Page 94 of Feathers in the Wind
“Do you mean me? Don’t be such a fool. Do you really think I, the daughter of Sir John Felton, rebel, can just walk in through the gates of Ludlow when it suits me?”
“You could if you were suitably disguised. Are you particularly well known in Ludlow?”
“Not so well known that I couldn’t pass as a goodwife on her way to Ludlow market.”
Deliverance bit her lip, trying to suppress the sudden surge of excitement within her. What would her father say when he found out? Would he commend her for her courage and audacity?
“When is market day?” Luke asked.
“Collyer, this is folly!” Ned interposed.
“Tomorrow,” Deliverance said.
“Excellent,” Luke said. “Tomorrow it is.”
“Are you both mad?” Ned looked from one to the other. “Do you honestly think that you will get away with this?”
Luke held Deliverance’s gaze with his as he said, “Yes, I do, Ned.”
“Then let me go,” Ned said. “You’re needed here.”
Luke gave his second-in-command a withering glance. “What am I doing that’s so valuable here? Digging ditches?”
Ned looked at Deliverance. “Of all the people in the castle, you are the two we can least spare. Mistress Felton, see sense.”
Luke’s gaze returned to Deliverance. His grey eyes sparkled with irresistible and infectious mischief. “Well? Mistress Felton, it’s entirely up to you.”
What he proposed was rash, bordering on dangerous, but looking into the smoky depths of his eyes she would have followed him into hell.
* * *
The gatesof Ludlow stood open, but heavily guarded as the market day traffic flowed into the old town. Seated pillion behind Luke on the oldest cob they could find in the stable, Deliverance’s stomach gave a nervous lurch. Even the telling off she had endured from Penitence could not quell the heady anticipation of danger. Every nerve in her body seemed to have a life of its own. The lure of adventure had always called her and now she had the opportunity to shine. She would make her father proud of her, the worthy protector of Kinton Lacey.
They had rehearsed their story. She would be Goodwife Chambers of Kersey bringing eggs to sell at the market. In a russet gown borrowed from her maid, Meg, and a starched white cap on her head, topped with a flat crowned brown felt hat that concealed her face, she looked very much a goodwife.
Luke would be her ‘man’, Tom Perry. Despite much grumbling from Luke, Penitence had rough-cut his hair like a labourer’s, and now it stuck out at odd angles from beneath the filthy, battered hat borrowed, like the greasy jerkin he wore, from one of the stable hands.
Riding behind him, at such close quarters, Deliverance’s nose wrinkled at the smell of man and horse that exuded from his borrowed garments. As they approached Ludlow, she gripped the handle of her basket of eggs harder with one hand while the other, twisted in Luke’s belt, provoking a reproachful look over his shoulder.
“Relax your grip. I can hardly breathe.” he said.
The guards on the gate gave them no more than a cursory inspection and asked their business. Deliverance responded in a faultless local accent that would have appalled her father. Once inside the gate, they found a stable for the cob, and set out on foot for the market square at the gates of the castle.
They stood looking up at the magnificent walls and the well-guarded gate. “You’re not thinking of trying to get in there?” Deliverance whispered.
Luke didn’t respond but his gaze roamed the castle walls.
“How much you sellin’ them eggs for?” A woman’s voice at her elbow startled Deliverance, almost causing her to drop the basket. A stout matron waited expectantly.
“How many do you want?”
“A dozen. Are they fresh?” The woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
“Fresh today, lady,” Deliverance replied.
“A shilling then, for a dozen,” the woman said.
At Deliverance’s agreement to such a ridiculously low price, the woman looked surprised. She had evidently expected to haggle. Deliverance concluded the transaction while Luke waited behind her. When the woman had gone away, evidently pleased with her bargain, Deliverance turned back to Luke. Looking into his determined, grimy and unshaven face, a shiver ran down her spine.
