shortened stride, still her progress was laborious. There was no sign of Luce. Ma thrust open the door of the chamber. She hung the lantern on a hook inside and with a jerk of her head motioned Elena to enter.
Elena edged cautiously through the door keeping close to the wall, expecting the cat to spring out at any moment, but there was no warning growl.
'The beast's safely back in its cage below,' Ma said.
It was hard to make out anything clearly in the dingy yellow light of the lantern, but Elena saw that the pallet on the bed had partly slipped off and there seemed to be dark stains on it, though what they were, she couldn't tell.
'Right, my darling, I'll send Talbot along with some water and clothes. You get him cleaned up and settled down. He'd best stay here the night and you with him for company. I'll get Talbot to fetch up some herbed wine with poppy juice in it. Get him to drink that if you can, it'll send him to sleep.'
Ma lifted the corner of the pallet. Finch sat under it in the tiny cave formed by the hanging pallet and the side of the bed. His knees were drawn up to his chin and he was rocking backwards and forwards. As the light hit him, he screwed his eyes shut and began to sing in a quavering high-pitched voice — Lavender's green, diddle diddle, Lavender's blue. He kept repeating the one line over and over, as if it was a prayer.
Elena moved closer, bending down. But the child kept his eyes so tightly shut that no chink of light could possibly penetrate them. He was half naked. The long grey rat's-skin cloth was shredded, and beneath, Elena could see great long livid welts, oozing blood, standing swollen and proud from his flesh. His arms and legs were also scored with them, and though she could not see his back she guessed it might be the same. Had he been flogged? She suddenly realized what the dark stains on the pallet were — they were bloodstains, Finch's blood.
Outraged, Elena sprang up and wheeled round to face Ma. 'You promised! You said he'd only hurt him a little. Is that what you call a little? You knew he was going to do this, didn't you? How much did he pay you to let him hurt Finch? How much?'
Without thinking what she was doing, she made to grab Ma and shake her, but the tiny woman was too quick and strong for her and in an instant had seized both Elena's wrists in an unbreakable grip.
'You little fool! Do you really think I wanted this? Apart from anything else, it will be weeks before this boy is fit to work again, and I'll have to feed and physic him all the while.'
Even though Ma's fingers were crushing her bones, the pain did not cool Elena's temper.
'Is that all you can think about — coins, money, jewels? He is just a little boy and he's been badly hurt and scared half to death. He's in pain. Don't you feel anything for him?'
'You think you know about pain or hurt?' Ma retorted savagely. 'I've seen more pain and known more hurt than any soldier on the battlefield. You haven't begun to understand what cruelties men can inflict, my darling, and women too; they're sometimes the worst. But do you really imagine it will help the boy if I sit and cry with him? Will that help him fight it the next time and the next?'
'You're not going to let Hugh near him again? You can't, please, Ma, you can't let him,' Elena begged.
Ma released her hands and stood shaking her head sadly, so that the jewelled pins in her shiny black hair glittered in the candlelight.
'My darling, do you think that if I tell that man I don't like what he's done to the boy, it will stop him doing it to someone else, to another child who has no protector?'
You dare to call this protection?' Although Elena was rubbing her bruised wrists, her tone was still sharp with defiance and fury.
'If this had happened outside the stew, he probably would have gone on until he killed the boy.' She patted Elena's thigh. 'Tend to Finch,' she said wearily. You're the motherly sort. You can soothe him.'
At the door, Ma paused. 'Remember what I told you, my darling. If you survive you can always have your revenge. Trust me