’t been unstrung at once, and how there were no such things as ghosts, the men peeled off in separate directions while Ulf raised himself to his feet. He leaned heavily against the side of the the wagon in which Melisen had been travelling and Hildegard could see blood darkening the cloth of his surcoat.
‘Let me look,’ she said tersely. The swamping scent of funeral lilies filled the air.
With a small exhalation she saw that it was, as he had guessed, only a flesh wound. But it was bad enough. She staunched it and cleaned it as best she could, then bandaged it while he told her what had happened.
‘I’d gone on ahead with three or four men to inspect the trail. The others were at their ease coming on foot to rest the horses. Then we heard a commotion behind us. When we rode back we saw Sir William with Lady Melisen across his saddle and one of his guards holding a knife to Sir Ralph’s throat. I judged Ralph well able to take care of himself so I threw myself after William, only to be cut at by some fellow who sprang at me from behind a tree. They had obviously planned the whole thing with care. The knife-wielding fellow fled before Sir Ralph could scramble from the wagon and grab his sword. He’d put aside his weapons in order to ride for a while with the baby.’
Ralph was standing in the middle of the track with his sword raised against the long-departed attackers, bellowing with rage. ‘I can’t leave Sibilla. Nor dare I leave little Roger,’ he was saying as Hildegard walked up. He turned to her. ‘He must have taken leave of his senses. What can he want with Melisen, for heaven’s sakes? It defies all reason.’ He glared at Ulf. ‘You must have your ear to the ground, steward. What the devil’s he up to?’
‘Haven’t an inkling, sire. Yesterday was bad enough but this – it beats all imagining!’ He turned to Hildegard and spread one arm. ‘What’s his game?’
‘I don’t know Sir William,’ said Hildegard carefully.’ ‘Has he taken her with malicious intent, do you think, or is there some other, more subtle reason?’
Sir Ralph waved his sword. ‘No time for speculation. Drive on, steward! We must get my lady and the babe to safety with all haste. Let’s keep them from harm at least.’
Reluctantly Ulf climbed into the saddle. He was scowling. ‘If they value their necks, the trackers will find their quarry and bring him to us at Meaux.’
The remaining men, scattered in some disarray, were gazing helplessly off into the trees with their swords drawn. He ordered them to their horses. The few who wore Sir William’s blue dragon badge stood in a disconsolate group, clearly not knowing whether they were to be put in shackles as punishment for Lady Melisen’s abduction or have their throats swiftly cut, but Ulf gestured for them to follow under escort.
He turned to Hildegard. ‘Have a care. Don’t loiter at the end of the train. Ride with me. Who knows what further evil that fiend has in mind.’
‘I’ll ride with Master Sueno,’ she said. ‘He’ll be glad of the company. And besides, I think it’s only Lady Melisen William requires in this particular game.’
Despite his pleas to the contrary, she waited by the side of the track with her hounds close about her while the wagons of the de Hutton household, followed by those of Ralph and Sibilla, passed. The manservant, still in charge of Master Jacques, had drawn a broadsword and was glancing from side to side as the wagon made its way through the trees. He noticed her because she saw his black eyes flicker over her as he went by.
When the last wagon hove into view Hildegard climbed aboard. The horses were whipped to as brisk a pace as possible through the mud. With her mind busy with the possible reasons for William’s latest eruption into violence, she described to Sueno what had taken place, pausing only when she noticed how his hand was gripping the hilt of his sword. The thought of Sir William, armed, rampaging through the forest with the intention of abducting whomsoever he pleased, was enough to frighten anyone and it made the master builder’s eyes stare in shock and his tongue, for once, fall silent. In fact it was not only Master Sueno who started in fear at every sound coming out of the dark wood. The servants huddled together like sheep waiting for the onslaught of a pack of wolves and the men-at-arms, those left to protect the cavalcade, rode all the way with their swords at the ready and their eyes pricked for further attack.
And so it was, some time later, when the moon hung suspended like a great lantern in the void and shed its sinister glow over the forest, that they finally arrived at the Abbey of Meaux.