"Itwould do you no harm to try and be more cautious," advised Garnier as hecaught the wineskin Tancred tossed his way.
"Thatis something we can do."'
Eadawatched them mount the horses Ivo had readied for them and cursed under herbreath. She had not anticipated having to conquer their pride to get them tolisten to her. The belief of others that she had warned had left her toounprepared to deal with such openly displayed disbelief.
"Forall that they laugh and jest, they will be careful," Garnier said as,after the two young men had ridden away, Eada sat down and faced him across thefire.
"Onecannot always guard oneself against treachery," Eada said.
"True.I am not sure I believe in dreams and voices, but you have been proven righteach time you have spoken. Tancred and Unwin know that, and they will bewatching their backs more closely."
"Ifwarning them was all that I was meant to do, then why did my dream show me thatthey were dead?"
"Itcould have been showing you what would happen if you failed to warn them."
"Orit could have been showing me what will happen because they have scorned mywarning. My dream could have been saying that warning them would not be enoughto save them."
"Butwhy would Sir Guy kill two Norman knights? It can gain him nothing buttrouble."
"Notif no one knew that he had done it." She nodded when his eyes widened withsudden understanding. "Think on how easy it would be to blame their deathsupon the Saxons. There have been many such attacks. Vengeances mostly for menkilled or villages burned. It would be no cause for alarm if two young knightsdid not return from a foraging journey."
"Iwill go and speak with Drogo," Garnier said as he stood up.
Eadawatched Garnier ready his mount with Ivo's help and leave. She was not sure ifthere were time to get Drogo and then ride to find Tancred and Unwin beforethey were murdered, but it was better than doing nothing at all. Just as shebegan to resign herself to waiting and filled a bowl with some of Ivo's heartystew, a panting Godwin stumbled up to her.
"Whatare you doing here? This will surely gain you a harsh beating and you have notyet recovered from the last one," Eada said as Godwin fell to his knees ather side and struggled to catch his breath.
"Sheis right, boy," said Brun as, still afflicted with a slight limp, he satdown on the other side of Eada.
"SirGuy has ridden off with several of his treacherous friends," Godwinreported as he accepted the wineskin Eada held out to him and took a few deepswallows.
Thatnews caused Eada's heart to skip with alarm. It was beginning. The trap wasbeing set, and she had yet to get anyone to believe that there was a trap.
"Didhe say anything and were you able to understand it?" she demanded, prayingthat Sir Guy was just going on another fruitless search for some poor woman hecould force to his bed.
"MyFrench is still weak so I am not sure that I know all of what they said."
"Tellus what you do know or what you just guess at. I believe it will beenough."
Godwindragged his fingers through his hair. "They went in search of two men. Ithink they mentioned Sirs Tancred and Unwin, but I cannot swear to it. I darednot reveal that I was listening and so walked about the camp doing my work. Attimes that meant that I was not close enough to them to hear everything clearly."
"Donot worry on that. You were acting with great wisdom."
"Themen they seek are riding toward London, foraging ahead I think they said. SirGuy and his friends planned to ride hard and get ahead of these men. They weregoing to do something upon the road once they found them. I fear I did notrecognize the word they used."
"Repeatit." Eada frowned when he did so and it took her a moment to recognize thepoorly pronounced word. "The word is murder." She hastily told Brunand Godwin about her dream. "My dream was true and those two fools refusedto listen to me. They only said that they would be careful."
"SirGuy took five men with him. I would think that it would be difficult to defeatsix men intent upon murdering you no matter how careful you were."
"Isaw Garnier leave," said Brun. "Did he not go to join them?"
"No,he went to speak to Drogo and Serle. Drogo dines with William, and Serleattends him."
"Drogowill believe in your dream."
"Garnierwill have to wait until he and Drogo can speak privately. Drogo has made hismen swear that they will do all that they can to keep my gifts a secret. Itcould be a long time before Garnier can draw Drogo aside."
"Thenthere is nothing you can do."
