SirenSong (36 page)

However, his will did not bring Egbert or news, but the
thought of Marlowe town put Marlowe keep into his mind. Suddenly the look of
frustrated impatience on Mauger’s face was replaced by a smile. There was
nothing to stop him from going to Marlowe keep. In fact, it would be an
expected courtesy, since he knew William was not yet completely well, to go
over and tell him what had happened after he left Wales.

Mauger’s eyes lit with pleasure. A visit to Marlowe would be
a delightful interlude. He could tell William that Elizabeth had fallen ill,
implying that it was owing to her exhaustion from tending him. That would make
William squirm. Also, the news about Raymond should come to Marlowe almost as
soon as Egbert would bring it to Hurley. How delightful if it should come while
he was there. He could watch that nasty little bitch Alys fall into a fit over
her lost lover.

He would ride, he decided, and take the ferry. He did not
wish to seem to avoid the town on the day that Raymond would be killed there,
hopefully, had already been killed. It would be a mark of innocence in him that
he rode through without pausing to speak to anyone.

When Mauger’s horse was ready he mounted eagerly. In the
back of his mind there was a faint feeling that he had forgotten something
important. He sought for the thing, feeling that it concerned Elizabeth, but he
knew she was bound and gagged and concealed behind the drawn bed curtains.
There could be no immediate problem, and the need for movement, for action of
some kind, was so strong that he dismissed the slight nagging unease and
concentrated on the coming delight of his visit to Marlowe.

A little while before Mauger left Hurley, Alys had told
Martin that she was going there. “Do not tell Papa unless he asks for me,” she
said with a worried frown. “Not only did Sir Mauger return yesterday, as you
know, but I have heard that Lady Elizabeth is ill. I suppose she has taken to
her bed to avoid her husband, but that maid of hers is a silly creature, and if
Elizabeth
is
sick, I must look to her nursing.”

“You may be sure I will say nothing,” Martin replied with a
nervous glance toward William’s chamber.

“Let us hope Papa will sleep until I return.” Alys looked
out of the window at the lowering sky. “Tell the men and have the boat made
ready while I get my cloak. I will go the quickest way.”

Usually it was quicker to go by the little boat than ride to
the ferry, but the Thames was swollen with much rain in the past weeks and the
current was faster than usual. The boatmen pulled lustily under Alys’s urging.
Still, it took them more than half an hour to drive the broad craft, designed
for safety and comfort rather than swiftness, the two miles upriver. Thus,
Mauger had already ridden ashore in Marlowe when Alys’s boat tied up at the
small pier at Hurley.

She did not stop to speak to anyone in the tiny village.
They could not know the truth about what was going on inside the keep, and all
she would get from them would be more disturbing rumors. It was best to hurry
as fast as she could up the short road. The guards passed her without delay or
hesitation. Alys thought one looked as if he wished to speak to her, but he,
too, could know little if anything about what went on in the women’s quarters
and she did not pause. She hurried on up the steps to the main hall.

Here she did get news, the maidservants and menservants
crowding around her to tell her how Elizabeth had fainted when Mauger arrived
and how he had been so disturbed that he sent for a physician. By the time the
story was told, Maud had heard of Alys’s arrival, and she came rushing down to
confirm the tale and to add what she knew. Alys listened with growing horror,
particularly to Maud’s romantic version of Mauger’s distress over his wife’s
illness. Alys discounted the romance, but was much frightened by Mauger’s
concern. He did value Elizabeth as a manager, Alys knew. His anxiety might mean
Elizabeth was really dangerously ill.

Alys began asking specific questions, drawing from Maud the
fact that Elizabeth had been unconscious for a long time after she “fainted”.
That sounded very bad. Even worse was Maud’s repetition of the conversation she
had had with Elizabeth. If Elizabeth thought herself so ill that she was afraid
the maid would take it and was apparently also afraid she would not be able to
resume her duties in a few days, she was probably very sick indeed. She went
upstairs immediately, telling Maud to obey her mistress and go back to her
work. Her hand hesitated on the latch of Elizabeth’s door for just a moment.
What if she took the disease herself? Nonsense, she thought, lifting the latch.
She had not sickened after caring for Harold and Martin, and Elizabeth would
warn her not to come near if the disorder was very violent.

A low whimper greeted the opening of the door. Before she
even looked for the cause of the sound, Alys hastily closed the door behind
her. If Elizabeth was having fever dreams, Alys did not wish to alarm the
maidservants with hearing her raving. The shriek that followed her action gave
Alys good reason to fear the worst, but as she turned she realized the sound
did not come from the bed.

“Go away!” Emma wailed. “Go away. He will kill me. I forgot
to bar the door. No one is allowed in here. Go away!”

“Stop that!” Alys ordered sharply. “Sir Mauger has gone out.
I have come to see Lady Elizabeth. I am sure Sir Mauger would not forbid me—”

“She is asleep!” Emma screamed, wild with terror. “She can
see no one. She is sick!”

Alys looked toward the drawn curtains of the bed. Asleep?
She swallowed nervously. Elizabeth must be unconscious or dead not to move or
call out at Emma’s screaming. Even as the thought crossed her mind, the bed
curtains bulged and Elizabeth fell out of the bed tangled in the blankets she
had had to pull with her as she rolled. Alys gasped with terror, thinking for a
moment that the cloth that gagged Elizabeth had been used to tie up her slack
jaws after death, but Elizabeth continued to roll toward her with desperate
heavings. The blanket came undone, and Alys saw the bound hands and feet.

“Elizabeth!” she cried, leaping toward the struggling woman.

Emma screamed again, then rushed to the door and slid the
bar into place. It was the only thing she could think of doing. Locking the
door might delay her punishment a little while. Alys paid her no heed at all,
kneeling to pull the gag from Elizabeth’s mouth.

“Water,” Elizabeth whispered.

Fortunately the remains of the watered wine Mauger had
brought up to slake his thirst in the night were still in a jug by the bedside.
Alys did not even look for a cup but held the vessel itself to Elizabeth’s
parched lips. After a few swallows she pulled it away.

“Let me unbind you before you have the rest. God, oh God,
how long have you been without food and drink? What happened? No, do not answer
me. I will hear in good time.”

Even as she spoke, Alys had drawn her eating knife and cut
through the cloth with which Elizabeth was tied. Mauger had not tied her tight
enough to stop the circulation and the cloths were too soft to bruise her
badly, but her arms were numb from being in one position for so long and
dropped limply.

“I will get you more to drink and some food.”

“No,” Elizabeth said. “Mauger—” She shuddered convulsively.
“We must get away from here as quickly as possible. If Mauger returns—” She
shuddered again. “Help me to dress, Alys. Emma is right. Mauger will kill—he
will kill me too, not only her.”

“No, no,” Alys soothed, thinking that Elizabeth’s reason had
been disordered by terror. “He cannot harm you now that I am here. My men are
below, waiting for me. Martin knows I have come to Hurley. Your husband would
not dare harm me. Of course we must leave. You cannot stay any longer when he
has treated you this way, but you must regain your strength.”

While Alys was speaking, Elizabeth had been struggling to
move her arms without much success. Her legs were a little better. Alys had
helped her to sit up, and now she summoned Emma to help her lift Elizabeth into
a chair.

“You must take me,” Emma cried. “You must take me too. He
will kill me.”

“You treacherous slut—” Alys began, but Elizabeth stopped
her.

“Of course we will take you, Emma. Stop crying now and come
help Alys get me ready.”

“Elizabeth,” Alys protested, “she helped him!”

“Not willingly,” Elizabeth said, biting her lips as fire and
sharp pangs of cramp ran up her arms. “Believe me, Alys, Emma has already been
very harshly punished for her sins. Go and pick out clothing for me, Emma,
quickly. The sooner I am ready, the sooner we can go.” She lowered her voice so
that only Alys could hear. “She is very simple and very easily frightened.”

“Simple!” Alys was outraged, but kept her voice low. “She
left you bound like that, and did not even give you a drink of water!”

In her reaction from despair, Elizabeth’s mind was working
at top speed. She was well aware of Alys’s distaste for Emma, but she knew Emma
did not think much better than a dog. She had been too afraid to dare go near
Elizabeth, not realizing that if the door was locked Mauger could not get in
and discover what she was doing. And, gagged as she was, Elizabeth had no way
of explaining. She was sorry for the girl, but she had no time to enlist Alys’s
sympathy for her. Even if she could have done so by describing what Mauger had
done, Elizabeth shrank from soiling Alys with such a tale. There was another
easier way.

“We will need Emma to help us escape,” Elizabeth pointed
out. “You are wrong when you say Mauger cannot harm us. He can do what he likes
with all three of us.”

“Elizabeth, he has frightened you out of your senses. Do you
think Papa would permit me to be held against my will? Or you?”

“Do not be a fool!” Elizabeth said sharply. “How will your
father know it is against your will? Everyone believes I am very sick. Cannot
Mauger say you stayed to nurse me?”

“Oh heaven!” Alys exclaimed. “I had not thought of that. I
even said to Martin—but Papa will come at once. You know he will.”

“I do, indeed, know it,” Elizabeth agreed, beginning to
shake with pain and fear. “It is just what Mauger most desires. He told me—”
She swallowed, unable to continue for a moment but then forced her voice on.
“He told me he arranged the murder of my brothers and planned to have your
father and Sir Raymond killed.”

“Raymond!” Alys gasped. “I cannot believe it! Why Raymond?
If he hates Papa—well, I understand that, but Raymond…”

“He does not hate your father because of me. He did not hate
my brothers. He had them killed because he wanted Hurley. Your father and
Raymond must die because he wants Marlowe and Bix. To have them, he must have
you.”

“Did Aubery—” Alys began, but she stopped when Emma came to
them, her arms laden with garments.

“Aubery knew nothing about this,” Elizabeth said as the two
girls began to dress her. “He told your papa that he did not wish to marry you.
Love you as a sister, he does, but one does not wish to couple with a sister.”
In the midst of her pain and fear, Elizabeth had to smile. William had described
his conversation with Aubery in detail, fearing that she would think her son
had been hurt. “He said he did not know what ailed him, since you were the most
beautiful girl he had ever seen, but he did not desire you for a wife.”

“But if Aubery will not—”

“That is why I must die,” Elizabeth said. “He did not say it
to me, but I think Mauger plans to marry you himself.”

Alys did not answer that directly. She was now nearly as
frightened as Elizabeth. It was true that her father would come to Hurley as
soon as Mauger sent word that Elizabeth was so sick Alys had stayed to nurse
her. He would come alone, or with only one man, possibly Raymond, and he would
be completely at Mauger’s mercy.

Even if by some chance Papa should be suspicious, what could
he do? Alys’s fingers trembled, making slow work of the ties and buttons on
Elizabeth’s dress. While Mauger held her and Elizabeth,_Papa would not blink an
eye for fear Mauger would do them some harm. In the end it would come to the
same thing. He, and Raymond, too, would come naked and willingly stretch their
necks for the ax so long as she and Elizabeth were freed unhurt.

Seeing how the color had faded from Alys’s cheeks and the
heavy work she was making of the simple task of tying garters, Elizabeth
realized the girl had come to a real understanding of their situation. Since
Alys was no physical coward, as Elizabeth knew quite well from having bound as
many cuts and bruises on the daring girl as on her adventurous sons, she knew
the fear was for her father and lover.

“We are not helpless,” Elizabeth said firmly. “The servants
do not know that I was a prisoner. They will not interfere with us, and I do
not believe Mauger would have told his men-at-arms anything either. The only
one we need fear is his personal servant, Egbert. I do not know whether the
men-at-arms would obey him, but he usually attends Mauger. Likely he is gone
with his master. Help me to my feet.”

Emma had slipped on Elizabeth’s shoes and enough feeling had
returned to her arms so that she could raise them and place one around Emma’s
shoulders, the other around Alys’s. Thus supported she stood. Automatically
Alys straightened the skirts that had been bunched around her. Falteringly
Elizabeth moved one leg forward. Emma steadied her and she got the foot properly
placed. She moved the other foot forward.

“Your maids will never let us leave carrying you this way,”
Alys sobbed. “They will cling around us. God knows what they will think.”

Elizabeth gritted her teeth and took another step. “I will
think of something to tell them,” she said through set teeth. “I will think of
something.”

Upon the words, the latch of the door lifted and rattled
violently. The three women froze, breaths held. Before they could even hope it
was Maud or some other innocent person, a thunderous knock shook the door.