Page 86 of Mesmerized

“There is a secret door.”

Alys stared at her. John came over and squatted down beside them.

“What are you saying? There is a passage out of here?”

“Yes. A secret staircase that goes down inside the wall. The stone is not solid. There are two sets of stone, and a narrow passageway in between. I have gone up and down it, meeting Sir Raymond in here. He loves secrets. He had it built long ago, before you even came here.”

Hope flared in Alys. “Truly? Then we will go. But you will come, too.”

“No.” Elwena met Alys’s eyes squarely. “I would only slow you down.”

“We cannot leave you to them.”

“You must,” she retorted firmly. She turned her face up to John’s, saying, “You know what I say is true. You must leave me here. I will not live. You know that. And you could not move quickly with me. We would be caught before we left the bailey.”

John nodded and looked at Alys. They both knew that Elwena spoke the truth.

Elwena went on. “We will change clothes, my lady. And—and leave something of yours. They do not know you. They will think I am you, and then they will not search. They will say that the lady of the castle died. And then he will believe it.”

Elwena looked significantly at Alys, and Alys understood her meaning. If Sir Raymond thought she was dead, he would not look for her, and she and John would not have to spend their lives in dread, waiting for him to find them. She and John had been willing to run because it was their only chance at happiness; they could not stand to remain here, unable to love each other freely. But they had known the risks; Sir Raymond would have hunted for them, and even given the few days’ head start they would have had, it was likely that he would have tracked them down and killed them. Even if they had gotten away, they would have had to live all their lives looking over their shoulders, afraid he would find them.

Elwena was offering them freedom. Tears filled Alys’s eyes. “Thank you.”

“I ask only that you take my boy with you. Take Guy and raise him.”

“I will.” The tears spilled over onto Alys’s cheeks, and she knelt beside the woman and took her hand in hers. “I promise you. We will raise Guy as our own.”

Elwena offered her a small smile. “Thank you, my lady.”

As it turned out, it seemed too much trouble for the dying woman to exchange her clothes with Lady Alys. Alys simply removed her outer tunic and pulled it on over Elwena’s bloody clothes, fastening one of Alys’s girdles around her hips. Then she pulled her other simple tunic from the sack and slipped it over her head, fastening it with the ordinary leather girdle she wore. She took off her veil, too, and refastened it so that it neatly hid all her hair.

She decided to leave the golden box here, too, with much of the house’s treasure inside it. She took out her best jeweled girdle and put it in her sack, along with a handful of bracelets and rings, and the small leather purse containing a few gold and silver coins. They would need something for their future, a little bit of money to get away and to start their new life, perhaps purchase a small holding of land somewhere far from here. She would leave the large, showy gold cross Sir Raymond had given her as a bride gift, and the other necklaces and bracelets and rings. That should be enough treasure to convince the marauding soldiers they had found the body of the lady of the castle.

Alys took the small gold cross on a chain from around her own neck and hung it around Elwena’s. She removed her wedding band and placed it on Elwena’s finger, along with two other of her rings. Then she handed the woman the cunningly carved rosary. It cost her a pang to give it up, for it was beautiful, and she had brought it with her from her father’s house, so it in no way had anything to do with her husband. She had prayed upon it many a time, her fingers rubbing over the engraved beads until it was a wonder there were any pictures left. But it was her prized possession, and nothing would convince Sir Raymond that her body had been found as the presence of the rosary with it would. Besides, she knew, Elwena would have far more need of it as she lay dying than Alys would, running away.

She put it in Elwena’s hand, and Elwena’s fingers closed around it, instinctively rubbing the sacred gold beads. Alys reached inside her loose shift and untied the leather thong she wore there around her waist and pulled it out of her clothing. From the thong dangled a small, engraved gold ring, a token given her months ago by Sir John, which she had worn daily against her skin, a secret reminder of him and of their love. Smiling a little, she caressed the trinket, then slipped it on her finger in place of her wedding band.

Elwena pulled out a small leather pouch and handed it to Alys. “Take this. It is for the boy. Everything I have saved for him.”

Alys nodded. It was heavy for its size, and it clinked with the sound of coins. She put it in the sack along with the rest of her possessions.

“Put the casket on the far wall, my lady, far from me.”

Alys was puzzled, but she did as the woman asked. As she had worked, John had stripped the outer tunic from the soldier he had killed. Though stained with the man’s blood, it carried the emblem of Surton’s men and would allow them to pass whoever they might meet outside with much less problem.

“Put your tunic on him,” Elwena said. Her voice was growing weaker. “And change your sword with his.”

“He’s one of their own,” Sir John pointed out, though he did as she bade, struggling to get the tunic on the dead body and buckling his own sword belt around him. “They will know him.”

“I will take care of his face,” Elwena replied grittily.

“There won’t be enough bodies here. They’re bound to wonder what happened to the other two,” Alys said.

Elwena shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Many will tell them I’m a witch, for there are a number who believe it.” She flashed a smile reminiscent of her old cocky grin. “I didn’t discourage it. They will probably think I flew from the window. It doesn’t matter what they think or make up to explain it, as long as they trumpet it around that the two of you are dead. And they will. It will be a matter of pride for them to have defeated Sir John and to have killed Sir Raymond’s wife.”

“She’s right. They will want to believe that you and I are dead, and that makes it easy to dismiss whatever doubts they have. Come, my love, we must go. The fire is growing,” he said.

He was right. The air was becoming thicker with smoke, its acrid scent tickling her throat, and one could feel the heat near the door. John laid his sword beside his enemy and picked up the other man’s weapon. Alys picked up her sack.