Brother Cadfael 13: The Rose Rent

went unharmed, too, if that may be. What now? What ails you?"
    He had started and stiffened, quick to alarm, and was listening with stretched sinews. "Someone outside," he said in a whisper. "Again - didn't you hear? Someone is spying... Listen!"
    She fell silent, though she was not convinced. He was so tense and frightened by this time that he could have conjured enemies out of the air. Through a long, hushed moment she heard no sound at all, even the very slight sigh of the breeze in the shutters had ceased.
    "There's no one; you imagined it. Nothing!" She gripped his hands suddenly, asserting her mastery, where hitherto she had merely suffered his touch without response. "Listen to me! There might be a way! When Sister Magdalen visited me, she offered me a place of retreat at Godric's Ford with her, if ever I reached the end of my tether and needed a refuge and a pause for breath. As God knows I have needed both, and still do. If you will take me there by night, secretly, then I can return later and say where I have been, and why, and how this turmoil and hunt for me never came to our ears there. As I hope may be true. I will say that I fled from my life for a while, to get courage to take it up again to better purpose. And I hope to God that may also be true. I will not name you, nor betray what you have done to me."
    He was staring up at her wide-eyed, hesitant to hope but unable to resist, glowing only to doubt again the possibility of salvation. "They'll press you hard, they'll ask why did you say no word, why go away and leave everyone to fear for you. And the boat - they know about the boat, they must know -"
    "When they ask," she said starkly, "I'll answer, or refuse them an answer. Fret as you may, you must needs leave all that to me. I am offering you a way of escape. Take it or leave it."
    "I daren't go all the way with you," he said, writhing. "If I were seen it would all come out in spite of you."
    "You need not come all the way. You may leave me to go the last piece of the way alone, I am not afraid. No one need see you."
    He was flushing into hope with every word. "My father is gone back to his flocks today, he'll stay two nights or more up there with the shepherds, and there's one good horse still in the stable, stout enough to carry two, if you'll ride pillion with me. I could bring him out of the town before the gate's closed. Best not pass through the town together, but set out this way. There's a ford a little way downstream from here, we can make our way south on the other side and get to the road to Beistan. At dusk - if we start at dusk tomorrow... Oh, Judith, and I've done you such wrong, and can you so far forgive me? I have not deserved!"
    It was something new, she thought wryly, for Vivian Hynde to suppose that his deserts were small, or that there was anything to which he was not entitled. He might yet be all the better for this one salutary fright which he had brought upon himself. He was no great villain, only a weak and self-indulgent boy. But she did not answer his question. There was one thing at least she found it hard to forgive him, and that was that he had exposed her to the rough handling of Gunnar, who had taken palpable delight in the close embrace of her body and the strength which had held her helpless. She had no fear of Vivian, but of Gunnar, if ever she encountered him without Vivian, she might be very much afraid.
    "I do this for myself as much as for you," she said. "I've given my word and I'll keep it. Tomorrow at dusk. Agreed, it's too late to move tonight."
    He had recoiled again into doubt and fear, recalling the noises without, and the baying of the mastiff. "But how if someone has suspicions of this place? How if they come again tomorrow demanding the keys? Judith, come back with me now, come to our house, it's not far from the wicket, no one will see us now. My mother will hide you and help us, and be grateful to you for sparing me. And my father's away in the hills, he'll never know. And there you may have rest and a bed, and water for washing, and all you need for your comfort
    "Your mother knows of what you've done?" she demanded, aghast.
    "No, no, nothing! But she'll help us now, for my sake." He was at the narrow door which had lain hidden behind the baled fleeces, turning the key, drawing her after him, feverish in his haste to be out of here and safe in his own home. "I'll send Gunnar to make all innocent here. If they come they must find the place bare