Belaset's Daughter - By Feona J Hamilton Page 0,88

throat and looked around the table.

"It is time," he said, gruffly. "We must leave this house as quietly as possible. Hubert will lead us to the river, where we should find a boat to ’borrow’ within moments. Walk in single file, and I shall be the last one, so that I can keep a sharp watch on our backs."

"Father," protested Aaron. "Let me walk at the back. I am more used to handling my knife than you."

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"And your young eyes are keener," said Benjamin. "Very well you will walk at the back, Hubert will lead, and Walter and I will walk between you. All of us must be alert for any danger, and warn the others in time, if we see anything. Do not hesitate it is better to give a false alarm, than to refrain because you are not sure what you can see."

The others nodded their agreement. Silently, they checked that they each had a knife concealed on them, but easily drawn, then, with Hubert leading, they slipped quietly out of the front door of the house.

Moving swiftly along from shadow to shadow, they reached the riverbank without encountering anyone. They stopped momentarily, while Hubert got his bearings and turned to his left, beckoning them to follow him. They walked cautiously forward along the low banks, feeling the muddy ground beneath their feet, striving to keep their balance as their feet skidded slightly where the ground was wetter.

On their left, as they walked along, they saw the walls put up to guard the great houses and palaces of the wealthy from entry by wouldbe robbers, or worse. The low tide, which gave them the mud to walk along, made it difficult to find any kind of boat that could be used. Sometimes they came to a wooden jetty, built out from a back gate across the mud, until it reached the water level.

Walter would wave the others down, to search among the staithes, in case a boat had been tied up there. Their first three searches were fruitless, but, at the fourth jetty they found what they were hoping for a small boat, well hidden and securely tied, underneath. It had been left high and dry as the tide ebbed and, when they groped inside it for oars, proved to be full of rope.

"We are at the back of the Savoy Palace," whispered Walter. "No doubt this has been used as a ferry, to carry stone and timber for the builders. It will serve our purpose well."

"Not without oars!" said Hubert, who had been searching all round as the others stood there.

They searched further up the bank, closer to the Palace wall. The oars must have been taken and stored somewhere else, to prevent just such a plan as they had, thought Aaron, feeling his frustration turning rapidly to impotent anger. He had come right up against the gate which gave access to the jetty, and he could see the figures of two of the others, bending and peering as he had been himself. The third figure he could not see and he felt a sudden flare of anxiety. He began to make his way back down across the shoreline, ducking under the jetty as soon as he could, and it was this action that solved their problem.

Grasping one of the uprights as he ducked beneath it, he heard a faint rattle above his head. He reached up, hoping to find a loose piece of timber that might serve and found the oars. They were neatly stowed between the platform of the jetty and the cross timbers that were set at intervals to strengthen it. He had also found the man he could not see from outside. Hubert was just a little way down the slope. Aaron hissed at him , and Hubert turned and came towards him.

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"The oars!" said Aaron, as soon as he was close enough. "They are here, above my head. Help me to get them down."

The two of them began to slide the heavy things out of their resting-place. It sounded to Aaron as if the rasping noise would be bound to wake someone, but the only effect was to bring Walter and Benjamin to them, to give their aid as well. Once free, the oars were carried swiftly to the boat, which was emptied of its pile of rope in no time.

Two on each side, and bending in unison, the four men half-slid, half-carried the boat into the water.