A Dangerous Love Read Free Page A

hand.
    Lady Jane, his wife, was in another area. She had been stripped naked and obviously violated before her throat had been cut. Her delicate limbs were all skewed crookedly, her fair skin bruised and beaten. Elsbeth could not help but weep at the sight of her gracious mistress so abused. She had to bury them. She could not leave them here for the birds and beasts to ravage. She looked about for something with which she might dig a grave. Finding nothing, she wept harder. What was she to do? And then she knew, although the realization pained her deeply. Turning, she left the scene of destruction and returned across the meadow into the woodland and to the cave where Lady Adair Radcliffe, the Countess of Stanton, was waiting for her Nursie. Adair was her first priority. The dead were dead. Their pain and tra-vails were over now. Adair had to be saved. She had to be taken to the man who sired her so she might grow up and return to Stanton one day with a fine husband who would rebuild it all.
    “I was becoming frightened,” Adair said as Nursie reentered the cave. “Where were you? You were gon e  so long.” She had awakened and was walking nervously about the little cave.
    “I went to the hall,” Elsbeth said candidly. “They are all dead, my lady. Now we must leave here. The countryside is like a tomb. Not a creature is stirring.”
    “I have shaken the blankets and rolled them up,”
    Adair told Nursie. “But I am too little to replace them on the horses.”
    “I will do that,” Elsbeth replied. “Are you hungry?”
    “Yes,” Adair answered her. “I should like some oat porridge and ham.”
    “I can give you bread, a sliver of cheese, and an apple,” Elsbeth said quietly.
    Adair pressed her lips together with disapproval.
    “We have no fire, no kettle, no oats, or a larder,” Elsbeth continued, “and many like us have not what we have, my lady.”
    Adair sighed deeply. “Give me what you can then, Nursie,” she said.
    Elsbeth portioned out the food carefully. Who knew how long it would be before they would run out of the supplies the earl had had packed for them? Or where they would be able to purchase more? If they were fortunate they might come upon a monastery or convent, and beg a night’s shelter and a meal or two. But she suspected their travel would be rough for most of the way south to London. There might be inns here and there, but such places were to be avoided. They were peopled by thieves and dishonest folk who would consider her and the child she shepherded vulnerable to their chi-canery. No, the weeks ahead of them would not be easy.
    She quickly fed the child.
    Then she led a horse from its stall, tightened its cinch, replaced the blanket behind its saddle, and looked to Adair. “Have you relieved yourself, child?” she asked.
    Adair nodded solemnly.
    Elsbeth picked her up and set her astride the animal.
    Then she tightened the cinch on the horse she would  ride, put the second blanket behind the saddle, and tied on the small bundle she had packed the previous day.
    Then she clambered up onto the horse, and with the wolfhound by their side they exited the cave. The woman turned her mount to the right as they came forth, remembering the earl’s instructions. For several hours they followed Stanton Water, which flowed in a fairly straight line through the trees into the fields.
    When the stream turned east they left it behind. Around them the countryside was both silent and desolate. The herds of cattle belonging to Stanton were nowhere to be found. They saw no one. The raiders had done a fairly good job of destroying and stealing, although Elsbeth knew there would be some who had hidden away like themselves, and escaped the fury of the Lancastrians.
    It was several days before they saw any sign of life, but those few people they saw hurried by them in the fields or woodlands, eyes averted. No words were exchanged at all, only furtive glances to ascertain whether they were dangerous.