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take the child to Lord Robert this instant.”  She picked the crying baby from his cot and bustled out of the nursery with him in her arms.
     

 
    Chapter 14
     
    After an hour of walking, weary and perishing in the freezing weather, Emma’s pace was slow.  She’d reached the forest where Lord Robert had encountered her only a few weeks before – an eternity seemed to have passed since then.  Here, further from the coast, the snow was thicker and the temperatures even lower.  She could no longer feel her feet.
    Emma recalled the wolves she’d heard in the night, from the confines of her castle cell.  What would become of her if she collapsed out in the open, when those wild beasts were at large and hungry in the frozen landscape?
    Once in the forest, however, Emma found that the canopy of leafless trees did, at least, provide some protection against the biting wind.  She just needed to keep going.  Her feet would recover in the warmth of her mother’s hearth – she just needed to get home.  She wrapped her arms about her chest for warmth – she just needed to keep her heart beating.
    Continuing to trudge on towards the village, through the blanket of snow that rendered the woods eerily silent, Emma didn’t know whether she’d made the right decision.  When the chance of freedom had come, it had seemed impossible to overlook it and, despite her trust that Lord Robert would protect her, she couldn’t ignore Fiona’s threats of abuse.
    All the same, the discomfort she’d begun to experience as soon as she’d left the warm confines of the castle nursery seemed to be a taste of what was in store for Emma.  She felt trepidation at the reception she would get back at the farmstead, returning with no money, nor any satisfactory explanation as to why she’d been dismissed.  She would be disgraced.  But she longed to see little Oswald – to take her own baby in her arms once more.
    Emma’s silent contemplation was broken; she heard a horse galloping towards her from behind.  She diverted from the footpath into the surrounding trees and summoned her strength to run through the snow to avoid detection.
    The hooded rider had already seen her.  He followed her footprints off the beaten track and, within moments, intercepted her path.  The rider dismounted and approached Emma.
    “I am but a poor woman.  I have no money,” Emma declared, frightened by the hooded man, who carried something hidden beneath his tunic – a weapon, Emma feared.
    “That I know,” said the man, removing his hood.
    “ Robert! ” Emma cried.
    Lord Robert pulled Emma close to him and kissed her cheek.  “I knew those footprints to be yours.”
    Emma heard a cry from beneath Lord Robert’s tunic.  Lifting it, she discovered baby Harry concealed beneath, swaddled in bands to his father.
    “What does this mean, my Lord?” Emma asked as the child gazed up at her.
    “I prefer ‘Robert’,” he replied with a smile.  “I bring Harry to stay with you, Emma.  It’s not safe for him to remain at the castle until Fiona and her people have been removed.”
    Lord Robert related the events of the morning.
    “I’m sorry I left Harry alone,” Emma confessed.
    “It’s no matter,” Lord Robert replied.  “You are both safe from harm’s way now,” he said, stroking Emma’s hair and kissing her head.
    “But you, my Lord–” she stopped herself, “ you are not safe in these woods; the rebels are everywhere .”
    “I wear a disguise,” he maintained.  “It is you who are unsafe Emma, with no cloak to keep you warm.”
    “ We are not safe here,” Emma insisted.  “We must find a place of shelter.”
     

 
    Chapter 15
     
    Emma and Lord Robert trekked out of the forest and onto a heath familiar to Emma.  Here sheep grazed and Emma knew of a covered building used as a sheepfold in wintertime.  The shelter was too exposed to be inhabited by rebels and Emma believed Lord Robert could be safely stowed there.
    Once