he's hiding. I'll look around." He kicked his horse on.
Gwenda watched him go. She had not fooled him, but perhaps she had planted a doubt in his mind. If she could get to Sam first she might be able to conceal him.
She walked quickly through the little house, with a hasty word to Liza and Rob, and left by the back door. She headed across the field, staying close to the hedge. Looking back towards the village, she could see a man on horseback moving out at an angle to her direction. The day was dimming, and she thought her own small figure might be indistinguishable against the dark background of the hedge.
She met Sam and the others coming back, their spades over their shoulders, their boots thick with muck. From a distance, at first sight, Sam could have been Ralph: the figure was the same, and the confident stride, and the set of the handsome head on the strong neck. But as he talked she could see Wulfric in him too: he had a way of turning his head, a shy smile and a deprecating gesture of the hand that exactly imitated his foster father.
The men spotted her. They had been tickled by her arrival earlier, and now the one-eyed man called out: "Hello, Mother!" and they all laughed.
She took Sam aside and said: "Jonno Reeve is here."
"Hell!"
"I'm sorry."
"You said you weren't followed!"
"I didn't see him, but he picked up my trail."
"Damn. Now what do I do? I'm not going back to Wigleigh!"
"He's looking for you, but he left the village heading east." She scanned the darkening landscape but could not see much. "If we hurry back to Oldchurch we could hide you - in the church, perhaps."
"All right."
They picked up their pace. Gwenda said over her shoulder: "If you men come across a bailiff called Jonno... you haven't seen Sam from Wigleigh."
"Never heard of him, Mother," said one, and the others concurred. Serfs were generally ready to help one another outwit the bailiff.
Gwenda and Ralph reached the settlement without seeing Jonno. They headed for the church. Gwenda thought they could probably get in: country churches were usually empty and bare inside, and generally left open. But if this one should turn out to be an exception, she was not sure what they would do.
They threaded through the houses and came within sight of the church. As they passed Liza's front door, Gwenda saw a black pony. She groaned. Jonno must have doubled back under cover of the dusk. He had gambled that Gwenda would find Sam and bring him to the village, and he had been right. He had his father Nate's low cunning.
She took Sam's arm to hurry him across the road and into the church - then Jonno stepped out from Liza's house.
"Sam," he said. "I thought you'd be here."
Gwenda and Sam stopped and turned.
Sam leaned on his wooden spade. "What are you going to do about it?"
Jonno was grinning triumphantly. "Take you back to Wigleigh."
"I'd like to see you try."
A group of peasants, mostly women, appeared from the west side of the village and stopped to watch the confrontation.
Jonno reached into his pony's saddlebag and brought out some kind of metal device with a chain. "I'm going to put a leg iron on you," he said. "And if you've got any sense you won't resist."
Gwenda was surprised by Jonno's nerve. Did he really expect to arrest Sam all on his own? He was a beefy lad, but not as big as Sam. Did he hope the villagers would help him? He had the law on his side, but few peasants would think his cause just. Typical young man, he had no sense of his own limitations.
Sam said: "I used to beat the shit out of you when we were boys, and I'll do the same today."
Gwenda did not want them to fight. Whoever won, Sam would be wrong in the eyes of the law. He was a runaway. She said: "It's too late to go anywhere now. Why don't we discuss this in the morning?"
Jonno gave a disparaging laugh. "And let Sam slip away before dawn, the way you sneaked out of Wigleigh? Certainly not. He sleeps in irons tonight."
The men Sam had been working with appeared, and stopped to see what was going on. Jonno said: "All law-abiding men have a duty to help me arrest this runaway, and anyone who hinders me will be subject to the punishment of