Belaset's Daughter - By Feona J Hamilton Page 0,136

Warenne to tell him so. Someone stopped me."

He tried to grin but it was a lop-sided affair.

"As you see, they used a forceful method. I must have been unconscious for several hours and, when I came to again, the fighting seemed to be over."

"So you have come back to find your lord, but could get no further than here?" said Belaset, sympathetically. "No wonder, with such a blow to the head. It is a bad cut, Jervis."

She bent closer to look at it, as Jervis continued speaking.

"Yes, I am weak, but that is not the reason for troubling you," he said. "When I fell, we were winning the battle. It now appears that, somehow, all is lost. It is de Montfort s men who are roaming through the town, not the King s."

"Well," said Belaset. "Whoever has won and whoever has lost, this wound must be properly attended to, and we will do it now."

She took a candle and bustled out of the room, calling to her servant to bring rags and water. Jervis looked at Aaron, who shrugged his shoulders and pulled a wry face.

"You will get nowhere arguing, Jervis!" he said. "In any case, she is skilled in such matters, and it will help you greatly."

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"But I must find my lord," protested Jervis. "Or at least know what has happened. It may be that the Castle is still in our hands, even if the town be lost. And what of the King?"

"One of us will go," promised Judith. She got no further.

"I will go," said Aaron, firmly. "You are a woman, and no woman will be safe in the streets with soldiers wandering around. They will seek a way to celebrate their victory which no woman should suffer."

Judith was about to protest, but seeing the expression on Aaron s face, knew it would be pointless. He was right. The tales of rape and mistreatment of women were commonplace, and she had no wish to be the subject of such attentions. It would be foolish to run such a risk when Aaron was able to undertake the task. Whether he went to the Castle or to the Priory, the King s advisers would know his face. If de Montfort s men were there, he would have to use his wits to avoid them, but he had already shown that he was adept at such manoeuvres.

"Go quickly, then!" she urged. "Before my mother returns to see to Jervis. If you are already gone, she can do nothing."

"Except bemoan my foolishness to you!" said Aaron, bending swiftly to kiss her cheek.

He snatched up his cloak, and left the room quickly, and they heard him unbar the door again and slip out. Judith followed after him and had just replaced the bar and returned to her place when Belaset reappeared. She said nothing, but went straight to Jervis and, placing the bowl of water beside him, dipped in a strip of cloth, and began to bathe his wound. He sat stoically, wincing occasionally as she touched a particularly tender spot, but said nothing. Once it was cleaner, and the blood wiped away from his cheek, it could be seen as a short deep gash over one eye.

She took a piece of cloth with a paste of herbs already placed on it, made a pad of it, and tied it round his head so that it covered the wound.

"You will bear a scar, Jervis," she said. "But you were lucky. An inch lower, and it would have been your eye."

"I thought it was my life, when the blow fell," said Jervis.

"Now," said Belaset. "Some soup, and then perhaps you will tell me where Aaron has gone. Risking his life for good reason, I trust?"

Judith and Jervis looked at each other.

"Well," said Belaset. "I am not blind or deaf: I heard the door open and close, and since he is no longer here, I assume it was he who left the house."

"It was," said Judith. "He has gone to find out what has happened. Jervis needs to know where he might find his lord, and we all want to know if the King is safe. But Jervis did not ask him to go . . ."

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"I am sure there was no need," said Belaset. "Aaron has been itching to leave this house all day. Well, he has been involved in danger before, and come through it. Benjamin has told me of some of his escapades, and he came here with