Page 114 of The King's Man
‘You knew that, Kit.’ She stroked the hair away from his eyes, his beautiful green eyes, dulled by pain and anguish. Kit Lovell, always so confident and in control, stared into a vision of Hell that she could not understand.
‘I’ll go,’ she said. ‘I can warn them. I’ll attract less attention than you.’
He stared into the far corner of the room, his shoulders rising and falling with every painful breath.
‘All right,’ he said at last.
She stood to go and he caught her hand.
‘Thamsine, be careful.’
‘I won’t take unnecessary risks, I promise.’
She smiled and kissed him, drawing the tumbled bedclothes back around him. His cloak hung over the back of the chair. She snatched it up and ran out into the dark streets.
***
She arrived too late.
The street outside the Swan Inn heaved with horses and soldiers and she melted into the shadows of a back alley to watch as Kit’s former comrades were led out. Vowells, Gerard and other familiar faces. She shook her head and turned to go.
‘Where d’ya think you’re going?’ A soldier stepped across her path.
‘Just headin’ home, love.’ Thamsine dropped into a London accent. ‘What’s ‘appening here?’ She jerked her head at the scene in the street.
‘Traitors,’ the soldier said. ‘You head off home, love. The night’s no time for pleasant strolls.’
Thamsine returned to the Ship Inn with a heavy heart. As she pushed open the door to the bedchamber, Kit straightened, hiseyes wide and expectant but as his gaze scanned her face, he turned away.
Thamsine shut the door behind her, leaning against it.
‘There’s nothing you could have done,’ she said. ‘It looked like Thurloe got them all. What did you hope to achieve by warning them?’
He laid an arm across his eyes. ‘I could have redeemed myself, somehow.’
‘You’ve done enough. You were always playing a dangerous game. You knew the price. It’s done. You’re free. Kit. We’re both free.’
He lifted his arm away from his eyes. ‘We’re neither of us free until we are quit of England, Thamsine.’ The fingers of his left hand crushed the bedclothes. ‘Leave me. I need some time alone.’
Thamsine hesitated, torn between throwing her arms around him to assuage the terrible pain that went beyond his physical injuries and recognising that he had to come to terms with his betrayal. She closed the door behind her. He needed to be alone with his demons.
Chapter 36
May carefully tilted the pan of hot wax across the candle moulds.
‘Hold it still, Thamsine,’ she grumbled. ‘You really aren’t cut out for hard work, are you?’
Thamsine shook her head.
May set the pan down and sank onto the stool. Her natural good spirits were returning, but she had moments of terrible melancholy and Thamsine recognised now as one of them. The girl’s brow creased and a tear ran down her cheek. Thamsine moved to take her in her arms but May held up a hand.
‘I’ll be all right in a minute.’ She took a deep, quivering sigh. ‘When do you suppose it stops hurting?’
Thamsine knew she meant the emotional pain, not the physical bruises, which after three days were already fading to a purple-green. May’s bruises served as a reminder of her own violent encounters with Ambrose Morton. If it hadn’t been forKit Lovell, who had dulled the pain with his love, she may have been lost forever.
‘I don’t think it does, May, not really. It’s always there.’
May looked at her and took her hand. ‘I forget you’ve had your moments with the bastard. I’ve always liked a bit of a romp with a man,’ she said. ‘No harm done, a bit of fun and a shilling perhaps for later, but always my choice. Never done it against me will before. What he did … ’
