Page 159 of Feathers in the Wind
Luke grinned. “Our leftover stew from yesterday washed down with water.”
“What will you do with him?” Deliverance asked.
“Get him to Gloucester to stand trial as soon as possible. I could try him here and trust me nothing would give me greater pleasure than to hang him but...” He cast a quick glance towards Jack. “I think it better that he meets his maker at the hands of someone else.” He curled a strand of Deliverance's hair and smiled. “Enough gloomy talk. Do you dance, Mistress Felton?”
A lively country jig had struck up, and the couples were taking to the floor between the tables. Even those members of the garrison without female partners were stomping around with each other. Luke stood up and with one hand correctly placed behind his back, he offered Deliverance his hand.
Deliverance rose to her feet.
“Do you know how to dance?” she enquired as he led her out on to the floor
Luke shot her an aggrieved glance. “I was not always a rough soldier,” he said. “My education covered all the rudiments of a gentleman's upbringing.”
Luke's gentlemanly accomplishments put Deliverance to shame. She had never had much time for the finer things of a gentlewoman's upbringing, and the skills of music and dancing had been left to Penitence.
As Luke caught her by the waist, he bent to whisper in her ear. “My dear Deliverance, I fear you may entirely lack any sense of rhythm.”
Heat rose to her cheeks. “You're right,” she mumbled as they parted to allow the lead couple to skip down the line of dancers.
Despite Deliverance’s evident lack of rhythm, they danced the next three sets. Out of the corner of her eye, Deliverance saw Toby sitting at the end of a bench, poking his knife around the scraps of food remaining on his plate. Deliverance excused herself to Luke who had no shortage of partners and subsided with an exhausted sigh on to the bench beside the boy, fanning herself with her hand.
“I am not a very good dancer,” she said.
“No, you're not,” Toby agreed. His eyes widened. “Oh mistress, I didn't mean that...”
Deliverance laughed. “It's all right, Toby, I know my weaknesses.”
“You're very good at other things,” Toby said. “You kept us all alive.”
“Thank you,” Deliverance said.
“What you did yesterday was so brave,” the boy continued.
Deliverance looked away. “And you were brave too,” she said. “Carrying the standard for the garrison.”
“I saw Lovedie with that man,” Toby said. “Is it true what everyone's saying, that she was a traitor?”
Deliverance nodded. “I'm sorry, Toby. Did you really have no idea?”
He shook his head. “Lovedie's looked after me all my life. When she left Byton, I thought she'd gone to get help. I didn't know she'd gone over to... to... him. She left me in that castle to die, Mistress Felton. I’ll never forget that.”
The hurt and anger in his face was so acute, Deliverance put an arm around his stiff, proud, young shoulders. “I’m sure she had her own reasons, Toby.”
“And they say she killed Tom Watts. Is that true?”
“I think so.”
“Tom was always good to me. He didn't deserve to die like that,” Toby said. “I'll never forgive her, Mistress Felton, never!”
Deliverance wondered where Lovedie had ended the day. She must have fled with the royalists, but had she gone with them to Ludlow or struck out for new pastures? She had a feeling Lovedie was more than capable of making her own fortune.
“What about you, Toby? Will you stay here? You're more than welcome.”
Toby shook his head and his eyes sought Luke on the dance floor. “I'm Cap’n Collyer's man now, Mistress Felton. Where he goes, I go too.”
“I'm glad. He needs someone to look after him,” Deliverance said. “Will you dance with me, Toby? I promise not to tread too hard on your toes.”
The boy smiled. “Me? Dance with you?”
