“Da!” the little girl cried, stricken. Her violet-colored eyes were large in her pale face. “No!”
“Adair, I cannot flee in the face of this Lancastrian in-cursion. Stanton has been my family’s home for centuries. Once it was only the Scots we fought. That we English now fight one another pains me, my child.
Thrones mean little to simple folk. But I will defend my home until my last breath, and your mother has elected to remain by my side, though I would wish it otherwise,”
the earl told Adair.
“Mama?” the girl looked at her mother. “Would you leave me?”
“Nay, Adair, not willingly. But I will not leave your father to face the futile wrath of the Lancastrians alone. We will defend Stanton together. Know this, my daughter: I did not love your father when we were first wed. But that is not unusual for people like us. Those of our station do not marry for love. I brought your father land and coin. However, I came to love him, and because I cannot imagine life without him, I will die by his side as I have lived by it. And because you are strong you will survive, and you will remember that I love you,” Jane Radcliffe told her only child quietly.
Adair began to weep. “I am only a little girl,” she said piteously. “I need you!”
“Cease that caterwauling immediately!” Jane Radcliffe commanded her daughter sternly. “You do not have the luxury of sorrow now, Adair. Not if you expect to survive past this day. I did not bear you to see you needlessly slaughtered by a pack of rabid partisan fools!
You must seize the future, my daughter, and live to rebuild Stanton one day. The king, your sire, will see you have a husband, and by agreement with your father that husband will take our name. The Radcliffes will eventually return to Stanton. The Lancastrians can slay us, but if you live, we defeat them for good and all.”
Adair swallowed back her sobs. She stood tall and straightened her little shoulders. “I hate the Lancastrians,” she said in a grim voice.
“Hate,” the Earl of Stanton said, “is a wasted emotion, my child. Do not waste your passions on hate, Adair. Escape Stanton, and live for our family. Come, now, and give me a kiss, my child.” John Radcliffe held out his arms to her, and Adair flew into them, struggling to hold back her anguish. He stroked her sable hair gently, and then, after kissing her on both cheeks, he turned Adair to her mother.
Jane Radcliffe struggled with her own grief, but she would not give in to it. Enfolding her only child in her arms, she held her close for a long moment. Then she, too, kissed Adair on both of her cheeks. “Be brave, my child,” she said quietly. “John Radcliffe willingly gave you his name, and you are his daughter, though another sired you on me. Always remember that, and bring no shame on the Radcliffes.”
Adair stepped back and looked at both her parents.
She was only six years old, but suddenly she felt so much older. “I will remember everything,” she said, “but especially I will remember that I am a Radcliffe.”
“We can ask no more of you than that,” the Earl of Stanton told her.
Nursie came back into the hall carrying a small bundle. “We are ready,” she said.
“Did my serving woman give you the money pouch, and have you put it on?” Jane Radcliffe wanted to know. “There are two gold coins and a goodly number of silver coins inside it, Elsbeth. And did she give you Adair’s garnet velvet skirt? There are five gold coins sewn in the hem of it.”
“I have them both, my lady,” Nursie replied.
“Go south,” the earl said. “Where the sun rises is east.
Where it sets is west. North is over the border into Scotland. South is away from it. Do not travel the roads.
Keep to the fields, and be very cautious. Trust no one, Elsbeth. Adair must reach her sire safely. It is her only chance of survival. And yours.”
“My lord!” The bailiff ran into the hall. “The Lancastrian rabble are approaching the hall. We’ve barred the doors and shuttered the windows, but there is little else we can do. They will break in soon enough.”
“Rally those you can,” the earl said quietly, and the bailiff ran out with a nod.
Nursie picked a torch from the wall holder.
“Come,” John Radcliffe said. He led his wife, daughter, and Nursie from the hall, stopping to take a small lantern and several candles from a small cabinet as he went down into the cellar of the building. A large wolfhound arose from before the fire where he had been sleeping, and ambled after them, walking by Adair’s side.
“Beiste wants to come with me,” the little girl said, putting her hand on the animal’s head as they hurried along.
“ ’Tis not a bad idea,” the earl noted. “He’s intelligent and obedient, and will defend his mistress. Yes, Beiste will go with you, my child.”
Down into the deepest part of the hall they went, and down a narrow, dark corridor. When they reached the end of the passage the earl reached out, feeling about,and then suddenly a small, low door sprang open with a noisy creak. “Here is the mouth of the tunnel,” he said.
Then he gave Nursie the candles he carried, and lit the lantern from her torch. “The other end of the tunnel is well hidden,” he told the older woman. “It opens out a goodly mile from the hall in the wood by Stanton Water.
Do not come out until you are certain the Lancastrians have been long gone. Turn to the right when you exit the tunnel, and you will be headed south. Godspeed, Elsbeth, my kin.”
