‘Lady? I need you to come outside,’ he said, with enough firmness in his tone that she knew it for the order it was.
She placed her fingers to her mouth in a sign of warning to the others and then opened the door a bit and crept out, not allowing enough room for anyone to look in past her.
‘Yes, Sir Brice?’ she said, stepping a few paces off towards the path, thus making him turn away from the doorway to speak to her.
‘Did I hear a man’s voice in there?’
‘Yes, of course you did. Nissa’s husband—’ she lost the man’s name in her thoughts for a moment and then remembered it ‘—Siward watches over his wife.’
‘How did the woman become injured? Are her injuries so serious that you were needed?’ His eyes narrowed and she knew he doubted the story given.
The sight of Nissa’s body upset her so that she could not piece together a credible lie to give him. Yet, she did not think she could trust him with the truth of it.
‘Two days, Sir Brice. Give me, give them two days and they will be gone,’ she pleaded. Grabbing his arm so he could not move away, she leaned over close and whispered so only he could hear her words. ‘Those damn Norman pigs,’ she sputtered. ‘Those pigs…’ The words would simply not come.
‘Lady, do not get in the middle of something like this. And do not ask me to keep something from your husband,’ he said, pulling free of her. ‘You would do best to tell him the truth and let him decide his own part.’
‘Sir Brice, my father rented out some of his lands just before he went north and without looking at the rolls, I could not say for certain if these people are on it or not.’
She decided not to let this happen. Given two days to rest and heal, Siward had a chance of escaping Lord Huard’s men. If Edmund came back to the village, she could leave word for him to take them north with him.
‘Lady,’ he growled in warning, knowing the path she would take in this.
‘It will take me time to search for the correct scroll and decipher the names and farms assigned by my father before he left. Just give me two days to read the rolls.’
She began to go back into the cottage to make arrangements with Emma when he took her by the arm and drew her close.
‘Fayth,’ he warned through clenched jaws, ‘do not do this.’
Startled by the use of her name and the fierce expression in his eyes, she looked at his grasp and then at him with narrowed eyes until he released her. Fayth didn’t think that he would harm her; he was just trying to make his point on the inadvisability of her actions.
‘Of course, Sir Brice, you should feel free to search the rolls yourself or ask my lord husband to do so if you want your answer sooner.’
The insult stung, she saw it in his gaze before he stalked off a dozen or so paces away and continued to call down curses on her head. Never once, though, did he force his way into the cottage and expose the runaway serfs himself. Fayth ducked back inside and spoke with Emma. In a short time, she was ready to return to the keep.
The knight sat on his horse, waiting for her when she left the cottage. Since it was only her, he leaned down and helped her climb up behind him. She could feel his anger, so she did not provoke him with words or questions while they rode back to the keep. Only when they passed through the gates did she dare to ask.
‘What will you do, Brice?’ she whispered from behind him.
‘Since I was the one who convinced Giles to allow you to see to this, I have decided to honour your place as lady here and will allow you to handle this as you see fit,’ he said.
She let out the breath she was holding, expecting him to expose her actions to her husband.
‘My thanks to you…’ she began, but he shifted in the saddle to look at her as he spoke.
‘You will not thank me, nor will your lord husband, when this matter comes to light. And doubt not that a day of reckoning will come over it.’
‘If he knows not—’ she began and he interrupted yet again.
‘You restrict his options and choices in the matter and give him no opportunity to act on his own to right things.’
Fear pulsed through her at his words. It was true, she was taking the decision out of his hands, but she did not believe that he would help this Saxon couple against their Norman lords. Still, she thought it was the right thing to do in these circumstances.
At least until Giles came out to the gates to greet her. As he walked forward Brice wrapped his hand around her arm to help her from the horse. His last words worried her the most.
‘I pray God that my lady wife meddles not in my affairs the way you have chosen to do in your husband’s. I fear I could not forgive a woman who did so.’
His anger frightened her and she stumbled as her feet touched the ground. In but a moment Giles steadied her with his arm at her waist.
