The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd [101]
Luke crept forward in the darkness. There was only a sliver left of the silver moon, but he could see well enough by the starlight. The horse was tethered to a tree about a hundred yards off. This was the third time he had seen it there.
He lay down at the edge of the tree line. He could see the little barn from there, the barn where he had spent so many winter nights. Behind him, in the woods that rose up from the small river valley by Boldre, an owl hooted. He waited patiently.
It was still some time before dawn when he saw the figure slip out from the barn and make its way silently along the edge of the paddock to the trees. It passed fifty yards away from him, but he had no doubt about the stranger’s identity. It was only a few moments before he heard the horse moving through the trees behind him.
Luke waited a little, then started to make his way towards the barn.
The abbot had still not returned when the news came that the Forest court would meet again just before Michaelmas and John of Grockleton thought for two days before deciding to take his own initiative. Before announcing it, however, he sent for Brother Adam.
There was no doubt, he thought, as the monk stood before him, that Adam looked uncommonly well. The weeks out in the fields had left him rather suntanned. He looked fitter, even taller. Since he knew that Adam would rather have been in the cloister, and as this almost muscular bearing was not really appropriate for a choir monk, Grockleton did not begrudge him his well-being. He only wanted to know one thing anyway. ‘Has any of the hired men heard anything of that runaway, Brother Luke?’
‘If they have,’ Adam answered with perfect truth, ‘they’ve said nothing to me.’
‘Do you think anyone knows where he is?’
Brother Adam paused. Mary had twice spoken to him of Luke. She had told him Luke’s version of events and, although he had never asked her directly, he assumed she knew that her brother was in the Forest somewhere. ‘I believe most of our hired hands think he’s left the Forest.’
‘The court is going to meet again. If he’s in the Forest, I want him found,’ said Grockleton. ‘What do you advise?’
Adam shrugged. ‘You know,’ he replied carefully, ‘there is a feeling that he may have been trying to prevent an affray. The justice himself did indicate that such a view could be taken. I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to let sleeping dogs lie.’
‘The court may take any view it likes,’ Grockleton snapped. ‘I’m supposed to produce him and I intend to. So I’m going to offer a reward. A price on his head.’
‘I see.’
‘Two pounds to anyone who can bring him in. I think that should concentrate the Forest people’s minds, don’t you?’
‘Two pounds?’ It was a small fortune to men like Pride and Furzey. His face fell as he thought of Mary and how worried she would be.
‘Something wrong?’ Grockleton was eyeing him sharply.
‘No. Not really, Prior.’ He recovered himself quickly. ‘It seems a lot.’
‘I know,’ said Grockleton, with a smile.
Sometimes, when Adam lay with Mary, he was overcome by a sense of wonder that such a thing should have happened at all.
They did not use any light. They did not dare. She would come out to the small barn late at night when the children were asleep – thank God they took so much exercise that they always slept soundly – and he, watching from the trees, would sneak across to meet her. He was getting good at that.
Once, the third time they had met, she had stood in a shaft of moonlight that came through a crack in the door and silently undressed before him. He had watched, entranced, as she took off her rough gown and stood, barefoot, in only her linen kirtle. With a little shake of her head she had let her dark hair fall loose over her shoulders. Then she had pulled down the kirtle, slowly exposing her full, pale breasts and, letting it drop to the floor, stepped out, turning her naked body towards him while he gasped.
It was all a revelation: the touch, the smell of her flesh as he explored her body without