Belaset's Daughter - By Feona J Hamilton Page 0,98
the blade. Satisfied, she came back to the table.
"Hold him still," she said, and waited as Gregory and Aaron held his legs and his head.
Then she cut quickly, widening the wound, and revealing the layers of flesh beneath.
Probing, she found the arrowhead, and eased it out. As she did so, Benjamin jerked once, and that was all. Quickly, the arrow was cast on the floor, the knife was laid on the table, and Belaset dipped a clean rag in the hot water, and gently bathed the place where the arrow had been.
It was clean, she could see, with no pieces of cloth or any other foreign bodies to cause trouble. She breathed a thankful sigh, and bent to her task again. Folding another piece of rag into a pad, she bound it into place, tying strips over and under Benjamin’s shoulder. In a few minutes it was over and Benjamin was still breathing. All they could do now was to make him as comfortable as possible and wait for him to regain consciousness.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"Gregory Rokesly gone? How has this happened? Were you all asleep?"
Simon de Montfort paced up and down like a caged animal, in front of the group of men he had summoned to his chambers. They watched, scared into silence by his fury. William Monchesny opened his mouth twice to say something, but closed it again without a sound. Finally he managed to speak.
"My Lord, he was released by friends who entered the Tower from the river," he said.
"They killed one of our men, who was on guard. Then they entered the place where Rokesly was kept and took him away with them."
"And where were the rest of the guard or did you leave just one man alone to watch?"
said de Montfort.
Monchesny cleared his throat.
"The captain of the guards thought one man was sufficient, my Lord," he said, unhappily. "After all, Rokesly was being kept prisoner at the top of a tower. There were other guards on watch along the walls."
"But not alert, it would seem," said Simon. "These rescuers should be with us, since they are so able!"
Monchesny said, "The guards on the wall raised the alarm, and shot at them as they rowed up river, my Lord."
"Too late then," said de Montfort.
Monchesny spoke again.
"One of them was wounded the man who shot the arrow saw him fall down into the boat."
"Some harm was done, then," said Hugh Dispenser.
De Montfort turned his back on them, and stood looking at the floor, lost in thought.
Suddenly, he whirled round and stood, hands on hips, legs wide apart, and glowered at them.
"Well?" he snarled. "Who can suggest the next move? Who can even tell me where we should go? The King and his soldiers have come through most of England, and all we have managed is to lose half our men at Northampton where my son
allows
himself to be
taken prisoner and then we lose the only useful prisoner that we have managed to take here in London. Then Nottingham, Grantham, Aylesbury all bow to the King’s will without so much as an arrow’s flight or a sword’s stroke. And on he goes, across the BOSON BOOKS
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Thames and into Kent, because we are too weak to stop him. Even Prince Edward is back in favour after such a triumphal progress!"
Nobody answered. The group in front of him stared at the ground. Somebody cleared his throat nervously, and Simon looked in the direction of the sound.
"Sir William Monchesny," he said, with menacing softness. "Do you have an idea, other than what you might eat at your next meal?"
"No, my lord," said Monchesny, unhappily.
"No, my lord," mimicked de Montfort. "Well, you will not see anything written on the stone at your feet which you find so fascinating. I suggest we all think long on our situation, and see what we might do to retrieve it. Henry is in Dover, now, and seems to have met some resistance at last. De la Hay is holding the castle, and causing havoc among Henry’s forces. Still, our losses are far the greater, and we must find a way to regain our strength in numbers before we move against him."
"What about your son, my lord?" asked Hugh Dispenser.
"My son is safe out of harm’s way for now," said de Montfort. "He is too valuable to Henry as a hostage, for anything to befall him. Let him nurse his wounded pride and think on his foolishness for a while!"