But she had to stay hidden if she had any chance of making it because very quickly, she guessed, her absence would be discovered. Pushing her way through the crowd, she ducked in behind a row of small houses.
It was considerably quieter here and far less crowded. There were ducks and geese, and chickens roaming around, and she quickly made her way through the ducks, avoiding the geese that seemed to want to chase her. She ran faster, shooing them away, and they fell off as soon as she crossed over a smaller alleyway and into another yard.
All the while, she could hear the crowds in the street on the other side of the houses, the revelry and singing that was going on. She could also smell roasting meat, causing her stomach to rumble. She hadn’t eaten much since Heckington. She simply hadn’t had an appetite. She didn’t have much of one now, either, but she had to eat something soon or she would surely become ill. Already, she was shaking, from hunger probably more than from the excitement of her flight.
She had to make it to that church.
The seconds were ticking away and, any moment, Susanna or Kress would be told of her absence and they would come looking for her. In fact, she thought she heard a shout, and people began screaming. Not all of them, or a great crowd of them, but just a few, as if they’d been disturbed or frightened somehow. Startled, she ran blindly around a corner and down a small, dirty path until she literally stumbled into a walled yard.
The gate had given way when she put her weight on it as she’d stumbled and she found herself in a small garden with a little house attached. Given the chaos of the street only a few houses away, it was strangely still and serene. A tree grew up over the yard, providing some shade on one end, while the majority of the garden had full sun and was in neat rows of growing things.
Startled at the sudden quietness and peacefulness of the little garden, hidden away behind the wall, Cadelyn looked around, thinking it was all rather lovely once she’d gotten over the shock of having literally fallen into it. As she picked herself up off the ground, she was suddenly hit from the side by a big dog with long legs, who jumped up on her with muddy paws and dragged its tongue all over her face.
Disgusted, Cadelyn put her hands on her face, trying to pull away, but the dog was very happy to see her and in his joy, got mud all over her clean cloak. She could hear someone as they emerged from the small house.
“Goliath,” came the old, raspy voice. “Mind your manners, you unruly beast. Down!”
Cadelyn still had her hands up to protect her face from the dog’s slobbering mouth but she could see an old woman heading in her direction, pulling the dog back. Once the dog was under control, the old woman looked at her with concern.
“Can I be of service, my lady?” the woman asked politely. “Are you lost?”
At first, Cadelyn wasn’t sure what to tell her. Was she lost? Sort of, but she didn’t much care. All she cared about at the moment was not being found.
“I… I am running from some men,” she said. “Very bad men. May I stay here until the threat has passed?”
The old woman looked very concerned. “Bad men?” she gasped, rushing to the gate to bolt it. Then, she returned her focus to Cadelyn. “Come, my lady, come. We shall go inside until they stop looking for you.”
Cadelyn gladly went along, thrilled and relieved that the old woman was so agreeable to helping her. But as she let the old lady take her away, she didn’t realize that the happy dog had knocked her coin purse loose, with all of the money that she’d earned from selling her bawdy poems. That money meant everything to her. But the old woman quickly hustled her inside as the purse remained in the dirt, and no one seemed to notice.
But the dog did.
Goliath saw something different in his garden and he immediately went to it, sniffing it. It smelled different, and being a happy and curious dog, he thought it was something to play with. Picking up the purse with his teeth, he slipped from the garden via a small hole in the stone wall and, with happy tail wagging, headed off towards the sounds of reveling people.
Off went the purse and off went the dog.
*
“Why didn’t youstop her?”
The question came from Kress, barked out at Yerik so forcefully that the cleric sank back in the carriage, terrified that he was about to have his head ripped from his shoulders.
“I… I did not know what she intended, my lord, I swear it,” Yerik stammered. “She told me to distract Susanna, but I did not know why. Suddenly, she was running from the carriage.”
Kress was beyond frustrated; he was livid. He’d just returned to the carriage to find the door open and no lady inside. The cleric had blubbered something about Cadelyn sprinting off, sending Kress into a panic. With a growl, he turned to Susanna, who had just returned from collecting a quill tossed from a window to find the door open and Cadelyn gone.
“Where were you?” he demanded. “I told you to watch the door.”
Susanna was genuinely shocked. “I was here,” she fired back weakly. “I was gone for only a moment. Just a quick moment.”
Kress’ jaw ticked dangerously. “Long enough that she escaped the carriage,” he said. Then, he turned to the rows of men behind the carriage, looking at the soldiers with an expression to kill. “And you idiots let her go? Why didn’t one of you stop her?”
He was booming at them in a voice that was terrifying. The men looked very nervous, a couple of them dismounting their horses. “She went this way, my lord,” one man said helpfully, pointing to the path Cadelyn took. “It all happened so fast, my lord. We were not sure if she had business to attend to… or what she was doing. We did not know you were unaware.”
Kress was close to exploding. His jaw was grinding as he turned to the knights standing behind him. They had heard the commotion and had come to see what the trouble was. Kress could hardly believe what had happened and he struggled to get a handle on his anger so he could think clearly.
“She cannot have gone far,” he said. “We must break up the escort and search for her. I will take twenty-five men with me and follow her path. Sherry, take another twenty-five men and cover the western end of town. If she’s run off, then it’s possibleshe is trying to escape and head back to Castle Rising. Achilles, you take another twenty-five men and cover the eastern end of town on the other side of the church. Bric, you will cover the church itself and the northern side of town with the remaining men. Susanna, come with me.”
The men began to disperse, quickly, and the carriage, with Yerik inside, began to lurch forward, the horses pushing people aside as they moved the carriage down the road and towards the east to get it out of the street. Bric instructed the carriage drivers to move it over by the church and remain there. Quickly, horses were being secured along with the carriage and men began to move.
