have his gate and his house and welcome to them provided she did not lay a hand on him.
“Bloody gates,” he said, shaking his fist at the one he had been employed to tend. “More trouble than they are worth. I take more abuse here than my wages make up for. And the house is so drafty that I might as well sleep in the middle of the road.”
He caused a general burst of laughter from those close enough to hear when he offered to help pull everything down. But no one was fool enough to put a club or an ax in his hands.
The second gate was a different story. It was closer to Tegfan. The gatekeeper had lived in Glynderi for a while. Charlotte warned all Glynderi people to make sure that their faces were well blackened and that they kept their distance from the house until the keeper was gone. But that was a warning that was given each time to the people who would be working close to home.
There was another problem. The spies who had been sent on ahead to scout out the house and surrounding area, as they always did, came back to report that there were two constables with guns inside the house.
There was a murmuring among the men close enough to Rebecca to overhear the report. It seemed they would have to retreat and come back another night.
“We can find another gate, Mother,” one of the daughters said loudly enough to put heart back into the men. “There are plenty of them close by.”
“We have destroyed one gate tonight, Mother,” another said. “It is enough to cause serious annoyance. We will follow you another night.”
Rebecca raised her arms and silence fell. This was the moment for which Geraint had taken on leadership. Soon perhaps all the remaining tollgates would be manned by armed guards. If they turned back now, a few hundred unarmed men discouraged by two men with guns, then they were beaten. And yet the safety of every last one of them was in his hands.
“My children,” Rebecca said, “we have been asserting our right to freedom—freedom of movement within our own country, freedom from oppression by the owners of the land, who would bow us down to the ground with the burden of taxes in various guises. There is a gate on the road below us that your mother finds disturbing. It will not be easy to remove because it is guarded by two men and two guns. Are we to be daunted?”
“No!” a few bold voices said quite firmly. They were followed by a chorus of agreement. If he had demanded it at that moment, Geraint knew, they would have rushed the gate for him, leaving a few dead behind them when they left again.
Rebecca did not lower her arms. “We will make a wide circle about this gate,” she said. “No one is to be seen or heard. You will wait, out of sight and silent, my children, and let your mother do the talking. You will not show yourselves or put yourselves in any danger until I give the clear signal. This is understood?”
“Yes, Mother,” Charlotte said while there was a swell of agreement from the men gathered around.
“Go now, then,” Rebecca said. “My daughters will lead you. I will wait for ten minutes.” She lowered her arms slowly and watched her daughters and her children move off into the darkness, all perfectly disciplined. This sort of situation had been discussed and planned with the daughters. Now was the time to see if it worked.
Charlotte was the one daughter who stayed close to Rebecca. And with them stayed the men—and one woman—from Glynderi. Marged was close by. Perhaps it was the most dangerous place for her to be, but Geraint felt the need to have her within his sight. He looked at her consideringly for a moment, but he knew it would be pointless to order her to go back.
She looked up at him and their eyes met for the first time. He saw the flash of her teeth in the darkness.
Damn the woman—she was enjoying this.
She should be afraid, she knew. And perhaps she was in a way. Certainly there was an almost tangible tension in the men gathered about Rebecca and Aled, the only two on horseback. A few hundred others had melted away into the darkness and were forming a wide and silent circle about the tollgate and tollhouse below—and about the two