Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine (reading an ebook TXT) 📕

the printers, then lunch with a friend, then I said I'd look in at Carters on my way to Hampshire. " He smiled. "Then the blessed weekend. Then Monday and Tuesday I'm in Scotland. " He closed his briefcase with a snap and picked it up. "And now I'm playing hooky for the rest of the afternoon. So if anyone should want me you can tell them to try again in ten days. "

Each time Nick had phoned her Jo had put the phone down. The last time she slammed the receiver down she switched off her typewriter and walked slowly into the bathroom. After turning on the light, she gathered her long hair up from her neck and held it on top of her head. Then she studied her throat. There still wasn't a mark on it.

"So. That proves he did not touch me!" she said out loud. "If anyone really had tried to strangle me the bruises would have been there for days. It was a dream. I was delirious. I was mad! It wasn't Nick, so why am I afraid of him?"

All she had to do was see him. Even his anger was better than this limbo without him, and once he was there in the flesh, and she reminded herself what he really looked like, surely this strange terror would go. The memory of those eerie, piercing eyes kept floating out of her subconscious, haunting her as she walked around the apartment. And they were not even Nick's eyes. She found she was shivering again as she stared at the half-typed sheet of paper in her typewriter. On impulse she leaned over and picked up the phone to dial Nick's office.

The phone rang four times before Jane picked it up.

"Hi, it's Jo. Can I speak to Nick?" Jo sipped her juice, feeling suddenly as if a great weight had been lifted off the top of her head.

"Sorry. You've just missed him. " Jane sounded a little too cheerful.

"When will he be back?" Jo put down her glass and began to pluck gently at the curled cord of the phone.

"Hold on. I'll check. " There was a moment's silence. "He'll be back on the twelfth. "

"The twelfth, " Jo repeated. She sat bolt upright. "Where has he gone?"

"Scotland on Monday and Tuesday, then back and straight over to France on Wednesday morning for a week. "

"And today and tomorrow?" Jo could feel her voice turning prickly.

"Out. Sorry, I don't know where exactly. "

Jo put down the phone thoughtfully. Then she picked it up again and dialed Judy Curzon.

"Listen, Judy, I need to see Nick. Will you give him a message please? Tell him I'm seeing Carl Bennet again tomorrow afternoon. That's Friday—at three. Tell him I'm going to find out what really happened on Sunday, come hell or high water, and if he wants to know he'd better be there. Have you got that?"

There was a long silence on the other end. "I'm not a message service, " Judy replied eventually. Her tone was frosty. "I don't give a damn who you're going to see tomorrow afternoon, and obviously Nick doesn't either or you wouldn't have to call him here, would you!"

Jo sat looking at the phone for several minutes after Judy hung up, then she smiled. "Hoist with your own petard, Miss Clifford. You walked right into that one!"

"Pidwch cael ofon. " The voice spoke to Matilda again as she stood once more outside the moon-silvered walls of Abergavenny. Then it tried in words she understood. "Do not be afraid, my lady. I am your friend. " His French was halting but dimly she recognized before her the dark Welsh boy who had brought her food the night before. But he was no longer afraid; it was her turn for terror.

She did not speak. She felt the hot wetness on her face and she felt him brush the tears away with a gentle hand.

"You did not know then?" he stammered. "You did not know what was planned at the feast?"

Wordlessly she shook her head.

"It is not safe for you here, whatever. " The boy spoke earnestly. "My people will seek revenge for the massacre. You must go back into your castle. "

Taking her elbow, he tried to turn her back but she found her feet scrabbling agonizingly on the sharp stones of the river path as she fought against him on the slippery ground.

"No, no. I can't go back there. I'll never go back there, never. " She broke from him and ran a few steps farther on, toward the moon. Before it lay the mountains.

"Where will you go then?" The boy caught up with her in three strides and stood in front of her again.

"I don't know. I don't care. " She looked around desperately.

"I will take you to Tretower. " The boy spoke, suddenly making up his mind. "You will be safe there. " He took her firmly by the hand and strode out along the river. In a daze, oblivious of her torn and bleeding feet, she followed him.

She never knew how long she stumbled on behind him. At one point her strength gave way and she sank onto the ground, unable to go farther along the steep rough bank of the river. The water ran mockingly pure and silver near her as though no blood had ever stained it. Bending, she scooped some of it, icy and clean, into her mouth, and then she lay back on the wet grass, her eyes closed.

The boy came back for her and coaxed and pleaded, but she was unable to rise. Her back pained spasmodically. She realized suddenly that she was going to lose her baby and she was glad.

The boy tugged at her hand, begging her to go with him, continually glancing over his shoulder, obviously worried that they were being followed. Then suddenly he seemed to give up the struggle and disappeared as quickly and silently as he had come.

He has