King's Gold

‘You tried to kill me! You had your assassin Jevan stab me, and then you killed him. I know it all.’

Benedetto gaped. ‘How can you say these things? You know I wouldn’t hurt you! I am your own flesh and blood – I could no more harm you than cut off my own arm.’

‘I don’t trust you!’

Alured was keeping his eyes on Benedetto and his men, and the moment Benedetto tried to step forward, Alured’s knife was out. Two henchmen pulled out their own weapons, and one made a feint at Alured, but he had learned how to fight in the back alleys near the Thames, and he easily blocked the blade with his own, twisting his wrist to hold it. Then leaning forward, he slammed his forehead into the other man’s nose. He screamed and fell back, his nose exploding with blood, and Alured kept hold of his knife, flicking it into the air and catching it in his left hand. Quickly, he stepped back and watched Benedetto’s other men warily.

‘Enough!’ Sir Richard roared. He had been at the hall’s steps, and had seen the fight.

But Benedetto’s second guard was unwilling to give up. He tried to stab Alured’s hip. There was a flash of steel, and Alured knocked his sword to the ground. He stood on the point and held out his long knife to the henchman’s neck. The man froze.

While Alured’s attention was on him, the man on the ground caught hold of Alured’s ankle. Giving it a sharp jerk, he saw Alured crash to the ground with an expression of delight on his bloody face. He was on his feet in a moment, and kicked Alured twice in the head.

Alured thought the first must break his neck. It felt like a kick from a destrier, and he could feel the muscle at the side of his skull, behind his ear, rip. Before he could react to it, a second kick caught his cheek.

As the man pulled his leg back to kick one last time, Sir Richard shoved his boot between the man’s legs and lifted his knee, hard.

‘I SAID,’ Sir Richard bellowed, as the man collapsed, eyes bulging, ‘ENOUGH!’

Willersey

He stood at the altar with the pride that he felt on this day every year. Ascension Day, the day that Our Lord was taken up to Heaven to sit at God’s right hand. It was one of the principal feasts in the Christian calendar, and in Luke’s simple mind, one of the most important. He loved the culmination of Christ’s story, with the picture in his mind of the Christ rising to Heaven over the heads of the eleven disciples as they watched, awestruck and reverential.

But today there was another feeling as he celebrated the Mass and prayed to God. A certainty that in his little church was a murderer.

Jen had said nothing. When he questioned her, she had simply stared at him with those wide, terrified eyes of hers, the fear plain on her face. She knew something. It was there in the way she became calm in the church while alone with Father Luke, but trembled when her mother came into view.

She was there now, he knew, behind him. Jen would be standing like a little sapling, swaying slightly, not glancing once at her mother beside her.

It made his heart want to burst. Perhaps his first inclination had been correct when he looked upon Jen a week ago and wondered whether the child might wish to enter a convent. Father Luke was not entirely certain how to go about this, but surely nuns had a need of lay-sisters to perform menial tasks. Perhaps Jen could be introduced in such a manner as to let her gradually become accustomed to the regime and see if she had a vocation.

The ceremony ended, he turned and gave his parishioners the blessing, and the words almost stuck in his throat. The look Agatha was giving him was one of pure poison. Her husband had been an irritation and annoyance, after all. Perhaps she looked upon Luke too as a blockage in the path to her happiness and would seek to destroy him next.

As the congregation filed out of the church, he hurried to ensure that he was safely amongst others. But it was not only his own safety which he must protect, it was that of Jen as well. Were the woman to try to harm the girl, Luke would never forgive himself. He licked dry lips as he went into the sunlight with the other men. They were looking forward to the feast, laughing and joking about the food and drink waiting for them at the reeve’s house, and he was swept along with them.

When he a look over his shoulder, he saw that Agatha’s eyes were fixed steadfastly upon him, and he suddenly felt entirely helpless. He had no idea how to protect himself or Jen.

Berkeley Castle

‘How are you?’ Baldwin asked as Alured’s eyes opened.

He looked a mess. The castle’s healer had come to see him, but beyond washing the worst of the dirt from his cheek and covering it with a pad smeared in honey, the fellow did not seem to think there was much he need do.

‘I’ve had worse,’ Alured said weakly, trying to smile. His head was pounding, his neck twisted, and his cheek as raw as a burn. ‘You should see the other man.’