night. The corner was in darkness and Elena could see nothing behind the drape, but evidently Ma didn't need light to find what she wanted. She was feeling for something on the floor. Elena heard a trapdoor being lifted. Ma tugged her across to the hole.
'Kneel on the edge and feel for the rungs of the ladder with your feet,' Ma instructed.
Elena, shuddering with the memory of the prisoner hole beneath the manor, used all her strength to pull herself out of Ma's grasp. But Ma Margot was as strong as Talbot. Exasperated, she gave a sharp twist on Elena's arm to bring her to her senses.
'It's down there or be arrested for murder. And just you think about this: if they were planning to hang you for killing a mere villein's babe, imagine what they will do to a base- born villein who murders a nobleman!'
'But I didn't, Ma, I swear I didn't,' Elena sobbed.
'You can swear all you like, but they'll no more believe you this time than they did last. Now, get down there and mind you keep as silent as the grave.'
'At least give me light,' Elena begged. 'I can't even see the ladder.'
'No time,' Ma hissed fiercely. 'Just seven rungs is all, then you'll be on solid ground. Hurry, I can hear Talbot climbing the stairs!'
As soon as Elena's head was below the level of the trapdoor, Ma closed it, leaving Elena in total darkness. She stood on the ladder, too afraid to take another step down. But as she shifted her weight the wooden ladder rocked and creaked under her. Scared of it falling, Elena felt for the step below, then the step below that until, as Ma had promised, her feet touched solid ground.
As she turned, her hand brushed something furry, and remembering the caged beasts, she stifled a cry of fear, shrinking back against the wooden ladder. But whatever it was didn't move. She tentatively reached out again and felt thick, silky fur, as soft as melting butter, but it was cold to the touch and she knew that there was no animal beneath the skin.
As her eyes adjusted, she realized that the chamber was not entirely without light. Pricks of daylight were shining in through holes on the other side of the room. She saw dimly that she was standing in a wedge-shaped room, next to a sleeping platform covered with a heap of pelts over a thick mattress. Some of the furs were as pale as snow in moonlight, others dark as the night. She smoothed the skins with her fingers, marvelling at their sensual softness.
Footsteps padded across the wooden boards above her head, followed by the scrape of chair legs and a hum of voices. But although she strained to hear, she could make out no words. Gazing fearfully towards the ceiling, her eyes caught sight of evil, distorted faces in the darkness glowering over at her. She cringed. Were they bats or demons? She held her breath, staring fixedly up at them, but they didn't move. Holding her arms protectively overhead, she crept a little closer, then saw what they were. Around the top of the chamber was carved a series of grimacing grotesques as you might see in a church. Human faces with pig snouts, women with pendulous breasts and tangled beards, men with faces twisted into a leper's leer, owls with human heads and men with the heads of dogs.
Elena sank down on to the bed, trying not to look at the mocking faces glaring at her. Above her she could still hear the murmur of voices. What was Ma saying to them? Would she hand her over to them? Cold sweat drenched her body. Raffe had warned her that if Ma couldn't earn a profit from her then she might be tempted to give her up for the bounty.
She tried desperately to remember what had happened last night. She couldn't have killed that man. She'd wanted to, all the time she was in that chamber with him, every muscle and sinew in her body had been screaming out for his death. If she'd been able to get her hands free, if she'd had a knife or a staff or anything to defend herself, she would have lunged at him through sheer fear, of that much she was certain.
But she didn't even know where this Adam and Eve was, and even if she'd found it by following him, how could she have got there and back