Belaset's Daughter - By Feona J Hamilton Page 0,131

the cheek.

"Let us hope we shall all meet again very shortly, and in good health," she said.

"We will be here," promised Aaron. "We will wait for you, my friend. Now you must return to the Castle, before you are missed."

Jervis left them reluctantly, but Aaron was right. Anyone missing now would be assumed to have left without permission, and to have shown the most abject cowardice.

He hurried back the way he had come, and regained his chamber without being challenged.

No-one had missed him, and, thankfully, he went about his own preparations until it was time for the final meal of the day.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Early the next morning, about an hour after sunrise, the first skirmishes between the two sides began. A foraging party, which had left the encampment outside the Priory to see what they could find, had been forced to search further afield than the town. There was nothing much left to feed them in the streets, now that they had been there for several days, but the Downs outside might still yield rabbits and other small creatures.

They had a shock when they breasted the slope and saw de Montfort s army formed up and coming slowly towards them. Wheeling round, they galloped back into camp at full speed, shouting a warning as soon as they came near enough. Men tumbled sleepily from under their cloaks, and tent flaps were thrown back as those inside looked to see what the commotion was about.

"De Montfort is coming towards us, with all his men!" shouted one of the soldiers, as he sped towards the Priory gates. The watchman, still with his hair awry and with his clothes part on and part off, flung open the gate and the man galloped through. Flinging himself from his horse, he ran towards the Prior s lodgings, and hammered on the door. It, too, was flung open, but his way was barred by one of Henry s bodyguards. The soldier scrabbled at the man s tunic, shouting in his face to let him pass, until the guard literally shook him. The action shocked him into a calmer demeanour, but the noise of his entrance had brought another man to the door.

"What s all the noise about?" said the second man.

"De Montfort and all his men are approaching over the hill," said the soldier.

"And how do you know this?" said the man.

"I saw them, sir, as I was out looking for food with some of the others," said the soldier.

"Say you so?" said Guy de Lusignan, startled out of his composure. "Then we must rally to meet them! I will tell the King, and you return to your companions and tell them to prepare. Today we will do battle!"

He turned and went back inside the chamber and they could hear him walk through into another room. His voice, speaking urgently, came back to them, before the door was banged shut behind him. The bodyguard, ignoring the soldier, also turned and spoke over his shoulder to someone behind him.

"Rouse yourselves! The time has come for you to do more than stand around and push food and drink into your mouths!"

The soldier, without waiting to hear any more, ran back the way he had come, snatched his horse s bridle from the watchman at the gate, vaulted on to it and cantered back to his BOSON BOOKS

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own place. As he rode, he could hear shouting start up in the Priory behind him, and knew that what he had said had been taken very seriously indeed. Somehow, it was only now that he realised what was happening. Before, it had all seemed a dream, and that the need to fight would never arise. Now that it was all really happening, a rush of elation flowed through his veins and he wanted to shout from sheer excitement. All fear had left him.

* * *

Jervis sat astride his horse on John de Warenne s left side, and stared at the sight before him. De Warenne himself, was clad in chain mail from head to foot, with his surcote embroidered with his arms. A helmet covered his head completely, apart from two eye holes, and his horse also wore its own protection. A cloth covered the horse, and like de Warenne s shield, which he held slightly to one side on his left arm, displayed with his coat of arms.

All around them were other knights, similarly clad, also with their squires beside them, and some with other men, mounted and