Song of a Dark Angel

the cliff top. The sea pursued him. He couldn't run fast – his legs felt heavy and his head was splitting with pain. He choked, retching, missed his footing and fell. The waves swept over him, their icy touch calming his panic.
    He ran for his life. He remembered the local gossip and knew that his assailant in the Hermitage had left him there as another casualty of the fickle sea. Corbett staggered on. He could see the waves on either side of him rushing ahead. He could only breath in short gasps and the path seemed as far away as ever. His cloak was heavy with water. Corbett took it off, wrapped it round his arm and ran on. The sea, however, was winning the race, sometimes he was wading through waves thigh deep. The path seemed an eternity away. Then he heard the sound of hoof beats and his name being called. Ranulf was there, screaming down at him from his horse. Corbett tried to mount behind him, but a wave caught him and knocked him back. Ranulf leaned down and dragged him across his saddle, its horn pushing painfully into Corbett's chest and stomach. Then Ranulf rode like the wind, aiming straight as an arrow back towards the cliff-top path. They reached it. Ranulf dismounted and pushed his master into the saddle. He led the horse up the path, slipping and cursing, not stopping until they had reached the windswept gorse on the cliff top. Ranulf threw the reins down and collapsed on to the grass. Corbett leaned over the horse's neck and vomited. Ranulf wordlessly got to his feet and, looping the reins round his wrist, trudged back towards Mortlake Manor.
    Gurney was standing in the yard, talking to his retainers, Selditch beside him. Both took one look at the sea-soaked Corbett and Ranulf's angry face and hurried up.
    'What has happened?'
    'Someone tried to kill my master,' Ranulf snapped. He squared up to Gurney. 'A knock on the head before being tossed on to the beach like a piece of flotsam, to be swept away in a sudden tidal surge. And what would you write to the king then, Sir Simon, eh? Some unfortunate accident?'
    Gurney, although he had once been a soldier, paled and stepped back at the fury in Ranulf's green eyes. Selditch hurried to help Corbett out of the saddle.
    'Piss off!' Ranulf snarled. He stared around the yard. 'Listen, all of you, and listen well! And you can tittle-tattle about this in the tavern. If my master dies here, I, Ranulf-atte-Newgate, will come back!' His voice sank to a whisper. 'I'll return! With every man I can lay my hands on as well as the king's writ! Believe me, sir, people here will still remember my visit when we are all dead and gone!'
    Ranulf then helped Corbett out of the saddle. He put his master's arms round his shoulders, helped him up to their chamber and laid him gently on the bed. Alice came up with a cup of blood-red claret, heavily spiced. She smiled deprecat-ingly when Ranulf made her sip it. He took a drink himself then, closing the door in the lady's face, went back and forced the cup between Corbett's lips. As his master slept, Ranulf stripped him of his clothes, washed him, laid him between the sheets and covered him with blankets. Ranulf then locked the chamber and went down to the kitchen. He ordered the servants to heat small bricks which he placed in Corbett's bed. He demanded chicken gruel and other foods to be prepared.
    For the rest of that day and most of that night, Ranulf tended Corbett. He fed his master when he woke and, when he slept, dressed the savage bruise on his head. At last Ranulf was satisfied. Corbett had been beaten unconscious and was badly bruised, but most of his wounds were spiritual: the shock of being left on the beach and that wild murderous race against the oncoming tide. In the morning Corbett woke, pale-faced but rested.
    'I'm not dead yet, Ranulf.'
    Ranulf grinned. 'You can't bloody well die yet! I am only at the bottom of the greasy pole of preferment.'
    Ranulf watched his master anxiously. He owed everything to him. In his more sober moments, Ranulf was as fearful as Maeve of Corbett's sudden death at the hands of an assassin. The manservant went downstairs and brought back a bowl of thick soup and some bread. He let Corbett eat. Sir Simon and Alice also came up and self-consciously asked him how he fared. Corbett was polite but watchful. Maltote returned, eager to tell Ranulf about the brothel and how he was sure he had lost his heart to Rohesia. One look at Ranulf's dark face and Maltote realized how serious the threat