Wolf Wood (Part Two): The Dangerous years (6 page)

'These are sad times, Master.'

'They are indeed, Owen.'

'I've been with them all the way,' Owen said.'

John guessed he was talking about Harald and his escort.

'I've just come from the Tower,' he said.

'The Tower?' Owen look surprised.

'Yes. That's where they are holding him.'

'Who?'

'Sir Harald … didn't you know?'

'No. I thought he'd be alright. It's Sister Alice I'm worried about. She'll burn if they catch her. There's her little boy and Henriette with her and that Robin who used to stay with you. He's a good lad is Robin. Beaufort would have got her if it hadn't been for him.'

John listened in silence as Owen told him of their harrowing ordeals and his plans to get Alice to safety. He had contacts who had agreed to help. John knew who he was talking about. Every instinct told him to have nothing to do with them. Owen said they were prepared to do it as a favour for Sir William and expected a favour in return. They needed papers to land a valuable cargo in the port of London. That meant bribing port officials and that was dangerous unless you knew who was taking bribes.

John agreed to help. It was impossible to refuse. Cardinal Beaufort needed a witch or two to burn. It was his way of showing who was in control. Beaufort had been present in Rouen when Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake and had been a leading figure behind her death.

The thought of Alice burning on the abbey green in Sherborne had been a recurrent nightmare for John. It was something William Bradford had spoken of when venting his fury over the almshouse charter. Now, it seemed that Bradford might get his wish. John resolved to do everything in his power to stop that happening.

***

Harald narrowed his eyes and squinted. It was a bright day and his vision was better than usual. Alice had explained why that happened. She said his eyes had lenses like his seeing glasses but they were faulty. When the light was bright his iris contacted and he wasn't using as much of them so their imperfections didn't matter as much.

Alice knew so much. He longed for her and their little boy, Steven. Being apart was as painful as being in prison. Where were they now? Robin had rescued them but what had happened next. His captors didn't know. They were still asking
questions about people she knew and where they lived. They wanted
to find out where she was hiding.

Their attitude remained courteous. Harald wasn't surprised. There was no reason for them to go to the next step and use torture. They were doing very well without it. He had provided valuable information about the company Eleanor kept when she stayed at Wolf Wood. It had led to the arrest of a number of prominent people, including a priest called John Hume.

Harald remembered him as a shadowy figure who was present when the smell of molten wax came from Eleanor's quarters. Hume had agreed to give evidence against Eleanor. But they needed to go carefully when prosecuting her. She was, after all, Duchess of Gloucester and married to Duke Humphrey. They couldn't burn Eleanor so they had to find a proxy. Right now, it looked as if their sights were on Alice.

In return for his cooperation, his captors had released him from the Tower. He could now breath fresh air again but wasn't free. He was a guest of Cardinal Beaufort in one of his London residences. Instead of guards, he now had armed servants to look after him. One of their duties was to take him on walks.

They said the walks were for exercise. Harald figured they were using him as bait. They wanted to see if anyone would take an interest in him. Today they were down by the river at one of the ferry stops. People were milling around. A face looked familiar. Harald narrowed his eyes and thought he saw Robin but couldn't be sure. The young man was about the same shape and moved like Robin. Shape and movement were how he recognised people with his bad eyesight. He looked again and the young man had gone.

***

The air was cooler in the hold than on deck but not as fresh. Alice fanned Steven's face and sang a lullaby. He liked the game of hide-and-seek they were playing. But why did they always have to hide? Why couldn't they be the ones
doing the seeking? Alice said their turn would come. Until then, they had to be as quiet as the little mouse in the story Owen had told him. The little mouse stayed quiet and the big bad cat didn't catch him.

Earlier, the child had thrown a tantrum and the crew had threatened to muzzle him. They had good reason for not wanting to attract attention. Their boat was registered as a trading vessel and flew the flag of the Hanseatic League. Nothing could have been further from the truth. They weren't Hansas. They were pirates and the flag was there as cover.

Alice could hardly believe that anyone would be so brazen. The League was a powerful confederation of merchant ports, stretching from the Baltic to the Low Countries. Its navy was constantly on the alert for pirates. Whole crews had been executed from the captain to the youngest cabin boy. The wharves of Amsterdam, Bremen, and Hamburg were littered with corpses dangling from scaffolds.

Henriette was frightened of the crew. They spoke Breton and a rough sort of French. She said they reminded her of her uncle's men. That was scary. Uncle Philip's boats traded with North Africa and one of their cargoes was slaves. Philip made money out of people captured in the fighting in France. He held the rich for ransom and took the rest to Tangier where he traded them for fruit and spices. The smell in the hold was a mixture of spices and human sweat. Chains with leg irons hung from beams.

A movement on deck caught Alice's attention. Someone had come on board and was shouting orders in a mixture of French and Breton. She glanced at Henriette and saw her tense.

'It's him.'

'Who?'

'My Uncle Philip.'

'What's he saying?'

'He's telling the men to get their weapons. He says they're going up river to rescue someone … then the boat will sail.'

'Does he say who?'

'There's a young man trailing him. Owen will point him out and tell them what to do.' Henriette's voice rose in excitement. 'It's Robin … he's talking about Robin … they're going to rescue Harald from the cardinal's men.'

Alice listened as Henriette continued to translate. Philip's French was peppered with too much Breton for her to understand but Henriette had no problems. They were going after Harald and Robin was in charge.

She didn't doubt that Philip had good reasons for rescuing her husband. Perhaps it was loyalty to the Gascoignes. More likely, he wanted Harald as a bargaining chip. The two families were partners but it was the partnership of thieves. Alice had come to understand that during her time in Wolf Wood.

Water Mole

The tide had turned and the Thames was flowing back to sea. Robin glanced at the two men standing beside Harald. They were dressed as soldiers but their bearing was not military. The real soldiers were mingling with the crowd. He had seen them the previous day. They were dressed as seamen but everything about them said otherwise.

Seamen stood with their knees bent and walked with a shuffling gait. It was a habit acquired from long hours on a ship with a heaving deck. Soldiers stood upright and strode around with their heads held high. They did that to look tough.

Robin behaved like a soldier when he was in France. Today, he was going out of his way to behave like a peasant, which was how he was dressed. His woollen stockings were knitted from homespun and ended halfway up his thighs. When he bent over, his woollen tunic rose to reveal parts that were kept well hidden in polite company.

Philip's men were Bretons. Owen had told them about the soldiers in the crowd. Owen spoke Breton, which was close to Welsh and Cornish. He said they were to take orders from Robin and follow his instructions. That hadn't happened. When Robin met them on London Bridge, they pretended not to understand French, which was the only language they had in common.

Robin pointed out landmarks and tried to explain that everything depended on timing. They must grab Harald and get him into their boat when the tide was running at full spate back out to sea. That way, they would be going too fast for anyone on shore to keep up with them.

The Bretons got it half right. Their snatch boat was upstream. But, instead of securing it to a pylon, they tied it to a ferry jetty with predictable consequences. Robin winced as a torrent of incomprehensible Breton was followed by an explosion of London slang. He had told the Bretons to remain invisible. Instead, they had gone out of their way to antagonise the ferrymen.

A fight broke out
. People flocked to watch. Harald's minders joined them. They took him to the edge of the wharf and craned their necks. The soldiers in the crowd did the same and yelled encouragement.

The
Bretons had taken on more than they could handle. They were beaten back with oars. Their mooring line was cut and they were pushed away with a pole. The soldiers cheered and yelled abuse. They were still cheering when a mob of Bretons charged them from behind.

They came at them, heads down, arms linked over their shoulders. Robin had seen Welsh archers do it at football matches. The crowd at the edge of the wharf didn't stand a chance.

Harald
and his minders were the first to go. They splashed into the river and were followed by the soldiers and some bystanders. Robin saw the Harald struggling in the water and an awful thought crossed his mind.

The mole
couldn't swim!

He would be a gonner if he wasn't rescued soon. The current would carry him between the piers of London Bridge. If he didn't drown first, he would be battered to death in the rapids on the other side.

The
Bretons were in the river with him. One reached him and held his head above water. Others fought the soldiers and signalled to the snatch boat. Robin felt cheated. No one told him they were going to do it this way. They were behaving as if he didn't exist.

He started to run. People and things got in his way. That was how he'd planned it but it wasn't meant to happen to him. He jumped boxes and squeezed between bollards. A jetty poked out. It was his last chance. The snatch boat would have to round it before shooting the rapids.

He dived in and the
snatch boat grazed his shoulder. Something jagged sliced into his arm. He heaved himself onto the boat and saw Harald. He had brought up the contents of his stomach but was breathing normally. Robin crouched beside him and tried to keep out of the way of the rowers.

***

Henriette bathed Robin's wounds using a preparation Alice had made from herbs collected on their travels. He had a nasty cut to his arm. Alice said it wasn't serious and did not need stitching. Henriette wasn't so sure. She dabbed the wound gently and told Robin to hold his arm above his head to reduce the flow of blood. That was what soldiers did when they were wounded in battle.

Robin had just returned from a battle. They had rescued Harald and Robin had planned it all. Harald said he didn't expect ever to see Alice and little Steven again then he saw Robin down by the river. That was when the cardinal's men were taking him for walks. They hoped someone would try to rescue him and lead them to Alice.

Robin had beaten them at their own game. He had worked out this brilliant plan. He'd got Uncle Philip's men to create a diversion. Harald had spoken about it. They started a fight with the ferrymen then, when everyone went to watch, some more of Uncle's men pushed them into the water. Harald thought he would drown but Robin got him into their boat.

They were in the Thames estuary in Uncle's ship. It was one of those fast ones from Flanders ... and it was going fast. Henriette could hear the wind in the sails and the shouts of the crew as they changed course.

The crew were
speaking Breton. Her mother was Breton and she could understand the language. But not all of what they said because it was full of nautical terms and rude words which had never been explained to her.

She guessed they were about sex. Her aunts wouldn't speak of it but Alice had told her all about it. Sex was about making love and having children. You didn't just do it with anyone because children needed to be looked after and that meant you only did it with a man you wanted to spend your life with.

The priests didn't explain it like that. They said you didn't do it because God said you mustn't. Alice said that was because they wanted you to do whatever they said and that was why they didn't give reasons. If they gave reasons, people might start to argue and they didn't want that. Alice didn't like priests and they knew it. They were frightened of her. That was why they wanted to kill her.