The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett [188]
Richard came over to look. He had little skill with a sword. He had been taking lessons for a year but he was still clumsy. However, Aliena certainly could not wield it, so she handed it to him. He buckled the belt around his waist.
Aliena looked at the dagger. She had never carried a weapon. All her life she had had someone to protect her. Realizing that she needed the deadly knife for her own protection, she felt utterly abandoned. She was not sure she could ever use it. I’ve stuck a wooden lance into a wild pig, she thought; why couldn’t I stick this into a man—someone like William Hamleigh? She recoiled from the thought.
The dagger had a leather sheath with a loop for attaching it to a belt. The loop was big enough to go around Aliena’s slim wrist like a bracelet. She eased it over her left hand and pushed the knife up her sleeve. It was long—it reached past her elbow. Even if she could not stab someone, perhaps she could use it to frighten people.
Richard said: “Let’s get away, quickly.”
Aliena nodded, but as she was making for the door, she stopped. The day was rapidly becoming lighter, and she could see on the chapel floor two shadowy objects she had not noticed before. Looking closely, she saw that they were saddles, one of average size and one truly enormous. She visualized William and his groom, arriving here last night, flushed with their triumph at Winchester and wearied by their journey, carelessly lifting the saddles from their horses and dumping them in here before hurrying to the keep. They would not imagine that anyone would dare steal from them. But desperate people find courage.
Aliena went to the door and looked out. The light was clear but weak, and there were no colors. The wind had dropped and the sky was cloudless. Several wooden shingles had fallen from the roof of the chapel in the night. The compound was empty except for the two horses grazing the wet grass. They both looked up at Aliena, then put their heads down again. One of them was a huge war-horse: that explained the oversized saddle. The other was a dappled stallion, not good-looking but compact and solid. Aliena stared at them, then at the saddles, then back at the horses.
“What are we waiting for?” Richard said anxiously.
Aliena made up her mind. “Let’s take their horses,” she said decisively.
Richard looked scared. “They’ll kill us.”
“They won’t be able to catch us. If we don’t take their horses they might come after us and kill us.”
“What if they catch us before we get away?”
“We’ll just have to be quick.” She was not as confident as she pretended, but she had to encourage Richard. “Let’s saddle the courser first—he looks more friendly. Bring the regular saddle.”
She hurried across the compound. Both horses were tied by long ropes to the stumps of burned buildings. Aliena picked up the courser’s rope and pulled gently. This would be the groom’s horse, of course. Aliena would have preferred something smaller and more timid, but she thought she could handle this one. Richard would have to take the war-horse.
The courser looked suspiciously at Aliena and laid back its ears. She was desperately impatient, but she forced herself to talk softly and pull gently on the rope, and the horse calmed down. She held its head and stroked its nose; then Richard slipped the bridle on and pushed the bit into its mouth. Aliena was relieved. Richard lifted the smaller of the two saddles onto its back and secured it with rapid, sure movements. Both of them had been used to horses from an early age.
There were bags attached to both sides of the groom’s saddle. Aliena hoped they might contain something useful—a flint, some food, or a little horse grain—but there was no time to investigate now. She glanced nervously across the compound toward the bridge that led to the keep. There was nobody there.
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