Page 23 of By the Sword
His heart jumped. Could it be possible that this woman was prepared to look past the persona he had carefully cultivated? He had never thought of himself as lonely but if loneliness meant not having anyone in your life who truly understood you, then the void seemed dark and impenetrable.
‘There are things about me even my family do not know,’ he ventured, but when she cast him a curious glance, he chose not to elaborate. Not now, not here, not yet.
‘And what about you, Mistress Ashley? What sort of person are you?’
‘You tell me,’ she challenged him.
He looked at her thoughtfully. ‘It seems to me that either there is a lot of Puritan in you or you have forgotten what it is to have fun. You have a tendency, Mistress Ashley, to view life far too seriously.’
Kate laughed. ‘Maybe a little bit of both. My mother came from Puritan stock, and as I was left a widow with a son at the age of twenty with the responsibility of running an estate, it is most probable that I have forgotten what it is to have fun.’
Before Jonathan could respond, Tom came barrelling up between them. He pointed up the road. ‘What’s that?’
Kate reined in her horse and they paused in the road, looking at the grim silhouette against the grey sky.
‘It’s a gibbet,’ Jonathan said.
He could see the decomposing remains of a man, swinging from the hastily constructed scaffold that had been placed at the crossroads as a warning. It could not be avoided.
As they rode past he looked at the crudely painted sign that hung from the man’s neck. Kate looked away, pressing her gloved hand to her nose but Tom stared with ghoulish fascination.
‘What does the sign say, Jonathan?’ Tom asked.
‘Murder, rapine and brigandry,’ Jonathan read. ‘This man was a footpad.’
‘Well I hope it serves as a warning to those who would follow, and that there are no more on this road,’ Kate said with a cough.
Jonathan looked at her. ‘Sadly the country is rife with such brigands. The legacy of war, Kate. Men with no homes to return to or men who think a better living is to be made on the roads.’ He paused and dropped his voice so she alone could hear him. ‘In a way, I’m only one step removed from them.’
‘At least you’re not a danger to innocent travellers,’ Kate replied.
He looked at her. ‘Who is to say I’m not? Believe me, Kate, if a man is hungry and desperate enough…’ He left the sentence unfinished. There had indeed been the odd occasion when he had resorted to holding up a wealthy coach for the chance of alittle gold that would mean the difference between a bed and a meal or a hedgerow and hunger.
From the shocked glance that Kate shot him, she could not be sure if he teased her or if Jonathan Thornton had resorted to such methods for his survival. He returned the glance with an enigmatic shrug.
Long after they had ridden past the gibbet with its grim warning, the sickly smell of the decomposing remains seemed to cling to them.
Chapter 7
Kate looked up at the clearing sky and her spirits lifted as the first warm rays of sun broke through the clouds. Despite the state of the road, with continuing good weather they would be in Selby in time for lunch and York on the morrow.
‘Mistress.’ At Dickon’s shout, she twisted in her saddle to see a large body of cavalry riding hard up behind them.
As the jink of harness and the reverberation of hooves grew nearer, she glanced at the man who rode beside her.
‘Jonathan, what do we do?’
‘There is nothing to fear, Kate. Just let them pass,’ Jonathan said with calm confidence.
Kate wished she shared that confidence. A woman and child in the company of a notorious malignant…she would hang for certes.
‘Make way there,’ the officer at the front shouted, and the travellers pressed back against the hedge to let the soldiers pass.
Her heart sank as the officer reined in beside them. His eyes flicked across the small party. ‘Where are you bound?’
Kate opened her mouth to speak but Jonathan pre-empted her.
‘York,’ he said. ‘My cousin has been visiting with my mother and, as I’ve business in York, I’m accompanying her.’
