‘Probably. De Lacey was talking to him most earnestly in the hall last night and he’s not the kind to mingle with servants unless it be for a specific purpose. I will know more when I have had an opportunity to question Rannulf and … ouch!’
‘Hold still, my lord, and it will not hurt as much.’
‘I think you are enjoying this,’ he grumbled.
Judith wrinkled her nose at him. ‘Tush, my lord. So much complaint for such a “little scratch”.’
‘Insolent wench,’ he growled, eyes laughing.
Baffled, Alicia watched the two of them as she prepared the poultice of mouldy bread. Here was no frightened child flickering nervous glances at the world through a haze of tears and, despite Guyon’s obvious pain and preoccupation, he was handling Judith with the ease of a man accustomed to women, not one who would deflower her savagely in a fit of unbridled lust.
Guyon clenched his teeth and endured in stoical silence until Judith and Alicia had finished with him. Judith wiped her hands and brought him a cup. He sniffed the contents suspiciously. ‘Valerian, yarrow and poppy in wine,’ she told him. Guyon tasted, grimaced, put down the cup and began to ease his sleeve over the bandage.
‘It will relieve the pain.’
‘And dull my wits,’ he retorted.
Judith sighed and went to find him a fresh pair of chausses and some salve for his grazed cheek and thigh.
‘It seems that I have misjudged you,’ Alicia said to him softly.
Guyon finished arranging his sleeve. ‘I hope I have enough common sense to realise that rape is not the best way to begin a marriage. I haven’t touched her and I won’t until she’s ready…’ He stopped and looked round as his father swept aside the curtain and strode into the room.
‘Your huntsman’s bolted,’ he announced starkly. ‘Snatched de Lacey’s courser from a groom and was out over the drawbridge before anyone could stop him.’
Guyon’s eyes darkened. ‘God’s teeth!’
‘That is not the worst of it. De Lacey’s gone after him and with every right to kill. Pembroke’s with him and de Serigny. Chester’s taken de Bec and some of the garrison and ridden after them.’
Guyon swore again and reached for his swordbelt.
‘I’ll meet you in the bailey,’ Miles said.
Guyon struggled to tighten the belt with his injured left arm. Judith hastened to help him. ‘Have a care, my lord,’
she said anxiously. ‘I fear that Rannulf may not be the only quarry.’
He looked down at her upturned face and with a humourless smile, tugged her braid. ‘Forewarned is forearmed, so they say,’ he replied. ‘I promise you I’ll do my best to stay alive.’
Riding hard they caught up with de Bec and Chester a little beyond the village and de Lacey upon the track that led eventually across the border into Wales.
‘I thought I had him!’ de Lacey growled, ‘but the bastard’s doubled back on me. Bones of Christ, when I catch him I’ll string him up by the balls. Do you know how much that stallion is worth?’
‘Nevertheless, I will have him alive,’ Guyon said curtly.
‘God knows why,’ Arnulf de Montgomery snorted. ‘First that “weak spear” and now Walter’s best courser. The man’s guilty, no doubt about it.’
‘Yes,’ Guyon said, ‘and I want to talk to him about why.’
Pembroke flushed. Ralph de Serigny looked puzzled. De Lacey drew his sword and turned his horse, momentarily blocking the road.
Guyon and his father exchanged glances. Without a word Miles dismounted and disappeared into the woods bordering the road. He had spent his boyhood among the Welsh hills and, saving the supernatural, could track anything that trod the earth, including a rat that smelled so bad the stench of it was all pervading.
‘Put up your sword,’ Guyon said to de Lacey, ‘Rannulf will meet his end in justice, not hot blood, when the time comes.’
De Lacey returned his stare for a long moment before breaking the contact. The sword flashed again as he shrugged and began sheathing it. ‘This is justice,’ he said.
Unease prickled down Guyon’s spine. He began reining the chestnut about. Simultaneously there was a warning shout and the whirr of an arrow’s flight. He flung himself flat on the courser’s neck and the arrow sang over his spine and lodged in a beech sapling on the other side of the road.
