Dear Heart, How Like You This (21 page)

“Gold.
Señor
had very little gold, but his papers told us he is an important man to
los Ingleses
—important enough for a ransom of three thousand ducats. We have already allowed the Italian you travelled with to return home to his master, to demand fast payment of the ransom. All you need to hope is that we are not wrong about your value!”

Knowing that being thought important enough to ransom would be enough to save my skin from further harm, I could only briefly shake my head in assent, reflecting as I did so that a ransom would probably break my family’s back for many years.

“Señor
is hungry, hey?
Señor
would like some food?”

My head aching, again I cautiously nodded, thinking a meal might help settle my queasy stomach.

“I will untie
Señor
now.
Señor
must realise that it is no use to escape.
Señor
has many good Spanish and German soldiers looking after him.”

With those words the soldier cut the bonds that made me so helpless. I then sat up, shaking my body to rid myself feeling the kinks of the ropes, watching, as I did, my captor leave the confines of the tiny tent.

Imagine my surprise when it was not the Spaniard who returned but an Italian woman with plaited black hair, dressed in clothes that had seen better days—a woman big-bellied with child.

When she saw me, she almost dropped her basket of food. I too felt utterly astounded.

“Tomas,”
she whispered, moving a quick step closer to me.

“Lucrezia,” I likewise replied.

She fearfully glanced behind her, but seeing us still alone, she came closer to me, putting the basket on the ground.

“Tomas.
How come you here?”

“I do not know, Lucrezia. All I remember is walking back to my lodgings. Someone must have been waiting for me…”

Lucrezia stayed quiet for a short time, clearly thinking, and then came even closer to put her hands on mine.

“Some Italian traitor must have realised who you were, and sold you to the Spaniards. I am so sorry,
Tomas.”

We were both silent for a moment and then I began to perceive a way out of my predicament, but it all depended on this woman before me. I returned my gaze to her.

“Do you think you can help me escape, Lucrezia?”

She dropped my hands and backed away from me, fear etched deep onto her pale face. Furtively Lucrezia looked all around her.

“Oh,
Tomas
. Do not ask this of me. It would be too difficult. I am a Spaniard’s woman now. I bear his child. He has promised to take me back to Spain with him. I cannot risk to make Juan angry.”

“There must be a way you can help, Lucrezia, without the Spaniards knowing.”

Lucrezia stared at me with those huge, dark eyes—eyes that were reminiscent of my dearly beloved girl back home. Coming back to take my hand, she looked around again, and squeezed my hand quickly.

“I go now,
Tomas.
Maybe I can help, but I can promise you nothing.”

Lucrezia departed from the tent and I was left with a basket of stale bread, a flask of wine, and vile tasting meat.

While I ate what I could of this I looked around at my surroundings. The interior of the tent was lit by only one large candle. Thus, what I could see was very unformed and difficult to fully make out, yet the shadows cast by this one candle told me, without investigating further, that I was in space not much bigger than a few feet across in any direction. I got up from the straw where I was lying and walked slowly to the flap of the tent. What I saw when I lifted the flap was as the soldier said—a hoard of troops surrounded me. I wondered how I could possibly escape from this dreadful mess I now found myself in.

Several days later, the army began its march through the Italian countryside. I was securely tied to a mule, with two mounted guards on either side of me; thus, I was unable to do anything that would achieve my freedom.

I felt depressed by the turn of events, but not altogether hopeless. Carlo, the courier sent with me by the Duke of Ferrara, would have, by this time, raised the alarm about my forced absence. I knew that Sir John would not hesitate to use his influence, and the influence of others, to obtain my release. I only hoped that my release could be achieved without any gold having to be passed from hand to hand.

This particular army moved slowly over the Italian countryside. Indeed, it struck me that this rabble of soldiers appeared to possess very little discipline: just a body of men and their followers who seemed to be headed in the same direction.

I could not help remembering one of my father’s tales from my boyhood. Harold, the last Saxon King of England, marched his army up near to Scotland and defeated one army seeking conquest of his Kingdom, before having to march his men back to England only to be defeated by another rival seeking conquest. Though defeat and death was at the end of this story, one could not help but feel a sense of pride that England could boast of such men in their history as this King Harold. I felt very sure that if an Englishman led this rabble of men surrounding me, it would have been an army to be proud of. Instead I watched a body of apparently disorganised groups going here, there and everywhere. However, despite the apparent slowness of its operation, we had still made good distance when the soldiers began to make camp again.

This time I was taken to an empty barn, the only remains of what had been obviously a homestead in former, more peaceful days. The soldiers, who had “escorted” me on my journey, now untied me, dropping the bonds on the earthen floor of the barn after unceremoniously shoving me deep inside. I inferred from the noise they now made on the outside that they had found a beam to ensure that the door remained firmly fixed until they chose to open it.

My enforced dwelling place had become completely dark when the noise of the door opening put me on guard. I relaxed when I saw Lucrezia, bearing a taper in one hand and a basket of food in the other, enter into my harsh abode. She closed the door behind her, walked over to where I was sitting, putting the taper in its holder down near us, and moved to pass to me the food from the basket.

“Tomas.
We have not long, so please listen carefully.”

I stopped eating, and stared at her. Hope was beginning to come alive in my chest. “The men who were guarding you are no longer camped outside. They have gone to the village to find drink and women. So,
Tomas
, if you are to escape, now is the time to do it.”

“But how, Lucrezia?”

“Tomas!
Please! There is no time for questions. Just listen, and I will tell you how I think you can do it. Most of the soldiers are gathered together to the left of this barn. There is a good chance, if you are careful, that you can get by the few soldiers camped on the other side. Many soldiers, including my
Juan
, have gone to the village for the night. Those who have stayed behind are too occupied with other things to pay much attention to the frightened Englishman imprisoned securely in this barn. And
Tomas,
it is a moonless night, so it is very dark outside, which is good because the night will hide you, but not so good in that you will have to move slowly and carefully,
Tomas
, if you are not to knock into something that will raise the alarm. Once you cross the river, you will know you begin to be safe. I have a small purse of gold in the basket to help get you away to safety. Oh,
Tomas
, for the love of God, and both our sakes, please don’t raise the alarm!”

“Lucrezia. How can I ever thank you?”

She laughed grimly.

“Tomas
—you can thank me by not getting caught. They will find the gold and wonder who it was that gave it to you. It would not be difficult to work out it was I. Oh,
Tomas
, I beg of you, for the sake of my unborn
bambino
, do not get caught!”

I took Lucrezia’s hand. It felt so different from the hand of the woman who had once been my lover. The hand I held was now reddened and broken-nailed, and very, very thin. I raised it to my mouth and kissed it gently before placing her shaking hand on my cheek.

“I promise you I will not get caught. But, my dear one, why do you risk so much for me?”

She laughed, and laid her free hand on my shoulder before lifting two fingers to caress my neck.

“No other man has ever written me a love song,
Tomas
. I am too much of a woman to ever forget that. But,
Tomas
, it will need to look like you overpowered me. We will use those ropes near the door to tie me up.”

I grunted my disgust for this task, but could see the sense of it. So, the next few minutes were occupied ensuring that Lucrezia was well bound.

“Now, use my scarf to seal up my mouth!” Lucrezia said when I had finished with her bonds. I removed the red scarf from her dark hair. I looked down at it in my hands, and then at her.

“Hurry,
Tomas!”
she whispered.

“Aye, Lucrezia. I will hurry. But before I tie the scarf around your mouth, there is something I must do,” and I bent my head and kissed her long and hard.

For a short moment, it seemed easy to forget where we were. For a short moment, it was like we had stepped back to that brief time when we had loved with all the abandonment of the very young. When we had finished our kiss, Lucrezia laughed a soft, gay laugh.

“Oh,
Tomas!”
she said, shaking her head and looking at me with amusement. “Goodbye my dear, my very dear English lover. But,
Tomas
, do not waste any more time.
You must go now!”

“Yea! Farewell,
bella Lucrezia mia.
May our roads cross again so I can repay you what you truly deserve!” With a quick and final kiss, I tied the scarf around her mouth, bent and retrieved the small purse of gold hidden in the basket, and began to make my escape.

It was like Lucrezia had said. When I emerged from the barn I stepped out into a world seemingly black, except for some faint light emitted from a few stars breaking through the dense veil of evening clouds. I knew that the going was to be extremely difficult because it was almost impossible to see more than a few steps in front of me, especially as thick mist rose out from the cold earth at my feet. However, I knew if I hurried I would be more in danger of being caught and put at grave risk my delivering angel, Lucrezia, so I forced myself to ignore my strong sense of panic, and went to the right of the barn, moving steadily and purposeful into the night.

Travelling in this fashion made certain that I was able to avoid such areas that appeared to be encamped upon, but progress was so slow that I began to fear that all life had stopped still, and its movements would never start again.

Just before I reached the bank of the river, the wind strengthened, tearing apart the heavy veil of clouds. The extra light giving forth from the night sky allowed me to quicken my pace. Reaching the river, I began to breathe easier again. However, I knew there was a new problem to be faced and overcome during the river’s crossing: I have proven to be a good sailor, but my ability to stay afloat, once in the water, had little to recommend it. I knew that if the water proved to be too deep it was likely I would drown, and I possessed no desire to go to my death in that dreadful fashion. So, after a brief prayer, I expeditiously began to follow the river, further away from where the Spaniards had made their camp.

At long last, I found myself able to make out the faint glimmer where the water came against a bank on the other side. Feeling that time now gave me no choice but to cross, I took my quaking courage firmly in hand, and began to wade across the river. Good fortune smiled on me; the water at its deepest point reached but to my chest. Thus, dripping wet and shivering with utter cold, I emerged safely onto the bank that took me closer to safety and freedom.

My good fortune continued: I soon came to a sleeping farmstead, and there I was able to steal a good horse, leaving behind more than his price in gold coin placed upon a tree stump in the field where I had found him.

Thus, I began to escape now in earnest, making my way swiftly along the roadways I had travelled, tied on an army pack mule, the previous day. Dawn was now approaching, and still no one was in pursuit, thus I slowed the horse to a steady canter and headed to the west and the dominions of Ferrara, where I could begin to feel safe once again.

By noon, my horse was completely spent, but I was able to exchange it for another mount in the town I had now reached. I was determined not to rest until I had arrived at the court of the Duke, and the men in this town assured me that I had not long to go before arriving there. Yea, even though it was beginning to grow dark when I saw the Duke’s palace, it seemed but a short moment before I was at the palace where the Duke resided.