on the streets of every town and village within miles, offering a reward to anyone who brings you in dead or alive. And I can tell Osborn means business, for most men would sell their own children for the size of the purse he's offering. If that weren't inducement enough, he's threatened dire punishment to any caught sheltering you.
'You just be grateful, my darling, that I'm willing to take that risk for you, 'cause I tell you now, no other soul in this town or any other would take you in, not if Osborn's determined to find you.'
With her mouth still bitter from the draught of herbs Ma Margot had given her to dry her milk, Elena descended the narrow staircase again, and this time Talbot led her through a door to the left, which opened directly on to a courtyard. Elena shivered in the cold night air. The courtyard and the garden at the far end were both enclosed by the solid walls of buildings. Half a dozen doors led from the courtyard into what appeared to be chambers beyond. Instead of blazing torches, lanterns swung in the breeze. They were not bright enough to illuminate anyone's features, but cast just enough light through the horn panels for a man to pick his away across the yard without falling down the well or colliding with the several stout benches that were scattered about. To one side was a bigger door set into the wall which appeared to lead out of the courtyard to the world beyond.
Seeing Elena's gaze fasten on it, Talbot nodded his head.
'Behind there's the stables. Some of our gentlemen arrive on horseback, but it's no use thinking you can get out that way. Kept bolted on the other side. There's only one way in or out for you girls and that's the way you came in, through the guest hall. But you'd best not try slipping out that way unless Ma gives you leave. You never know when she's watching you, and if she catches any of her girls doing something she don't like, believe me, they soon wish she hadn't.'
The gatekeeper led Elena past several of the chambers. Light shone out through the shutters and from inside came the sounds of laughter, grunts and squeals. Elena shuddered.
Talbot grinned. 'Noisy bastards, ain't they? Always puts me in mind of pigs when you throw them a mess of swill.'
He stopped outside the last door in the far corner of the courtyard. 'This is where you all sleep. No customers to be brought in here, you understand?'
He pushed her inside.
It was hard to see much by the dim light of the lantern. Raised wooden platforms ran along either side of the room, on which were a number of straw pallets at all kinds of angles to each other, and between them Elena could see small boxes and rolled bundles, evidently their owners' meagre possessions. More clothes were heaped on top of the mattresses.
At the same instant as she pitied the women for the little they owned, it struck her for the first time that she now owned nothing except the damp, stinking rags she stood up in and her scrip. She pressed the leather to her, but she knew it was empty save for the wizened mandrake, and what use was that to her now?
She thought of the small chest crammed with the kirtles and trinkets she had received from Lady Anne, standing in her mother-in-law's cottage. What would that old witch do? Wear them? Sell them? Anger boiled up in her. Joan had never thought her good enough for her son, but to do all in her power to get her daughter-in-law hanged — how could any woman be that spiteful? She shuddered at the thought that if Joan'd had her way, she would even now be hanging in a gibbet with ravens pecking at her sightless eyes. Elena tried to remind herself that all that mattered was that she was alive. She knew she should be grateful for that. But then she remembered where she was, and the fear and revulsion engulfed her again.
Several women were already sleeping in the chamber. Some lay sprawled across their pallets with arms and legs spilling out from beneath the coverings, others were curled up in tight balls, furrowing their brows in their sleep as the light from Talbot's lantern brushed their faces. Talbot marched down between the platforms, stepping carefully across the firepit in the centre though there was