Telepathy of Hearts (24 page)

Footsteps crunched in the snow as Matheus walked away. Eleanor listened until she could hear them no more. Her gaoler once more stationed himself on the floor outside the tent and laughed out loud as he most probably imagined a scolding. Goody for once lay sleeping quietly.

Then she broke. The fingers of fear gripped at her stomach, tightening her in knots. The weight on her chest took her breath. And the
briar of bramble and thorn twisted deep in her veins.

His breath on her skin. His fingers in her hair. The weight of his groin on her hips and his knee at her cleft. Enveloped by the odour of stale ale, Eleanor retched. Her vomit mixed with her tears. She was heaving the taint of her defiler out of her body, expelling the foul stench of Richard Sline.

Crawling into herself as tight her body would allow, Eleanor closed her eyes and forced silence on her screams, rocking to sate the panic. In her soul, she quietly sang. She saw the notes and felt the words. As she breathed through her terror, the ebb and flow of the rhythm was like a tide within her. The song leaving her lungs fell quiet. The only sound she expelled were sobs.

Silently, her lips
formed
the words
of her song:
Gaudete. Gaudete
Chritus est natus. Ex Virgine.
She prai
sed the birth of the Lord in t
he song of her childhood
,
in
the hymn of yule long past. As the aria carried her back to her dreams, Eleanor saw her mother riding with her. As a child she galloped up with her to their mountain lake. Their secret Eden. The same hazel eyes looked down on her that looked back
at her then, eyes h
azel
—
glittering gold
,
green and amber.
Cupping her child
's face with
soft palms and kissing the face
she adored, Eleanor
's mother smiled.

Wet heather filled her nostrils. Eleanor could feel her mother
's touch, smell her scent, hear her words.
“You are a She-
Wolf, my little Eve. Descended so,
from the brave and beautiful. L
ike the daughters of Boudicca, child, no man can ever hurt you if they don
't live in your heart. For
'tis only the vessel they touch, never reaching your soul. Sing, for
'tis your charm, your protection, little Eve. Sing.

The morning was glorious
.

It is like God hath looked down and smiled
.
There is a glow on a winter morn seen little else on this earth than England.

Lifting his face to bathe in it, Matheus was alive with thought.
Clear skies greeted him. It was as if the trail shone. The rays of the sun made snow and ice
gleaming like
diamonds.

The dew has frozen in pearls as pretty as the ones that bedeck the swan necks of court ladies. Yes, this is a day to treasure for we are nearly home and my Lady safe.

Ou
t from the forest to open land, t
he destrier started to get eager to charge as it recognised the expanse in front of it.
“
Whoa,
Simon
. Steady
boy
,
s
teady.
” Matheus patted his mount and grinned.

There was little chance of being tracked now. The knight who led his bride home for the first time felt confident and content for the first time in days, secure in the knowledge that the first ordeal of his nuptials was over. Relief was showing in his features, his brow less pinched and his eyes unhooded. Looking more like the little knight with a wooden sword than ever.

A sword in his hand as an apprentice knight by seven, his body soon trained to accept extreme heat and severe cold. Whilst boys his age played with spinning tops, he was jousting, schooling his mind
and
his mount to be focused and sharp. By sixteen
he had left his peers behind, h
is stomach coping with scenes that would best the horrors of hell. They still honed their skills in the joust
,
and he was already decorated in the heat of the battle. A braver heart would be difficult to find. Matheus was born to battle.

Drawing his sword and commanding his men to war in England was a different matter. The slaughter of farmer and serf
,
untrained in warfare
,
troubled him. There was little enough food in a hard winter as it was and women and children would go hungry for the lack of the menfolk.
Knowing full well that as the
Cousins
argued
,
the threat that England could be split in two grew likelier. The snow underfoot as white as the Yorkist rose would be awash with blood as red as the Lancastrian one.

“
Do you hear me,
Pike?
”

Looking
puzzled
at his Master
,
Pike returned
,
“Sorry
,
Sire
…I didn
't
.
”

“A day
's ride and we will be kissing the East Gate House.
” Matheus beamed.

He had intrusted Eleanor to Godwin, with the instruction that if she needed to relieve herself between breaks that it would be Matheus himself who escorted her. A s
cout must be sent to inform him as he rode up front
. He could not bear to be with Eleanor at this time. There were words left unspoken, wounds that needed healing. He had neither the stomach nor the inclination to deal with it at this present time. He needed to be sharp and sober, his mind clear of confusion. There would be time enough for talk
once home
.

But the knowledge she was behind him
comforted his heart.
He had not to look at her to see
…
h
er hair falling around her shoulders like rivers of smelted gold. Those eyes that nip at my soul and devour my heart. The curve of her belly as it dips. They way her nose
can hear her
—that voice.
Priest
's
bones, that voice.

“My Lady? Sing
,
my Lady,
” the men had demanded and continued to beg their Mistress
—the Lady they guarded home.
Eleanor
opened her mouth, and
her
voice rang out. The only other sound was the sharp intake of breath, of thirty mouths open and sighing as they heard her.

Tempus adest gratiae

Hoc quod optabamus

Carmina laetitiae

Devote reddamus

Encouraged by Goody
,
the men joined in with the refrain.

Gaudete, gaudete

Christus est natus

Ex Maria Virgine

Gaudete

Unaware whether it was the sound of her siren song bewitching him or the realisation that the greedy ears of others were delighting in it,
Matheus was soon at her side. F
eelings of jealousy and possessiveness
grew in him, x
reeping up through his veins and twisting around his heart. Knowing she belonged to him was darkly delicious. It heated his blood and tightened his groin. As much as he did not want to share her body with another, he did not want to share her laugh, her giggle, her wit and especially her song.

Richard Sline has touched what is mine, and it is wrecking me.
Looking at Eleanor, so beautiful, moistening her lips as she opened her mouth to hit the notes. Luminous skin and come hither eyes.
His fists tightened around his reins as he viewed the bruises upon her face. The marking of her by another man was almost too much to bear. Tightening his eyes, he scowled, blocking out the image that his mind was playing of Sline defiling and striking her.

I can handle this calm, stoic and steadfast
.

Godwin was at his Master
's side. His voice questioning and his eyes searching.
“Sire is it the bright winter sun? Your eyes, Sire.
”

Matheus opened his eyes and smiled. Hiding the truth from Godwin he answered,
“Yes, damnation, it blinds me so. Simon knows his way,
'tis his backyard. Home and we make merry for
'tis the eve of our Lord
's birthday and but two days until my nuptials will be blessed by the bishop. Does she not sound like a lark? She sings my favourite carol of our Lord
's birth so sweetly.
”

Nodding, his master at arms replied,
“Sings like a siren, Sire.
'Tis a powerful thing, a voice like that. Us godless folks believe that you can follow a voice like that back from the crossover where death and life meet, bringing you back from death
's edge.
”

Godwin looked at his Master intensely. Matheus felt the heat of his eyes. It was as if something said between them would prove true. Both shuddered a little with the realisation of it.
“As for your Virgin Mary and your Lord
's birth
…we the godless
,
lit fires and made merry around t
he yule log long before this
Christmas of yours. But your nuptials, oh that is a cause to be merry for sure. Be ever the merrier when I have piked Sline
's head as a wedding present and fed his pintel to the pigs.
”

Matheus laughed and begged him move over as he wanted to ride beside his wife. Goody and Godwin moved their mounts on, riding together. Matheus moved Simon to Arthur
's side. There was once more the awkward silence between the lovers. Much to the disappointment of the men the
“lark
” fell silent.

Villagers had started to join the procession. The throng of folks were carrying pitch forks and pikes. As they turned to Allden Gate, there were at least three hundred serfs and commoners awaiting them, singing yuletide celebration. Most walked but some rode. Eleanor was unsure as to enquire to Matheus, who kept a quiet counsel, why the throngs joined them, so she asked it of Godwin.
“Master Godwin?
”

“Aye
,
my Lady?
”
His booming voice sounded over the shod hooves hitting cobble and stone.

“
Pray tell me why these peasant folk join us. They sing the yuletide and make so merry.
'Tis a joy to see their faces so.
”

It was Matheus who answered.
“They come for you, Eleanor, to support your safe passage to your new home
…their home.
”