Page 110 of Feathers in the Wind
“Healed well, thank you. I will have a nice scar to show my daughters.”
Luke smiled. “Now there is a terrifying thought. An entire clan of small Deliverances.” He paused. “Have you any desire for children?”
“I have yet to meet anyone I would care to have children with,” she replied, “but I am grateful that I have that choice. So many women don’t.”
“Aye, my mother was married off at fifteen. She and my father hated each other on sight. It made for a happy childhood,” Luke said, unable to disguise the bitterness in his voice.
“My parents were a love match,” Deliverance said. “Her death broke my father. I think that was why he spent so much time in London with parliamentary duties. He couldn’t bear to be home.”
Luke nodded. “My father was rarely at home either and when he was–” He broke off, pushing the memories of his father’s temper and their furious confrontations, to the back of his mind.
“I am fortunate that Father let me have so much independence,” Deliverance said. “I would like to think it was because he cared, but I think it is probably because he didn’t care. He even let James’ tutor stay on to teach Penitence and me for several years after James’ death.”
“Oh, don’t misjudge him, Deliverance. Your father cares very much about you and Penitence.” “How do you know that?”
Luke broke a loose piece of stone off the wall and threw it down, listening for the faint splash as it hit the water that had pooled in the bottom of the ditch. “We had a very frank discussion before he sent me here.”
Deliverance laughed. As she opened her mouth to respond, a shout went up from the sentry stationed on the far side of the village and a shot rang out. A lone horseman, a bundle over the pommel of his saddle, rode into plain view of the castle. He upended the bundle on to the ground, raised his hand in an impudent salute to the watchers on the wall and galloped away, the shots from the out posted sentries ringing around him.
For a moment Luke and Deliverance stood frozen staring at the bundle on the ground. After a long moment it moaned and moved.
“It’s a person,” Deliverance cried.
Luke moved first, shouting an order for the gate to be opened even as he took the stairs two by two. Deliverance followed close behind him.
Ned, who had been on watch in the gatehouse, ran ahead of him across the bridge and he reached the crumpled body first. He fell to his knees beside the figure, pulling the swaddling from around the moaning figure, as the others joined him, panting from their exertion.
“It’s a woman,” Ned said and even in the gathering gloom, Luke could see that the bundle that had been treated with such disdain was indeed a girl wrapped in a rough cloak.
Ned lifted her up and as the cloak fell away, the girl’s long red hair tumbling across Ned’s knees.
“Lay still, lass,” Ned said. “You’re safe.”
Luke caught his breath, recognising the pretty face.
“It’s the maid from Byton,” he said and hearing the word, the girl’s eyes opened and fixed on Luke.
“Get her inside,” Deliverance ordered.
As Ned hefted the girl into his arms, Deliverance glanced at Luke and he saw that she too had recognised the girl.
“What have they done to her?” Deliverance said in a low voice, adding. “What have they done to Byton?”
* * *
Ned carriedthe girl in and laid her on one of the oak settles in the upper parlour. The men retired to the doorway while the women swung into action, peeling back the cloak. Penitence gasped and looked up at her sister, distress written in her beautiful blue eyes.
Deliverance’s lips tightened as she saw the girl’s torn and stained clothing and livid bruises that had begun to colour her face and arms. If these were the bruises on show to the public what other injuries did this poor girl carry?
She glanced across at Ned and Luke. “I think it best you leave us,” she said. “Wait in the library and I will report to you later.”
Luke shook his head. “I’ll stay. I need to question the girl.”
Deliverance opened her mouth to argue but Meg entered the room, carrying a bowl of water. The maid held the bowl and dipping a cloth into the water; Penitence sponged the girl’s battered and bruised face while Deliverance knelt down beside the girl and picked up her hand.
“Can you hear me?”
The girl’s eyes flickered open and she gave a great, shuddering sigh, tears beginning to pour silently down her cheek.
