| |
On May Day, there would be a little festival in the village of Redlingham, five miles up the road from Hildred’s family’s estate. For the past week, Elwyn and her friends had debated whether or not she could go to the party.
“I think you should stay here,” said Hildred, as they sat on the veranda after breakfast.
“I hate to say it, but I agree,” said Rada. “Walter and I will look around, and we’ll see if the place is safe. Later on, when people start going home, we can come back and get you.”
Elwyn accepted this solution with a sigh. She wasn’t terribly disappointed about having a few hours alone with Hildred, though. Even if she was starting to feel stifled at the estate.
She had thought she was going to keep riding into town or to the great estates near Leornian to lobby noblemen on her brother’s behalf. But she hadn’t been allowed to do that. Instead, Rada and Hildred rode into town for her. Rada said it was too dangerous for Elwyn to leave, and Hildred agreed. Anytime Elwyn threatened to go, Hildred fell into a panic about her safety and made Elwyn promise not to leave their bed. And, admittedly, she always made it worth Elwyn’s while to stay. But Elwyn was starting to get worried. She might be safe, but she was doing nothing, and her brother was counting on her. It pained her how thoroughly she was letting him down.
It was May 1st. That meant that it had been three months exactly since Duchess Flora had called out her levies in Keneburg. By now, the war had probably started. The opening campaigns were surely underway. There might have been huge, fateful battles already. Flora might have been defeated. Andras might be dead. And if Elwyn didn’t get off this estate and go back to the city, she would never hear about it. But at the same time, Elwyn had a bad feeling the second she set foot in public again, she would see that woman in the blue tartan cloak.
She sat on the veranda, watching Rada and Walter ride off together, feeling useless. Then Hildred came over, shrugged off her robe, and straddled Elwyn’s lap, stark naked. “I hate having to share you,” she said. “And I had the filthiest dream last night.”
After that, nothing else really mattered. They started right there on the porch, and when Hildred came, she gave a long, wailing scream that echoed back from the hills. Anyone could have walked up and seen them. But there was no one to see them there, and Elwyn loved it. For once, she didn’t have to hold back. She could scream and pant and cry—whatever she felt like doing.
Elwyn was happier than she had been in weeks. She was no good at court intrigue. She was no good at politics or diplomacy. This at least was something she could do well.
As they lay there, decidedly sweatier than when they had begun, they suddenly heard quick hoof beats coming up the drive. They barely had time to get on their dressing gowns, and for Elwyn to grab her father’s old sword from the house, before the riders arrived. To their surprise, it was Rada and Walter coming back early.
“You couldn’t even have gotten to Redlingham,” said Hildred, frowning. “What’s wrong?”
“We got two miles up the road,” said Rada. She was out of breath, and her face was pale, and Walter’s was, too. “There are soldiers in the woods. We saw them!”
Elwyn rushed to the steps and looked into the deep green shade of the forest. She couldn’t see more than a hundred feet through the leaves, slowly rustling in the breeze. The shadows shifted, and beams of light flickered. She could hear the branches bending and creaking, and below that, there might have been the sound of hoofs and muffled harnesses.
“Did you see their livery?” Hildred asked Rada and Walter.
They shook their heads.
“Were they headed this way?” Elwyn whispered.
“They were waiting,” said Walter. “I think they must have camped there last night.”
Hildred tugged at the sleeve of Elwyn’s robe. “Come on. Let’s go see what’s going on.” She pointed back over her shoulder. “Rada and Walter, you should go look out back, near the pond and the river. See if there are any soldiers there.”
It was a good idea. The soldiers might be levies on their way to the war. They might have no idea that Hildred’s family’s estate was here. On the other hand, this might be an attack. And if it were, then Elwyn and her friends needed to know if they were surrounded.
Elwyn and Hildred went in and dressed quickly. Often Hildred could laze about for an hour, working on her hair and choosing her jewelry. But she seemed to feel the urgency now, and she pulled on her clothes with a speed Elwyn wouldn’t have thought possible. Back out on the porch, they distributed weapons. Elwyn took her sword and her bow and gave a pair of knives to Hildred. Rada and Walter, of course, were heavily armed already, and Rada even had a spare bow for Hildred to borrow.
“Be careful,” said Rada. “Don’t get into a fight if you don’t have to.”
They all shook hands. Then Walter and Rada went around the hunting lodge and down toward the pond, while Elwyn and Hildred walked into the woods by the front drive.
It felt cooler in the shade, but not so cold that Elwyn wished for a cloak. The breeze hardly stirred down here among the dark trunks of the trees, and clouds of little gnats and midges circled above her in the slanting beams of light. The forest floor was wet and mossy; Elwyn went carefully so as not to leave footprints, and every fourth step, she looked around, searching for any sign that someone had passed this way recently. But there was nothing.
After almost half a mile, Elwyn turned and crossed over the gravel front drive, headed in the rough direction of the village, trying to guess exactly where Rada and Walter had been when they had seen the soldiers. It couldn’t be very far away now.
There was bright sunlight ahead, and they came out into a little clearing. One of the great oaks had fallen over and lay gray and dead on the forest floor. Tiny saplings—pines and maples and sumacs—were springing up to fill the void. Hildred climbed up on a huge limb of the fallen tree and pointed west, into the woods. “The road is right over there,” she whispered. “If there were soldiers around here, we could see them.”
Elwyn joined her on her perch and looked around. It certainly didn’t look like there was anyone camping around here. And Hildred was right—they could see the road through the trees, and no one was riding on it.
“It’s not like Rada to get spooked and see things that aren’t there,” Elwyn murmured.
They climbed down, and Elwyn was about to ask Hildred if maybe they should split up and search the area for a bit, when suddenly she felt the girl snuggling up behind her.
“I want to get back to what we were doing earlier,” she whispered. With one hand, she undid a clasp at the bodice of Elwyn’s riding dress, and she slid her other hand in, stroking Elwyn’s breast.
“This really isn’t the time for this,” Elwyn said.
“Why not? Who’s going to see us here?” Another clasp snapped open, and Hildred reached down, very slowly, over Elwyn’s stomach and into her underclothes.
Annoyed, Elwyn pulled the girl’s hand out and turned around. “Look, I like a good fuck as much as anyone, but we’re not doing that right now.”
Hildred grinned and laughed, as if she thought Elwyn was joking. She stepped forward, trying to grab Elwyn. Elwyn stepped back, tripped over an old root, and sat down hard. In an instant, Hildred was on her, straddling her, pushing her down and covering her neck and shoulders in kisses.
“Will you stop it, please?” Elwyn tried to push Hildred away, but the girl kept leaning in to kiss her again.
Hildred giggled and started saying something about how she liked a challenge. But then Elwyn heard the jangle of harnesses, and she looked around to see soldiers approaching. There were a dozen of them—big men in mail and steel helmets. They weren’t wearing livery, but they had their weapons drawn and ready.
“Look out!” Elwyn cried, struggling to get at her sword.
“Just stay still,” whispered Hildred, shifting so that her knee pinned Elwyn’s arm to the ground.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Elwyn demanded.
The leader of the soldiers, a big blond knight with a mustache, wandered over and gestured at Elwyn with the tip of his sword. “Is this her?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Hildred with a nervous little smile. “You remember the deal, right?”
The knight nodded. “Yes.”
Hildred stood, and Elwyn tried to scramble away, but two of the soldiers caught her and held her while a third tied her hands and feet. “You!” she said, glaring at Hildred. “What sort of deal did you make with them?”
“Just a little trade.” Hildred blushed. “I really didn’t want to have to give you to them at all, but it seems your brother has slipped away again. So now the queen wants to keep you as a hostage and trade you in exchange for Edwin.”
The knight threw Elwyn over the back of his horse, and they all went back to the hunting lodge. At least a dozen more soldiers sat on the veranda or stood guard on the lawn. Rada and Walter were tied to a tree, twenty yards away. Elwyn didn’t think she could see any of Rada’s rings on her hands.
“You foul little bitch.” Elwyn tried to spit on Hildred, but missed. “How could you do this?” She was more angry than hurt, but the tears were starting to burn at her eyes, anyway. She couldn’t believe Hildred was a traitor. And she couldn’t believe that she had been so totally fooled by the girl.
To add to her humiliation, they took her into the house and tied her to the huge oak banister of the front stairs.
Hildred came and sat on the steps and tried to put an arm on Elwyn’s shoulder, but Elwyn shrugged it away. Hildred said, “I’m sorry. I know you’re mad, but I really do care for you.”
“Go to the Void,” said Elwyn.
“I didn’t want to do any of this,” Hildred said pleadingly. “The queen said I had two choices: I could be ruined for life, or I could do what she told me to do. You know, I’m pretty sure she set me up with that housemaid, just so she could catch me. Not that it matters now.” She took out a handkerchief and tried to dry Elwyn’s eyes. “Really, what would you do in my position?”
“I wouldn’t betray the people who love me to make the scandal go away.”
Hildred’s face fell, and she stood. “Well, that’s probably because you wouldn’t have to. You’re a princess, Elwyn, and someone will always want you, no matter what you do. The rest of us have to make difficult choices.” She turned and glared at Elwyn, lip quivering. “I’m sorry if you think I made the wrong choice. But I really did try my best to keep you safe.”