Master of the Moors Read Free Page A

stay with him until we
return."
    Royle looked as if he'd
been slapped. "Me?"
    "Yes. He was willing to
accompany you home, wasn't he? And as it was your mare that killed him, I'd
expect you'd be only too glad to oblige. If nothing else, it will
give you some time before you have to inform his widow of the
tragedy."
    Royle's mouth dropped
open.
    "And keep the gadflies off
him," Callow added, turning his horse.
    Mansfield's unease
deepened. Callow didn't look all that put out by the innkeeper's
death. Worse, he saw that Grady was again correct, in that even the
panic the yeoman had exhibited earlier was no longer evident. It
was as if he really had been wearing a theater mask, and now it had
slipped off, revealing the impassive face beneath.
    "Sir, if I may..." Grady
said. "This isn't right. Laws was a friend. Someone should bring
him back to the village, not to have him lyin' out here in the cold
and damp."
    "I take it then, that
you're volunteering for the task?"
    "I am."
    "Good. Then do it, but
I'll suffer no more delays. We're not on a hunt, gentlemen. The
lives of my wife and unborn child are at stake." He looked at
Royle. "Help Grady with the body. Then take your mare with you back
into town and present it to the widow Laws. I'm sure she'll
appreciate being granted a look at her husband's
killer."
    For a brief moment, it
looked as if Royle might object, but instead he muttered something
to himself and went to help Grady.
    "Would it not make more
sense for us all to go back?" Mansfield said. "What just happened
doesn't bode well for the rest of this day. Perhaps if you summoned
the constables in Mer---"
    "It's too late for that,"
Callow interrupted. "But if any of you want to head back, then do
so. I'll find them myself if I must."
    Mansfield considered doing
just that, but knew if he did, he'd be at the mercy of his
conscience forevermore. He looked at Fowler, whose face was
positively gray with fear. Nevertheless, the shopkeeper cleared his
throat and nodded. "I'll stay and help. We've come this
far..."
    They mounted their horses.
    "Be careful," Mansfield
called back to Grady, who waved before leaning down to grab Laws by
the shoulders. Royle grimaced and did his best to avoid touching
the body until the groundskeeper glared at him.
    Callow led Mansfield and Fowler onward
at a steady pace.
    "Mansfield," Fowler called
at one point, "what do you think he saw?"
    "Who?"
    "Laws. Before the horse
kicked him he was pointing into the fog. Didn't he say he saw
something?"
    "Maybe it was the Beast of
Brent Prior?" Callow said over his shoulder.
    Fowler didn't look as if
he found the reference at all funny. "I can't believe he's dead.
Poor Sarah will be destroyed."
    "She will," Mansfield
replied, "but there's consolation to be found in the fact that it
was quick. I don't think he suffered." But as the land fell into a
gentle slope, the horses' hooves crunching across the patch of
stony ground that carpeted the hollow before the terrain softened
again, he wondered if he truly believed that. An awful yawning
emptiness had opened inside him and he realized that for a long
time after this day he would walk into The Fox & Mare expecting
to see Laws there, making jokes and polishing glasses as normal.
But the gray faces gathered in the shadows of the tavern and the
lines of mourning on Sarah Laws' face would bring home to him the
reality of what had happened here today every single
time.
    They rode faster into the
fog, damp earth flying in their wake.
    "Callow!"
    The huntmaster looked back
at Mansfield, who asked, "How far did she normally go on her
walks?"
    Callow didn't answer. The
fact that he was leading them now only served to reinforce
Mansfield's belief that they were being drawn into something, that
this whole search was nothing but a show, perhaps to aid Callow's
case if Sylvia turned up dead, and that angered him. Even if it
resolved that she had indeed taken that train to London, it wasn't
going to undo the tragedy that had