Sitting in the rushes a few yards from where he stood, one of the servants’ children was playing with her straw doll, expression intent as she decorated its ragged sacking dress with a necklace of delicate amber beads.
Guyon put his face in his hands and wept.
CHAPTER28
When Judith arrived at Thornford in response to an urgent summons from her husband; it was sunset of the second day and work still hard afoot to repair the worst of the miners’ ravages.
In the outer ward, scene of so much previous destruction, small cooking fires burned as normal, tended by the soldiers’ women and the smells of bread and pottage wafted enticingly on the evening wind. Judith guided Euraidd between the fires. A bat swooped low overhead, casting for insects in the gloaming. Broken arrows and lances littered the ground.
A groom held Judith’s mare and Guyon himself stepped from the shadows to lift her from the saddle. His lids were heavy and dust-rimmed. Sweat and battle dirt gleamed in the creases of his skin, but the narrow semblance of a smile glinted before he stooped to give her a scratchy kiss.
‘You made good speed,Cath fach,’he approved. ‘I had not thought to see you until tomorrow noon at least.’
‘Needs must when the devil drives,’ she answered lightly, her eyes full of concern.
His smile vanished. ‘Yes,’ he agreed blankly and turned, his arm around her waist, to face the keep. ‘Needs must.’
Judith eyed him thoughtfully. His letter had informed her of the victory and asked her to come quickly, little else, and she had hailed the messenger back from his refreshment to reassure her that Guyon was not wounded. First qualm of terror dissolved, she had set out to pump the man for the information not contained in the letter.
‘I’m sorry, Guy,’ she said softly and pressed his arm.
He made a rueful gesture. Faced by the thought of being unable to go on, he had felt a desperate need for the comfort of Judith’s forthright, astringent presence and, despite its stilted brevity, his letter had come straight from the heart. Indeed, had he paused for rational thought at the time of writing, he would have left her at Ravenstow rather than command her here to the shambles of a recent battleground – but yesterday there had been little room for reason.
‘I suppose it is for the best,’ he owned as they entered the inner ward. ‘When you crush a flower it falls to pieces. God’s eyes, Judith, if only I had—’
‘Guyon, no!’ She stood on tiptoe to press her palm against his lips. ‘You must not shackle yourself with guilt. Rhosyn would have taken her chances on the drovers’ roads far more recklessly were it not for your warnings. At least you sought to protect her and the children.’
‘But it was not enough.’
The stubble prickled her palm as his lips moved. Judith studied him narrowly. ‘When did you last eat and sleep?’
Guyon took her hand away to grasp it in his. ‘You sound like my mother,’ he said with a hint of weary amusement.
‘Who by all accounts was a woman of sense,’ she retorted. Her brow wrinkled. ‘Why send for me if you did not want to be nagged?’
‘Because …’ He drew a sharp breath as if to change his mind, then stopped and faced her, scraping a hand distractedlythrough his hair which was in sad need of cutting. ‘Oh curse it, Judith, because you are the most infuriating, stubborn and capable woman it has ever been my misfortune to know!’
She burst out laughing. ‘Is that a compliment or an insult?’
‘To be honest, I do not know!’ He set his hands on her shoulders. ‘All I do know is that I need you as I’ve never needed anything in my life.’
Judith gasped and staggered. He was pungent with horse and sweat and smoke. His armour could have stood up of its own accord so strong were the mingled aromas.
‘And why precisely should you need me?’ she demanded archly. ‘Apart from the obvious.’
He grinned at that, shaking his head at her tart perception, but sobered quickly as they began to walk again. ‘Apart from the obvious, I need you to organise this shambles so that more than just cold pottage and dried meat graces the table. The servants don’t know their heads from their heels and Lady Mabel is in no fit state to organise them. I do not have the time.’
‘Lady Mabel is here?’
‘And her son.’ A frown drew his brows together. ‘They are both sick with the bloody flux. Look at them if you will, but I suspect it is in God’s hands now.’
There was something in his tone, a harshening that made Judith regard him with sharp curiosity. He paused at the foot of the forebuilding steps, fist gripped tightly on the hilt of his sword, as if holding it down in the scabbard.
‘What is to become of them if they survive, Guy?’
He followed her gaze to his clenched fist and removed it carefully from the grip before he answered, his nonchalant shrug belied by the grim set of his jaw. ‘The lands will be forfeit because de Lacey has rebelled against his King, but they were only his by right of marriage anyway. I suppose the child will inherit them when he is of an age to do so and in the meantimeHenry will appoint a warden. The convent is the best place for Lady Mabel.’
‘And de Lacey?’ she asked.
