Shield of Three Lions Read Online Free PDF Page A

ordered.
    We didn’t look back to see his fate for Maisry had dropped on all fours and was crawling under the wooden platform with me close behind. We bunched our skirts to our waists and scooted like brown cats under the boards. Half mad with fear, I followed my friend blindly, having no idea where we were going or who was after us. We emerged at the back and far end of the stage.
    “Should we seek sanctuary?” I asked, eying the church.
    “No sanctuary from that devil,” she replied grimly. “Come, and
stay low
!”
    No need to tell me twice. I bent like a hunchback as she darted ahead, away from the church and behind a pigyard, then to a lilac bush, a cow-byre, a series of huts and trees till I was dizzy. Suddenly she pulled me inside a dark cot.
    “I … see … some … body!” an ancient voice croaked from the floor. “I … see … some … body!”
    “Aye, Gran, ’tis only me, Maisry. Here, dear, you’ve dropped your honey-teat.”
    Maisry thrust a small dirty bag between toothless gums. “My grand-dam,” she explained. “She’s near blind, but a good soul withal. Get into the shadow.”
    She pulled me away from the door and stood to the side herself so she could see out.
    “Is he there?” I asked piteously
    “I … see … some … body!” the crone whined shrilly.
    “Go hold her hand, Alix, so she stays quiet.”
    I crawled on hands and knees across urine leets to where the old lady rested on her pallet under the eaves. Her hand was like bark.
    The squire passed the door not five feet distant. Another horse rode close.
    “Did you see them?” the knight asked.
    “A boy said they came this way,” the squire wheezed.
    “Damn. The peasant girl may live nearby. Let’s circle the village, you to the left, me to the right, and meet back here. And ask everyone.”
    We heard them ride away.
    “We should run now,” Maisry told me. “If they start searching the cots, we’re lost.”
    “I’m afeared.”
    “Me too, but we must get back to the castle, Alix. Your father’s there already, and ’tis our safest place.”
    I trusted her judgment more than my own. I’d never been away from the castle before, knew nothing of how to escape danger. Again we braved the dirt paths and soon arrived safely at the same wending way where we’d entered Dunsmere. We set ourselves as fast a pace as we could, close to a trot. Then, on the far side of a bend, we heard a horse neigh behind us. Maisry stopped and looked around desperately for cover. Nothing but bare fields, hedgerows, ditches. She pulled me through thick brambles bordering a ditch and again we bent low to run behind it.
    The clop of hooves came closer.
    At a corner, Maisry abruptly pulled me along the hedge of another field away from the path and away from Wanthwaite. For a while we thought we’d evaded him; then his horse neighed again. He was almost upon us.
    Maisry whirled and spat through her teeth, “Do exactly as I say, Alix. Get into the ditch and find a spot where the hedge grows low to the water. Sink all the way in up to your nose—lean your head back so your hair doesn’t show. Don’t you dare move from there until I call you. Do you understand?”
    “What are you going to do?” I faltered.
    She gave me a rude shove and grunted, “Quick!” as she went back through the hedge and began to walk in the open. I plunged into the icy, muddy ditch and waded awkwardly toward a thornbush a few paces ahead where I stretched out on my side along the edge, allowing half my face to be exposed under the low cover.
    Maisry had walked even with me when the knight reached her.
    “Hooooa.” He pulled his horse short. “All right, wench, where’s your noble friend?”
    Maisry truly didn’t understand French and made no answer. The knight repeated the question in poor Saxon.
    “Noble friend? I have no noble friend.”
    “Your noble mistress then,” he said with heavy sarcasm, “the blond beauty in Dunsmere.”
    “Aye, yes, the blonde with