The Prince and the Pilgrim Read Online Free PDF Page A

after you. And you – on this long road, exposed as it is on the moor-top to the very edge of the kingdom, you would surely be overtaken before you could come clear of his borders. But if you let us take you home now, and we go slowly, giving due care to the child … then by the time we get back the king will be sobered, and it will be daylight, and the castle is full of folk who were friends of your lord and you … Then surely, even he –” He broke off.
    “Yes, even he.” Her voice had an edge. “Even he, as you are taking care not to say, would not murder me and my child in cold blood in the sight of the whole court. Perhaps not. But how long would you give us? How long, eh, Sadok?”
    “The people’s love –”
    “A fig for the people’s love! What can they do, poor rabble? If they had any power, they would have driven the Fox out long since, and taken my husband for their ruler. As, if he be allowed to live, some day they may try to take Alexander. Will you tell me one thing, on your oath?”
    “If I may on my honour.”
    “What were your orders tonight?”
    “To overtake you, and escort you and the boy back to the king.”
    “No accident by the way?”
    He was silent. She nodded. “Don’t trouble, I understand. The Fox’s way. Nothing said that you could fasten on him, but an understanding. Yes?” When he still did not speak, she said, more gently: “Sadok, don’t think I am blaming you or your brother. You are the king’s men, and you have dealt with me more gently than you need have done. So, if you cannot ride back and say you never found us – and it’s true that the king would hardly believe it, and you would both suffer his anger – then for my lord’s sake, whom you both loved, could you not let his son go now, and just take me back with you? It would appease the king, and if I could once speak with the queen, then I might be safe for a time at least, and some day, perhaps –”
    “We will do better than that, my lady.” He spoke suddenly, with resolution. “We will ride back and tell him that the boy is dead. We’ll think of some tale that he’ll believe – catching you at that ford back yonder, perhaps, snatching the baby from your maid so that she fell with him into the river and he drowned. And then we let you, who can do him no more harm, ride on to find shelter where you might. If you’ll give me something, a shawl, maybe, to show as a kind of proof? And if, for your part, you will promise me one thing?”
    The hand that gripped the sword relaxed. She took a long, gasping breath. “God be good to you, my friend!” was all she could say, but in a few moments she had control of herself again. “And your brother? Erbin? What of you, Erbin?” Then, as the younger man began to stammer something about some favour he owed to Baudouin, and his willingness to support his brother, she stretched her hand in thanks to one and then the other, and said, in a voice broken between relief and wonderment: “But what in God’s name possessed March to send you and your brother to murder Baudouin’s son?”
    There was a wry amusement in Sadok’s voice. “I told you he was still very drunk, and when he started shouting his orders I contrived to be near him.”
    “Some day,” said Anna, “some day,” and left it at that. Then, echoing Sadok’s own words: “You spoke of a promise. Of course, if I may on my honour. What do you want of me?”
    “Only that you will take your son into safety far from here, and rear him to remember his father’s shameful murder, and some day to come back and avenge it.”
    “By God, I will!” she said.
    “And we will be here, waiting,” said Sadok. He made a vow of it, and Erbin growled his assent. “Meantime, have you money to keep you till you find safety? I have a little by me, and Erbin –”
    “I have enough.” Even now, she would not betray Drustan’s generous help, nor the presence of Goren, invisible in the shadows with the still