Belaset's Daughter - By Feona J Hamilton Page 0,78
side from Aaron brought her back to earth.
"There’s Gregory," he said. "Down there, at the side of the door."
She looked in the direction he had indicated and there, indeed, was Gregory Rokesly, waving at them with every appearance of casual enjoyment at greeting some friends. They walked towards him, and he hastened to meet them.
"My dear friends!" he cried, jovially. "How pleasant to see you again. I trust your journey caused no problems?"
Linking his arm through Aaron’s, on one side, and Judith’s on the other, he began marching them briskly away from the Abbey front, and towards one of the houses which stood opposite. All the time, he chatted on about a party he had attended, who was there and who he had missed, the food, the wine, and so on, in endless detail. Belaset, walking on the other side of Judith, gazed at the ground and listened with mounting amusement.
This young man was obviously a past master at dissembling, she thought. No-one seeing them would think that they were fleeing from certain death, or that they had anything more distressing to think of than what might, or might not, be prepared for their next meal.
They had arrived at one of the largest of the houses. Gregory gestured to his servant and the man hammered on the front door for them, which opened immediately. Once inside, with the door firmly shut behind them, Gregory’s manner changed abruptly.
"Oh, my friends," he said, sadly. "I am so grieved at these terrible events. I came to you knowing only that there was trouble coming. The mob has been organised for some BOSON BOOKS
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weeks, and has burnt and pillaged the houses of several of those loyal to the King. Even Duke Richard’s palace in Isleworth has been put to the torch. And now, some evil person has raised the old tale against your people of sacrificing children for the Passover feast. In their present state of excitement, it was enough. I heard that they were on their way to the Jewry only just in time."
"Why did you prevent us from going into the Tower, Gregory?" said Aaron.
"You would not have been safe there," said Gregory. "I learnt that de Montfort had returned at the beginning of this week. I said nothing to you, because I saw no reason why you should be harmed by such a move. I thought it was simply de Montfort meeting with those who have had charge of the Tower in his name these past months. It appears that it was more than that. We must talk of it later."
"Surely, we must talk of it now, if it means that there is something which the King should be told," said Judith, stepping forward. "He has called a meeting of his Council in Oxford, has he not?"
"True," said Gregory. "And he is already aware of the movements of the de Montforts and their followers. Indeed, he is moving against de Montfort’s son, Simon the younger, who has stormed Northampton. The Council meeting is over."
They had been standing just inside the front door all this time. Now Gregory led them upstairs and into the hall, where a cheerful fire burned, despite the increasing warmth of the day. As they threw off their cloaks, they stood revealed in their wedding finery, and Gregory shook his head.
"What a strange way to begin your married life," he said to Aaron and Judith.
"It is not as great a tragedy as it might have been," said Judith. "At least we are together, and my Mother is safe here with us."
She smiled across at Belaset, then looked back at Gregory.
"Is there news of Benjamin and Dorcas?" she asked, anxiously.
"Indeed there is!" said a voice from the other side of the hall.
Another door had opened, and both the Yechiels stood there. Aaron strode across to them, and enveloped his mother in a great bear hug. Laughing and crying at the same time, she clung to him, while his father stood, wiping his eyes with one hand, and patting his son’s broad back with the other. Belaset, equally overcome, joined the little group and was hugged, kissed and cried over in her turn. Judith, standing back a little from the rest, blinked the tears away furiously.
"Well," she said. "We have been very lucky to have escaped. Gregory, this is the second time you have saved Aaron and me, and now you have saved our family as well. We can never repay you!"